Reloading Rifle Cartidges

[riffer]

For thoughs of you who reload your rifle cartridges, can you tell me what it costs you to reload a box of 20? As well as what bullets you are using, and what it cost for a factory box of the same thing.

Thanks

[Dick284]

You know it really depends, on caliber(powder charge, bullet weight) and the style of bullet you want to run.
In my experience it falls some where from 1/3 to 1/2 the price of a comparable box of ammo, depending how frugle you are on where you buy components or if you buy your components in bulk.
In reality it makes little diffrence ,you will end up shooting to your budgetary constraints, reloading will just let you shoot more.

[220swifty]

All comes down to caliber, cartridge, bullet choice etc. Everything will vary, and so the cost varies, but is generally cheaper than factory loading. A breakdown for my 223 would look like this per round.

Primer $0.04
Powder $0.10
Brass $0.04 (based on 5 loadings of a single casing, at $0.20 per case_
Bullet $0.20 (50 gr nosler ballistic tip)

Total cost per round= $0.38 , plus this is tweaked to my rifles liking, nice and accurate.

A similar factory load would be the wincester premium with a 50 gr CT Ballistic Silvertip (same bullet with moly) at 21.99/ box or 1.10/round


Now, into more of a powder pig, my 338 win mag costs the following to reload.

Primer $0.04
Powder $0.30
Brass $0.10
Bullet $0.65 (225 gr nosler accubond)

Cost per round $1.09

The factory offering from federal with the same bullet is 46.99/box or 2.35./
round.

Hope this awnsers your question. I did not factor in initial setu pcosts, because it is really something i dont consider. If i thought of that, handloading would be more expensive very fast. I also just showed this to the wife, and now she understands why i hang out in the basement alone from time to time, and why it is good for us as a couple.

[brett01]

yep she all depends on calibre, powder, bullet selection ect. i mainly do it as a hobby and a way of getting all i can get out of my guns. I stock pile, have an 8 pound Keg of Powder plus numerous small ones, thousands of primers and lead. innitial start up cost is what gets a guy. If you look you can get an RCBS master reloader kit on sale for around 400 bucks. But you still need a tumbler, primer pocket brushes ect. Then dies at 50 bucks a pop. But hey a box of 20 bullets now adays is all of that and dies work forever! Its an interesting hobby to get into, its how i occupy some time durring the winter

[twofifty]

I'm brand new to reloading (have only reloaded 240 rounds) and have benefitted from experienced friends showing me what, why and how. Others here will for sure chime in with advice based on their years of experience.

Here's some info to help you decide where to spend your hard-earned money:

If you've been shooting your rifle for awhile and have kept the brass, that saves you much $ from the get-go. Keep that brass in the box you bought it in, and try to buy several boxes at once, from the same batch number if possible. Once-fired name-brand brass is perfectly fine, as long as you match it up with the right components (get a manual!). If not, a bag of 100 brass will keep most guys shooting for a couple years.

If you're reloading for hunting and fun practice at your local range (not serious comps), you do not need to go nuts on equipment and procedures.

For example, case prep/primer pocket reaming/flash hole uniforming/neck chamfering, de-burring, sizing, reaming and concentricity/case trimming work and tools add up to much $ and time. Case work and case sorting/weighing yields very very subtle improvements in accuracy - something the best of the benchrest/F-class crowd need to be competitive.

Case cleaning with a media tumbler is not essential as long as you don't always eject your brass onto the ground. When you do, wipe them clean (steel wool if there's a powder buildup on the neck), then make sure there is no grit inside, and you're good to go. Case cleaning tumblers are nice but expensive. Get one later if you find that you need one...prolly sooner if your rifle is a semi-auto. You can usually get several reloads out of each once-fired brass before it needs to be seriously cleaned. Grit on a case is what scratches the dies, and what causes brass to stick in a die.

Case trimming is not essential as long as you have a micrometer to keep an eye on case growth. When your cases stretch beyond max spec, put them aside in a marked container and start reloading your other empties. You can trim them later when you have the money to buy the case trimmer.

Some decisions you'll have to make include:

- whether to get neck-sizing only dies, or full-length sizing dies. (most full-length resize)
- a single-stage press, or a progressive press. (most use singles)
- whether to get a manual powder dispenser and beam scale, or an electronic version ($$$). Be aware that the electronic gear is fast and convenient, but many have experienced load fluctuations, drifting zeroing and other weirdnesses that do not lead to confidence in the amount of powder actually dispensed. An overloaded cartridge can maim or kill you. Others love their electronic setups.
- whether to prime at the press, or with a hand-primer.
- what case lube setup to use.
- bullet puller? maybe you can rely on a reloading buddy's for those occasional screwups.

