Is Reloading too Expensive?

I just got set up for reloading last year. Figure I spent about $700 for a Lee turret press and all the fixins for 9mm and .223. At around $0.25 per round (free brass from the range) versus $0.60 to $0.90 for factory ammo, I’ll break even at around 1400 rounds.
BUT I consider it a hobby. I shoot twice as much as before, and enjoy the reloading almost as much as the shooting. I actually look forward to an evening on the press w my grandson. If it was drudgery, I wouldn’t do it.
 
If I could afford them I would smoke Padron 1926. I like handrolled cigars. La Gloria Cubana, Cohiba, Alec Bradley, Maria Guerro, Joya de Nicaragua are all good.

When I was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, back in the 70's I was a groomsman at a pal wedding. The reception was at the Balboa Yacht club. An older fellow gave me 3 cigars. You can buy Cuban cigars in the Republic of Panama. That started me down the cigar road. I like the smell of a good cigar.
 
Is reloading too expensive?

Well, for some calibers right now, reloading is the ONLY way to get more ammo so the expense part sort of pales.

For a newcomer? It depends on what they want. I've been having fun with 32s these last some months, but that's only because I can reload them. For someone just getting into it I'd counsel them to either not buy a gun in a caliber with hard to find factory ammo or to put it in the safe until the market finally comes back to something like normal.

As we all now this is a bad time to be just getting into shooting. Alas that I finally bought a 44spl and 327 Fed Mag less than a year before The Panic started. Had just enough time to get *some* brass, but not nearly what I wanted. The other more common calibers I shoot I'm still fairly well stocked up on though I'm not shooting them much lately to conserve supplies.
 
It’s cheaper to reload than purchase…always has been and always will. Even when you could get a box on 9mm for $3-4 a box I can reload it for $2.50 (50)…brass is/was always free, the rest you have to be smart about buying it. I purchase in BULK every couple years…BULK. I lucked out this time as I need components in late 2019 and made my “normal” purchase…1 ton of shot, couple hundred pounds of powder, same for bullets and just under 100k primers…yes it cost a lot, but as mentioned it’s a lot of stuff and I only do it every 2-3 years. The amount I shoot per year is pretty consistent, so the components I’ve purchased will last me until around mid-2022 or early 2023. Not bragging, just showing how I do it…you have to buy in bulk, if you don’t you will run out at the “wrong” time.
 
GE-Minigun said:
It’s cheaper to reload than purchase…always has been and always will.
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As several folks have pointed out, this is only true when the direct cost of the finished round is compared in isolation with the direct cost of a purchased round.

I, and many others, have spent multitudes more reloading "cheaper" ammo than we would have ever spent if we didn't reload. Yes, each round is "cheaper"... yet, if I didn't reload each round would be *non-existent* and would have cost precisely $0.

Your circumstance is another good example... the quantity that you buy every "2-3 years" would last me literal multiple lifetimes.
The price of those components is no doubt "cheaper" than buying a pound or three here and there but also undeniably multitudes more expensive than I will ever spend in my entire life.

"Cheaper" is not always... cheaper. It's always relative to the individuals circumstance.
 
If your only reason for handloading is to save money you probably need to give up shooting and take on a second job. Unless you are a high volume shooter or shoot an oddball caliber you’re not going save a whole lot of money. I load for my two sons, wife and myself. We like to shoot a lot. Reloading is the only way I can afford it.

I bought a RCBS Turret kit several years and the dies we needed for around $500. I’m still using that same equipment 20 years later. I have added a few Lee case trimmers for another $50 or so. I don’t think I have saved anything but with all of the shooting we have done I would have spent thousands and thousands more had I not taken up reloading.
 
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 once tried to calculate the savings, but it isn't worth the effort because the saving is pretty substantial. The simple math formal is: As a reloader, the more you shoot, the cheaper it gets; as a buyer of ammo, the more you shoot, the more expensive it gets.
 
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As I have read> Reloading is DOA> other then having MUCH!!> Or the Time! and that is DOA>IN this world > Spec>the young people.
 
I was thinking about it and years ago I did break it down to see if reloading was less expensive. Box of 22 LR back then was something like $1 per 50. So figured out what it actually cost me to load 50 rds of 38 spec. 38 Spec was less expensive! But there's more. My load was 148gr wadcutter and 2 1/2 grs Bullseye, not a lot of powder. That was 2800 rounds per 1 lb of powder, powder wasn't so expensive back then! That was 56 50rd boxes of 38 spec ammo. I don't recall powder cost, maybe $4 a pound. Primers were Somewhere under $1 per 100 then and my bullet's were cast from free wheel weight's! Then shot into dirt banks for practice and dug out when done to use them again. Bullet lube back then was very inexpensive and I really don't think it is that bad today, I mostly tumble lube! MTY brass I simply picked up where ever I found it back then, basically free! If you really want to save money, learn to scrounge! Never did figure out the difference with jacketed bullet's and never figured out rifles. But in rifles I didn't cast then and had to pay for bullet's but seems they were just under $4 per 100! practice shots with them were also into a dirt bank and dug out when done and the lead core salvaged for handgun bullet's! Something I think may be true is you can reload as inexpensively or expensively as you choose. My first reloading tool was one of those Lee hand tools, think it was about $9. Didn't have a scale but used the dipper that came with the tool. Strange thing about that tool, every round I loaded with it fired! Wasn't match quality stuff but it did all work, even killed a few deer with reloads out of it. No idea what that tool would cost today but if it's still around you could start with one and get by!

