Handloading Costs

[FlyFanatic]

After spending $80 on 3 boxes of ammo and blowing through them in about 2 hours, I have begun to give serious thought to reloading. My question is, about how much money in start up costs will I be looking at to outfit myself with the equipment and materials necessary to reload.

Thanks!

[Big Daddy Badger]

Depends,

If you shoot 3 boxes of ammo a year...nothing.
If you shoot 30 boxes a year you can probably save anywhere from 10 to 25%...but depending upon your start up costs how often and what you shoot.. it might take a year or two to break even.

The other advantage is you can build better ammo.

For what I used to spend on the run of the mill stuff..I can now build a premium custom round that is wiggled, giggled and tuned for my rifle.

[HunterDave]

If you have the brass, which I assume that you do because you just bought some factory ammo, I'm going to say about $300. Lee has the anniversary kit that has all the basics to start, reloading manual, dies, powder, bullets, primers, case lub and this and that. You'll end up doing allot more shooting with working up loads to see which one is right for your rifle so you won't save allot of money. What you will get is more experience and become a better shooter and ammo that is allot better than factory.

[7mmremmag]

for me its not about saving money, its about being able to get the caliber I want loaded with the bullet I want. I never ever considered reloading until I bought my first Remington Ultra Magnum. It was soooo hard for me to find ammo in my small town. So I finally decided I wanted to reload. Now I can load my own shells, with the bullet I want (180 grain accubonds)
Reloading is a very rewarding hobby and I love it, especially with my 22-250, im always trying new bullets and loads to try and tweak just the perfect load/bullet combo

[densa44]

You end up loading for "children" spouse, yourself, guns you didn't own before, all kinds of bullet combinations, and MVs.

All and all I think I must have saved millions! I keep getting new equipment too, better dies, new (old rcbs from e-bay) presses, free brass and sometimes powder.

The boys are right about factory stuff, if you can't do better than they do you must not be trying!

The 06 Remington I bought varied 120 fps. and the first loads I made varied 45 fps.

Oh yes and your opinion of accuracy will change very fast too.

The younger you are the more you will save!

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by FlyFanatic

After spending $80 on 3 boxes of ammo and blowing through them in about 2 hours, I have begun to give serious thought to reloading. My question is, about how much money in start up costs will I be looking at to outfit myself with the equipment and materials necessary to reload.

Thanks!

You are getting off easy.... One box of ammo for the .240 Weatherby is $80.....heck just 20 brass is $45.

Seriously though.... if you like to shoot, are patient, and anal about details then reloading is for you. If you only shoot 1-2 boxes a year then I wouldn't worry about it, find a good factory ammo and stick with it.

If your only reason for reloading is to save money you will be disappointed.....

You will likely have to try 3-4 powders and 3-4 different bullets to find a load you are happy with, not to mention all the scales, dies, trimmers, calipers, etc.....things you need to buy to load things well.

LC

[hillbillyreefer]

One box of Weatherby 460 is $160/20. Reloading those pays for your kit quickly.

[Cowbizzoy]

I'm not seeing a large savings in $$...if i factor in my time, I'm in the red for sure. (I'm loading for .280 AI and .300 WSM)

The results from just the right bullet/powder/primer combo are incredible. I wasn't sure if I'd notice a difference or not, but now i don't care about the cost i'm so pleased with the accuracy.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by FlyFanatic

how much money in start up costs will I be looking at to outfit myself with the equipment and materials necessary to reload.

Thanks!

For one calibre, lowest cost, about $175.00 or more. Assuming you have saved your brass.
About $70.00 of that would be for components.

Some will suggest that you need to buy the best there is. That might be good advice, for some. But it can be done for a lot less, and that less could be better value for your money for a lot of people.

[32-40win]

I started with a 7mag, at that time Fed Premium ammo did not exist, to get the 160gr Nosler partition into my loads. Then I acquired a shotshell press to load clay pigeon and duck/goose loads with. Then they brought in the steel shot laws.
I ended up reloading 7mmmag and the 7-08 with various bullets that cannot be bought as a loaded round, got into cast bullets for the 7-08 and a 7x57. Tried them in a 22-250,too. I'd go thru 2-300rds of 22-250 in a weekend on gophers at that time. Then I acquired a taste for Schuetzen rifles, have to cast for that.
Have a .32-30 rem ( necked up 222 Super Rimmed case) and a .32-40win ( can use 30-30 cases) for that. And I acquired a 295/300 Rook rifle, had to cast .300 bullets for that (.32long colt case).
I picked up a .338winmag, 250gr factory Fed premium were only 2440fps out of it, advertised @ 2660, took them to 2750fps real quick.
Now, I have a 450/400NE to play with, 90.00 a box for Hornady ammo, only two bullets avail, neither much good for hunting over here. But, I can use bullets for a .405win in it, or .41 cal pistol bullets, or cast bullets.

Save money? Once the press is paid off, and the new dies and other hardware are paid off, maybe a lot in some cases, maybe very little in others.
The .32-40 costs me about $5.00/100rds to shoot, the .338 about $1.00/rd,
the 450/400NE with cast is about $0.75/rd, with bought bullets maybe $1.50.

Once you have the press & case prep hardware, if you want to change cartridges, maybe it'll cost you ballpark 150.00-200.00 for the components to load it initially.
That's brass, bullets, powder, primers and dies, shellholder, pilot.
To cast for it will require up to 250-400.00 total with the addition of a mould and sizers/expanders, lubesizer punch, etc.

Depends how much shooting you do and what you want to shoot. And how deep you get into various shooting disciplines.
Over the years I've bought the "press kit", dies, a bit of optional hardware, a casting pot and moulds, a lubesizer and sizers, punches, lube, lead & tin.
I can now look at a gun, check around for brass,dies and bullets, or a mould, and make my decision on that rifle as to how bad I want it. And add that to the price of the gun. Met a lot of good people, shot a lot of different stuff, and had a good time of it overall because I started reloading. Some of those add-ons have no price.

[benamen]

I am using an old worn out Herter's turret press to do my reloading still. My father wore it out and I am running it into the ground. Been getting sub moa loads out of it so it shows you do not need the best there is to get good hunting accuracy. Thats all I want.
Since my father was a reloader, I have never purchased any factory ammo for my big game rifles or for my 357 & 44 handguns.
Get a kit when starting out. I never did find it fun to load shells using a spoon to scoop up powder to weigh. The hand primers sure speed things up too.

[markg]

I am fairly new to reloading and really enjoy it. I often feel like a mad scientist or like a kid with a chemistry set sort of thing.

I bought the hornady lock n load kit. It has things like a digital scale and the exchangabile bushing thing. Both are quite handy and i like them. I think it has the best value as far as a starting kit.

One thing i would buy after the fact is a RCBS Chargemaster 1500. I know RCBS has a reloading kit that includes this so that might be an option for you.

I started out thinking that i wouldnt load much but now that i shoot a varmint calibre (.204) i am making alot more rounds than i thought i would.

After a day at the range were you have four or five targets all with sub moa groups you get an amzing feeling of satisfaction knowing that both your shooting and reloading skills are top notch. Only downside is if your shooting is all over the place you can only blame yourself and not the manufacturer of cheap crappy ammo.

[Richard B.]

Depending on the caliber you can get a Lee Loader for about $25. They aren't fast but turn our servicable ammo. Not for high volume shooters but if you are just going to shoot a couple of boxes per year they work fine.