On the lighter side of saving money by casting and reloading.

[bearcove]

Had a snow day and looked at what it cost to shoot a rifle.

Bought a marlin rebored to 38-55 by jess O. No cost it will hold value.

8 pound jug of Unique 8lbx7000gr/lb/10gr/load=5600loads

Cost of powder $109/5600 loads=$0.02/load

Primers 5000 for 99.99 100/5000=$0.02/load

Lube don't have a clue but is a small cost.

Brass $$125/250 $0.50 ea/25 uses at low pressure. $0.02/load

Total cost for a box of 20 reloads 2+2+2=$0.06x20qty=$1.20/20qty

Best price I saw was $35 for a box of 20:holysheep

The mold doesn't cost but $18 on midsouth and I can sell it for $10 5 years from now.

The lead I have and catch in a boolit trap and recycle.

[starmac]

Pretty cheap enertainment, beats a cheap beer any day.

[bearcove]

Yeah, I prefer good beer myself.

[Olevern]

yeah, but shootin that gun fuels my 'need' for another gun and another, etc, with the attendent costs of more dies, different powders, molds, additional safes etc., etc.

Then there's the expense to attend gun shows, and visits out of state to shoot and hunt with members met here and at other forums.


Before you know it, you're broke.

[Guesser]

You will save money every time you reload; so if we extend that out (think long distance railroad tracks) it stands to reason that if you reload enough it comes together and you will start making money just loading for yourself.

[Doc_Stihl]

I once told my wife that her box of 44 mag hunting loads cost less than $5 for 50 rounds.

She looked at me and said, "How do you figure, what's the cost of the all those tools"

I replied. "Nothing towards these 44. I wrote all the cost of those off on the first box of ammo, that box cost $2500 for 50 rounds."

[sundog]

Doc Stihl, you got it right. The tools and moulds last forever, if taken of. They are durables and can be liquidated if need be.

I only consider the cost of 'consumables' - brass, powder, primer, gas checks, and jacketed bullets. Cast has no cost, as all my lead cost essentially nothing.

Folks find is almost unbelievable that I can shoot for so little ($) --- and so much (#). I am still shooting primers that I got for $75/case, some in smaller quantities were even less than that before I started buying by the case. And several flavors of surplus powder (read cheap). I hate to think about replacement costs as my supply is consumed.

[pergoman]

The beauty of is that if you bought the equipment right, maintained it well, and sold it after death, there would most likely be a profit. Can't take the equipment or the cash with me so what do I care. Quality equipment, like guns, never seem to go down in price.
I used to tell new skeet and trap shooters to get a used Browning. They could enjoy a quality gun for as long as they chose and if they ever decided to sell it, they would get all of their money back. That is not true for the cheaper guns coming out of Turkey or Russia.

[Harter66]

I took my math back to my "Partner kit". I bought it when 357 &06' hit $12/box . After 1000 rnds of 38-357 for the cost of parts vs commercial I was even at $0. By then I'd loaded a couple hundred 06' too. W/gifts and swaps I'm making around a $1 a box on pistol loads except the 45Colts I must be making about $10/box on them. Last time I looked at them they were $38 out here . 20 boxes/1000 is $760/1000 vs $120/1000 ,presuming 10 loads on the brass,that's a savings of $640/1000 . That makes $100 in moulds and $40 in dies look pretty darn good.

[mroliver77]

Compared to what a lot of folks do for a hobby, for fun or entertainment, our passion is cheap! Some consider the value of their time. I enjoy all the aspects of smelting, casting, loading etc that go along with shooting.

This goofy world we live in is hard on me! The benefits I receive from being a "Gun Guy" offsets most of the negatives this world heaps on me.

Priceless!!!

[starmac]

It is pretty hard to count your time for any hobby, then you would have to add travel time to the hunting camp, 24 hours a day for the two weeks you spend there.
All the time shooting to keep in practice.
Before you know that deer cost 17,389 dollars a pound. It is best to just not worry about keeping up the cost of a hobby. lol

[Iowa Fox]

I'm still shooting CCI primers I paid 4.95 a thousand delivered from F.J. Vollmer & Co.

[Olevern]

I'm still shooting CCI primers I paid 4.95 a thousand delivered from F.J. Vollmer & Co.

Wow, either a fellow hoarder or just plain don't reload and shoot enough.

[Ernest]

A very wise Friend of mine once said " Ernest you must never total up the true cost of hunting or sex. If you do you will will do severe damage to the enjoyment that you get out of either". I have studiously followed that advice.

I can say absolutely that of the two Hunting, shooting, reloading and gun buying and selling has been by far the less expensive habit.

