For those that reload .45ACP, 308 Winchester and .223.....

cyphur · Post by **cyphur** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:45 am

What kind of cost savings are you seeing over factory loads, and what kind of components are you looking at?

Also, mention whether you buy your components in bulk or if its in rather small quantities - I figure that will make a difference in price.

Thanks!

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:00 am

I load both.
I dont buy brass for .45. Shoot lead round nose 230 gr. Last time i did the math it was .06 ea. I suspect as long ago as that was it is closer to .10 now. Add a nickle for brass if you have to buy it & that is still $7.50 a box. Little better than half price unless you buy some of the Rumanian, Russian, or Wolf. (You guys that buy it check my guess)

.308. I load my hunting ammo & they are about .80 a shot. That is with Nosler partition bullets. Still cheaper than quality factory hunting ammo.
Practice ammo runs about runs about 15 cents. I bought 5,000 rounds of Remington 165 gr bullets about 3 yrs ago & got them for .06 ea. Brass was .02 if I took all he had. I wont ever have to buy .308 again.
I understand that the really cheap stuff is almost what you can load it for but have not bought any.

txinvestigator · Post by **txinvestigator** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:17 am

longtooth wrote:I load both.
I dont buy brass for .45. Shoot lead round nose 230 gr. Last time i did the math it was .06 ea. I suspect as long ago as that was it is closer to .10 now. Add a nickle for brass if you have to buy it & that is still $7.50 a box. Little better than half price unless you buy some of the Rumanian, Russian, or Wolf. (You guys that buy it check my guess)

.308. I load my hunting ammo & they are about .80 a shot. That is with Nosler partition bullets. Still cheaper than quality factory hunting ammo.
Practice ammo runs about runs about 15 cents. I bought 5,000 rounds of Remington 165 gr bullets about 3 yrs ago & got them for .06 ea. Brass was .02 if I took all he had. I wont ever have to buy .308 again.
I understand that the really cheap stuff is almost what you can load it for but have not bought any.

After the initialisation costs (equipment, etc) what does it take to break even?

DustinB · Post by **DustinB** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:12 pm

Per thousand rounds of .45
$20 - 1000 Primers
$20 - 1lb of Powder
$70 - 1000 Projectiles

$110 = $5.50 per box of 50

Savings of $9.50 per box of average priced factory ammo.

This is with getting free brass. Add $30 to that to buy some. Should even have a decent amount of powder left over.

You would need to load 3158 .45 bullets to break even from a $600 equipment purchase. Dillon 550, dies, tumbler, various small components.

txinvestigator · Post by **txinvestigator** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:39 pm

DustinB wrote:Per thousand rounds of .45
$20 - 1000 Primers
$20 - 1lb of Powder
$70 - 1000 Projectiles

$110 = $5.50 per box of 50

Savings of $9.50 per box of average priced factory ammo.

This is with getting free brass. Add $30 to that to buy some. Should even have a decent amount of powder left over.

You would need to load 3158 .45 bullets to break even from a $600 equipment purchase. Dillon 550, dies, tumbler, various small components.

thanks

Edit: how long would it take to load 3158 bullets?

DustinB · Post by **DustinB** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:41 pm

On my 550 I'm loading at about 300-350 per hour taking my time and being safe, so about 10 hours.

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:48 pm

My last lead round nose cost me $53.00 a 1000 to my door.
I know they have gone up.
I use a single stage loader so mine is really slow compared to the 550B.
I dont have $200.00 in all mine though. I did a lot of trading.
Dustin's figures will be very accurate.

SRVA · Post by **SRVA** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:44 pm

TI, Regarding your question about how long for 3158, it would take about 4-5 hours on a Dillon 650.

Diode · Post by **Diode** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:26 pm

DustinB wrote: $70 - 1000 Projectiles

I paid about that for mine but with shipping it was more like $99.00 Did you buy it local? I used Midway!

DustinB · Post by **DustinB** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:45 pm

You can get those prices on ebay easily. I never buy anything from midway, never seen a good price on hardly anything there. Even better, you can buy them from precisionbullets.com for $70 shipped. The prices listed on their site include shipping.

Diode · Post by **Diode** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:50 pm

DustinB wrote:You can get those prices on ebay easily. I never buy anything from midway, never seen a good price on hardly anything there. Even better, you can buy them from precisionbullets.com for $70 shipped. The prices listed on their site include shipping.

Sweet. Thanks!

KBCraig · Post by **KBCraig** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:02 pm

While you can save money reloading if you shoot a very high volume, when it comes to rifle ammunition, the main reason for reloading is to obtain the best performance and accuracy in your particular rifle(s).

Kevin

cloudcroft · Post by **cloudcroft** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:03 am

cyphur,

Although I do save lots of bucks reloading my .45ACP, I don't really know how much.

Saving money is not a major reason I reload, probably because I don't shoot that often for $$ to be an issue.

-- John D.

Diode · Post by **Diode** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:08 am

I was trying to figure out how long it was going to take to recover the investment on the equipment and even though I went with the Lee Loadmaster, I was still looking at 2 or 3 years. I will say this though, I shoot much better with my loads than the Wally World pratice ammo.

dws1117 · Post by **dws1117** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:22 pm

Diode wrote: I will say this though, I shoot much better with my loads than the Wally World pratice ammo.

Thank you very much!