Trap/Skeet shell reloading savings?

[Crunchy Frog]

My response to this question has for years been the same as several others have said: With the high cost of shot, it is difficult to save money reloading “standard” 12 gauge bird/clays ammo. Even after I started reloading “specialty” shells I bought (buy) factory ammo for the occasional round of clays rather than to reset the adjustments on my MEC.

I bought the press to load low recoil shells for cowboy action. I could load the equivalent of a AA “Featherlight” for about half the price, using reclaimed shot which is adequate for my purposes. Later on I started loading with black powder; factory black powder ammo is very dear so almost all “Frontier Cartridge” shooters handload.

In the current climate being set up to handload, assuming an adequate stockpile of components, may mean the difference between shooting or not shooting. I stopped by a Sportsmans Warehouse store earlier this month and they had NO shotgun shells. That was sobering.

 

[JEBruns]

It hasn't really paid to reload target shells for about 15 years now.

Coincidentally, that's when I got mostly out of shotgun reloading. Prior to that, I lived in SE MN and hunted pheasants in IA and MN in a serious way. So I was loading custom loads for hunting. The local trap club was about 2 miles from my house, and my hunting buddies and I shot a lot of trap, for fun, some leagues and to stay sharp. But there is none of that going on here in NW Ark. Hunting dogs have all passed on now, and my MEC has not produced a shell in years. I still have 100's of once fired hulls, 1000's of wads, bags and bags of shot and many K's of primers. Can't part with any of it. Maybe someday.

Anyway, I have noticed the price of shot go through the roof. Makes justifying reloading 1 1/8 12ga on a price basis kind of tough.

 

[STCL01]

I've not loaded 20 or 12 ga in years. It has been way more economical to buy them. Now I also don't shoot as much as I used to, but that's just life. I still have components, well mostly, I gave away about 10k 12 gauge hulls, but I really only consider loading for the 28. 28 and 410 are where you get the most bang for your buck on reloading. They use less components, but are typically considerably higher off the shelf and 12 or 20. That being said, they are also more finicky to load, and more time consuming.