Reloading

[jeepguy242]

found this on my home forum and thought you guys might appreciate it as much as i did

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee433/pittmanj22/C09A2D2E-62F5-4E86-9D3D-ADD21F2869AD-238-000000A57CD719D7.jpg

[429421Cowboy]

Haha that about sums up the glorious hobby of handloading!

[wgr]

ill break even in about. forget it i will never break even

[Bad Water Bill]

Well if I had spent my time at the local watering hole instead of casting and reloading.

1 I would have lost my car and drivers license a looong time ago.
2 The bar would be at least covered in solid silver.
3 My head and body would have stopped a long time ago.
4 But at least it would last longer (pickled in alcohol):bigsmyl2:
5 I would have missed all of the fun over the last 40+ years and never paid any amusement taxes.[smilie=s:

[Bad Water Bill]

But then I would not have all of the STUFF in the basement.

[mold maker]

You could always brick it uo with all your guns, and live a "NORMAL" life. Nope, That's insane.

[FISH4BUGS]

found this on my home forum and thought you guys might appreciate it as much as i did

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee433/pittmanj22/C09A2D2E-62F5-4E86-9D3D-ADD21F2869AD-238-000000A57CD719D7.jpg

Those that cast and scrounge brass shoot cheaply! No doubt about it. If you shoot JHP and new Starline brass all the time, then you shoud just buy factory. I can't understand how someone just reloads, period.
Scrounging lead, smelting, alloying, collecting moulds, casting, resizing and lubing, case prep, reloading, shooting it all up, and starting it all over again is what it is all about. Coupled with shooting cast bullets in the machine guns and it becomes a no brainer.
That's why they call it a HOBBY!
I once had a small lobster boat with 25 traps. While we ate a lot of lobster, by the time the season was over, I paid something like $30 a pound for lobster - blown motor, bait, fuel, lost gear, emergency room bills for stitches, etc. Hey golfers - what does YOUR hobby cost you?
But TRULY - casting and reloading gets the cost WAY down there.

[StratsMan]

I dunno....

Back when I used to shoot ~1K rounds/month and bought bullets directly from Rainier Ballistics (group buys for distributor prices), and I only had a press and basic reloading tools, I could make ammo pretty cheap and I had the time to shoot 'em....

Now that I've become addicted, and have lead in my veins, and bought 60+ molds, and spend my time scrounging, and.... etc, ad nauseum.... I'd be afraid to actually analyze the TRUE cost of this hobby against the number of rounds I shoot today.... methinks I'm in it for the fun, not savings....

Still, the wife recognizes the enjoyment I get from it all, and how much healthier it is than spending my time and money at bars, so she doesn't complain and let's me keep my membership at the local indoor range, even though I'm not sure I'm getting my money's worth there anymore, either.....

Now if I can just get a few more friends addicted like me...

[BoolitSchuuter]

ALERT!!!! rhetorical question to follow!!!
If you reload JHP's and new starline brass, you're not technically "reloading", are you?
On the other hand, my dad is saving tons. He buys ammo at walmart to get the brass. He gives the empties to me. I buy the equipment and supplies and cast the boolits, he gets free ammo and time with me.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe that's a win/win...:D

[1Shirt]

There is a big difference in assembling ammo rather than reloading it!
1Shirt!

[Ola]

Just for the he** of it, I made some calculations of my .357 Mag "savings".

Cheapest commercial stuff: 0,42 eur / pcs

My reload:

-brass: free
-boolit: "free" (electricity, gas)
-primer 0.03 eur
-powder 0.04 eur
= 0.07 euro /pcs


Commercial stuff: 2520 eur / year (6000 pcs)
Reloads: 420 eur / year (6000 pcs)

So, I could buy couple of Dillons every year and still save some money...

[gbrown]

I find a lot of humor in my reloading. I started out a long time ago as a kid to save money (which I didn't have) reloading shotgun shells. Along the way, I acquired (cheaply) some equipment. Got into casting. Got out of reloading/casting for about 15 years. Then, went back into it. My old equipment wasn't good enough. Invested in some more expensive stuff. Saw a bunch of neat stuff I had to have. Spent more. And more. Got back into casting after finding the motherlode of molds and equipment. Spent more. I don't know whether I am saving money or spending. If I did a spreadsheet, I'm sure I would be ahead. Right now, 50 rounds of pistol cost me about $2.00. 20 rounds of rifle about $4.00. All I can say, ahead or behind, save or spend, I sure have fun![smilie=w:

I will add this. I own a boat, live on the coast and love to fish. I also love to hunt. Have 4 wheelers and a lease. Let's see, my fish probably cost me $20.00 a lb and the venison about $30.00 a lb. Hmmm. My range dues are $65.00 a year. Hmmm Definition of boat: Hole in water you throw money into. Definition of 4 wheeler: Hole in road you throw money into.

