15.4 cents for a 38 spl.

You should be reloading for the tailored ammo for your firearm. Reloading isn't about saving money. It's about using the best possible ammo.
Click to expand...

Well, I won't actually tell our OP why he/she should be loading - that's his/her business. O'Heir makes a strong point though.

There are a lot of garages across this country with loading equipment collecting dust because the sole motivation was to save money; and it never caught their interest as a craft. Loading became a chore, not a craft. Big - BIG - difference.

As already mentioned, no handloader saves any money - they just shoot more. Nobody reading this will dispute it :p.

And tailoring ammo for a firearm and making the best possible ammo for a given application are great reasons for one to load their own on an enduring basis.

I'm going to show my step-son how to load tomorrow. He's looking into it. We've already had the "load to save money" conversation - basically covering all the above stuff. It'll be mentioned again ;).
 
when I factor in the money per hour I'm losing doing reloading instead of working... I save money just buying a box.
 
when I factor in the money per hour I'm losing doing reloading instead of working... I save money just buying a box.
Click to expand...

Exactly my point.

If it's something you enjoy, it is a craft; and as such, you don't factor in your time as an expense.

If it's something you do not enjoy, it is a chore; and as such, you factor in your time as an expense.
 
JERRYS. said:
when I factor in the money per hour I'm losing doing reloading instead of working... I save money just buying a box.
Click to expand...
Depends on the ammo and the availability. For me, .327 and .45 Colt are great choices for reloading.

But I agree with you to a point. The people who rave about the savings reloading 9mm need their heads examined. Unless someone is giving you the components for free, you're not saving anything and you're wasting time not reloading something else.
 
USSR said:
The real savings come when you can make the most expensive component yourself. My .38 Special loads cost me 6 cents each.

Don
Click to expand...

You make your own cases?

Nick_C_S said:
Exactly my point.

If it's something you enjoy, it is a craft; and as such, you don't factor in your time as an expense.

If it's something you do not enjoy, it is a chore; and as such, you factor in your time as an expense.
Click to expand...

I look at so called "free lead", the same way. Unless someone delivers it to your door for nuttin, it's not free. Used to help my friend who casts, get his so called "free lead". Diggin' in the local range berm and sifting the lead generally meant an afternoon or morning. The drive around town and the local area to various garages to get wheel weights was generally the same thing, plus gas and a few cases of beer. I always got a few "free" bullets for my effort, but when I looked at the time it cost me, they weren't really free. Asked my friend one day if he really saved any money after the time spent and the beer/gas bought. His answer was, it wasn't about the money but the "hunt".

I reload because it relaxes me and I get quality ammunition for a reasonable cost. If I really wanted to save money and time, I'd work more side jobs for cash and come out further ahead. Using a similar mindset, I could call any ammo I bought with that side job money "free".
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by USSR View Post

The real savings come when you can make the most expensive component yourself. My .38 Special loads cost me 6 cents each.

Don

You make your own cases?
Click to expand...

Don't be silly. Brass cases amortized over the typical number of times they are used cost next to nothing, especially when you buy them as once-fired brass. Everyone knows what the most expensive component is.

Don
 
Gotta disagree with comments on reloading 9mm

I can reload 9mm for as little as 8.3 cents a shot. Never have I seen 9mm ammo, even the cheapest aluminum case stuff, for less then 18 or 19 cents a shot. Not sure how a fifty percent savings is not a good deal. Yeah I know there is the time involved but when I can save fifty percent on anything by doing it myself . . . it's well worth it.

Life is good.

Prof Young
 
It's been years since I costed out components. I vaguely remember lead ammo coming out to a little less than half price; jacketed maybe 2/3 or so. Can't remember for sure. It's not important to me. Undoubtedly, it's a bargain to load your own on a shot per shot basis. But of course, you shoot more, so . . .
 
Prof Young said:
I can reload 9mm for as little as 8.3 cents a shot. Never have I seen 9mm ammo, even the cheapest aluminum case stuff, for less then 18 or 19 cents a shot. Not sure how a fifty percent savings is not a good deal. Yeah I know there is the time involved but when I can save fifty percent on anything by doing it myself . . . it's well worth it.

Life is good.

Prof Young
Click to expand...
So your labor is only worth $10/hour to you? Unless you're using a progressive press, in which case you probably paid $500 for that over a $100 Lee Turret press.

