how much did reloading used to cost?

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When my dad passed away in 2004, he still had some of his pay stubs from 1978.
He was makin' $6 somethin' an hour.
In today's economy that'd be about $20/hr. or so

And that was a decent living wage at the time.
I started my first job in 1976, I got $1.98/hr.

So while component costs were much less, so was the pay check.
 
Not very many years ago, like 2004-5, you could buy once fired military brass for less than $30.00/1000 and if you bid more on auction sites you paid too much. Now the same type brass runs from $50-85/100. Back in the 80's-90's primer prices were from 1 cent to 1 1/2 cents each or $10-$15 per 1000. I remember bullets back around the 80's costing $8-$14 per 100 for premium bullets. The cost of copper and brass has gone up and sellers in my opinion are taking advantage. Bet bullet and brass companies are making excessive profits?
 
Why the price of ammo is going up, up, and away...

Yeah, reloading was much cheaper back then. I think I have some new, unprimed .348 Winchester cases, price marked on the box of twenty at $3.10 IIRC. I could go out and look but it’s too cold out, I’m having a beer and watching TV. Those were expensive at that time. I don’t know what they go for today. I think I’d rather not know. A .270 Win box of twenty new unprimed were about $2.10 which really made the .348s look expensive as all get out. And I do recall paying $16.00 for a box of twenty .458 Win.Mag. loaded ammo, which was about 80 cents a round; that’s almost a dollar a pop.

What bothers me about the situation we find ourselves in today is that back then there were choices. Telescopic sights for instance; Lyman, Tasco, Weaver, B&L, Redfield, Leupold, Weatherby, off the top of my head were all competing with one another in terms of price and quality, and the average Joe could scope his rifle without breaking the bank. What’s the price of a riflescope today that you can see .22 caliber holes at 200 yards with? I don’t think the bank would give me the loan to buy one. I did have two: 10X Weaver w/ dot, and a 7.5X Leupold AO, $100.00 and $160.00 respectively. I call this the Walmart Effect; where a corporation or other entity( think $1250.00 toilet seats) comes in and begins taking/buying everything a company can produce. That company becomes totally dependent on that one large buyer and doesn’t really care about competing for ones and twoies of the retail trade, since all of their competing riflescope makers have gone out of business. They can then begin dictating terms of trade to the sole remaining manufacturer. Makes you wonder what the cost of ammo will be in the future, doesn’t it? Don’t get me wrong here; I like my social security check they send me. I’m just not sure why they need all that ammo to cut me a check, too.

kerf
 
Since I started reloading in 1999 the price of bullets and primers have at least doubled. Powder is more but not double. The biggest factor is the cost of metals have increased dramatically. I'm an auto mechanic and I know the price of wheel weights have gone way up too. If the price of lead in wheel weights has doubled so will the price of lead in bullets. The price of copper has gone up too so there goes the price of cases and bullet jackets. Primers are made with metal too.
 
I started loading in 2006. At that time, I bought 500 Remington 125 grain SJHP bullets for .357 magnum at the low price of $26.99. Check the prices now on those bullets, if they are even in stock! I thought to myself I would never load 500 rounds of .357 mag. LOL! The price has more than doubled to over $60/500.
 
Ammo has more than doubled in the last decade
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You must not have been shooting very long then. I started reloading in 1980. Take a good look at ammo prices over the last 30 years and you'll prices as correspondingly high then as today - there was a drop in prices about a decade ago - today, with commodity prices and the US dollar low value, we are lucky the prices are actually where they should be including inflation from before the drop through to today
 
In 1965, my first primers were $6 a brick, powders ran about $2.75 a pound and jacketed rifle bullets sold around $5 a hundred. Mail order dies were around $7 and a good press cost about $20. Sounds good NOW, but as a percentage of the average guy's wages per hour our things are quite a bit less costly today.
 
Five Cents a round in 1989 for .45 ACP.