[runfiverun]

if i knew what factory ammo cost i could [with some research] do a cost comparison between it and the jhp's and new brass.
you probably do save money assembling ammo from new components.
and i probably allready done the cost comparison or i wouldn't be here.

[3006guns]

I can't remember.........was it Harry Pope (?) who said that people who reload with factory components are merely ASSEMBLING Ammunition. Casters are MANUFACTURING it.

Might have been Townsend Whelen.......but no matter who it's a very true statement. Be proud of your hobby! :)

[Bad Water Bill]

It was either him or Harvey Donaldson.

[Blacksmith]

I just did a "back of the envelope" estimate for a friend thinking about getting involved in reloading for handguns. He has a source of brass so that was free, plus $0.03 to $0.035 per primer, plus $0.02 to $0.03 for powder, plus bullets and I said bullet cost runs from "Free" if you make your own (I didn't want to tell him the truth I want someone to cast with) to bullets that are $1.00 each so he could load for $0.05 to $1.065 per round plus the "one time" cost of the equipment. He is thinking about it.

My grandsons think reloading is great, it is fun to do, they get lots of ammo to shoot, and it doesn't cost them anything.

[3006guns]

I calculated the cost of each .38 special round when I first started back around 1970 or so......seems they were less than .03 each. Of course, a can of Bullseye was five bucks, primers were 8.95/1000 and I never counted my time casting....those boolits were always "free". Ah, those were glorious times..........

Even tripling (or more) the cost for today, it's still a bargain.:bigsmyl2:

By the way, I swiped the OP's original picture of Gene Wilder and sent it to my son, who is just starting to cast.

[rr2241tx]

If I save much more money on this reloading thing, I'll have to go on relief. There's at least $1K of lead & alloy in the garage. Another $1K of custom moulds. A Shiloh, a High Wall, a Miroku High Wall and a couple of muzzleloaders that followed me home because I could cast for them and then there's the legal limit of powders and all the primers and the club memberships so I'd have a place to shoot all these guns and the entry fees to shoot in the prize shoots with each one. I've about saved myself into the Poor House already. But at least my wife knows where to find me. All she has to do is look on the calendar to see which range I'm shooting on that day.

[snuffy]

This comes around to the definition of reloading and handloading. The way I look at that is handloading is doing what mr. wilder is talking about. Others have called it assembling, same, same!

Reloading is what I do mostly. If I need brass for a new-to-me gun, then I buy new brass. Then I'm handloading. If I can wait, I find once-fired brass online, then I'm RE-loading.

As for do I shoot for less? ummmm yeah, I think so!:confused:

Midway has a feature that allows you to look up your past orders. I added them up for an eight year period. Came to over 10K! Would I have spent that much for factory new ammo for my various guns? Most certainly, probably a lot more, if I did the same amount of shooting.

[BD]

I'm way past the break even point. Of course I'm not loading JHPs in new starline brass either. Just this year was the first time I ever paid for lead when I bought a lino pig to sweeten up my stash of range scrap. Times are changing though, I'm nearing the end of my 17.00/1,000 primers, and Maine has outlawed lead wheel weights.
BD

[crowbuster]

Midway should discontinue that program, could get a guy in a lot of trouble if it got into the wrong hands. hahaha:bigsmyl2:

[daniel lawecki]

I thought if I reloaded there would be some savings not really. I just shoot more so if I have to worry about cost it wouldnt be a fun and rewarding hobby. I find the people I meet along the way the best payback. Money comes and goes but friendship last a lifetime

[WILCO]

found this on my home forum.....



You have a "Home Forum" that isn't this one? :veryconfu :kidding:

[ErikO]

I dunno....

Back when I used to shoot ~1K rounds/month and bought bullets directly from Rainier Ballistics (group buys for distributor prices), and I only had a press and basic reloading tools, I could make ammo pretty cheap and I had the time to shoot 'em....

