How much do you save?

[Whiterabbit]

You have to define your standards of saving money. Or else you get 100 different answers.

Here's a good example. With a buddy last night, we loaded 244 rounds of 460 S&W with 300g+ weight bullets. On one hand, 20 factory rounds of that stuff would cost around $45 (that's the internet price, not B&M price), so do the math. On the other hand, if we didn't reload, we simply wouldn't be shooting an extra 244 rounds in the next few days.

Top that off with the component cost to load that much. Take your standards and apply them. Either we saved a TON of money, saved no money, or wasted a TON of money.

What's undeniable is we wasted several hours producing it. Why anyone would reload who hates it or finds it boring is beyond me. My time is too valuable to waste doing something I hate. That's why I'm paying someone else to replace my yard fence. Expensive? You bet! But my time is worth more than that. Reloading, on the other hand, is a joy, from pushing primers out to letting gravity slide a freshly made cartridge into the chamber of XXXX gun.

[Clownpuncher]

Whatever you do.... DO NOT BEGIN RELOADING!!!! It will cause you nothing but heartache and pain.

I don't save anything. Reloading has cost me nothing but money. It is nothing but the same shell game that women play when they buy things "on sale"

I used to shoot about 2 times a month (200 rounds/month). I got tired of buying ammo, so I looked into reloading. It seemed like a good idea and a good deal....Save 60% a box or more..... but that's how they suck you in.

So, I went out and bought a single stage kit, dies, and all the little things I would need to get me going. Luckily, I didn't buy top of the line but it still cost me about $400 for all the crap, plus the initial buy of bullets, powder, and primers. Fortunately I had saved brass in anticipation of this little endeavor.

After doing some test runs I found a load I liked for each gun and started loading. Pretty soon, I was shooting once a week and I was shooting double the amount of rounds I was originally shooting (200/week).

Well, I couldn't take paying each time I went to shoot so in order to "save money" I bought a membership to the range.

Of course now that I have a membership, I go shoot twice a week, still shooting double the amount each time over what I was shooting prior to reloading (400/week).

Now that I have a membership the wife goes from time to time. In addition to adding to the round count that gets sent down range, she now wants her own gun. Once she gets that, I will have to buy her a membership and start loading the rounds that she will shoot, which will increase exponentially with each step outlined above for her.

So, as you can see, reloading has cost me nothing but money. All the equipment, 8x the rounds downrange plus what the wife shoots, a range membership and now... more guns.

It is a vicious cycle, you would be wise to avoid it.

[BajaJames83]

i load cheap 62gr 223 rounds for about .15-.20 each

[rumblebee]

I thought I was going to save $ when I started reloading....but, I have just ended up shooting more and buying more reloading goods ...but, my ammo is very accurate now and I get to shoot twice as much...I'm ok with the trade off

[huckberry668]

Savings from reloading is relative... to the amount of ammo you shoot and cost ($/hr, marriage) of your spare time. If your time cost more than factory ammo, then buy. If you have time to sit infront of the TV or want to get away from the screaming wife/kids, then reload.

But, if you're a perfectionist, you'd NEED to reload. When I was shooting 30~40K pistol rounds a year at 2.5" X-ring targets at 50 yards, reloading was the only option.

[chrisf]

Thanks everyone. Lol it seems like some people love it and some people hate it. I have a question for you XD: Whats the difference between loading rifle rounds and pistol rounds? I'd probably have to start off with rifle rounds because thats my primary focus.

[17+1]

Whatever you do.... DO NOT BEGIN RELOADING!!!! It will cause you nothing but heartache and pain.

I don't save anything. Reloading has cost me nothing but money. It is nothing but the same shell game that women play when they buy things "on sale"

I used to shoot about 2 times a month (200 rounds/month). I got tired of buying ammo, so I looked into reloading. It seemed like a good idea and a good deal....Save 60% a box or more..... but that's how they suck you in.

So, I went out and bought a single stage kit, dies, and all the little things I would need to get me going. Luckily, I didn't buy top of the line but it still cost me about $400 for all the crap, plus the initial buy of bullets, powder, and primers. Fortunately I had saved brass in anticipation of this little endeavor.

After doing some test runs I found a load I liked for each gun and started loading. Pretty soon, I was shooting once a week and I was shooting double the amount of rounds I was originally shooting (200/week).

