How many rounds of handloaded/reloaded ammo made each year?

[JellyJar]

I've done a lot of research on this question and cannot find an answer.

Approximately rounds of ammunition; rifle, pistol and shotgun, do you suppose is made each year in this country?

Does anyone have an idea?

Thanks

JJ

 

[Hondo 60]

I don't see how anyone could come up with a reliable figure.
If anyone came up with a figure they'd just be pullin' it outta their butt.

Way too many of us would tell anyone it's none of their darn business.

 

[Lost Sheep]

There are ways

Going over the financial statements of the major ammunition manufacturers would give a clue as the the quantities they produce. Going over the statements of the primer manufacturers would give a pretty good idea of the primers sold to handloaders, though differentiating between commercial reloaders and loaders who only load for themselves might be tricky.

Counting the bullets sold retail vs those cast at home (or re-cast from recovered lead) would be even tougher.

But there are more estimation methods than most of us can imagine. And pulling figures out of thin air is only one of them.

But you are right. It would be hard. All would be just estimates, and most of them pretty rough.

Lost Sheep

 

[noylj]

2-500 rounds a week, say 300 average, and for 50 weeks is about 15k a year.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

You mean how many handloads are made in the United States of America in an entire YEAR? By everyone in the country combined?

Jeez... there's no way to know for sure. But I bet it's gotta be a least two or three dozen. Maybe more.

Edit: That's supposed to be funny. When I re-read it, I sounded like a jerk.

 

[RandyP]

23,683,629

 

[jmorris]

23,683,629

Randy, I think he was asking about the entire USA not just THR members.

 

[LiveLife]

How many rounds of (pistol, rifle and shotgun) handloaded/reloaded ammo made each year?

A lot.

This is a wild guess.

Just using THR forum as an example, there are over 142,000 members. For simplicity of calculations, let's say 100,000 reloaded on average 5,000 rounds a year. That's 416 rounds per month or 500,000,000 rounds per year (half a billion).

Since not all reloaders/handloaders visit online forums, my guess of actual reloaders/handloads on a national level will probably be much higher. If we use 500,000 reloaders/handloaders for the nation (I think the actual number is much higher), 500,000 x 5000 come out to 2,500,000,000 (2.5 billion)!

For one million reloaders/handloaders, 5 billion reloaded rounds.

Now, if we factor in high volume/match shooters, the number goes up significantly. Let's say there are about 100 high volume/match shooters per county and they average 1000+ rounds per month. Using 50 counties per state as a rough average, we have 100 x 50 x 50 x 12,000 = over 3,000,000,000 (3 billion).

Since some reloaders/handloaders load less than 416 rounds a month, total combined round count may be around 5 to 10 billion a year. Maybe more.

If you factor in rounds that are loaded for stock piling and long-term storage, who knows?

Of course, this is only my guess so the actual numbers may vary significantly.

 

[Walkalong]

Or a metric buttload.

(That's lots and lots)

 

[JellyJar]

Thanks everybody for your response. I just stated reloading revolver rounds ( 44spl and 45colt ) just two months ago and I have already loaded more ammo since then than I fired all of last year!

I bet we loaders/reloaders load as much if not more center fire handgun, rifle and shotgun rounds than all the major ammo companies combined.

Be safe!

JJ

 

[Wil Terry]

MANY MANY years ago [ Okay...about 25 years ago...] I did a study of ammunition consumption in the U.S. of A. NOT counting shotshell consumption [ do not ask me why NO one would talk about shotshell consumption..] it came out to 169,000,000 per day

 

[gamestalker]

I don't intend to be blunt or rude, but this sounds kind of like a statistical effort with an undetermined purpose. Kind of like the recent m s n b c special with a Mex. cartell member stating that 90% of all their weapons were purchased from American gun shops. Surely you can understand at least my personal skepticism?

Maybe you could offer some general purpose for your interest.

Absolutely no offense intended.

 

[Mule]

Since the number of rounds built with cast bullets is nebulous, count something more tangible. Primers. Every loaded round needs one. You can't make them yourself.

How many primers are purchased in a year ??

 

[PCCUSNRET]

Since the number of rounds built with cast bullets is nebulous, count something more tangible. Primers. Every loaded round needs one. You can't make them yourself.

How many primers are purchased in a year ??

Yeah, but then you got the guys that are stockpiling thousands and thousands of primers just in case we have another primer shortage scare in 2012.