.45 ACP reloading – Worth doing?

[Rorge Retson]

I'm doing my homework ahead of time and seeing if there is a way to lower the cost of owning a .45 ACP pistol (and perhaps a carbine at a later date). To do this, I am looking at all available options.

First option of course is to just use commercial ammunition. Doing that, the best deals on .45 ACP ammo seems to run roughly twice what 9mm runs: ~$0.40/round for .45 ACP, vs. ~$0.20/round for 9mm. Does that sound right?

I will have to factor in equipment, as I have none right now. But this would be a long-term decision, not a short-term one.

[bigdrunk92037]

Do it. Once you have a stockpile of brass you can reload .45 for roughly half of the cost of decent commercial ammo. Load up on primers and powder when the gun show comes to town and you are good to go. My reloads are running approx $10/box not figuring in the cost of brass. I could go even cheaper with running lead bullets over brass plated.

[NotEnufGarage]

Absolutely. I load my .45ACP for about $.13 per round. That's using lead or plated bullets, small pistol primers and Bullseye. It's not so much that I save money, but I can shoot a lot more for the same cost.

The prices you mention are about right, although $10 boxes of 9MM are getting harder and harder to find. I figure about $12 per box of 50 these days at the lowest, when you factor in sales tax. That works out to $.24 per round. I load 9MM for about $.10 per round.

I bought a lot of small pistol primers when Powder Valley had the Wolf SPP for $15.50 per 1000. About the cheapest you can find SPP now is $20 per 1000.

The key to keeping costs down is to stock up on whatever components you can when you can get them cheap. Paying list price for primers or bullets can ruin the economics. Powder is not a big part of the equation, since you use so little for pistol rounds. Figure 1000 to 1800 rounds per pound of powder, depending on what powder, caliber and load.

[What Just Happened?]

You can buy lead 45acp bullets from HKDad in the Marketplace for ~$0.07-$0.08 each, add in $0.025 per primer and ~$0.02 worth of powder per round and you've got yourself some inexpensive ammo.

[DRAB_81]

Once you have the equipment, it's more than worth it. You can make a custom load, with your bullet of choice, velocity, cleanliness, and recoil impulse. I can load 230gr ZERO JHP's over WSF/WST for about $0.17 per round, and Bear Creek 230gr RN's for around $0.13 per round using the brass I have collected over the past few years.

[JSolie]

Yes yes yes yes! I'm not sure what it costs me to reload .45 as I don't recall what I paid for a lot of the brass I have. And then there's all the brass I've picked up over the years... but it isn't much.

Plus being able to work something up that works really well with your pistol is a big benefit as well.

I was able to get my Dillon 550 press for a terrific price, but I still had to get dies, scale, tumbler which added to the cost. Any press you get can be used to reload other calibers as you acquire them.

[G-forceJunkie]

Reloading never saves money, you just get to shoot more!

[Bill Steele]

Here is a link with some cost information. The .40S&W data will be similar to your .45ACP.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=552074&highlight=cost

Good luck, have fun.

[gemoose23]

I shoot Semi-wadcutter for the target shooting since it makes pretty circles in paper. Only commercial semi-wadcutter ammo I found on a quick google search showed up at $30+ a box.

You also have to factor that since you are handloading your own rounds you can reasonably compare what you will be making to "match" grade prices of commercial ammo, versus Winchester white box, from wally world.

Another option in price reduction is to shoot lead, if your target range allows it, this gives you another discount option.

[HKMadness]

I load .45 230 grain plated rounds for about $0.16 per round. Wally world has the 100 pack wwb for like $38 otd. I save the most on .45, .38 spl and .357. 9mm is a bit less, but still worth it.

[ap1040]

I'm loading .45 230 grain plated for $0.13 a round. Collect as much range brass as you can for even buying once fired brass will cost you about $0.07 to $0.15 a case, so reuse them to lower your costs.

I've loaded only about 3500 rounds so far (9MM, .38, .45 & .30 carbine) and have saved enough from buying reloads to pay for the reloading equipment and supplies. I may not save actual dollars but I can shoot 2 or 3 times as much for the same price.

[ap1040]

I'm loading .45 230 grain plated for $0.13 a round. Collect as much range brass as you can for even buying once fired brass will cost you about $0.07 to $0.15 a case, so reuse them to lower your costs.

I've loaded only about 3500 rounds so far (9MM, .38, .45 & .30 carbine) and have saved enough from buying reloads to pay for the reloading equipment and supplies. I may not save actual dollars but I can shoot 2 or 3 times as much for the same price.

[joelogic]

Reloading does not save money.

[M27]

I haven't read the whole thread just the OP but a few of my numbers you may be interested

My "cheap" load
once fired brass
plated 230gn RN
Tight Group
Federal match primers

About between $7.50 and $8 a box of 50

[epcii]

Reloading .45 has gotten me to .12 a round. And, that's BEFORE I started casting. Now that I am, I'm not so sure how to calculate how much per round.