Reloading worthwhile?

[Dutchy Rodell]

I need some advice.  Between my son and myself we shoot no more than 300 38 special rounds per month.  He shoots smokless and I will begin shooting frontier cartridge.  If I buy 1,000 rounds of eacI can get smokeless for 16 cents per round and BP sub for 26 per round not including shipping and tax.  Shooting so few rounds per month, is it economically reasonable for me to reload?  Would a Lee Classic Loader or Lee Handloader make sense because of the few number of rounds I would be reloading?  If it is worth while to reload, what book/books would you recommend on reloading both smokeless and BP sub?   Dutchy

[Cohagen]

Hey dutchy,

Reloading is not an accounting exercise.  Reloading is fun in itself as casting your own bullets.  Reloading will hopefully bring you more enjoyment from our sport, and hopefully encourage you and your son to shoot more.

I'd start and stick with Dillon loaders for pistols and Hornady for shotguns.

Just my 2 centavo's your results may vary

Cohagen

[Dusty Morningwood]

The Lee Turret Press is relatively inexpensive and you can load lots of rounds fast.  With the BP or BP subs, you can measure by volume pretty quick, or if you are like me, just pour powder straight into the case until it "is about right."  At our ranges, it makes little difference in my .44 specials.  For smokeless, only the additional weighed charge is involved.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

The reason I reload is not for economics. It is because I can get loads that just aren't available commercially. Reloading allows you to dial in the best load for your guns and the purpose for which you use them. If you are looking at reloading just to save money, don't bother. If you want to get the most performance from your shooting and possibly do other things, like casting bullets, that will make your reloading more enjoyable then go for it.

Although I started with a Lee Handloader years ago, I also agree that Dillon equipment is the best way to go for cartridges. I use a Mec Sizemaster for shotgun.

You can start with less expensive loading equipment if your budget doesn't allow a Dillon right off but eventually you will want one. Best to start with one if you can.

[Wills Point Pete]

 It isn't really a case of money, nobody ever saves money by reloading, we just start shooting more. As to whether or not reloading is for you, well can you follow a recipe? If you can follow directions you can reload. If you are smarter than everyone who has come before you, don't.
I do all my CAS ammo on a Lee Turret, along with the other handgun ammo I shoot. I charge my blackpowder cases with the Lee Autodisc powder measure, since I shoot .45 Colt I use the double disc kit. I just wash it with dish soap in water every so often and let it dry without rinsing, this keeps the static electricity down.
My precision rifle stuff is loaded on a different press, but before I got the Forster/Bonanza Co-Ax press my best stuff on that old Lee turret was almost as precise.
Thing is, that reloading can become a hobby in itself. Sometimes I find myself shooting rounds off just to get cartridge cases so I can try a new load.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

It has often been said that you don't save any money reloading, you just shoot more for the same amount of money.

To a certain extent, this is true.

I can tell you without a doubt I do reload to save money. When I started shooting CAS 45 Colt and 44-40 were running around $20-$25 for a box of 50. Figure a box and a half of each caliber per match and it was obvious right away that I needed to learn to reload. I could buy cheap 38 Special reloads for around $5/50. At those prices I started learning to reload 45 Colt and 44-40 right away, but I kept on buying cheap 38 Special reloads for non CAS plinking. I have no idea what commercial ammo costs these days, I have not bought a piece of Big Bore ammo in years. But I'll bet it costs more.

These days, there are only so many CAS matches that I attend. These days I also only shoot Black Powder in CAS. I figure I need around 1000 45 Colts and 1000 44-40 per season + about 1000 rounds of 12 gauge. That's not a whole lot, but then again, I don't practice. So the bit about shooting more for the same money no longer applies for me. I need a set amount per year. Shooting 2000 rounds of Big Bore Black Powder ammo per year would quickly put me in the poor house. I have pretty well amortized my reloading equipment by now, so it's just down to buying components. I buy Black Powder in 25 pound lots with another pard, I cast my own bullets, and I pick up primers whenever I can. I simply could not afford to shoot Black Powder in CAS if I did not reload.

