Reloading economics for a newbie

[Alpha1]

I have never saved money re loading. But I can spend hours enjoying hand crafting ammunition. £1000 to get started I dont think so. You obviously have to much money.

[bhodge]

I reload for .303 and .223, I can save around 30p per .303 round, and around 10p per .223... But, that's using reclaimed brass, and not taking account of any set up costs. The primary benefit has already been mentioned, that is the uniformity of the finished round. In addition, I consider reloading as a separate activity/hobby, so saving a bit of cash is a bonus.

[Lever357]

I only reload .38 at the moment (have just bougth a 7.62x51 so may reload for that). In 6 months have reloaded 500 rounds (and my rifle was out of action for two months) which would have cost me £150 to purchase. My set up costs were about £400 so financially I'm out of pocket at the moment. However, I find reloading really therapeutic and view it as another element of shooting that you can get involved in and enjoy, similar to cleaning the guns after use, I enjoy that too.
I have a friend who makes .308 rounds and varies around with the grains of powder to get a load he likes.
So I would say don't go into reloading purely on a financial basis - as others have said enjoy it as another element of shooting, you cam make more accurate loads as well.

[kevinww]

if you are shooting 6.5 creedmoor, saving is huge at over a pound a round over factory which is around £1.70 / per round.

[rox]

What are the costs of the reloading equipment required and the cost per round of an equivalent bullet?

My TR training round/GGG equivalent costs about 43p in components. I started with kit costing £150.00 (which got me as far as the Commonwealth Games). I've spent a lot more on kit now, most of it not strictly required if you have time on your hands, and most of which keeps its value extremely well and lasts a lifetime. Most of all it gives me plentiful low cost good quality ammunition, resulting in plenty of range time.

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[Duey]

I did state you can start up for less£ but will always go up in £ spent and how many of us have started with cheap kit and then upgraded !!!
My initial start up was around the £400 ish and still using most of it but have added to that so £ 1000 is not an unrealistic sum to get your reloading kit sorted
You can make good savings over this with secondhand equipment and by also keeping to the bare minimum of equipment needed, it's your choice how far you want to go

Alpha 1 you really should read posts properly before you post and I don't have too much money I just don't like wasting it by buying things twice or three times so I will now wait and save and get what I want when I can afford it

[rox]

for comparison say .308win 155gr GGG bought from the NRA (.80p per round atm I believe). Application is TR at ranges from 3-1000yds

On Brass: GGG equivalent/TR loading for 1000 yards is not hard on brass. Good case life is easily achievable with the right technique; excellent case life is achievable if you anneal. Fired brass is available at *very* low cost, and although many think that new Lapua is the route to accuracy and good case life, I find fired brass to be perfectly capable of winning major competitions against high class opposition, and use nothing else.

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[WelshShooter]

You can save money in reloading by purchasing your components in bulk. Lapua bullets are expensive off the shelf per 100 in the UK, but if you buy in boxes of 1,000 from Europe you can save quite a few quid even with the cost of shipping included! At the moment, I struggle for ammunition storage in decent quantity so I cannot simply just buy 1,000 factory rounds in all the calibres I own. Buying quantities of reloading supplies means that I can make up a batch whenever I want in as low a quantity as I want.

I do shoot some calibres which can be handloaded only. My Finnish Mosina has tighter bore than standard Russian Mosin Nagants therefore I cannot shoot factory 7.62x54mmR in them as the bullet is .311" diameter. I must use a smaller projective such as .308" calibre, therefore I need to handload this. I also have a 6.5x47 Lapua and there is no factory ammunition readily available, it all has to be ordered in. Based on prices in the US, Lapua factory ammo costs around $3 per round (around £2 per round). I make ammunition using the same components (except powder) and it costs me around £43 per hundred, so about 43p a round which is a massive savings for me.

[Alpha1]

I did state you can start up for less£ but will always go up in £ spent and how many of us have started with cheap kit and then upgraded !!!
My initial start up was around the £400 ish and still using most of it but have added to that so £ 1000 is not an unrealistic sum to get your reloading kit sorted
You can make good savings over this with secondhand equipment and by also keeping to the bare minimum of equipment needed, it's your choice how far you want to go

Alpha 1 you really should read posts properly before you post and I don't have too much money I just don't like wasting it by buying things twice or three times so I will now wait and save and get what I want when I can afford it

I was jesting you need to chill out my friend.

Over the years I have spent at least a thousand pound on reloading equipment alone probably several thousand.
I was originally a hand gun shooter shooting up to five nights a week. I shot all sorts of pistol calibers. Originally I bought a lee O frame aluminium press a second hand Hornady beam scale. I still have the scale in fact I have two both bought second hand and in my opinion they are one of the best beam scales ever made. I used dippers to charge the powder. I soon got rid of the Lee O frame and bought a Turret press then the whole thing just took off. I had to have faster more shiny bits and ammo cranked out by the dozen. I moved on to progressive and it started again I had to have all the whistles and bells it had to be faster bullets piling round my feet as I tugged on the handle.
Then they banned hand guns. What was I to do with all this equipment. I bought a Ruger 10/22 it didnt last very long you can not reload for them.
I bought a Winchester trapper and started cranking ammo out again. More faster faster.
Then I bought a Steyr .308 SSG P1. Hmm I thought this is going to be different. I hummed and are dd then stumped up for a £150 Lyman crusher cast press. None of the go faster stuff would work with this press so I bought a second hand RCBS powder thrower and a powder trickler then set to reloading. It was great fun and I found my self enjoying the whole process. I added a No4 a 8mm Mauser and a P14. Followed by all manner of full bore calibers. I started selling of the go faster stuff. For years I loaded on my Lyman press and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. I purchased a Wamadet press about a year ago it sits on my computer desk I recently realized that you can also use it as an arbor press. So I have boxed the Lyman up and retired it.
All my reloading is done on a Wamadet press using dies or Lee loaders. I also have some Le.Wilson dies that can be used with an arbor press or the Wamadet.
So I have gone full circle I use the Wamadet that cost me about £100 pounds a second hand hornady scale a second hand RCBS powder dispenser and a Hornady powder trickler.
I lashed out £120 for a auto powder trickler and £10 for a USB camera to plug into a old lap top and I use this set up for accurate powder charges when needed. I enjoy every minute of my re loading its great fun. Do I need to upgrade my set up no I definitely do not thank you very much.

[Dark Skies]

I've been exceptionally lucky regarding assembling my reloading kit. On two occasions I've just been in the right place at the right time.
When the Dunmore shooting club / shop in Oxfordshire closed (due to the handgun legislation) I was canny enough to buy all the Lee die sets I needed and considered likely to need well under their retail price. I think back then the die sets were around or under a tenner a pop - I filled my boots. The Lee Challenger press has never let me down

When Adenbourne Fieldsports was closing (the land was sold from under them for yet another s*** supermarket) back in 2012 I bought up tubs and tubs of powder, bullets, and primers for nothing like the usual price. I literally have a weekend suitcase full of primers!

A while back a friend of mine surprised me by dropping off a piece of soft lead about the size of a bathroom sink. Apparently the place he works for isn't allowed to sell off surplus materials - something to do with their government grant - so he hooked it out their skip (with permission) and wondered if I could find a use for it. Absolutely! Now casting pistol bullets.

I've never bothered to calculate the cost of my reloading but I'm confident I'm currently doing much better than if I was using factory ammunition - especially with my pistol round under levers as I tend to download quite a bit for them.

Reloading is as expensive as you choose to make it. I find Lee products to be utterly reliable and see no need to change to more complicated and expensive systems. Happily cranking them out one at a time.