The Cost of Reloading

[red rick]

Sorry to hear your news . I just lost my Dad . I will put you and your family in my prayers . It sounds like you are handling the news as good as one can . That is one reason I did retire early , so many of my co-workers have passed away soon after retiring , one was my best friend at work .

 

[entropy]

There is a limit to what most people will shoot even if the ammunition was free!

Guess I'm not one of them. When Uncle Sugar was footing the ammo bill, I put thousands of rounds downrange every range day, and since I was the Armorer, I went to every range day. Somehow the ammo needs were always overestimated.......did I mentioned I worked in the S-4 office?

I guess I got off pretty cheap; My Dad gave me the presses (RCBS 3 Jr. and a MEC 650 Jr. ) I grew up reloading on, a Lyman tumbler, a PACT digital, and lots of dies. I've since replaced the PACT with a 505, lost the AC cord in a move-I like the 505 better, It's what I grew up using.
I guess ReloaderFred said it best, the process itself is a hobby, and I like turning out quality ammo with my own two hands, though I've been doing it nine years less than him. I was born in 1963.

 

[Nature Boy]

Similarly to what entropy said, I always appreciated range time on uncle sams dime.

I believe I've fired most of what the army had in its arsenal during the time I was serving. I really enjoyed "famfire" time. No keeping score. Qualifying was being able to say "yes, I fired the weapon". These famfire events were usually M2 50 cal on m113s or ring mounted on a 2 1/2 truck. Also the M3 grease gun when we still carried them in the tanks. Basically, here's your range. Here's some crates of ammo. Under no circumstances will you turn in any live rounds.

Entropy will attest to what a PITA it was to have live ammo left over.

 

[ReloaderFred]

"I guess ReloaderFred said it best, the process itself is a hobby, and I like turning out quality ammo with my own two hands, though I've been doing it nine years less than him. I was born in 1963. "

Ouch! That hurt......

The reason I started in 1963 was I bought an M1 Garand from the old Golden State Arms for $89.95, and needed to feed it. One of my college professors had an "old reloading press" he wanted to sell, so I bought it, primarily because it came with a set of .30-06 dies. Both the press and the dies were Hollywood, and I've still got them, which proved to be one of the best $25.00 investments I've ever made.

Fast forward to today and I've got numerous presses and an accumulation of reloading equipment that would probably stock a small gun shop, but it's mine, and I've enjoyed every minute of collecting, using and playing with it. I get calls all the time from fellow reloaders, wanting to know how to do this, or that, or how to solve a problem. It's very rewarding to be able to help people along the way.

I retired when I was 50, and have never regretted it, and I'm very happy I was in the position that I could retire at that age. Life begins with retirement, but I'm not sure when I had the time to work before. I did have to give up a couple of volunteer "jobs" due to the time involved, but I'm still active in several others, including the Rod & Gun Club, where I'm a past president and current projects manager. I plan to leave it better than when I got there, and so far I'm way ahead of schedule. I'm just finishing up a seven bay Action Shooting Range that I started in 2007 that covers about 4 acres of the club's property. I have one more shooting shelter to build, and then I'm done with it. The last one was 90' x 30' and included the concrete floor and covers the firing line for two bays. I'm pretty good at writing grant applications, and I've gotten the club well over $125,000.00 in matching fund grants. Just because you retire, it doesn't mean you can't put your experience to work in other projects.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[entropy]

Similarly to what entropy said, I always appreciated range time on uncle sams dime.

I believe I've fired most of what the army had in its arsenal during the time I was serving. I really enjoyed "famfire" time. No keeping score. Qualifying was being able to say "yes, I fired the weapon". These famfire events were usually M2 50 cal on m113s or ring mounted on a 2 1/2 truck. Also the M3 grease gun when we still carried them in the tanks. Basically, here's your range. Here's some crates of ammo. Under no circumstances will you turn in any live rounds.

Entropy will attest to what a PITA it was to have live ammo left over.

True that!

 

[Hondo 60]

I think a lot of you would be surprised at what you have spent on equipment if you load a few calibers and have been doing it for a few years , I was .

Oh gosh, don't get me started.
I get sick just thinkin about it.
But now that the investment's been made, I laugh at the cost of factory ammo.

 

[coloradokevin]

I started reloading to save money back in 2005 or so. Sometimes that seems like a terrible investment. I sure haven't saved any money, or at least it sometimes feels that way. Yeah, the ammo I produce is cheaper, but I shoot more of it, and keep acquiring more equipment.

I started on a Lee Classic Turret Press. That's now serving as my "reserve" press. I currently load pistol on a Dillon 550, and load my rifle ammo on a Forster CoAx press. My powder measuring has evolved for rifle, and these days I use an RCBS Chargemaster for that task. Oh, and then I started tumbling my brass wet, with stainless media (it does a great job, but that was more equipment to buy).

Finally, I realized that trimming rifle brass was really slowing my roll with reloading, and I like to trim each time since I shoot long range precision primarily. So, I bought myself a Giraud Power Trimmer, which should finally be on my doorstep tomorrow (that was over $500 alone, once I added in multiple calibers).

I started cheap with reloading, thinking I'd do it to save money. Then, as my shooting evolved I realized that while reloading did save money, I was primarily doing it to get the most out of my ammunition. I'm definitely saving money on the ammo, but there's a fair amount of equipment to offset that cost. On the other hand, I can't find any match ammo for my .260 Remington that costs less than $40/box of 20, and when I last checked my component prices I was loading my ammo for under $15/box of 20, and that was more accurate ammo with better components. I shot around 1,200 rounds of .260 Remington ammo through my bolt gun last year, so that's around 60 boxes of ammo at a savings of $25/box. When I do the math on that I guess I actually ended up saving around $1,500 in ammunition last year, just in that one caliber. So, maybe the $500 case trimmer isn't such a ridiculous expenditure after all?