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well against the price from just cartridges, for gamebore buffalo slug, at £23 for 25 ( £92 a 100) reloading my own slug makes sense, as that would be a £80 saving on 200 slug. that saving would pay for the next order of slugs and mean I don't need to reload my hulls

If ammozone have their prices right, and S&B slug isn't toilet, I probably won't see a difference in my slug and his.

bradaz11 wrote:just been looking at this again, doing some maths

A bottle of powder will do about 200 cartridges - £35 wihtout post,
about £60 for 200 slugs.
then however much for hulls...say £20....
thats comes at £115 for 200.

so £57.5 for 100
so ammozone list S&B slug at £65 100 .
how long is 100 cartridges going to take? between 30 mins to an hour? is £7.50 worth the time??
assumption - ammozone price is correct and thats not a price for 50...

how much does it cost others that reload? and is my pricing way off?

Sort of way off...but understandably so....as you're buying in.

My load is 20 grains of Unique = 350 per tub = 10p per load
Primers = free (got 8,000 with a used press & 2,000 chucked in on another deal)
Slugs = cast my own, so only electric to cover here. The mold was cheap (used) & even new it is not dead money as it holds a good resale value.
Wads = depends on type/make (again, got a few wih the 5,000 primers). In the process of importing some Federal 12S4 from the US
Hulls = free from clay grounds & the shoots I attend. I stick to 70mm translucent type....plus some are on their third & fourth loading since being recycled & saved from the scrap bin/landfill.
Even buying in new I've seen SIARM offering them primed at less then U.K. prices of primers alone...and if you only use them once you're doing it wrong.

Factory slugs I've tried ranged from nice mild "target" loads to Police-issue shatter the engine block from two zip codes away types. Home loading allows you to tailor to the former instead of being sold the latter if that's the only option being imported by XyZ RFD.

Another advantage of home loads = no supply issues (NO local suppliers within 100 miles or so)
Home loads also mean that I can tailor them to my gun - an 870 punp = no need to cycle the action. One shooter using the same components as mine had to use 25gr of Unique (25% increase on my load) to get his 1100 to function.

I really enjoy loading slugs as they're very easy to do, from the slug casting to the final taper crimp.

Another advantage....a shotshell press means other ammo types are also at your fingertips....and once you are after non-clay/game loads that is the ammo where the big savings are to be found: so bismuth, steel, buckshot & others are all on the menu.

The first slug loads I made were "Mexican specials"
Normal cheap clay loads with the shot melted down in a ball mold, then the crimps closed by hand.
Not perfect but proved a cheap way to start as long as long as care was taken to match weights & choose a suitable velocity, etc.

So, at my costs = about 15p a slug at the most.
Even buying primers/hulls it'd be closer to £20-£25 /100 than the factory prices of double/triple that.

Happy to let folk have a few cast slugs & wads to try to get them started.
Get on YouTube for loading methods that don't require a press or a big financial outlay.

I loaded slug the "expensive way" new primed cases and slugs shipped from Siarm, still worked out cheaper then my local gun shops.

12G Slug Costs
EVO Fiocchi T1 12G 12/70/08 - 05p
19 Grains GM3 - 06p
12g Slug - 28p

Don't forget if you order primed cases from Siarm that you now incur hazmat fees, it increased my last order by £42, I didn't use to get this charge, maybe they weren't declaring the contents to their shippers.

Also if you want to work out true like for like charges then you need to factor in paying for your time, so if you are making your own slugs you will need to include the cost of obtaining the lead, time to smelt it and mould into clean usable ingots (especially if it's range pick up scrap), time to smelt and mould the slugs, then factor in making the cartridge with different loads and testing what works, once you factor all that in you probably won't be saving anything, the only way to see a saving is not to include any labour & travelling costs, I was surprised by the difference adding in labour made as a couple of my shooting Buddies asked me if I could make some up for them and when I costed it out and added in developing loads to work well in their guns it was cheaper to just stick with S & B's brought from the range shop at 56p each.

