I’ve taken up shooting again. Does anyone handload, and does it cost less than Walmart?
Thanks.
Yes. Yes.
Anything else I can help you with? 
How many rounds a month do you shoot to make this worthwhile?
This is a major factor in determining the real value of reloading. Even for a modest set-up, your initial investment can be a few hundred bucks. Of course, once you have a lot of ammo laying around, theoretically you’ll be going to the range more often, and the gear should pay for itself in no time. It can also depend on what you like to shoot. Some rounds are cheaper to make than others.
I bought 50 rounds of .32 ACP for $16.00 today. Mrs. Plant wasn’t as enthusiastic as she thought she would be, but after firing the .45, the .32 is easier for me to keep on target and rip off the mag with some semblance of accuracy. 47 grains vs 270. 
That is darn expensive.
9mm Parabellum ammo is AUD$20/50rnds here (USD$16/50rnds, or thereabouts). It’s expensive, but a decent reloading set up is about AUD$2,000- which is a shitload of money that I just don’t have.
There’s also the time factor. I can go into a gun shop, show them my licence, pay them, and walk out of the door with a box of cartridges that I know will function in my gun. Most reloaders I know spend huge amounts of spare time dicking around with bullet weights and powder loads and [del]owl[/del] case-stretching time and a whole bunch of other stuff that I really, really, really can’t be bothered with.
If you like that sort of thing, reloading can be a sub-hobby of shooting. Myself, I’ve got better things to do with my time at the moment, but your results may vary…
Keep in mind, if you’re going to be shooting frequently and decide that reloading isn’t your deal (not because of cost, but difficulty or time involved) for whatever reason, you can order ammo online much cheaper than in the stores.
Loading ammo is something I definitely don’t have the time or space for. As mentioned by Martini Enfield, you spend a ***lot ***of time screwing around measuring things and tweaking their press. And up until recently, I could buy milsurp ammo for less than what I can reload it for. I stocked up when 7.62X51 was cheap (less than 15 cents per round). I think I have enough 7.62X51 on hand to last me decades.
Nor I. It looks like I’ll buy online.
Thanks, all.
A lot of it depends on the cartridge as well as the level of round you want to shoot. Generally speaking, common, and/or military cartridges are pretty cheap, due to high production or milsurp ammo. That’s why 9mm is so cheap, and so are 2 3/4 12 ga #7.5 shot shells.
I priced it all out a couple of years back, and found out that for 9mm, I could break even at BEST, and that for 45 ACP, I could save a little money vs. bargain rounds.
12 ga shotgun shells were similar to 9mm- break even vs. bargain shells.
And this was over 2000 round lots, not including the investment in the press & other equipment.
On the other hand, if you shot something relatively uncommon like 22-250 Remington or 6.5 Swedish, you might well save significant cash by reloading, assuming you can find components.
Reloading gear is almost indestructible, and a lot of people have tried it & decided they’re not real excited about the time & hassle. In other words, If you’re gonna try too, buy used gear & save 50-80% vs the price of new.
When I was doing it back in the day, a decent reloading rig bought new would cost a lot less than US$2K. More like US$300. Suggest you take a look at what gear really costs in the US today before assuming it’s a stupid-expensive investment.
I shoot a couple hundred rounds of .45acp per month. If that was my only gun, I probably wouldn’t bother. But once you get the press you can pick up dies for a few bucks for just about any caliber. Powder and bullets are pretty cheap, and a pound of powder lasts a long time for pistol. Get something like .300 WinMag and a pound will get you about 60 rounds, but it’s still a saving.
I’ve never tried to figure out when I broke even with reloading because there are some benefits that make it worthwhile anyway, like developing a load that you like with your firearm and the soothing stress reducing factor of sitting down to crank out a hundred after a bad day.
Cheap ammo isn’t always the best, so if I was to do a cost comparison it’d be with Remington or Federal. The quality of Hornady and Federal Premium is as good as or better than my handloads, but the premium ammo isn’t what I practice with, so …
Lot of used stuff available, and while a single stage Lee won’t toss out a thousand rounds in an afternoon, it’s cheap enough that you can decide if you want to continue and invest in a Dillon progressive or something.
All just my opinion, brands listed are not endorsed just those I have experience with.
Interestingly here, .22/250 and 6.5x55 Swedish are extremely common rounds, whereas .45ACP is getting hard to come by. 12ga shotgun shells are pretty cheap here (AUD$7/25), so no-one bothers reloading them.
The prices I mentioned earlier are in Australian Dollars, and everything here is generally more expensive than the US because it all has to be shipped out here.
That surprises me. I thought shotgun shell reloaders were pretty cheap and easy. I guess you would still have to be an avid target shooter to dick with it though. Some hunters may only go through a box or two a year.
Even Clay Target Shooters, who can go through a case a week if they’re serious, just buy in bulk. I don’t know anyone who reloads shotgun shells here.
Also, a lot of the reasons to reload are about finding a load and projectile weight that works with your gun. That’s not as much of a concern when using a shotgun; just get the right shot size and away you go.
Same here. I can’t think of anybody who bothers reloading for shotgun.
Wow. Most of the bird hunters I know reload. Of course one is 45 and single and the rest are 70 and have reloaded their entire lives, you damn whippersnappers.
Since I don’t do scatterguns I really don’t have an opinion.
I agree with the recommendation to go used, it can save you a significant amount of money…
Lee Progressive 1000 press with a full set of .45 ACP dies and automatic powder dispenser hopper - $60
1 pound of propellant $20
1000 primers $20
200 cast lead bullets $25
Brass; free, you should be keeping your fired brass
digital scale $30
Lee Auto-Prime hand priming tool $20
my total out of pocket expense?
initial hardware investment $110 (press, scale, priming tool)
Recurring expenses $65
I figured it out once, my cost-per-round was around 4¢ for a completed round
4.5 grains of powder, primer, and 230 grain LRN bullet
Getting started in reloading doesn’t have to be expensive.
Lee Loaders cost less than fifty bucks.
Or you can go with the Lee Hand Press, which is also pretty inexpensive.
Reloading doesn’t have to involve a lot of fiddley adjusting and weighing.
If you have a source of really cheap ammo, usually surplus, reloading may not be able to save you any money. If you are shooting a non-military caliber or one that is long since obsolete, reloading may be the only way to shoot affordably.
Okay, this is a bit of a highjack, but seems to be in the “spirit” of the thread.
I’m wanting to start loading my .30-06 rounds, instead of buying them. I think the Lee Loader mentioned above is probably ideal, since I’m an occasional shooter, but I’ve kept my brass for a while with an eye towards this. In addition to the .30-06 version of the Lee Loader, I need to know where and how to obtain the following:
- primers
- bulk brass (should I ever need it)
- bullets (specifically, Nosler partition 150-grain in .30 caliber. On Federal Premium, this is a green-tipped bullet. I want this, since this shoots very, very well in my Steyr Forester, which is my primary hunting tool)
- how to determine the type and qty. of powder being used in the previously-mentioned Federal Premium cartridge, since that is what I’m wanting to emulate
- powder mentioned above
Do I need these?
-
case cleaner (I’ve seen these as a tumbler with sand, I think?)
-
cartridge lube
-
What else?
I really need a pretty comprehensive source for a lot of this stuff so I can just up and buy it outright.
Thanks!