The economics of hand loading

[jdfoxinc]

Been reloading for 37 years +-. Maby the savings will show up.

[Mal Paso]

For me it's the ability to shoot consistent ammo through all the shortages and restrictions. I was buying a 44 Mag revolver and the salesman said "You know there's no 44 Mag ammo available." I said "Oh ya there is."

[dverna]

When I worked in Alabama there was a guy who worked for me who was a dedicated bass fisherman. I realized how inexpensive shooting was.

[Goofy]

Recent prices for .416 Rigby ammo that I’ve seen run from $175-210 for a box of 20. They can be reloaded FAR cheaper than that.

[Land Owner]

I have been at this for over 50 years and if I had bought all the rounds I have fired instead hand loading cast I would have gone broke years ago.

Ah ha! This is the type of delusional thinking I love haha. The fact is true, but you’re not taking into account the reality that you probably would not have shot as many rounds, or even been tempted to, if you had not set up an ammo factory in your house.

You acknowledge "the fact is true" than go on to suggest a hypothetical. What "reality" is there in your converted hypothetical "you probably"? Your words.

Your thread title is "The economics of hand loading". pworley shot what he shot, made what he shot because he's a hand loader, owns the hand loading equipment to make more, avoided the significantly higher cost of shooting factory ammo IN AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF SHOOTING, which would have dictated he shoot LESS FACTORY AMMO or go broke, and most certainly he's not a "delusional" thinker.

The fact is, you owe the man an apology.

[barrabruce]

Well I’ve been loading off and on for 45 years.

Any one know when I might start to break even or see all these savings I’m going to make by hand loading and casting.

I have to fess up that with sadness and regret that I still have primeval urges every now and again to go to a gun shop.
Mainly only to stock up on my "precious stash" of powder and primers so I won’t run out.

Althou I do this less and less over the years the quantities I buy have gotten larger.

The guilt and remorse only lasts a while till I get over the sticker shock and have everything squirrelled way and I forget till things get low again.

If you change the words "gun shop" with "dealer or pub" and "powder and primers" with "drugs or grog"

Is this the words of some sort of junkie?

Ohh well it could be worse I suppose.
Now I’m trying to justify my habit.

[Targa]

I started reloading and casting five years ago. I know that my reloading/casting equipment payed for itself after the first 50 rounds I loaded for each of my heavy hitters in .475 Linebaugh, .500 S&W, .44 mag, .454 Casull and 45-70. I can shoot these as much as my body can tolerate and let friends/family do the same without giving any consideration to dollar per round being launched down range.

I can’t imagine buying factory ammo for these things, it would make for a very short range session.

[414gates]

Try this to show you how much you actually save compared to what you think you save.

https://ysterhout.net/docs/rifle-rel...ven/index.html

[brass410]

I reload to buy new rifles,when I have enough brass to reload, (equaling the price of the rifle) I get the rifle, that way it basicly costs nothing for me to have it. And I get to shoot for pennies on the dollar.

[Grayone]

So, I’ve been on here a lot less lately. Due to a few factors I’ve been shooting a lot less, and tinkering in the loading room a lot less also. Even sold off about 1/3 of my guns and a bit of the reload tools also. It’s a shame, but it’s the reality I face. But, then a friend presented a piece for sale and I had to buy it, but it’s in a caliber I don’t load for. I won’t shoot it much, but it will look nice in the safe. SO, the SMART thing to do would be to buy two boxes of factory ammo for it and happily own it and maybe shoot it a few times in the next decade. But is that what I did? Of course not! Instead I HAD to tool up for a new caliber and cartridge. So, new die set (best I can find) with extra seating die of course, new mold from Slovenia, sizing setup, etc etc etc…. Even sprung for a new Mec marksman press because, well, I’m a moron with more $ than brains, and I don’t have much $. So, the press I can’t blame on the new piece entirely, but just the case specific tooling ads up to about 375$ so that’s how much it costs to get into a new gun lol. Now, I know hand loading is NOT about economics, but I just thought I’d share this because I thought it was funny. To spend almost 700$ to load for a gun that I’ll never shoot. Oh well, at least the tools will not lose significant value over time lol.

You know you have got it bad when you check and you have brass for a gun you don't even own. I recently started thinning the herd and got a good price for items, some even brought more than I expected. So if you bought something that has and investment value you can have your cake and eat it too! Just another way of looking at it.

[Lifeshort]

I guess I am backwards in this. I started reloading in 1976 to get cheaper ammo so I could shoot more. Then started casting for the same reasons. Now I find myself wanting to go shooting so I can cast and reload more. I found casting and reloading to be the most enjoyable part for me.

[Drew P]

You acknowledge "the fact is true" than go on to suggest a hypothetical. What "reality" is there in your converted hypothetical "you probably"? Your words.

Your thread title is "The economics of hand loading". pworley shot what he shot, made what he shot because he's a hand loader, owns the hand loading equipment to make more, avoided the significantly higher cost of shooting factory ammo IN AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF SHOOTING, which would have dictated he shoot LESS FACTORY AMMO or go broke, and most certainly he's not a "delusional" thinker.

The fact is, you owe the man an apology.

Ah cmon no offense intended. Two things can be true in this world. I’m in the same boat as everyone else here. I reload because it’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s science, and in some cases for some people it can save money. I’m just pointing out that if reloading were somehow not possible, it would not mean that guns would be more expensive as a hobby for 99% of us. And yes, that number is a hypothetical.

[Froogal]

For me it's the ability to shoot consistent ammo through all the shortages and restrictions. I was buying a 44 Mag revolver and the salesman said "You know there's no 44 Mag ammo available." I said "Oh ya there is."