I'm not sure many would go that route today though. It seems to me money doesn't mean as much to people today as it did back then. Was reading on a fishing site today, a guy wanting to start fishing and wanted to know which rod and reel to get. He said he inly had a budget of about $200! Wow, I've never paid anywhere near that for a rod and reel in my life! I see guy's wanting to get into hunting that only have $1000 to spend on a rifle so they want to know the best they can do. Someone always mention's the scope and that they should pay more for the scope than the rifle, many take that advice. I guess I'm just old and set in my way's, I wouldn't ever pay that much for a rifle and the that plus for a scope, even if I had the money!

Reloading isn't really such a necessity any more, it's a hobby that if you want to do it, you will spend what ever you need to to get what someone tells you is the best you can get, like they actually know! Then you'd go out and shoot four time's as much, maybe more, than you used to shoot because this little sound in the back of your head is telling you you are saving money!
 
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Reloading isn't really such a necessity any more
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For me it is. I call it freedom. I can load what I want to shoot at my leasure, and shoot it when I want. I have enough reloading stuff set aside that I am good for years, so not dependent on store availability. In good times, I stock back up, so never at a time where I can't reload. I even got into .32 H&R magnum as my reloadable .22s when I 'did' get caught with my pants down with .22LR ammo a few years back. Now I am well stocked with .22 so that isn't even a problem. Did the same thing for my BP shooting components. So, yeah, reloading is a necessity for me :) . And yes, it may not be saving me 'X amount of money', but it allowing me to shoot alot more 'with X amount of money'.
 
Lets take some years ago I went to the gun shows and there is one cal that I should of done was the 223!>/ 220 swift/22-250/ got in the way/you could of had brass for pennies and they where new !! and then a 13 bucks a pd for powder you can go for miles!!!! and miles >> Tell me you people what does 100 brass of 223 cost today? Enjoy

I just went> once shot 223 mix headstamped 250 75 bucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blows My Mind! Yes reloading GONE WILD!

Reloading isn't really such a necessity any more>> really > when a person has a 257 weth, 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, 458 win mag, At 150 Bucks a 20 for 416 Rigby and I can reload my rifle 40 bucks!! I think there is a savings!!>> But i bought All years ago . That was the Key>>years ago and today is reloading cheaper >MMM
 
Ranting,

What is this thing you have with the greater than symbol? Please write in fluid English so we can understand you.

Don
 
When I started reloading 357 Magnum in 1975, you could reload for about 1/3 the cost of factory ammo, even using jacketed bullets, and even less if you cast bullets and have access to free lead. But since eastern block ammo started coming in the late 80's, early 90's, it was cheaper to buy practice ammo than reload it, especially when considering the labor. I still reload all my 357 and 44 Magnum, 45 Colt, 44 WCF (blackpowder) and 44 Special. I reload a lot of black powder cartridges with cast bullets. But the price of premium, state of the art, jacketed bullets is getting ridiculous. Thank goodness for the little generic bullet makers out there.
 
44caliberkid said:
When I started reloading 357 Magnum in 1975, you could reload for about 1/3 the cost of factory ammo, even using jacketed bullets, and even less if you cast bullets and have access to free lead. But since eastern block ammo started coming in the late 80's, early 90's, it was cheaper to buy practice ammo than reload it, especially when considering the labor. I still reload all my 357 and 44 Magnum, 45 Colt, 44 WCF (blackpowder) and 44 Special. I reload a lot of black powder cartridges with cast bullets. But the price of premium, state of the art, jacketed bullets is getting ridiculous. Thank goodness for the little generic bullet makers out there.
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I have never hunted with premium bullet's, simply never felt I could afford them and they don't kill anything any deader than a well placed cup and core! But it's like a cult out here for premium bullet's and because of the cost of hunting, cost of premium bullet's don't mean squat. I have a 6.5x06 I had put together and chambered for a 140gr Nosler partition seated with the base even with the junction of the neck and shoulder and the bullet just back of the lands. First hunting season I didn't have any Nosler's loaded up so I took the 140gr Hornady cup and core I practiced with, one deer and one elk DRT! I've killed a number of deer with that rifle and three elk, all one shot each and everyone with that 140gr Hornady inter loc! Have never even hunted with the Nosler. Now I suspect a Nosler partition is a good bullet and will kill anything just as dead as my Hornady bullet's, but it simply cost about twice as much for the bullet's to use the Nosler's. I think if a premium bullet was to appeal to me it would be a bonded bullet. But I also have experience with the Speer Hot Core and no bonded bullet around is any better and normally twice the cost. It amaze's me that today we need a premium bullet to kill animals that in the 1800's we were using round balls to kill! I have no problem with people using premium bullet's, they are willing to pay for them, go for it! But some of those people seem to like to run down regular cup and core bullet's and I really don't think they have a clue what they are talking about. You can only make an animal so dead! Requires someone that realizes how to use the bullet they choose to use and willing to wait for the right shot!
 
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