Thread: Any reloaders in the house?

Just a question. Now that I finally have more room to roam in my new home, I could set up my reloader and get back into trap shooting. I set the thing up, cranked through the remaining components that I have had sitting around for the past 5 years, and went to the store. I about hit the floor when I saw the price of lead!!! $50 for 25 pounds of #8 chilled lead shot! A box of Winchester AA trap loads goes for $10. I dont' know if I can afford my old hobby.

Well not to be detered, I rearranged my budget and am getting back into the shooting game. I just can't believe the price of lead. Its nuts.

I will have to post a picture of my set up once I take one.

Matt

yeah, it's gotten bad. my prices have gone up ridiculously, and i've been reloading less than 5 years.

primers used to be 16 bucks a box. now they are 28.
powder used to be 15 bucks a pound, now it's 23.
bullets used to be 48 bucks for 500, jacketed 185gr. now the same box of bullets is over 100 bucks.

still, better than buying ammo at the store. almost no one sells ammo anymore, and when they do, it costs 2-3x as much as it did 3 years ago.

I would say welcome back, but I dont think it would do any good concerning reloading prices. As ammunition prices have gone up, so have the prices of components. Its no longer inexpensive, especially considering the falling value of the dollar(value of your labor). Its still a great hobby just wished that it was still reasonably affordable.


looks like jockey beat me to the post

You can still do well reloading if you shoot a fair amount of mainstream centerfire or some non-mainstream ammo. I shoot a fair amount of 7.62 x 51 Nato, .45 acp, and 9mm Para. I save money by reloading for those. I save even more money by reloading for my 6.5 x 55mm, .30 Mauser, and especially the 50BMG. Long range rifle accuracy is best achieved with a load tailored to the particular gun, something that most commercial match ammo is not capable of. Just my $.02 Just remember that usually you won't end up saving money reloading, you'll just be able to shoot more for the same money.

Wayne

Originally Posted by bbqncigars

... Just remember that usually you won't end up saving money reloading, you'll just be able to shoot more for the same money.

Wayne

I used to relaod at a buddy's house. He had one of those Dillon presses. It was amazing how much ammo I could burn through when I was making my own. I almost felt it was my duty to shoot all of it so I could laod again.

I have handloaded for around twenty years. My motivation was when I realized a .44 Magnum literally EATS money!
I began reloading when I realized I could shoot something like three times as much for the same money. Even using premium bullets! THEN I discovered that by care and meticulous record keeping, I could produce more accurate ammunition than Remington, Winchester, Federal, or ANYBODY ELSE. In MY guns. As someone already said, I could tailor loads to individual guns.
It is a pleasant activity and the pursuit of excellence should never end.
But the prices have gone crazy in the last few years! Every time I go to the gun shop, I am surprised by the NEW prices on dies, presses, powder and all the other supplies and equipment.

The only way to keep costs down is buying in quantities on the internet, but you'll get hit with the hazardous material surcharge.
Gas prices is now afecting my shooting activities, I have to drive 50 miles round trip to get to the closest outdoor range, and the fees are around $12 por the day (not bad).
At the end of the day, if I shoot 300 rounds of .45 ACP it probably comes to around $60 per session

I know! I have joined a trap league, and it cots $20 every wednesday for the targets. If I purchased the rounds that I shot, it would be, at a minimum, $8 per box, and we go through 4 boxes each night. That's $52 each week. I can reload them for around $4 per box which drops the cost to around $36. Over 10 weeks, I'm saving $160 by reloading, but it is still a whole lot more expensive than it used to be.

Matt

a quick lesson in economics for the action pistol types out there. before I got married, I shot every weekend, either idpa, idsa, uspsa or ipsc. yeah, i was a shooting junkie!

number of rounds i shot per month : 500 or more. (75 per idpa match, 150 or more for ipsc)
cost for nasty ass WWB ammo - 26$/100 rounds (it's way more this year)
cost for me to reload 100 rounds of superior ammo - 9c for jacketed bullet + 2c for powder + 2c for primer = 13$/100 (always picked up brass for free)

money saved EVERY MONTH - $65 (unless I shot more, and then I would save more)

thanks to my trusty dillon multistage press, I can crank out 250 rounds per hour or so. so with one mornings worth of work, 2-3 hours, I would have enough ammo to last me the month for less than half the cost of store bought ammo.

my press paid for itself in less than 6 months, including scales, manuals, calipers, etc, etc.

I used to load a few thousand rounds a week when I was shooting competitivly, I would love to get into it again... But the costs now keep me from much more than my long range single shot pistols. I have a hard time keeping more than a few hondred rounds a year stored up.