[cheese1566]

Cool isn't it!!!

I figure on my spreadsheet that with the 2300+ pounds of lead (processed ingot WW lead!) I have accumulated from tire shops over the last three years, I can do 134,000 9mm bullets for about $5 a thousand.Or I can make 70,000 45acp bullets for about $10 a thousand. (Not loaded rounds.)

That takes into account roughly $700 in equipment from doughnuts and soda for the tire shops, smelting gear, propane, molds, melting pot, and my Star sizer but no time or labor.

[clintsfolly]

I never saved a dime reloading and casting but got to shoot,hunt and gunsmith MORE!! Clint

[Love Life]

If I bought all the ammo I shoot for store prices I would be a very poor man, and shoot less to boot. Besides I need to have something to occupy my free time.

[GRUMPA]

I don't know what's worth more to me. The fact that I do indeed save myself a lot of money, or gain experience thru patience, trial and error (not the bad kind that breaks things) and gleaning info and knowledge from here and other sites. Kind of like a lost art in a way, like sewing something from scratch with pleasing results.

I've been doing this for well over 2 decades and you know what? I still don't know it all and I'm tickled when I can learn those new tricks or what-ever from here. Saving money is one thing but the knowledge/abilities one gets is to me priceless.

[1Shirt]

I also have many times found myself going bargin broke!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Murphy]

Even at todays prices for powder and primers (.45 ACP & .38 Special last a long time) and adding perhaps $10 for the boolits, I figure I'm shootin' at a nickle a shot or less.

About 20 years ago, I did some cost figures and it came out at roughly $35.00 per thousand on .45 ACP's. I was telling a guy how much I shot on an average month and he thought I was nuts. I just happened to have a coffee can close to full of .45 brass I had used in the last to practice sessions in the back of the truck. I opened it and told him to have a look. He was pretty much amazed. Of course most folks who only buy loaded ammuntion can't begin to understand the savings we as boolit casters save just on boolits alone.

Murphy

[FISH4BUGS]

I had a small lobster boat and 25 traps, and I fished in Portsmouth, NH harbor for 25 years. (thus the name fish4bugs) I figure lobster cost me something like $45 a pound over that time. Boat, motor, bait, traps, lost gear, another blown motor, trailer, paint, maintenance on gear, did I mention lost gear?
I could have bought lobster for some $5.00 a pound....but that wasn't the point. It was the being out on the water, fishing with the kids, having my kids with their own traps, developing a respect for the sea, etc.
My casting hobby came out of necessity. Shooting sub machine guns is an expensive item to feed. Once I got the 6-8-10 cavity Hensley & Gibbs moulds out of the way, Lyman 4 cavity and even a few RCBS and Lee moulds, the Dillon 550, the caliber changes, etc. and the Star sizer, plus all the associated items, I figured I had probably $2500+ (probably more) into the whole thing. Cheaper than lobstering.
I can now shoot cheap, having put away over 2500 lbs of wheel weights over the years.
More importantly, I am self sufficient. There are enough components to keep me in ammo for many years to come. Maybe for the rest of my life.
The time doesn't count....that is what we do for relaxation and satisfaction.
That's why they call it a hobby!

[Bullet Caster]

Quite an expensive hobby to boot. However the most enjoyable thing of casting, reloading, and shooting has gotta be casting, at least for me. I think it's great that one can take used lead and turn it into something useful like boolits. That provides me with the next great thing. Shootin'.
BC

[DLCTEX]

I tell my wife I'm spending some of my beer money on equipment and supplies. Since I have saved at least the cost of a case of beer a day since 1974 I've built up a sizeable reserve. She understands and doesn't complain, much. LOL

[chambers]

What price does a person put on a hobby, if it makes you happy money is not main focal point( but it does help to have money)? Since I started to reload , I then found this website that lead me in a whole different direction( starting hoarding WW's , smelting, casting, collecting countless molds, learned about fluxing, making lube, making odd ball tools). It is amazing how one hobby has so many different options and takes you in different directions, who would of thought!

[stubshaft]

I told SWMBO either I load and shoot or go to the t!tty bars. NO more complaints!

[Beau Cassidy]

Way back when I loaded 1,000 .38's for 3.2 cents a round (single stage no less!). Comparing that to the cost of the cheapest .38 ammo I could find I saved $90 which was the cost of my press. I have done that many times over and consider my equipment paid for several times over. Just yesterday I cast a few thousand 9mm bullets. I saw lead 9mm at a gunshow saturday for $27/500. So with that 1 casting session I paid for the mold.