Is Reloading too Expensive?

R

Ranting

Moderator
I have reloaded for 20 years and have most of my brass and powder saved and ready to go for some years! some people ask me if they should start to get into reloading for the cheapness of it!>I do not know what to say to them. powder, Brass primers and everything has gone through the Roof and there is a shortage all the time of one thing or another like everything else. Whats your thoughts:confused:
 
It has always been less expensive to reload metallic cartridges than buying factory ammo. Plus you get to load for your guns to optimize whatever you want.

Does it cost $300 to $5K to get into it? Yes, so if you are a hunter who shoots 20 rounds a year, not worth it. If you are a plinker content to shoot .22LR, not worth it.

It is not cheap, it is economical if you shoot enough.
 
is golfing too expensive ? What about boating or scuba diving ? I have to admit that I am starting to think golfing would have been cheaper a cheaper retirement hobby
 
I really enjoy shooting, when the honey do list isn’t keeping me at the fort. For me, regarding reloading, it was just a hobby I wanted to get in to. Learn as much a I can by reading and watching videos. 8 years later I’m now scrounging range scrap, casting and coating my own, and loving every minute I can get down to the basement.

Loading a 50 round box for 3 to 4 bucks is still pretty awesome.
 
Back in the "good ole days" you could count on loading at about 1/4 the cost of buying factory ammo. You could "shoot twice as much for half the price". Today with the state of affairs, shortages, price of lead, copper, brass, and supply and demand only you can compute if you'll save or not. Not much savings on common calibers but you can still save a lot loading rarer calibers. I would find it hard to recommend reloading to a new guy right now but I expect things to eventually improve? You still can tailor loads that shoot best in your rifle and if you shop wisely you can have ammo when the store shelves are empty. Glad in my time things were different than today and glad to still have supplies from years past.
 
The current shortage and pricing crisis will back off eventually. Maybe not until next year, but eventually. So I would recommend anyone wanting to get into handloading treat the current situation as an opportunity to carefully research what they want to load for and what equipment and supplies they want to load with. Buy books and read and maybe watch some YouTube videos and of course, start scrounging range brass. When they learn to identify what they want and determine their price tolerance, then they should start looking at prices and availability not only from retailers but on eBay and at estate sales and keep an eye on the local gun stores and on the online sources and just don't buy anything that isn't within your pre-determined price range.
 
There are a million different approaches, and varying opinions for each of them.

For me, it is cheaper to reload.
Partly because I am not dumb enough to pay the outrageous prices that come into play during shortages. And partly because I like 'premium' components but don't like paying for 'premium' ammunition.

There are also, of course, the oddities, obsoletes, and wildcats that I simply could not shoot - at least not affordably - if I did not reload.
When was the last time you saw .17-223 or 6x45mm factory ammo? And, if you did, I bet the price was at least $1 per round.

I have a .475 Tremor. Only 13 were built. No one loads commercially for the cartridge.

.577-450 is made by a few boutique shops. But it is ridiculously expensive. It can be reloaded for about the cost of a 12 ga slug load.


And, there are the mainstream cartridges that just aren't terribly popular, or are falling out of favor. Ammo is expensive, but reloads/handloads are not. Two examples:
.338 WM. Factory ammo, under normal circumstances, was hovering around $50-60 / box before the panic (up to $90/box for 'premium'). It can be handloaded with 'premium' components for about $12 / box.

Remington and Hornady were the only reliable suppliers of .444 Marlin. Remington went bankrupt and shut down, and Hornady hasn't made any .444 Marlin ammo since August 2019. If you want to shoot it right now, you have to reload/handload. It isn't even a matter of price comparison. Reloads/handloads are still cheaper, but that doesn't matter right now. It is purely a matter of availability - the complete lack of factory ammo.


But if none of this matters to you, if you only load ultra-common cartridges, if you only load to "save" money, if you are paying the stupid prices people want at auction and in the shops of price gougers, and you don't actually like reloading; then it probably isn't the right hobby for you.
If you are looking for excuses to stay in the game, then it isn't the right game for you.
 
Ranting said:
I have reloaded for 20 years and have most of my brass and powder saved and ready to go for some years! some people ask me if they should start to get into reloading for the cheapness of it!>I do not know what to say to them. powder, Brass primers and everything has gone through the Roof and there is a shortage all the time of one thing or another like everything else. Whats your thoughts:confused:
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I generally ask 2 questions.
How much do you shoot?
How much free time do you have?

In short. you are going to spend HOURS loading ammo and have to load probably a couple thousand rounds to just break even on your initial equipment costs. After that, yes you can save some money, but its not a huge amount.

Reloading is playing the long game, its a big investment of money and time.
 
Back in the "good ole days" you could count on loading at about 1/4 the cost of buying factory ammo. You could "shoot twice as much for half the price".
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You still can - If you cast your own bullets. That's where the real savings is in reloading.

Don
 
MarkCO said:
It has always been less expensive to reload metallic cartridges than buying factory ammo. Plus you get to load for your guns to optimize whatever you want.

Does it cost $300 to $5K to get into it? Yes, so if you are a hunter who shoots 20 rounds a year, not worth it. If you are a plinker content to shoot .22LR, not worth it.

