What's the best savings you've gotten out of loading versus buying factory ammo?

[Bartojc]

Without a doubt it is 45 Colt. I probably would not own a 45 Colt if I did not reload. I've bought 2 boxes of 45 Colt when I bought my first one. It was right under $1/round. I bought a load of Starline Brass that week and have never bought a factory round since. If you count the brass as free I can load for under $.20/round so 80% savings. Of course that savings gets eaten up in more shooting but still.

-Jeff

 

[SamT1]

.480 Ruger started me on reloading.
$1.50 a shot with hornady factory ammo. I figured I could buy a cheap Lee kit and pay it off ASAP. I already was loading shotguns so I had a general familiarity.

What I’m loading now cost me .08 a shot! 400 grain cast bullet, over some medium pistol powder, 1100fps. I haven’t bought brass for it in 10 years so I’d assume it’s depreciated.
When I first started I was using jacketed bullets and H110. Today that would cost almost $1 a shot.

45-70 is another big saver, 44mag with cast. I shoot 45acp for .05, that’s pretty good.
Premium hunting ammo is almost always a huge savings. As much as 50% In most cases.

Shotshells are a big waste these days with the lead price. If I was still doing much shotgunning I’d setup the shot dripper.

 

[cfullgraf]

Sigh, no savings I just shoot more, and buy more reloading goodies.

Reloading always saves money, the cost per round is always less than factory. What one does with the savings is up to the individual.

Some folks shoot more. Some folks take the significant other out for a nice meal. Some folks landscape the yard. And so forth, I'm sure you get the idea.

I have not calculated the cost of my reloads in decades. I do not care. I know they cost less than factory. I enjoy the hobby and use reloading to fill dead time in the evenings. Beats wasting time watching the TV.

When I was competing, reloading allowed me to practice more. My competition reloads were more accurate than factory.

I reload several obsolete and wildcat cartridges that I could not shoot if I relied on factory ammunition.

 

[bbqreloader]

Can I reload cheaper than factory ammo, yes. Share the same sentiment as most others, it's when I get some quiet time to spend at the bench just to ponder things, experiment with different loads and reload, that's what I value most. Beats hunting sales, driving to various places to get ammo and I always have it on hand.
Realistically, if I didn't reload, I probably wouldn't have joined THR and missed out on some good info and really would never know what @GunnyUSMC has in his reloading room

 

[fotheringill]

The number is always going to fluctuate.

Add up the cost of all of your equipment, powder, brass, bullets, etc.
The number will fluctuate each time you pull the trigger. Also, how many times do you fire a particular piece of brass.

If you go strictly by the cost of bullet, primer, powder per round, and don't want to mess with the above, you will have the simple inaccurate answer.

 

[doubleh]

Out of curiosity I added up what it costs me to reload 223 ammo that will gives me excellent accuracy and compared that to the cost of Hornady ammo that I would expect close to the same results with. I did not factor in any equipment costs either. My equipment is old and paid for it's self long ago. I did not include any sales taxes or shipping costs. I can reload excellent 223 ammo for about 45% of the cost of factory ammo that I would expect close to the same performance from.

 

[bantam9]

225 Winchester. Only places like gunbroker have 'em. Not sure what I save, but has to be a bundle. Totally worth it !!

 

[Dudedog]

Sigh, no savings I just shoot more, and buy more reloading goodies.

Quoting myself from an earlier post.

I do save money reloading. I can reload a box of 9mm for about half what it would cost me to by it, about same for .45 and .223 plinking ammo, better savings on .380 and .357
I just don't have any net savings, no money in the bank.

As cfullgraf pointed out how you spend the savings is up to you, I chose spend it on shooting more and reloading, my shooting hobbies.

I put the way I did because some people think along the lines of say
10 boxes of ammo at $20 ea is $200, if I reload 10 boxes for $10 each that's $100 so I saved $100.
Some people might do that and save the $100 to spend on something other than shooting or reloading.
I think most people tend to say I want this XYZ for reloading for $20 and I will just shoot 8 more boxes of ammo,
so while they really did save $100 from one way of looking at it, they spent the $100 they saved on their reloading/shooting hobby so no net savings.

It makes me wonder how many people use their savings for something else or just spend the savings on more reloading/shooting.
I would guess maybe 80% spend the savings on reloading/shooting. The 80% number maybe high or may be low, what does everybody else think?

 

[FROGO207]

Myself I think that 80% is LOW. Don't personally know anyone that just loads up a box of ammo to shoot and puts their equipment away until they need to load another 20 rounds a few years from now.

 

[wrench459]

...
It makes me wonder how many people use their savings for something else or just spend the saving on more reloading/shooting.
I would guess maybe 80% spend the savings on reloading/shooting. The 80% number maybe high or may be low, what does everybody else think?

I'm in the 80% with your math.

 

[cfullgraf]

It makes me wonder how many people use their savings for something else or just spend the savings on more reloading/shooting.
I would guess maybe 80% spend the savings on reloading/shooting. The 80% number maybe high or may be low, what does everybody else think?

I'll agree, most folks probably spend their saving on more shooting, I do. Nothing wrong with that, it makes one a better shooter if the shooting is done with a purpose, not just "pray and spray".

I originally got into reloading so that my cost per round was less and I could shoot more. Anything that stretched my dollars while I had a young child in the house was a benefit. (Oh, the days of driving into downtown New Orleans, shooting at an indoor range across from the Federal building where the FBI practiced...)

The number is always going to fluctuate.

