Reloading used to be cheaper

RL338 said:
I found a receipt from 2019 from Brownells , they were never known to be the cheapest. As I recall Federal had a mail in rebate at the time further lowering the price.
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At $590.99 for 8 lbs of IMR4831 they’ll not get another dollar from me. All their powders are exorbitantly priced.
 
Ridge_Runner said:
Thats why I do not practice like I use to, when you don't know when you can resupply, powder is pretty easily found here for the most part, federal 210/215 primers are as common as honest democrats in this part of the country.
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Well I wont run out anytime in the near future even if I go hog wild, but regardless of that I still feel like I'm wasting shooting just to shoot. I have some rifles I want to work on some loads with so I'm gonna shoot some regardless of what current pricing is. I don't have all this stuff just to die with it someday, but I also I don't want to be wasteful.

I'll probably do a good bit of practicing with a 22 this yr. A person can still do that cheaply even at current pricing. That's one thing different about this shortage than the one we experienced during Obama. 22 ammo was probably the first to disappear during that event, and remained very tough to get right till the end. Right now 22 ammo is relatively available most places and is reasonably priced considering.
 
It’s shameful In my opinion. That’s over $200 more than Hodgdons price, and I’ll tell you this much………..Hodgdon is on top of their shipping. I ordered on a Saturday and the powder was in my hands Tuesday.
 
Joec7651 said:
At $590.99 for 8 lbs of IMR4831 they’ll not get another dollar from me. All their powders are exorbitantly priced.
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ShadeTree said:
Good gravy. Just seeing that price makes me upset. It's not just Sunday, but I was also taught some manners when I was little, so I deleted what I did have to say.
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Say what you want about Brownell's...
I've no love for them...

That said it's still cheaper to load your owm than to buy factory made.

Just sayin 😏
 
Australia is no better. I started stocking up a couple of years a go, just a little bit here and a little bit there and so glad I did. For a number of calibres it is now cheaper to buy factory ammo than to load for it. We have a bunch of calibres you can't buy brass for and if you can get primers and are hideously expensive. Cost and availability of powder is reasonable (sucks if you're a pistol shooter though) but that's about it. Hornady bullets seem in reasonably stocked at most gun shops but other stuff is in short supply. A number of gun shops don't have any large rifle primers at all and if you find one that has some, then don't expect to pay less than $180/1000. We were worried that ADI was going to sell all the powder to the Hodgson and whoever else they supply, but they have don't a pretty good job keeping us stocked on common powders at least
 
300WSM said:
Say what you want about Brownell's...
I've no love for them...

That said it's still cheaper to load your owm than to buy factory made.

Just sayin 😏
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Sorry, you keep making that blanket statement no matter what prices somebody posts. You better re-sharpen your pencil, because at the price posted above, no it isn't.

It's not that difficult to find 30-06 hunting ammo for less than $30 a box. I found some Hornady American Whitetail for $24. That's $1.20 per round.

$590.99 for 8 lbs is $73.87 a lb. Divided by 7000 grains is .0105 per grain. Using a charge of 56.5 for 30-06, that's .596 per round.

Hornady Interlock bullets are $40 a box.

You're getting new Hornady brass in that box of factory so you have to figure that in. Hornady 30-06 brass is right at $1 per case. If you're a prudent reloader and anneal your brass, figure on getting 10 reloads out of that brass.

Primers are $100 a brick.

Add it all up:

.596 per round for powder.
.40 per round for bullets.
.10 per round cost of brass.
.10 per round cost of primer.

$1.196 per round. Rounded up would be $1.20 per round. Last I checked I cannot make it in this world if I figure my time is worth $0.00.

That's not counting cost of a press, scale, trimmer, dies, etc, etc. For the casual reloader and shooter, you absolutely can buy factory ammo cheaper than you can reload at some of the prices being paid out there for components today.
 
300WSM said:
Say what you want about Brownell's...
I've no love for them...

That said it's still cheaper to load your owm than to buy factory made.

Just sayin 😏
Click to expand...
With prices like that for just consumables the cost of reloading will easily equal if not exceed what factory ammunition costs. Then once you factor in the cost of quality tools and equipment it takes the cost much higher. There’s no money being saved that I can see on standard hunting ammunition. There may possibly be a small savings when purchasing super premium or safari grade ammunition.

I load because I enjoy it immensely. It’s more precise from round to round, and I can taylor the round to the firearm used for best precision. Cost isn’t my motivation, it’s the elusive pursuit of the consistent one hole group. I don’t usually shoot well enough to accomplish it, but it all becomes worth it when everything comes together.
 
Joec7651 said:
With prices like that for just consumables the cost of reloading will easily equal if not exceed what factory ammunition costs. Then once you factor in the cost of quality tools and equipment it takes the cost much higher. There’s no money being saved that I can see on standard hunting ammunition. There may possibly be a small savings when purchasing super premium or safari grade ammunition.