Important things are to work up a load gradually, look for signs of overpressure on the case, do not stray above the recommended max loading for your brass-primer-powder-bullet-action combo, read your manual, be organized and always pay attention to what you are doing.

Have fun.

[riffer]

Yeah I just would reload for hunting and shooting at the range, how much do you think it would cost to get set up?

[frenchwhitey]

If you want to get into reloading, do it for another reason than saving money. Yes it's cheaper to reload but take into effect the cost of getting started and it'll be a while before you see some money saved. Most guys do it as a hobby and a way to get a super accurate load for any particular rifle. The way you can fine tune loads to get way better results than factory ammo is reason enough for most reloaders to do it. Not trying to discourage you, I love to reload but I've spent over a grand on gear and I'm not as involved as some guys are. You can buy really nice kits with tough single stage presses from RCBS, Lee, Hornady, Redding and Lyman for under $500 and they include everything that you would need for quite some time until and only if you get more involved. Electronic scales and measures are nice but they usually only come in handy when you're pumping out hundreds of rounds on a consistant basis. One thing if you do start to reload is get yourself a bunch of manuals. It's nice to have a wide selection of loads to choose from with different bullets. I've been reloading now for a few years and I'll never stop. Good Luck.

[frenchwhitey]

I use the Lyman Crusher II kit and I love it. Got it for around $400 dollars at Wholesale.

[twofifty]

In the current Russels catalogue, for a single-stage press, dies and shell-holder, manual powder dispenser, pow trickler and beam scale, funnel, case lube kit and neck brush, hand-primer, 2 loading blocks, caliper, manual:
$481 plus taxes for the above.

This is stuff that you put together, different brands, not a same-brand kit.

Then you need components.

[Ron AKA]

You can get set up with Lee equipment for about $150 or so. I would not use the powder measure and I weigh every load with scales. These kits do not include dies so you have to count on adding $17 or more to get a two die rifle set.

http://www.wholesalesports.com/onlin...ory=1051005501

As far as components go just go to Wholesale Sports and price them out. You need one primer, one bullet, and some powder for every load. Also to get started you need to buy the brass. To estimate powder costs you need to know the caliber and # of grain of powder to be used. There are 7,000 grains in a lb. of powder.

Ron

[riffer]

Originally Posted by Ron AKA

You can get set up with Lee equipment for about $150 or so. I would not use the powder measure and I weigh every load with scales. These kits do not include dies so you have to count on adding $17 or more to get a two die rifle set.

http://www.wholesalesports.com/onlin...ory=1051005501

As far as components go just go to Wholesale Sports and price them out. You need one primer, one bullet, and some powder for every load. Also to get started you need to buy the brass. To estimate powder costs you need to know the caliber and # of grain of powder to be used. There are 7,000 grains in a lb. of powder.

Ron

Thanks, do you have any idea of how many grains would go into a 270?

[Dick284]

Originally Posted by riffer

Thanks, do you have any idea of how many grains would go into a 270?

Do your math on 60 grains of powder, you'll likely use less in a lot of cases but 60 should give you a good idea.

[Canuck44]

My 270 costs about 55 cents a pop not including brass, this is for a a sierra or speer spitzer boattail, noslers cost a bit more, I get about 120 rounds out of a pound of powder.

My 45-70 can be relaoded as cheaply as 30 cents each for cast bullets which is a lot cheaper for plinking than the 1.50 each for the store boughts.

The thing I like about it is you can shoot more and get more variety of load options. I haven't seen 90 gr hollow points at 3500fps for a 270 or 500 gr solids at 1600fps for a 45/70 in a store.

[Ron AKA]

Originally Posted by riffer

Thanks, do you have any idea of how many grains would go into a 270?

It would be 40-60 grains depending on the bullet weight and powder used. You can check the combinations here for some of the powders.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

Ron

[surhuntsalot]

Originally Posted by riffer

Yeah I just would reload for hunting and shooting at the range, how much do you think it would cost to get set up?

Just don't forget to check out Ebay , some nice sets come up frpm time to time at a fraction of the cost.

[Unregistered user]

Look past the cost, you'll load better ammo. My new Stevens 7-08 shoots cheapy 140 gr Core lokt into 3" New Win brass and 130 SMK and 162 A-Max under an inch. I'm sure premium loaded ammo would do as well but at much higher cost than Rem Express. When I go back with fire-formed neck-sized brass (Colletts rule) I expect tighter groups. Have a look at www.leeprecision.com 50th anniversary kit with the new breech lock feature(Good product review on there). About as cheap as it gets and very good performance. I have the Lee Classic cast press and it's as solid as any other brand for half the money.