Not only that, but you can load them any way you want. Factory ammo comes pretty much in only one flavor, which usually produces a LOT of recoil. If you reload, you can tame them down to a much more comfortable level.

[M-Tecs]

I started reloading at the age of 8 in 1968. I started competitively shooting trap in the early 70's. In the late 80's I switched to NRA Highpower and Bullseye pistol while also dabbling at various other competitions along with being a serious hunter. Total I have reloaded over a half million rounds. In addition to providing more accurate ammo or ammo that is not available reloading has also saved me at least $100,000.00 verse purchasing factory.

[JoeJames]

Not only that, but you can load them any way you want. Factory ammo comes pretty much in only one flavor, which usually produces a LOT of recoil. If you reload, you can tame them down to a much more comfortable level.

One other point: factory ammo has to be produced with the lowest common denominator in mind. In 44 Special it appears to be .428 -.429 sized bullets. By casting and careful reloading I can come up with far more accurate rounds in .430 - .431.

[dverna]

I started reloading at the age of 8 in 1968. I started competitively shooting trap in the early 70's. In the late 80's I switched to NRA Highpower and Bullseye pistol while also dabbling at various other competitions along with being a serious hunter. Total I have reloaded over a half million rounds. In addition to providing more accurate ammo or ammo that is not available reloading has also saved me at least $100,000.00 verse purchasing factory.

I am in the same boat having reloaded about 500k rounds. I did not come from a "gun family" and started to reload in my late teens...71 now. No way I could have shot as much buying ammunition. Reloading is not for everyone but it is for me.

[Geezer in NH]

I started loading in high school in the sixties. I loaded everything until the laws on imports changed in the 80's, thank you Regan, I shot mil-surplus ammo as it was way cheaper and easier than reloading. Started reloading again when cheap dried up.

I would buy guns just to shoot up the odd surplus I could buy cheap.

[Harter66]

I'm in a minority I guess in the casting and reloading world .

It costs me $20-55 for a die set unless it's 06' , 45 ACP , 45 Colts , or a type 38 or 99 Arisaka in which case I will have 2-5 sets of dies and miscellaneous dies trying to get neck sizing right plus the 3 sets of what if it was rechamered in a popular conversion cartridge .
It's $38-119 for a correct suitable mould unless it's a 6.5 or 45-70 or 7mm .......may as well include 30 cal in general ...... Then it takes at least 4 to get one that fits and you know a guy simply can't just go with the flow and just have a 350 gr class bullet for the 45-70 when there are 535s , 500s , 405-450s and a 255 RF available to make it a squirrel slayer suitable for bison and moose whacking because you just never know .

Then I need a sizer ....... Yeah so for 30s I only needed .310,.312, and .318 to go with a .453, .454 and .459 for the 45s and the 6.5s just needed a .258 , .265 , and a .272 to get some paper patch in a 264 WM and fill up the grooves in the almost 6.8×50SR Japanese . So yeah a custom sizer or 2 ......

See its cheap to set up a new cartridge only $80-400 .

Having cartridges like 264 WM , 45-70 , 45 Colts and Schofield , 38 Short to load for where shelf prices are $40+ per 20 or 50 in the glory days back in 2016/17' it doesn't take many rounds to pay for even the dumb purchases like a 3 cav NOE version of the 458132 that won't even chamber and extract from an 1895G .......the 45-500 FP @ 531 gr is good to go though , look good . At $150-200 for dies and moulds and $50/20 after taxes what's that like 120 rd and you're making money . Even counting lead and where primers and powder are heading , like I'll ever buy another can of Unique , it's less than $15/100 for the Cowboys and only about $22/100 for the rest . 223 is cheap but 222 isn't and if I'm all set up for 222 it's just a $35 set of 223 dies and that's a break even on 500 rounds . If I'm loading for 38/357 , 380 and 38 Short it's just a die set for 9mm and I'm thinking that 90 gr FP should hit about 1450 outta the 9.

Once the big ticket tools are making ammo , who NEEDs a Big Max , 2 RCs , a 008 Horn/Pac and a half dozen MECs , it's inexpensive to add on . So what if the tools are worth as much for new replacement as the arms they feed at fair market ? So what if you got a bargain and the tools and arms are at current market worth more than you paid for the house .......... Never buying a car/truck that costs more than my house so yeah 5+ yr old and over 100k miles .

I've saved 30-40 bucks reloading already and I've only been die hard exclusive use of handloads since 94' when I was saving $40/100 on steel shot .

[beemer]

I started collecting the tools to reload as soon as I finished high school in 1970. Sometime around 71-72 I finally got started. Information was hard to find and I didn't know anyone that reloaded so I read a lot and figured it out. First was a 38 SPCL and then a 222 Rem.

I started casting for pistols around 1975 and rifles in the early 90's. Shotguns waited till 2010. My first powder coat was last week and they good look but haven't shot them yet. I even tinker around with paper patch. A single stage press and beam scales are on my bench and I see no reason to change. I don't hunt anymore and have never been one to just blast away so small batches work for me.

I really just enjoy going to my little one man loading room and tinkering with different things. Reloading is as enjoyable as seeing the results on paper. I didn't and don't have unlimited funds for shooting but reloading gives me more bang for the buck plus a lot of fun. That's priceless.

Dave

[MT Gianni]

A few years back I put my rifle reloading down to 4 calibers. 22, 7mm, 30, and 35. I made sure that if I bought a new rifle it had to be in a cartridge that had one of those bore calibers. I waffled and bought an encore bbl in 243 but have kept all else the same. Pistols are still all over the map but the latest great deal might be in 338 and I will pass.