I load because I enjoy it immensely. It’s more precise from round to round, and I can taylor the round to the firearm used for best precision. Cost isn’t my motivation, it’s the elusive pursuit of the consistent one hole group. I don’t usually shoot well enough to accomplish it, but it all becomes worth it when everything comes together.
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Yep. You will be hard pressed to beat common hunting ammo pricing, by paying current component prices. At the cost of the powder you listed, you absolutely cannot.

I can load cheaper than that because I'm working off a stockpile of bullets that I bought for as low as $20 a box. Also have bullets that were given to me. I'm working off a stockpile of powder that I paid 1/3 as much as some current pricing. Also have powder that was given to me. Same with primers, the primers I have were WAY cheaper than they are now. So yeah, I can reload much cheaper, but I cannot do it cheaper paying some current prices.
 
Lazy Bushman said:
Australia is no better. I started stocking up a couple of years a go, just a little bit here and a little bit there and so glad I did. For a number of calibres it is now cheaper to buy factory ammo than to load for it. We have a bunch of calibres you can't buy brass for and if you can get primers and are hideously expensive. Cost and availability of powder is reasonable (sucks if you're a pistol shooter though) but that's about it. Hornady bullets seem in reasonably stocked at most gun shops but other stuff is in short supply. A number of gun shops don't have any large rifle primers at all and if you find one that has some, then don't expect to pay less than $180/1000. We were worried that ADI was going to sell all the powder to the Hodgson and whoever else they supply, but they have don't a pretty good job keeping us stocked on common powders at least
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I would think you could get Woodleigh bullets in Aussie Aussie land at better prices than we can? Have you tried the Woodleigh's?
 
ShadeTree said:
Sorry, you keep making that blanket statement no matter what prices somebody posts. You better re-sharpen your pencil, because at the price posted above, no it isn't.

It's not that difficult to find 30-06 hunting ammo for less than $30 a box. I found some Hornady American Whitetail for $24. That's $1.20 per round.

$590.99 for 8 lbs is $73.87 a lb. Divided by 7000 grains is .0105 per grain. Using a charge of 56.5 for 30-06, that's .596 per round.

Hornady Interlock bullets are $40 a box.

You're getting new Hornady brass in that box of factory so you have to figure that in. Hornady 30-06 brass is right at $1 per case. If you're a prudent reloader and anneal your brass, figure on getting 10 reloads out of that brass.

Primers are $100 a brick.

Add it all up:

.596 per round for powder.
.40 per round for bullets.
.10 per round cost of brass.
.10 per round cost of primer.

$1.196 per round. Rounded up would be $1.20 per round. Last I checked I cannot make it in this world if I figure my time is worth $0.00.

That's not counting cost of a press, scale, trimmer, dies, etc, etc. For the casual reloader and shooter, you absolutely can buy factory ammo cheaper than you can reload at some of the prices being paid out there for components today.
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I like your math approach ,but I would be looking for a cheaper powder to start with.
 
ShadeTree said:
Yep. You will be hard pressed to beat common hunting ammo pricing, by paying current component prices. At the cost of the powder you listed, you absolutely cannot.

I can load cheaper than that because I'm working off a stockpile of bullets that I bought for as low as $20 a box. Also have bullets that were given to me. I'm working off a stockpile of powder that I paid 1/3 as much as some current pricing. Also have powder that was given to me. Same with primers, the primers I have were WAY cheaper than they are now. So yeah, I can reload much cheaper, but I cannot do it cheaper paying some current prices.
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Scheels on sale right now
www.scheels.com

Federal Non Typical Whitetail Rifle Ammunition 20 Round Box

AMMO 270WIN 150GR NONTYP SCHEELS
www.scheels.com www.scheels.com
Can't beat that, great thing about the 30/06 is it rarely will ever be out of stock and because of competition prices will be good except maybe the premium boxes.
 
RL338 said:
I like your math approach ,but I would be looking for a cheaper powder to start with.
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Agreed. My point being that prices keep rising and no matter what prices are posted, it's always cheaper to reload. No, it isn't always.

Midway has IMR 4831 for $384.99.

Using that price and keeping everything else the same, it still costs .988 per round. I've since found Hornady American Whitetail for $21.49 a box. That's $1.07 per round. Doing all your own reloading would save you $1.64 a box.
 
Ridge_Runner said:
is that figuring sales tax and gas to get there?
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No, but neither is it on the reloading components. Just base prices to compare.........the sales tax would follow the same for everything depending on the state the buyer is from.

A person could buy those boxes of ammo MichSteve posted and pay the tax and shipping a lot cheaper than paying tax, shipping, and hazmat on the powder or primers.
 
wvbuckbuster said:
Hey Jeff let me know when you're having a fire sale,getting rid of your reloading stuff cause you've started buying factory 😆 Dan.
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Ha! I'm not buying factory because most of my stuff is sitting here that I bought cheap, but even at that the link MichSteve posted is tempting!
 
Actually...
ShadeTree said:
Sorry, you keep making that blanket statement no matter what prices somebody posts. You better re-sharpen your pencil, because at the price posted above, no it isn't.

It's not that difficult to find 30-06 hunting ammo for less than $30 a box. I found some Hornady American Whitetail for $24. That's $1.20 per round.