Now that I've become addicted, and have lead in my veins, and bought 60+ molds, and spend my time scrounging, and.... etc, ad nauseum.... I'd be afraid to actually analyze the TRUE cost of this hobby against the number of rounds I shoot today.... methinks I'm in it for the fun, not savings....

Still, the wife recognizes the enjoyment I get from it all, and how much healthier it is than spending my time and money at bars, so she doesn't complain and let's me keep my membership at the local indoor range, even though I'm not sure I'm getting my money's worth there anymore, either.....

Now if I can just get a few more friends addicted like me...

I'm working it on my side the MO river and my brother is probably going to relocate down this way as well. There's also a couple guys here at work that I've been working on for a while now, just a matter of time. :)

[Bad Water Bill]

I thought if I reloaded there would be some savings not really. I just shoot more so if I have to worry about cost it wouldnt be a fun and rewarding hobby. I find the people I meet along the way the best payback. Money comes and goes but friendship last a lifetime

+1:bigsmyl2:

[Wayne Smith]

I'm way past the break even point. Of course I'm not loading JHPs in new starline brass either. Just this year was the first time I ever paid for lead when I bought a lino pig to sweeten up my stash of range scrap. Times are changing though, I'm nearing the end of my 17.00/1,000 primers, and Maine has outlawed lead wheel weights.
BD

Roof vent boots, old shower pans, old pipes, lots of other sources left.

[David2011]

Action pistol competition would be really tough if I didn't reload, both for cost and shooting considerations. Shooting cast boolits my loads run about $0.055 for .40 S&W. That's at 4 cents for the primer and 1.5 cents for powder and scrounged WW. That's $2.75 for 50 rounds. The best price I found online was about $13.50 so at 200- 500 rounds per weekend that's a lot of savings. It's also better shooting as the factory loads exceed the required power factor significantly.

I reload for my AR-15 for a different reason but to be fair I have to compare similar loads. I get much better accuracy from Sierra MK or Hornady V-Max over cheap bulk bullets. Hornady .223 with a V-Max bullet runs about $0.85/round. I can load the same quality round with a V-max bullet for $0.28 including each use of the brass, starting with military brass. Yeah, it's cheaper.

I've had my single stage press for 40 years, the Dillon 550 is 21 years old and the Dillon 650 is 6 years old. The 650 has loaded close to 100,000 rounds so the presses are decentlyamortized. Yeah, it's cheaper for me.

David

[missionary5155]

Good evening
And no one has mentioned we casters can still shoot the "dash" calibers. Imagine trying to find and afford 50-95 ! I fired a bunch of them this morning and will do so again and again and... Or 44-77. Try finding that one. Or 33 Winchester. And on the list could go.
Now way on this rock could I ever shoot any of those without the right molds and that other gear we happily "manulate" (did I just invent a word? ) to produce the fodder to keep the "Obsolete" calibers purring along.
Mike in ILL.

[GL49]

Every time I'd take my sons to the range, I could figure about 10 boxes of 38's a couple of .357, four or five of 9mm, I'd shoot my 44 and 45, and all my equipment still has a resale value. Yup, I've saved money. Now if you count the time.....it makes the cost even less. I'd pay money to have this much fun.

[firefly1957]

That picture is so right!

[BD]

Since I've been reloading, I've loaded just about 100,000 rounds of .45 acp. Using surplus powder under scrounged lead, at about .03/round those 100,000 rounds have cost me about $3,000. Those same rounds purchased at a conservative estimate of $15.00/50 round box would have cost me $30,000. The $1,000 in equipment I've purchased is nothing in comparison to the $27,000 difference in cost. Of course, if you count my time over the years, the picture is a little different, but I balance time spent against the enjoyment I've had in the process.

I also load some expensive jacketed bullets. Even though the 150 grain Nosler Partitions I load over 78 grains of Retumbo for my .270 WBY mag are costing me nearly $1.00 a piece tp load, when you look at the $57.00 price tag on a box of 20 factory .270 WBY, it still seems like a great deal to me.
BD

[EMC45]

I save a good bit of money reloading/handloading. I can shoot .32 S&W-L cheaper than I can shoot .22LR (I am not talking Remington JUNK ammo here). My .38 and .45 ACP handloads are cheap. REAL CHEAP. Scrounging brass and digging lead out of logs and berms is only half the fun of this hobby for me. Finding good deals on here and other places makes it fun too.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Only way to go if you want to shoot a lot. If you only want to shoot a little, buy factory. I know a fellow that gets around 10 years out of a box of .308 shells, eats well, and is perfectly happy doing it. What kills me is when I meet someone who says they want to shoot more, but just can't afford it, what they really mean is they either don't have the time or the inclination to learn how to cast/reload. Within reason, almost anyone can afford to splash around in the shallow end of the standard middle class hobbies, if they do it right.