I started reloading in 1989. At the time, I was working strictly with .45ACP using brass I was given (and still have), Win 231, WLPs and H&G 69 200-gr. LSWCs. My rounds were loaded to just over 800fps to meet Major in club competition. I built and set up a SA 1911 with NM frame ($360.00, blued) over the years for this load.

I could just sneak in for five cents a round in 1989--it went up about six months later, IIRC, when the price of power jumped, and then REALLY went up a few years later when UPS managed to get the HazMat surcharge going.

Until then, I think my 231 ran about $20.00 for 3 pounds, and a case (5k) of primers was just under 50.00. The brass originally was a few hundred pieces used that my shooting mentor gave me--but I started buying Starline--maybe for about $70/K? $90? Anyone remember?

The bullets were either bought locally at gunshows or from that Montana outfit that was so good, and then disappeared--the manager fraudulently operated the place for the absentee owner.

So, it was about one cent for the WLP, one-plus cents for the 231, and two-plus cents for the 200-gr. LSWC. I originally factored in something for the brass amortization until I understood good brass at the low-MAX ballistics I was doing essentially would never wear out.

Jim H.
 
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Not too long ago (2005), I was buying Winchester "white box" 100-round packs at Walmart for $7.34 for 9mm, $19.95 for 45 acp, and $17.95 for 38 spl. When reloading, I was often getting around $8/100 for 45 acp with Rainier bullets in '06. Interestingly, I stocked up on a bunch of reloading components back then and then sat out from shooting for a while. I just reloaded 500 rounds of 45 acp with Winchester TMJ bullets for about $9/100 a few days ago. ;)
 
I still have two cans of Reloader 7 from way back that have a sticker on them for 3.50, i traded a Mauser 98 219 Ackley Imp. Zipper for two case of this stuff. my bench guns really loved it, wish i had the old zipper back again. young and dumb.
 
Five years ago cast bullets were about half what they are now and primers were 30% less. Powder hasn't changed much.
 
The last sale I caught @Dick's before the prices went up forever I was able to buy a case of Remington UMC .38 Specials for $42.90, case of 9mm for $39.90 and 45 Auto for $49.90.

These days instead of .38's being $4.29 they are $18.99.
These days instead of 9mm's being $3.99 they are $14.99.
These days instead of 45's being $$4.99 they are $20.99.

That's almost 4X (400%) the price they were and metal prices only went up 30%, just not right.

BTW, back then I could load .38 Specials for $2.78/box at most, today they cost me $5.49/box. Sure $5.49 is still better than spending $18 or $19/box but it's still not $2.78/box!
 
I really wish I had stocked up 8-10 years ago, but I had barely started shooting at the time, and I didn't have many firearms to begin with. Hindsight is 20/20. The fact that light practicing/plinking for one summer with non-premium factory 9mm could re-buy my Glock is why I want to reload 9, despite the savings still not being that great if not shooting cast. I can't see not reloading .357, it's not even 'cheap' to shoot jacketed reloads.
 
Bear in mind, I started reloading in the mid-seventies. I found some old die boxes and bullet boxes.

RCBS die sets - $11.25
Speer 30 cal. 170 gr. JFP - $5.01/100
Speer .357 140 gr. JHP - $6.20/100

I think I was paying around $21.50 for Hornady 38/.357 158 gr. LSWC bulk boxes of 500.

Also found some powder and primers from the era, but the stickers were too faded to make out. Loaded some ammo awhile back with these components and they still go boom. So much for shelf life on older powder and primers.
 
hardheart said:
I really wish I had stocked up 8-10 years ago, but I had barely started shooting at the time, and I didn't have many firearms to begin with. Hindsight is 20/20. The fact that light practicing/plinking for one summer with non-premium factory 9mm could re-buy my Glock is why I want to reload 9, despite the savings still not being that great if not shooting cast. I can't see not reloading .357, it's not even 'cheap' to shoot jacketed reloads.
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9mm reloads using a LRN bullet cost $5.04 /box. (Missouri Bullets)
9mm reloads using a FMJ bullet cost $7.04 /box. (Winchester Bullets)