On my last order from Siarm I did buy a selection of about 10 x 20 of their different types of slug to try out as it will work out cheaper than smelting my own.

bradaz11 wrote:
Also, does anyone have data for BPI thug slugs? (1 1/8oz is that I have) there's nothing in that manual for them, and they show nothing on their website without buying the new one...

I have the 6th edition of the bpi manual that has the thug slug data in, what powder and hulls do you have and roll or star crimp?

It doesn't give anything for your fiocchi hulls, only Rio and cheddite and for using Green dot it shows 22 grains using a star crimp with an estimated 1200fps

Primer wrote:Don't forget if you order primed cases from Siarm that you now incur hazmat fees, it increased my last order by £42, I didn't use to get this charge, maybe they weren't declaring the contents to their shippers.

Also if you want to work out true like for like charges then you need to factor in paying for your time, so if you are making your own slugs you will need to include the cost of obtaining the lead, time to smelt it and mould into clean usable ingots (especially if it's range pick up scrap), time to smelt and mould the slugs, then factor in making the cartridge with different loads and testing what works, once you factor all that in you probably won't be saving anything, the only way to see a saving is not to include any labour & travelling costs, I was surprised by the difference adding in labour made as a couple of my shooting Buddies asked me if I could make some up for them and when I costed it out and added in developing loads to work well in their guns it was cheaper to just stick with S & B's brought from the range shop at 56p each.

On my last order from Siarm I did buy a selection of about 10 x 20 of their different types of slug to try out as it will work out cheaper than smelting my own.

If I want the REAL cost of factory slug ammunition I'd also have to add in the travel time to a stockists, petrol for a 200+ mile round trip, wear on the car, parking, etc.
As I don't operate commercially as an ammunition maker, my time spent loading & casting is free...it's another part of the shooting HOBBY...doing otherwise would add in time/labour & CIP licence fees, etc.

I cast my own 1oz Lee slugs so no charge except my time and a bit of gas.
I use new primed Fiocchi cases, 20g of Vectan AS, plastic wad and a plastic covering disc over the slug then roll crimp the case. I reckon it costs me about £18 per 100.
These cycle faultlessly in my Remy 1187.
In readiness for when all plastic wads are banned I have also developed a Lee slug load using just fibre wads and a bit of paper. In fact I received my Blue Peter badge for this!! Despite the Heath Robinson approach this shoots great!

I think i'm rather lucky with having c&g on my doorstep then from the sounds of it. and yes, it would be a lot cheaper if I could use GM3 behind the DSG slug (1oz or 1 1/8oz as I have none atm)
unique could also be an option, but i find it so hard to meter, I try not to use it.

for me, making my own slugs is not an option as I have nowhere to cast, but that might change in 6 months.

I suppose another advantage to rolling my own is that they could all be sat powdered and slug inserted, but none crimped. then all I need to do before I need to use them is to whizz however many needed through the roll crimp on my drill. thus meaning I don't have to store any in my cabinet, taking away space for other cartridges.

primer - I know, as soon as I put labour costs on making my own 9mm it wasn't worth it, unfortunately i'm pulling the current batch as its dirty as hell so can barely get 100 rounds through rifle before cleaning. so reloading with trueblue to see how it fares with that. just need to work out what powder S&B use in their 9mm

EDIT - also, how many times can you reload roll crimped hulls? if you can that is.

bewildered wrote: In readiness for when all plastic wads are banned I have also developed a Lee slug load using just fibre wads and a bit of paper. In fact I received my Blue Peter badge for this!! Despite the Heath Robinson approach this shoots great!

Mmmmmmm interesting, seeing as the NRA have moved all the target shotgun to butt zero at bisley which does have a ban on plastic wads.

mr smith wrote:

bewildered wrote: In readiness for when all plastic wads are banned I have also developed a Lee slug load using just fibre wads and a bit of paper. In fact I received my Blue Peter badge for this!! Despite the Heath Robinson approach this shoots great!

Mmmmmmm interesting, seeing as the NRA have moved all the target shotgun to butt zero at bisley which does have a ban on plastic wads.

NRA seeing the big picture & planning ahead again.
Is the ban only wads or all plastic components? Gas seal discs may be in my next US shopping basket....
Already got a few goodies on the way from BPI