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings!

   Handloading is a HOOT! Find a buddy that reloads, and ask to hang out some evening. The latest Lyman Reloading Handbook will tell you nearly everything you'll need to know, so buy it first.
   You can spend a little, or a lot, but get the basics down with your buddy first. My first reloading was with an Ideal Combination Tool, with the little mould at the end; then came the Lee Loader. I'm now using a single stage press, but progressives are cool, too.
   Like everyone's said: it's not the money, per se, but more shooting for your buck! I have the time, and handloading has become a "side hobby", with dozens of moulds, old loading manuals, etc. Some folks have NO time, so don't handload.
   Folks who shoot are a neat, generous bunch, and I'm sure that Someone in your area handloads, and would be delighted to get you "Hooked"!
   Hvae Fun & Keep Us Posted!

   Be Well!

             M.T.Marfield:.
                8-29-07

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Dutchy,

Reloading is rewarding.

1.  It does save money, especially if you cast your own bullets.  But, as Cohagen said, it's not an accounting exercise.

2.  The price of black powder cartridges is way out of line with the cost.

3.  Tailor your ammo for your individual gun and preferences.

4.  It's fun.

5.  There's extra satisfaction in winning with your own hand loaded ammo.

6.  Reloaders generally shoot more and soon enough start shooting better, cuz they can.

Probably the best value in reloading presses right now is the LEE Classic Turret press.  With it you have complete control, accessibility and versatility.  Changing calibers is as simple as changing a turret and shell holder.  I now load only my main match pistol ammo on a progressive.  All others are loaded on the turret press.  If I were starting out, this would be my first and possibly only press on the bench.

Good luck, enjoy the white smoke.

DD-DLoS

[Grizzle Bear]

I'll throw in my dos centavos:

If you are only going to shoot a couple of boxes of ammo a year, reloading makes no sense.

What I tell people is; "If you are going to shoot enough to be good at it, you have got to reload!"

As others have noted, you do not save money by reloading, you shoot much more for the same amount of money.

Grizzle Bear

[Noz]

My 2¢.

The first shoot with a new reloading set up is expensive. You are paying for the brass and the reloading equipment. There are other ways of looking at this but this is mine. (depreciation, etc.)

After the first shoot the equipment is paid for and the brass is paid for. You are only buying primers, powder and bullets.

With a melting pot, mold and a batch of wheel weights, the price of the bullets goes to whatever the wheel weights cost.

Now you are buying powder and primers.

My labor when I'm working for me cost me nothing.

All that expense for one shoot, then you are home free.

You decide you don't like Cowboy or really don't like casting and reloading? Put it on the Traders Rendezvous on The open Range and it won't last overnight.

Besides that, it's fun!!

[Arcey]

Lemme see if I understand this, Noz.

My equipment was 'paid for' before I ever assembled a round with it.  Mine free and clear, done, out the door.  So were the components.

Help me out here if you will.  Are you saying the cost of the equipment will be offset by the savings over the cost of factory ammo for one shoot?  Perhaps I'm not reading something as it was intended.

[Noz]

Nope, Arcey.
I bought it. I paid for it. I loaded some real expensive ammo for the first shoot.
Second shoot, I already paid for it with the first shoot.
I do a lot of things different than the regular flock. My way of looking at it.

[Arcey]

I do a lot of things different than the regular flock.

No doubt.

Aspiring loaders.  There are many vendors on the web.  Take your pick.  Look up the prices yourself.

Use this forum as a resource.  A place for leads and advice only.  Surely not as a foundation for your final decision.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Seth

Calm down. It's just a figure of speech. We wind up shooting much, much more but spend the same amount of money we would have if we had bought our ammo. If you only have 'X' dollars available in your ammo budget, you either buy 'X' dollars worth of factory ammo, or you spend the same 'X' dollars making a lot more ammo. It's just a figure of speech.

[Adirondack Jack]

I don't save a durn thing.