$590.99 for 8 lbs is $73.87 a lb. Divided by 7000 grains is .0105 per grain. Using a charge of 56.5 for 30-06, that's .596 per round.

Hornady Interlock bullets are $40 a box.

You're getting new Hornady brass in that box of factory so you have to figure that in. Hornady 30-06 brass is right at $1 per case. If you're a prudent reloader and anneal your brass, figure on getting 10 reloads out of that brass.

Primers are $100 a brick.

Add it all up:

.596 per round for powder.
.40 per round for bullets.
.10 per round cost of brass.
.10 per round cost of primer.

$1.196 per round. Rounded up would be $1.20 per round. Last I checked I cannot make it in this world if I figure my time is worth $0.00.

That's not counting cost of a press, scale, trimmer, dies, etc, etc. For the casual reloader and shooter, you absolutely can buy factory ammo cheaper than you can reload at some of the prices being paid out there for components today.
Click to expand...
Joec7651 said:
With prices like that for just consumables the cost of reloading will easily equal if not exceed what factory ammunition costs. Then once you factor in the cost of quality tools and equipment it takes the cost much higher. There’s no money being saved that I can see on standard hunting ammunition. There may possibly be a small savings when purchasing super premium or safari grade ammunition.

I load because I enjoy it immensely. It’s more precise from round to round, and I can taylor the round to the firearm used for best precision. Cost isn’t my motivation, it’s the elusive pursuit of the consistent one hole group. I don’t usually shoot well enough to accomplish it, but it all becomes worth it when everything comes together.
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I keep saying that because...

It's...true?

I posted something to follow-up that post but it got lost in internet land..

Since you made the statement "keep saying that" then you'd know somewhere along the way in previous posts since you're following along I stated ...pretty crystal clear I believe....loading your own is still cheaper and significantly so using a premium bullet. The more premium the bullet the more the savings.

Everyone loads ammo for different reasons but most...(not all) but most...are not loading ammo and using a remington core-lokt bullet.

Again..most...(not all) are loading premium bullets.

BTW, Ironic to me seeing complaints of prices for things on a Nosler bullet site. Nosler definitely the most expensive of the big 4 bullet mfg's and it's not even close. Sort of funny to me...

So sure if your goal for reloading is to save absolutely positively every last penny and use the cheapest bullets possible then I'm sure you can find a common caliber like say 30-06 or .243 win loaded from the factory and either a wash or close to it comparing it to loading your own.

I'll work my math and let's see where we're at..

Sticking with Nosler bullets and using Brownell's latest high price offering for powder....
We'll use a 300 wsm real quick and use a box of 20 of comparably loaded ammo from Winchester.

$590 for 8 lbs.
That's 56,000 grains of powder.
Thats 888.888888 rounds using a charge of 63 grains of IMR 4831 per round.
Powder
$.66 (cents) per charge per round
Primers
We'll use $100 per 1000
That's a dime per round.
$.10 (cents)

Bullets
30 cal 180 grain Ballistic Silvertip
We'll even use Nosler's price on it's website
$57.95 for 50 bullets
That's a $1.16 per bullet

So far we have per round
$1.16 Per Bullet per round
$.10 primer per round
$.66 powder charge per round

Brass...
Let's use new winchester brass but we'll average it out over 10 firings per case...
$50 bag of 50 cases
But we'll load them 10 times each conservatively
That's a .10 ( cents) per piece of brass

$1.16 Bullet
$.10 primer
$.66 powder charge
$.10 per brass average over 10 firings

That is $2.02 per round

$40.40 per box of 20 rds

If we compare to the closest comparable factory offering
Winchester Supreme
300 WSM
180gr Ballistic Silvertip

Now from what I gather Olin hasn't loaded that since 2019? Supply issues...
But in 2019 that factory offering was around $78 per box of 20

If you fast forward that price to present day I'm betting they'd be around $95 per box of 20

So let's see...
$78>$40.40

Reality today
$95 SIGNIFICANTLY>$40.40

That was using Brownell's price on 8# keg
Full tilt price from Nosler on Ballistic Silvertip

Even if we bought brass and threw it away after one firing..
It's now $60.40 per box of 20 Ballistic Silvertip
Still over $30 cheaper per box of 20 if they were adjusted an available to present day price

Remington core lokt for laughs...

5 years ago on midway they were .31 per bullet
165 gr core-lokt 30 cal

Just swapping bullets and all else being equal
That's $23.20 for a box of 20
300wsm loaded with core-lokt

Even that is cheaper...

So yes...

In my world even using $590 for 8 pounds of powder it's still cheaper to load than buy...
Significantly


Hornady whitetail ammo
$42.99 box
165 gr interlock

If I load them
Those bullets are $.40 per

$33.20 per 20 rounds
42.99>33.20


Noe let's not even go dowm the road of equipment...

How are you going to quantify that?

You better add in all your weapons, optics, etc of you want to do that.


I don't reload to save money...

But it does in fact save me money and that's buying product at full tilt.
 
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