Lost-Did i do a stupid thing?

[Shadow]

Ok i guess i jumped into this reloading to fast. My father use to reload our shotgun shells and his 38's for the range when i was a kid,,and i always wanted to reload my own stuff too. Well i went and bought a press and some dies at the 1500,,spent around $200. Decided i'd wait on getting the brass and bullets etc till later. When i started checking around on line ,i'm finding its a lot cheaper to just buy the ammo already made. Just a small exp. 7.62 x 39 Brass was around 300. per 1000 Bullets $300. per 1000 Primers $40. per 1000 ,,that puts me over $600. and no powder yet. I see you can buy bulk wolf at $250. -$350. per 1000. Am i missing some thing? I was planning on doing all my own (.25 ,38, 357 ,40, 45, 30-30 , 7.62 x 39 and 12ga) Please help a lost soul (LOL)

 

[Indecision]

Keep in mind you the brass is the largest expense and you re-use it. Several times. So, say you on average reload that brass 5 times (conservative number), it just went down to. $300 per 5000... or $.06 for each case. The rest of it. I don't know what's a normal price, enver looked at AK ammo, but you may or may not be able to find better prices than that.

 

[Robert Richardson]

You will save more money reloading the handgun rounds than the military rifle rounds.

 

[Dr Falken]

Unless your using a bolt gun in 7.62X39, I'd buy the ammo already made, especially that caliber, and if your not reloading it, you'd of course buy the Wolf et al with the steel case. Handgun ammo and .223 and others are were you will se real savings, especially if you shoot at a range where you can pick up brass for FREE! Even still, you can usually get fired brass for about $.06 a round and that is on the high side (for handgun) and you can shoot cast lead bullets, further dropping your costs...so you haven't done anything wrong, you were just looking at the wrong caliber as an example.

 

[kludge]

25 ,38, 357 ,40, 45, 30-30 , 7.62 x 39 and 12ga

.38 and .357 end up costing me about $6/50 to reload using lead bullets, and a bit higher for .40 and .45 (heavier bullets) and <$5/50 every time after that (since I'm not buying once fired brass every time. It's about $11-$12/50 for FMJ in .40, so still almost half of what you would pay right now.

I can buy a box of .308" cal rifle bullets for <$30/100, so then I'm just paying for powder and primers. Compare that to >$30/20 for loaded ammo (non-military calibers) for hunting ammo.

Example: .40 S&W
Brass $25/1000
Bullets $60/1000 (lead)
Primers $35/1000
Powder $20/1000
Total = $140/1000 or $7/box

Example: .38 SPL
Brass $25/1000
Bullets $50/1000 (lead)
Primers $35/1000
Powder $12/1000
Total = $122/1000 or $6.10/box

Example: .308 WIN
Brass (free)
bullets: $30/100
primers: $3.50/100
powder: $14/100
Total = $47.50/100 or $9.50/box

 

[Shadow]

Whewwwwwwwww Thanks for the info,,for awhile i was getting discouraged.

 

[CountryBoy19]

7.62X39 is so common and widely imported from Russia and other Commie countries very cheaply. You probably won't save much money because the lack of reloading components. You can save much more in other calibers though. If you shop around and find good deals and/or have good connections, you can save a lot of money. Right now I'm loading some decent precision .308 ammo for about $.30 each. I have some components sitting on the shelf that should let me reload .223 ammo for less than $.10/rd. Casting your own lead pistol bullets will save a lot more money as well. In reloading, other than the brass cost, the bullet is the most expensive, so if the bullet is nearly free, you also save a lot of money.

 

[Shadow]

Thats great,,,,,thats 2 dies i wont have to buy,,,I'll do like you all have advised me. I'll buy the 7.62 x 39 in bulk and just a few box's of the 30-30 to have around. I have a hand loader for the 30-30 ,anyways so I'll just stick with it and not purchase the die for the press. Once Again I Want To Thank You All For Your Advice.