[km101]

I have reloaded for about 35+ years. I have only been casting for about 4 mo. I didn't really realize how much fun I was missing all thqt time. Even with the additional cost of all the casting equipment, I am still going to save money. No, that's the wrong way to look at it. I will NOT save money, I will be able to shoot more. And that's the reason for the hobby any way.

I get to enjoy the tinkering, alloying, testing and all the other fun stuff involved. And you really cant put a price on a hobby. What is the price of sanity? What is relaxation and happiness worth?
If it keeps me sane and happy and out of the wife's hair, it's worth every penny, whether your are "saving" or not.

[facetious]

I started reloading about 1981 . I had bought a .357 BH, a guy I would go shooting with made fun of me saying I didn't make the kind of money I would need to learn how to shoot a gun like that. Then he stated teaching how to reload. My first press was a Lee press I got used (and still have) a set of dies and every book on reloading I could find. At first I had to buy the boolits , that didn't go so good. A case full of 4227 and a soft lead boolit , I had leading so bad there were lead wire's coming out the end of the barrel! Then he started to show me how to cast. I had been working at a news paper for two years in the press room, thy had stopped using lead plates in "76" but a lot of guy's had lead stashed and were happy to give it to me to get rid of it. I still have two plate's from a HOE letter press that sit by my bench to kick in to. 40 lb each, I have never had the hart to break them up. I got ww for free to mix in 50/50 with the lino . I bought .357 case's for $35 for a1000. .38's were free. The first time I had to pay for ww's they were $5.00 for a five gal. bucket still have 50 or 60 lb of that left and 30 or so lb of lino in the shed. At the time I could shoot .38's for the cost of .22's .357's for not much more. Over time I got more gun's and more reloading stuff , sizer and dies and casting stuff a 550 b. I can't tell you how much I have spent over the last 30 years $10 or $20 at a time. But I had fun. I haven't had to buy much but powder and primers for a long time. I feel sorry for guy's just getting started when I see the cost of stuff compared to what it cost then. It is like they are out to pork the ones just starting to make as much as they can. If I had shot factory stuff and not reloaded I would have spent ten times what I did for as much as I shot back then and think for someone shooting a lot to day it is still a good deal. For the one's who shoot more then a few box's a year something like a Lee starter kit would pay for it's self in a year or two.

[Bad Water Bill]

I keep hearing folks talking about how expensive reloading is today. Well I am also an OLD reloader that still has a brick of CCI primers marked $3.99.

Now I have to think WAY back and try to remember just what I earned per hour in those days. IIRC it was about $1.50 or so per hour so I had to work over 2 hours to purchase those primers.

When I retired a few years back as a carpenter the pay was around $40.00 per hour and primers were about $20.00 per brick. Yes using the figures we used to pay for goodies these prices are high but today we are making a little more, at the moment.

[Wis. Tom]

Been reloading for over a year, but started casting for the last few months. I use to only shoot my 9mms, but now the 1911s are shot all the time, just because the expense is not a factor, and I am shooting alot more, which to me, is a good thing. There are worse hobbies than this, but I can tell that the casting thing is a sickness, as I find myself looking for lead and lead products all the time.

[captaint]

Ah, what the heck - keeps us out of the bars !! enjoy Mike

[Four-Sixty]

When you reload you also avoid a lot of taxes and shipping. And, you are not going to the store burning up gas to buy more ammo. You could easily add %10 to %15 to your estimates of savings.

[Bad Water Bill]

When you reload you also avoid a lot of taxes and shipping. And, you are not going to the store burning up gas to buy more ammo. You could easily add %10 to %15 to your estimates of savings.

+1

I have never heard anyone mention that before.

Thank You

[Harter66]

My gear except the last RCBS mould is all amortized having poured easily over 1000 bullets in nearly every 1 of them. I've figured it several times pistol cartridges come out $5-7/100 w/rifles $8-12 /100. When I saw 257 Roberts at $32/box all remorse about $3000 in tools for the game went away,not that I had much to begin with. It felt even better knowing that most of the gear has been swapped ,traded or gifted to me.

