KronicMigraine
Member
- May 25, 2021
- 54
So how much cost savings are you going to get to reload your own ammo? Say 556 is at a $1 a round new, what would that cost be if I made it at home?
Nobody "saves" money by reloading, IMO it's more of an evolutionary step to shoot more, or shoot something specific.
The consensus from the reloaders I know is that you have to love reloading as an activity upon itself. If you’re doing it just to save money it becomes tedious.
Nobody "saves" money by reloading, IMO it's more of an evolutionary step to shoot more, or shoot something specific. Usually end up spending a lot more to shoot a lot more. Covid pricing/availability is crazy, but probably wouldn't compete as much as I did, or buy some of the firearms and calibers I did without being able to roll my own.
By 2019-ish pricing average costs
1K primers=$30
1# powder=$25
1K 9mm bullets $80
1K 5.56 FMJ bullets $80
1K 308 FMJ bullets $150
You get about 1500 9mm out of a lb of powder, 250 rounds of 5.56 and 150 round of308. Ends up about $125 for 1K of 9mm vs about $160, not a huge savings, but I could produce light loads with heavy bullets that are wonderful match loads, far superior to cheap 115gr bulk ammo. My 55gr FMJ loads ran about $210 vs $300-ish per thousand, but same deal, and dialed in for better accuracy, softer recoil, and I could use better more expensive match bullets that might cost all of $30 more per thousand vs double the cost to buy factory ammo. 308 and full power rifle cals use a ton of powder, $350 vs $500 for factory ammo, and you start to get significant savings, but then again, match ammo really only increases your projectile cost, so the more specialized ammo you produce, the more you save. Same goes for pistol cals 38 and 357 mag cost nearly the same to reload, same with 10mm and 40S&W, and you can get into some special stuff like 460 Rowland than can push a 230gr bullet to 1400FPS from a 1911, and the list goes on. THe time you spend reloading vs the ammo you can produce also varies. You can use a single stage press to stamp out magnum rifle ammo exactly how you want it, maybe 50 rounds an hour at best, and it could be well worth the $400 or so in decent equipment to do it. A progressive press can stamp out 500+ rounds an hour, but might spend over a grand to do so, and it might cost a couple hundred and take 30 min to swap over to another caliber.