 

[MeltonLaw]

Here is a on-line calculator that allows you to put in all of your component costs and puts out the cost per box of 50. http://www.classifiercalc.com/misc_calcs/rc.php This is a re-post of some info from about a month ago but it really puts things in perspective.

An example using the components that I purchased at the 1500:
250 FMJ RN .45 @ $30
1lb HP-38 @ $21 using 4.7 grs
500 .45 cases @ $25
1k WLP @ $35
comes out to about 10.96 per box of 50. Which is almost half of what you could buy that ammo for loaded.

 

[Chefcook]

Reloading is a hobby all in its own. If you don't enjoy it and have the time for it don't get started with it. Sure it will save you some money but you have to spend a lot to save a little and once you factor in your time there's really not all that much savings to be had. I reload because I find it relaxing and rewarding not so much for saving money. It is a very time consuming hobby...

 

[42769vette]

i can garentee reloading is more expensive for me. i spend so much time and ammo testing and trying to make my ammo better i shoot up all my savings and then some. but i love doing it and lets face it there are worse things to blow money on than reloading supplies

 

[88E30M50]

I've been able to reload .223 significantly cheaper than buying commercial using off the shelf components bought at a place that's not the cheapest in town.

Hornady 55g FMJ @ $17.99 per 100 or 18 cents each
IMR 3031 @ 8 cents
Small Rifle primer @ 4 cents
Reused brass @ 0 cents

Total 30 cents per round or about $6.00 per box of 20 vs. $9.99 commercial.

380 ACP saves even more

500 FMJ 100g @ $46 or 9.2 cents each
2.5g W231 @.9 cents
primer @ 4 cents
Total about $7 per box of 50

The other thing I like about reloading is that I can stockpile parts instead of live ammo. It's much easier on the wallet to pick up a $38 box of small pistol primers or $25 for a bottle of powder than it is to come up with the money to buy a case of 1000 rounds of 380ACP.

One last thing about reloading is that it's a nice way to spend an evening. When the wife turns on whatever crap is on TV now days, I just go down to the basement, turn the stereo on and do a little reloading. I reloaded 50 more rounds of 380 last night and should have 1000 done before too long.

 

[jedi]

Reloading is a hobby all in its own. If you don't enjoy it and have the time for it don't get started with it. Sure it will save you some money but you have to spend a lot to save a little and once you factor in your time there's really not all that much savings to be had. I reload because I find it relaxing and rewarding not so much for saving money. It is a very time consuming hobby...

Chefcook just get yourself the "Duplicator"

and you can "duplicte" all your ammo needs.

FYI..
The image above is from the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes (no longer in prduction). Calvin's mom wanted him to clean his room before he could go outside. Calvin instead create (aka uses his wild imagination) to create a duplicator machine and duplicates himself. So his #2 is left to clean the room while Calvin & hobbes (stuff tiger that comes to life when noone is around go out and play. #2 seeing that it's unfair duplicates himself and #3 comes out and is handed the job of cleaning while #2 causes mischief in the house. #3 does not like the idea & #4 is created and on and on. By the time Cavin comes back, his room is a complete disater as calvi #500 is trying to duplicate 501 but the machine is broken. The otr 499 calvins have manged to hid from mom (in the house) and make a mess in every other room in the house! When mom finds calvin, #500 hids inside the duplicator. Mom is real mad at Calvin by this point. Calvin convineces the other 499 to get inide the duplictor to hid. He then renames the duplicator to "x duplictor" and gets rid of all the Calvins but still has to deal with his mom's screaming and punishment.


So what does this story have to do with reloading? Simple.

1) You start out reloading but buying a press and 1 set of dies
2) You then go buy more dies (aka duplicator machine)
3) You now realized that you need more reloaing stuff and more dies (#2 duplicated #3)
4) Repeat step 3 several times over
5) The wife soon discovered your mess (tons of $$ spend on dies/reloading)
6) You attempt to please her buy selling some or al your suff (aka the x duplicator)