When I didn't reload, I had a .357 marlin I shot 3 boxes of ammo through in two years, a shotgun I'd use a FIVE ROUND box of slugs in a deer season (two slugs to check POI, the other three generally would get me through the hunt), and some .22 I'd shoot.

Once I started reloading, I bought a mess of .44s, .45s, .32s, .380, and a .50-70, and SHOOT A WHOLE LOT MORE.  I easily shoot up 100 or 200 .45 rounds at a rip just foolin' around practicing, and have handed the boy a coffee can of .45 at a rip and not sweat the cost.  .50-70 isn't even available loaded, so I guess I wouldn't have bought it, etc.

Would I shoot FC .45 at over THIRTY DOLLARS a box of 50?  No way.

To me it's like asking how much car travel would I do if I had to hire a chauffer-driven limo every time I went somewhere.  I suspect it'd be a LOT less than driving myself in my own vehicle.  Sure cars and insurance costs, but the shock value of a limo bill to go out for a ride to the mall would get ya real quick and limit yer movement.

[Dick Dastardly]

I just invested in a brand new MEC 600 Jr. Mk-V 10gauge loader.  Yup, have to have one for each gauge I shoot, and I shoot 'em all.  Do I save $?  Ever price a box of 10ga BP SASS loads?

DD-DLoS

P.S.  Real soon Pukin Dog, RRR and myself will be gettin' together to make shot.

[Cyrille]

I really can't add anything to the posts already here as to wheather it is feasable economically to reload. But I will say this:
     If I didn't reload, I would not have been able to afford the 45/70, the two Rugers I've purchased and my last aqusition a S&W .460 XRV that I been able to add to my armory because I reload.

[Arcey]

I wouldn't know where to start figuring the cost of the cowboy ammo.  Loading and casting equipment has long since paid for itself. Lead I cast is free.  Primers and 16 grains of powder, at $10.50 per pound last purchase, per metallic cartridge. SPG when I use it.  Wads at $8.00 a thousand.  Wads I use for rifle loads are split in half.  I'm not using any for the current pistol loads. Most of the brass I've been using since before my involvement in CAS, pre '97.

9mms I can figure a little without running to a calculator.  1,000 cost me around $90.00 to load.  Bullets and primers.  All numbers rounded up to cover the powder, TiteGroup.  I started on that container in January.  It's probably a little over half gone.  Let's say there's a third left.  I think I paid $21.00 for it at the last Scope show.  Never paid a penny for brass.  I shoot 100 a week.

The indoor range wants $17.00 for low end, white-box Winchester stuff - fifty rounds.  Do the math for 1,000.  Another shop that's inconvenient to me sells the same stuff for $13.00.  The difference isn't worth the drive.

If memory serves a vendor at the last show was selling bulk cartridges by the thousand for $120.00 and you got a free military ammo can with the deal. A few tables down another vendor was selling the same cans, empty, for $4.00.  As far as I know some 12 year old had loaded the cartridges on a Dillon for his Daddy.  No clue what components were used.  Bottom line, at half the price, I ain't putting them in my Glocks.

May be just me but I can't help to think I'm saving money reloading. 

[Ransom Gaer]

I certainly save money by reloading .45 Colt, .45 Schofield and 12 Ga. in comparison to any store bought BP rounds for those calibers and gauges.  But I also am able to build loads for my guns too and that is just as important.  In the case of .45-70 for my Sharps I can't even get a store bought equivalent to the load I am developing for long range, so reloading .45-70 became mandatory. 

And as Driftwood pointed out I DO shoot more because ammunition is less per round, so I can shoot more for the dollars spent.  When I got into CAS I realized that I would have to reload to play the game, I saw no other option.  If I didn't reload I probably would make only one match a month, while with my reloads I can realistically make two matches a month if there aren't other conflicts.  Unfortunately there usually are.  DRAT.

Ransom Gaer

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I don't know how I came across, but I was trying to say that saving money isn't the reason I reload. I never said I didn't save money per round shot. It's just that if you reload just for the sake of saving money, it's probably not for you.