Well, I couldn't take paying each time I went to shoot so in order to "save money" I bought a membership to the range.

Of course now that I have a membership, I go shoot twice a week, still shooting double the amount each time over what I was shooting prior to reloading (400/week).

Now that I have a membership the wife goes from time to time. In addition to adding to the round count that gets sent down range, she now wants her own gun. Once she gets that, I will have to buy her a membership and start loading the rounds that she will shoot, which will increase exponentially with each step outlined above for her.

So, as you can see, reloading has cost me nothing but money. All the equipment, 8x the rounds downrange plus what the wife shoots, a range membership and now... more guns.

It is a vicious cycle, you would be wise to avoid it.

This...

I was shooting as many as 3 times a week over the summer. Burned through all my stores of 223 reloads...was good fun while it lasted though. Back to the press for me.

[Lead Waster]

I don't think there is a hobby that saves you money, except couponing, but even then it costs you money if you are serious about it. Oh and forget about time savings.

[grant22]

I think one point that a lot of people miss is the government. What if the great Obama imposes a 100% tax on ammunition (it's been discussed)?

Any of you with cars, dirtbikes, motor toys, etc.......what if the government taxes gas to where it costs too much to use it? Cant ride your dirt bike w/o gas, right. You can't really refine your own oil, right?

My fear is that I have thes guns and ammo could get taxed to the point where I can't use them. You have an oppertunity to be in control of something, and I wasn't going to pass on it. I'm just glad I got in on reloading early. I talk to 70 y/o men at the range that say they wish they got into it, but at 70, it's tool ate.

You have to look at the big picture. Sometimes (and maybe in the future), it's good to be a reloader.

[damndave]

Thanks everyone. Lol it seems like some people love it and some people hate it. I have a question for you XD: Whats the difference between loading rifle rounds and pistol rounds? I'd probably have to start off with rifle rounds because thats my primary focus.

When loading bottleneck rifle rounds you need to prep the brass.

Steps would be something like... Tumble, lube, resize/deprime, tumble again, trim to length, chamfer/deburr. Optional steps would be to deburr flash hole and uniform primer pockets. Then you will be ready to load them.

For straight walled pistol rounds you take out a lot of those steps. Tumble and then ready to reload! Well assuming you use a progressive, the cases are ready to go after they are tumbled.

[bruce381]

all the posts are right but remember it costs a lot cause haveing 500 or 1000 rounds loaded to go will get old and soon you will want to fill all the medium flat rate postal rate boxes for a "rainy day" and then a day at range will be only for making MT's

[bh6300]

I find reloading very relaxing hobby and I do it for fun not savings. I enjoy touch and handling shiny brass and ammo, I just reloaded. I use my spare time 30 min here and 1 hour there. Had no problem making enough for my weekend shoot.

For me,

Reload all my pistol rounds both for plinking and target.

Reload my fire-form .223 brass for bench-rest shooting (Average, I only shoot 15-30 rounds a range trip)

Buy plinking ammo for .223 and 7.62x39 (Don't like to deal with case-prep and lube.)

My setup is Lee Classic turret for all pistol rounds and my 15 years old Lee single stage for bench rest ammo.

Like others already said, your saving goes out the window because you get to shoot more often, at least for me.

For weekday fix, I just got Ruger 22/45 for indoor range. Because, I can't stand losing my brass at indoor ranges. I know its silly but one of my pet peeves.

[BigBronco]

So for a cartridge like the .41 mag I can load for less than $10.00 per box of 50 instead of paying something like $45.00 per box and the same with 45 long colt.

[Linkpimp]

Sounds like a plus to me!

I've been at it 13 years. Just added two more rifle calibers to my repertoir.
9mm
.38 sp
.357
.40
.45
&
.223
.308
.30-06-new
.303 British-new

[Fyathyrio]

I recently started, so I haven't saved anything, I've actually spent tons of cash on reloading. But...in a couple years I'll have paid for my press in savings, I have bullets whenever I want, they shoot better then store bought, and the activity of shooing has now become a full fledged hobby. I enjoy fiddling with things mechanical, so it's relaxing, and with a progressive press it's not that time consuming once set up.

Oh, I don't think anybody has mentioned that you'll likely buy more weapons chambered in something new to reload!