You can save a lot more money reloading something else, ANYTHING else.
 
Since my wife started shooting 9mm I thought I'd buy some dies and add that caliber to my collection. Then I saw what the prices were.

Holy moley 9mm is cheap! (well, compared to what I usually shoot...) Cheap enough that I'd have a very hard time matching the price reloading, much less beating it. The local indoor ranges mandate jacketed ammo since they're terrified of lead fumes or something. Once you jump from casting wheelweights to buying jacketed bullets, $36 for 200 rounds from Wal-Mart is a smokin' deal.

And (this is the best part!) instead of stressing out over every ejected case, I can look at the floor covered in disposable aluminum or steel cases, laugh, and walk away...
 
""If it's something you enjoy, it is a craft; and as such, you don't factor in your time as an expense."" - I'm right there with you Nick -

With bulk materials purchased on sale, "found" lead which I cast into rounds - I was once able to bring my cost of materials down to less than 6 cents per round in .40 S&W pistol.

On the other hand - I also own appx $3000 in gear and make my own custom .40 JHP using junk 9mm brass, cast lead cores and forming my own projectiles on a $500 swage press using a $400 die.

So for me it's the craft of it.

I've got 3 presses on my loading bench - 7 sets of dies in 5 calibers, only one caliber i myself currently own ( future planning ) and have some 20 gallons of brass in a bunch of different sizes which I clean, clear and trade when I find an interested party to trade with. Indeed I have gifted clean brass to friends and associates especially when it's a small oddball amount I don't have dies for.

I've got 3 sets of bullet molds for casting. The strangest "found" lead I've used is the leading around glass in a busted front door I took apart.

And my next bullet crafting step in my journey down this road will probably be powder-coating cast lead rounds.

But lastly - if I want to spend a LONG day at the range and calmly go through 400 rounds - I do not think twice about cost because I'm not spending $250 on ammo.... I'm clearing brass for better loads to come! and the ammo I'm shooting likely only cost me appx $30 to $45 in materials and my time to assemble.

And it is with no small amount of pride that I can say as I approach the 13000 rd mark, I've had 3 miss-fires and 3 miss-feeds....
 
When I used to cast my own and primers were a penny each, I was getting about five cents a round. I've not purchased .38 cartridges in thirty years. I have mostly used my own once fired, or brass from a police range in all that time. The once fired police brass was awfully cheap back then.

I used to buy federal wadcutter match for $11. One day I thought about the cost, it was over fifty cents apiece! that darned box of ammo that lasted ten minutes cost as much as a full afternoon of space invaders!
 
The strangest "found" lead I've used is the leading around glass in a busted front door I took apart.
Click to expand...

That's called "came". I've got a bunch of it that must have come from stained glass windows in a church they tore down. Good stuff, really soft.

Don
 
So your labor is only worth $10/hour to you? Unless you're using a progressive press, in which case you probably paid $500 for that over a $100 Lee Turret press.
Click to expand...

???

I can load about 180 rounds an hour if everything goes right with a lee turret press. That is with spot checking powder throws and OAL (bullet lube from lead eventually cakes and the bullets start to seat deeper, hence the need to keep an eye on it) every 5-10 rounds. I save 10 cents a round loading 9mm (I shoot lead) over even the cheapest aluminum case ammo that's American made. I might be able to find steel case Tula or something for slightly cheaper, but that's not a fair comparison. I don't care for garbage ammo, and I try to keep it out of my firearms.

At any rate, I save 10 cents a round, and can crank out 180 an hour. That's $18 per hour, doing something rather enjoyable to me. And, in the end, it's not all about the money.


.223 blasting ammo the math MIGHT work out to where I'm at $4 or $5 per hour. MAYBE. And prepping 1k rifle cases is tedious and daunting. That's where I've been tempted to go to garbage ammo, but have stuck it out so far.
 
That's called "came". I've got a bunch of it that must have come from stained glass windows in a church they tore down. Good stuff, really soft.
Click to expand...

Came is usually pure lead, dead soft. When melting down salvaged came you will get a very small percentage of tin from the soldering. Very small.
 
Regarding "found lead", I was driving through a parking lot years ago, and found a three by two foot section of lead flashing that had blown off of an unoccupie six storey tall building. I grabbed it and dashed, that thing was heavy and the next one would have really hurt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top