Compared to factory ammo both are well worth reloading! Sure, like you said Cast bullets will cost you less but it's been a lot of years since 9mm FMJ factory ammo was available for only $7, not even the Eastern European stuff. I can't remember seeing any 9mm ammo available for less that $12/box since before 2007. Please don't quote me online prices unless you add in the S&H charges first. (which are usually high)
 
1980 Rockchucker and Dies

A friend gave me Rockchucker from 1980 the receipt show that the Press was $70 and the RCBS Dies were $15.00. Has inflation really gone up 500 per cent on those dies??
 
Inflation:

Inflation, the last time I checked, was generally conceded to have gone up about 700 percent since 1967, the year used as "the base year." Changes in measuring techniques at one point--tweaking the shopping basket to allow for production efficiency in food, for instance--were changed, I think, in about 1980.

My own rule of thumb--now that I am retired and living on a fixed income--is that the average inflationary cost adjustment is noticeably over 700 percent because of the cost increases in food and fuel in the last few years. So, to see a product from 1980 having gone up only 500% sounds pretty good to me.

Our current advantage over the inflation base of 700 for certain items--think small tools and clothing, for instance--comes from the fact most of these are now made in China or other third-word countries effectively paying much less than a skilled worker here ears.

Complex manufactured items still seem to follow the rate, however. My Mustang Fastback, bought new in 1967, Listed out at $3991 fairly-well equipped for the time and sold for $3324 plus the 3% sales tax. A nominally-similar model this year would run over $28-29,000 list--and its sales price should show the 700-plus% increase in price over my 1967.

If you want to get politically active about this, think of it in terms of your dollar's shrinking value--you know, the money you work so hard for, and maybe even try to save--if only to be able to buy less with it in a few years.

But, I digress. Let's keep the thread on track; sorry.

Jim H.
 
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drd said:
A friend gave me Rockchucker from 1980 the receipt show that the Press was $70 and the RCBS Dies were $15.00. Has inflation really gone up 500 per cent on those dies??
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The dies should only be about $40 if it was strictly the change in the purchasing power of the dollar. It really seems the last decade has been the most harsh on the pricing of components.

Sort of like the price of gas, I remember working in the oilfield and crude was at $18 a barrel and we were overjoyed at $30 a barrel because it meant the oil companies would send more work our way with increased exploration budgets. A little over a decade later and I wish crude was priced at those levels again, while the number of Benz, BMW, Porsche and even Ferrari autos in the area is rising steadily.
 
OK. My first post, and it'll be a nostagia one.
I started loading shotshells in 1969. A 25 lb. bag of shot was $6.95, shooting up to $12 at times, and we'd really freak out over that.
Red Dot was about $2 a pound, and an LGS sold it LOOSE, i.e. "Hey Chet. I need 3 pounds of Red Dot." and he'd return from the back with a paper bag full of powder. Double-bagged for safety, of course.
Primers were .95 per 100, $8 per 1000, but who could afford a thousand at once?
I still have a can of IMR-4198 with the price sticker showing $2.95 on it.
Sierra .44 caliber, 240 gr. JHC bullets were $4.95 per 100.
W296 powder, if you could find it, was $3.95 a pound. (Good grief!)

I got out of shooting and reloading for about 20 years, and started up again around 2008, and I'm shocked - shocked, I tell ya - at what the price of components are now. But... I'm so glad that I got back into rolling my own. I don't miss going into an LGS and being told that: "No. We still don't have any (insert caliber choice here). Maybe next month."
Now, if they'll only ramp up production of small pistol primers...
 
I started loading from a box of brand new Norma 243 Winchester brass I bought from someone on the web who no longer wanted it. The 20 cases cost around $2.50.
 
No one has mentioned Accurate selling surplus powder. Including UPS (No Hazmat then!) it was $10 per gallon milk jug, if you bought a 6 pack.
 
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