How much is your reloading time worth?

I don't look at my reloading bench time as {physical work} thus it requires a hourly dollar rate. If I were too. No doubt such bean counting behaviour on my part would undoubtedly have to include my family time spent with wife & kids. On second thought: maybe I should pro-sue this non-existing Wage with my wife. Upon Third thought: Na!! ain't worth the Battle Royal I'll catch.
 
The fact that we have enough free time to debate on a forum about how much our free time is worth, tells me that we have enough free time to reload without being concerned about the value of that free time.
 
I can buy loaded 9mm ammo for 18 cents/round. I can't buy bullets for less than 10 cents each. And that doesn't include the cost of powder or primers. If you include resizing, cleaning brass, priming, adding powder and bullets I'm looking at about 2 hours to load 50 rounds. That is less than $2/hour savings.

I do reload for my big game hunting rifles. I can load better quality ammo using premium bullets for about the same price as budget ammo. I don't do it to save money, but to get better ammo at a reasonable price.

But economically it isn't worth it to me to load for 9mm or 223. I'm retired and work part time making enough to buy almost 1000 rounds of 9mm each day that I work. On the days I'm not working for someone else I'm working on the house or my vehicles instead of paying a contractor or mechanic $100/hour.
 
Takes me forever but I hand measure every charge and enjoy the time doing it. Besides it gets me away from my mrs honey do list
 
Back before Obama was elected I would scrounge brass at the local range. Folks would laugh at me for picking up 9 mm, "because factory ammo was so cheap" After the election and ammo prices, no pun intended shot through the roof folks were whining at the range about the price of ammo, and all I did was smile and have fun shooting my reloaded 9 mm
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Isn't that the truth!

The range I was shooting at back then couldn't even get ammunition and asked me where I was getting all of mine.
I told them I load all my own and I would not sell them any even if was legal to do so without a FFL.
They didn't appreciate my comment.
So I just went into the range and shot my normal 100 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of .357mag all by myself, while they had to turn away customers because they had none to sell them.
It's no wonder they didn't like me much.
 
The time I get to spend reloading on my machines is worth a lot to me. If you are trying to put a dollar and cent value on this, my $700.00 progressive press was paid for in less than a year by what the ammo would have cost. That was 6 years ago. What's it worth now?
My time? What else would I use it for, watching "Friends" reruns on tv? Watching the news, which is worse?
I cherish my reloading time, it is my get-away. To me it is priceless.
 
Time spent doing what...?

I run into this BS from time to time. Why spend time reloading when ya' buy it so cheap. Ya' get what you pay for. Go beyond common calibers and cartridges get not so cheap.

I get that business from some guy who owns a Glock and five hundred FMJ rounds from Russia. You know, that guy who has not fired a gun since getting his carry permit. He carries his piece in a Uncle Mike's holster etc.:rolleyes:

Reloading allows me to spend time on some extraordinary shooting experiences. Next, I ask how much time do you spend watching TV?:eek:
 
I am retired if i wasn’t i probably would just buy my ammo like i use to do. Now time is on my side and i enjoy it
 
You can’t figure your time into the equation. It’s like doing the math to see what that elk meat in the freezer costs per pound, you really don’t want to know-the reward is in enjoying the experience & the fruits of your labor.
 
I don't attach costs, $$$, to things I enjoy doing; like my Sundays at Church, my beach walks, dinner out with my wife, watching old westerns with my wife or reloading...
 
I got into reloading because I was under 21 and so couldn't buy 30 Carbine ammunition (it was considered a pistol cartridge), but there were no restrictions on me buying all the components I wanted.

The cost savings - which in the 1970's were greater than they are today - was just an added benefit.

If someone is going to make a meaningful comparison between their reloaded ammunition and factory ammunition, then it only makes sense to use the applicable cost accounting standards and compute the cost of the reloaded ammunition on a "full absorption" basis. This would take into account not only the purchase price of the components, but sales taxes, shipping, the cost of equipment and the value of the operator's time. For most of us, once the cost of the components and depreciation on the equipment was considered most of us would not realize any cost savings at all. For the remainder, the cost savings would be so small as to leave the reloader envious of the wage paid to a child chained to a sewing machine in a Bangladeshi garment factory.

If I considered the "value" of my time at my normal billing rate, a box of 50 cartridges would be "worth" about $125. But, I don't reload to try and save a penny here or a nickel there. I shoot to support my reloading habit, so as far as I am concerned, reloading - and the peace of mind it brings - is an end unto itself which the brass, bullets, primers and powder are all purchased in order to achieve.
 
Handloading is a passion and offers relaxing therapy for me. Pinning a "cost for my time" is completely irrelevant. If you really want my take, I look at it as for every hour I spend down in the reloading man cave is an hour I saved money by not getting drunk and chasing expensive/ugly hags in a bar !
 
Another thing to remember is that I guess everyone does things that cost more in time than it does in paid labor. I always worked on my own car. I built cabinets and did plumbing, even re-roofed a home, mostly because I didn't want anyone else doing these things. I wanted to do them myself.

handloading allows me to save money, customize what I shoot, and it gave me something to do with all of the empty time that I would have wasted watching television.

If I hadn't bought my equipment decades ago, and learned how much satisfaction there could be with creating your own ammunition, let's be serious, I never would have gone into shooting centerfire except as a very rare thing.
 
I watch the stuff that I have to pay for. PBS. I am far better off financially down in my basement saving thousands of dollars than I am upstairs buying movies on redbox or watching pay channels.
 
Interesting discussion, sort of counter to all the folks that claim to reload because they are saving all kinds of money.

Me? I don't reload because I am saving all kinds of time. :D

I really got turned off to the concept as I watched people I liked to work on shooting skills with turn to reloading to save money. Then our shooting sessions changed from being focused on shooting skills to focusing on their load development and assessing why given rounds failed to perform. I will say this for them, reloading gave them a whole new set of excuses for justifying poor shots and gun malfunctions. "I didn't pull that shot, but I may have gotten a bit much powder in that case..."

Along similar lines, you got the few people making their own biofuel for their cars who talk about the money they save and how good they feel about making their own fuel. They enjoy the process, which is great. Me? I am going to the gas station...
 
I have reloaded for a lot of years, and when I started I was hammering the cases into Lee dies to save my self some money. The whole process has evolved over the years into the quality of the finished product. I cannot think of one firearm I have loaded for that didn't shoot better groups than it did with factory ammo.
Then there are the vintage calibers like 32/40,40/60, etc. that you have to reload for if you want to shoot them.
 
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