It is not cheap, it is economical if you shoot enough.
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What a bunch of hog wash. I started handloading about 1966 and probably gonna break even on tools bought over the years any day now! :-) Actually I think a guy might break even in 25yrs or so if he shot mostly cast bullet's and used Lee molds! Oh, probably be good to have a whole lot of free lead around again also! I'm pushing about a ton of it.

Where guy's get in trouble is telling their wife they do it to save money when they have a wife that can add!
 
You don’t need $300 to get started, you can get along with a very simple press, Lee dippers and some dies, cleaning brass by shaking them in an old milk jug with detergent in it... drying in the sun a few days.

It’s just nice to have nice stuff. Buy used and it will resell at what you paid for it.

I like the guys at the range better than golfers, too.
 
In short. you are going to spend HOURS loading ammo and have to load probably a couple thousand rounds to just break even on your initial equipment costs.
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Depends on what you're loading.
My equipment has paid for itself, many times over, by loading rifle ammo.
.270 Win, .30-06, and .458 SOCOM, in particular. When each trigger pull costs about $1 less, and you shoot full power rifle as much as I do (*or did before L'Rona) it adds up quickly.

Sometimes, all it takes is one really extreme example to amortize the costs very quickly.
I load Woodleigh 215 gr RNs in 7.62x54R. The closest equivalent factory load when I started was (when they were still around) A-Square's 220 gr RN - equivalent bullet, but I do not recall exactly what it was now.
Even with Woodleigh bullets, I loaded for about $13 / box.
The A-Square ammo was listed at $108 to $140 / box by the few retailers that sold it.

I "saved" over $95 per box.

That adds up incredibly quickly.


.


There is, of course, the other side of that. The very important fact that I never would have bought the A-Square ammo for that price. I would have settled for something else.
But, what reloading did for me there was allow me to enter a realm otherwise unaffordable.
I did not actually "save" money, since I would not have spent it to begin with. But it allowed me to take a huge step up toward 'ultra-premium' without costing more than a cheap box of factory .30-06.
 
What a bunch of hog wash. I started handloading about 1966 and probably gonna break even on tools bought over the years any day now! :-) Actually I think a guy might break even in 25yrs or so if he shot mostly cast bullet's and used Lee molds! Oh, probably be good to have a whole lot of free lead around again also! I'm pushing about a ton of it.
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About as contradictory a statement and support as you can find.

He stated it pretty well.

You could always get decent hunting ammo and reloading was not justified for it (you might or might not be more accurate)

I am one of the few that has shot out a barrel, so yes I shoot a lot and its all to see how small a group I can manage (no, not professional).

So, if you are quasi serious about Target shooting, then that is your ammo cost, not the day in day out hunting rounds.

And over time, I probably have $2000 in reloading equipment.
 
if they should start to get into reloading for the cheapness of it!
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I do not know what to say to them.
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I do.

You tell them that all across the U.S. are garages full of loading equipment collecting dust because the intended users thought they'd start loading their own to save money.

That's not a good enough reason. I've said it before; and I'll say it again:

If you are approaching handloading only as a way to save money, then you must count your time as part of the cost of doing so. In that case, it's not worth it.

If you are approaching handloading as a hobby and craft in and of itself, then you don't have to count your time as part of the cost of doing so. In that case, it IS worth it. Regardless of component cost.
 
I'd say it's a yes and no thing. I don't think anyone that loads their own saves any money but they get to shoot more and have better ammo. My reloads always out performed factory rounds for accuracy. I know it's as important in a hunting rifle but I'll take whatever little edge I can get.

I like the zen of reloading. I get set up to make rounds and I forget the rest of the world for awhile.

Tony
 
It depends. If you are only go to the range to sight in your rifle for hunting season. Then probably is expensive. A box of 20 rounds lasts you all year.

Reloading does several things. Allows you to shoot more. Can't say it saved me money in that sense. Obviously box for box you are saving lots of money. You get to hand craft the loads to what you want from a given cartridge. Also you are more immune to ups and downs in the economy. Today, I am still loading all the ammo I want and shooting when I can, It is also relaxing and fun to reload. Time well spent at the bench, For me it is 'worth it'.
 
My time is worth money too. I'm retired, but work part time. In the same amount of time I spend loading ammo I can work and earn more than enough to just buy it. Before retiring I often picked up a 2nd part time job to earn extra money too.

I bought all of my loading gear 2nd hand from a guy who no longer shot or loaded so I don't have a ton of money invested in gear. But even at that I don't figure I'm saving much money by handloading.

It isn't worth my time to fool with common rounds like 223 or 9mm even at todays prices. Yes, loaded ammo has gone up in price, but so has the price of components.

I do load for centerfire rifle cartridges other than 223 however. I do it because I can get a bit better accuracy and often a little more speed than factory loads. And can load a more expensive premium bullet for about the same cost as cheap factory loads. I do it to get a better end product, not to save money.

At the time I bought all of my gear I had just bought a 338/06 and factory loads simply weren't a practical option. If someone just wants to own an oddball cartridge then it handloading is often the only real option. But those odd ball rounds are uncommon for a reason. Something far more common does the same job.
 
My wife knits and crochets for relaxation.

Me, I like to go downstairs to my basement workshop and crank out a box or two-- or maybe cast a hundred or so with my favorite music playing pretty loud. Cheap therapy ;-)
 
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