Add up the cost of all of your equipment, powder, brass, bullets, etc.
The number will fluctuate each time you pull the trigger. Also, how many times do you fire a particular piece of brass.

If you go strictly by the cost of bullet, primer, powder per round, and don't want to mess with the above, you will have the simple inaccurate answer.

But, I found that I enjoyed reloading as a hobby unto itself so reloading was not a drudgery but a nice activity to do at home when I could not go to the range. So, with any hobby like golf, car restoration, playing penuckle, etc., the cost of my time is zero and the capital equipment costs are irrelevant when figuring my reloaded cost per round.

 

[fotheringill]

#86 I specifically omitted the enjoyment element in what I posted about costs. I, too, enjoy the exercise and the cost per round is a secondary factor when figuring out what to with my leisure time.

 

[Rodentman]

I never tried to figure out savings, as I am certain there are none. Handloading is a large part of the hobby for me as anyone can shoot factory ammo (no intense offended). I am retired and the hobby keeps me occupied and I find it rewarding. There are always new recipes to try and the pride of success is gratifying.

 

[illinoisburt]

Shotshells are a big waste these days with the lead price. If I was still doing much shotgunning I’d setup the shot dripper.

I'm doing a fair amount of slug shooting since I started casting and reloading keydrive slugs. Have to agree though that there isn't much margin on shotshells when you consider the price of shot versus most promo shells.

It really is all about volume and specialization. You can either shoot a whole bunch more for the same money, or more likely shoot a WHOLE BUNCH more for more money

 

[walnut1704]

.41 Magnum at 28% of the cost of equivalent loads. Equivalent loads are hard to find, as I shoot light to mid-range loads with lead bullets. I'm using the pricing on Georgia Arms .41 load for comparison as I've shot them and they are close to what I shoot.

 

[MarkVI]

I don't really save anything as I reload .308 and .223 currently. But I go for precision rounds. It often cost way more to reload for me than it does to buy off the shelf match. But match still doesn't compare with handloads.

 

[Blue68f100]

When I got my 458 SOCOM, commercial ammo was running anywhere from $3.00-4.00/round. My cost to reload is ~$1.00 + or - depending on who's bullet I want to use. But who looks at the cost any way. We normally use up all our savings on hand loading some more.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

My Redding 460 S&W Mag dies just showed up. Me thinks shooting the 460 will be more frequent now.

Seriously, Hornady ammo is like $30 a box of 20, so this has got to save me some coin, even if I shoot it more frequently now.

 

[cfullgraf]

My Redding 460 S&W Mag dies just showed up. Me thinks shooting the 460 will be more frequent now.

Seriously, Hornady ammo is like $30 a box of 20, so this has got to save me some coin, even if I shoot it more frequently now.

The Hornady ammunition is fairly low cost for 460 S&W Mag. Many boxes run north of $60 for 20 rounds.

Yep, even at 40 some grains of powder per round, depending on the powder you use, you will save some serious money reloading for your 460.

 

[buck460XVR]

The Title of this thread is "What's the best savings you've gotten out of reloading vs buying factory ammo?", not "How much money have you saved by reloading?"

IOWs, just because someone saves $.25 a round by reloading, doesn't mean they're putting that extra quarter a round into the kid's college fund. While reloading has saved me very much denaro per round, it has only motivated me to shoot more, buy more guns to shoot, buy guns of other calibers to have more to reload for and to invite more friends/family to go shoot my reloads.

Just sayin'........

 

[380Lover]

I'd say that for me, the savings vs. shooting is the big gain. I've become an excellent shot with my 1911 largely because I can practice at least twice as often (and usually more so with the several .380 pistols I shoot). My [fixed] shooting budget is limited to $x per 3-month period, but now can I shoot 4x as often with the same $$. That's how I've measured it, shooting typically 4 boxes (50 / box) from each of 3 pistols on each trip, usually. I did lose out on 6 months of shooting when I bought the LoadMaster, though!

I started long ago with the Lee Challenger and worked up to their Loadmaster: now my reloading time per box is easily 15% of what it used to be.

Also, reloading lets me test each pistol well, trying different powder loads/types, bullet weights/types, lengths, etc. This taught me far more than just buying different factory ammo, not knowing more than "xxx ft/sec" on their boxes, and their OAL and weight. Learning the difference, and how tweaking ammo can greatly improve/remove accuracy, has been very valuable stuff! I have 7 different powders and 4 different bullets weights/types for each of 4 pistols, and this education has been worth 100x the cost, IMHO.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

The Title of this thread is "What's the best savings you've gotten out of reloading vs buying factory ammo?", not "How much money have you saved by reloading?"

IOWs, just because someone saves $.25 a round by reloading, doesn't mean they're putting that extra quarter a round into the kid's college fund. While reloading has saved me very much denaro per round, it has only motivated me to shoot more, buy more guns to shoot, buy guns of other calibers to have more to reload for and to invite more friends/family to go shoot my reloads.

Just sayin'........

Indeed. If savings leads to more reloading and more shooting, that doesn't negate the savings occurred. Where that money goes afterwards isn't really relevant in this context.

But I get what folks are saying. They aren't putting more money in their pocket, they are spending it on more components, and thus more shooting.

 

[Jack B.]

The big bores coast a lot to buy at the LGS but once you are set up to reload them you can easily over take factory ammo in cost.

 

[lightman]

My bigger savings come from loading the magnums. A box of 300 Weatherby's or 7MM STW's can cost over $80. Cartridges for some dangerous game rifles can cost even more. There are some big savings in loading for some of the smaller but rare or obsolete cartridges too!