Hrs spent well that's another matter all together but its family and detox time spent sifting berms , and what could be more rewarding than the 1st harvest w/your load and boolit cast and loaded by you. Yep no way I'll go back to the store bought stuff. Besides I've a couple of moody,whinny, cranky rifles that don't play well w/factory stuff.

[375supermag]

When you reload you also avoid a lot of taxes and shipping. And, you are not going to the store burning up gas to buy more ammo. You could easily add %10 to %15 to your estimates of savings.

While I reload (and no, I don't save any money by reloading...I just shoot a lot more), I still burn up gas running all over the area going to gunshops looking for that one "special" gun that I didn't even know I needed until I saw it.

Not only do I not save the gas money, but I always end up buying a back-up pound of powder or a brick of primers or maybe some cases or some little tool. Mostly just so the owner of the gunshop remembers me when I do find that "special" gun and we get down to haggling over the price. Regular customers get better deals than some guy who the owner never saw before.

[Wayne Smith]

Very, very little of my equipment is purchased new. Almost all of it comes from buying it here or from eBay. Only a couple of mild burns, one partially my fault and the seller more than made good. Granted, I actively enjoy recovering old stuff and making it work again, but the Bair Brown Bair three position H press still works as well as it ever did, the Hollywood likewise, none of the die sets that I have purchased used have been worn out or even close, and the powder measures and scales work well.

My problem is, I keep adding on and on. Now I'm swaging half jacket bullets, a whole new project made possible by adding the Hollywood press. I have a project being worked on by Classic Cannons and when Dave Davidson gets back from Argentina he will be making me some swage dies as well.

Will it ever stop?? God, I sincerely hope not! Yes, that is a prayer.

[Lonegun1894]

Looking at it purely from a dollars spent point of view, I don't think I have saved a penny. I think I got used to spending a set amount, and still spend the same, just get a LOT higher round count for the same money. Now looking at it from the point of view of what many of my friends have gone through who didn't want to spend the few dollars to start loading and shoot more (like I did), it has saved me at least thousands, and probably many thousands of dollars. I mean, between the child support, divorce costs, lawyer fees, and alcohol that many of my friends have had to pay for, well, I'm saving so much I don't even want to know how much I've saved. On the other had though, these are the same kind of guys that you can find in the bars every weekend, and I never did fit in very well with them anyway, and haven't seen most of them in years. Still can't help thinking of that when someone asks me how much I've saved by loading and shooting over the years.

[Moonie]

I save tons of money. I'll explain, my wife is an Insurance underwriter. Every time we go out of town she will see a business or insurance company and tell me "That is one of my accounts" or "That is one of my agencies". I just can't take the chance that any other message makes it back to my wife, I save tons of money by casting and reloading...

:bigsmyl2:

It even happened once when we took a wrong turn and were briefly lost in the mountains, 3 hours from home...
:holysheep

[Plate plinker]

If you buy quality equipment you are really only renting it. When I meet my demise the wife will probably get more money for the gear than I paid for it. I know I could make 500 on the press today!

[Gliden07]

I did napkin bookwork on this subject and figure I have about $275 total investment in my casting and reloading equipment! I've been lucky so far and have been getting WW and brass for free. The biggest single investment on my part were the primers $35/1000!!Even with that factored in; the first case of ammo I produce will cost about the same as a bought case of factory 230gr FMJ cheapie ammo, like a CCI Blazer (non reloadable Aluminium cased round), they cost around $400 per 1000. My next 1K rounds will only cost me consumables Powder and Primers lets just say about 5 cents a round or $50 bucks per 1000!! That aint a bad deal!! And I'm doing something that is fun and IMO worthwhile.

PS A lot of people are factoring in the cost of their equipment over the years into the cost of there ammunition I'm not. I figure I would have spent that $400 on that case of ammo anyway. After shooting it I would still have to buy another. So now I can buy a new toy for the loading bench!! LOL!!

[Blacksmith]

The CMP had some once fired brass for sale IT"S GONE. At $24.95 including a .30 cal. ammo can and shipping it was a heck of a deal.


NLU 4S3006BRASS. Description: Once fired brass from CMP test firing and events, various head stamps. Brass has not been cleaned or inspected. 240-250 rounds per .30 cal can. $15.00 per can + $9.95 S&H.

They had 650 cans and it sold out in less than a day. They said they would offer it again in 4 or 5 years.