Why Reload

[longtooth]

No more daughters so that is out. I have adopted a few young guys over the yrs that needed instruction in arms, hunting, patriotism, & most of all Christian living. If you are underpriviledged, in trouble, & really hunting a way out of a bad life I am open to another. If you are blessed, responsible, & mature you need to adopt one. It is more blessed to give than receive.

[tehlump]

Tomneal-I'm interested in the cost savings of reloading .45 ACP.

Can you break down the price of reloading a single round of .45 FMJ?

I tried to do it once, but there are so many options such as powder type, case type/manuf. bullet manuf. etc...I didn't know where to start. I'm interested in reloading to allow me to shoot more for practice.


What would a person need to get into reloading? Not top of the line, but it would be nice if a person had the ability to reload different rounds...dies? I have 2 guns currently that I would like to reload....45acp and .30-.30. Would it be possible to buy a machine that could reload both? Currently I can buy 100 rounds of Winchester white box value pack .45 ACP for $20, obviously that works out to about .20/cartridge. So, to figure out the time to recoup my initial investment, I need to know two things, the cost of each reloaded round and the intitial cost of the equipment.

Thanks for any help!

[tomneal]

Here is the .45 ACP Cost break down from memory

Brass - Free (just scrounge it up from the range)
Primers - 5000 Sleave is around $73
Powder - I was using Winchester 231 Powder Valley has it for $98 for 8 pounds. There are 7000 grans in a pound. That would build around 10,000 +/- rounds using my old load.
Bullets - $45 per 1000 Lead 200 grain Semi wad cutter

So...
cost per round
$0.0146 - Primer
$0.0098 - Powder
$0.0450 - Bullet
$0.0000 - Brass
=============
$0.0694 - Total per round

or
$3.47 per 50 round box


That doesn't include tax and shipping.
I didn't do FMJ because I don't reload them.


Does that help?

[tomneal]

If you are only going to plink a little with your .45 then
you would come out ahead financially to just buy factory ammo.

If you plan to shoot competitions and practice a little then
you will come out ahead to reload.

$200 per 1000 rounds of .45 FMJ Factory
$70 per 1000 rounds of .45 200 Gr. Lead reloads
===============================
$130 per 1000 in savings

Times
5000 rounds per year (I shoot a 100 round match nearly every weekend and practice a little. I consider 5000 rounds a year pretty normal.)

That gives you about $650 in savings per year to "play with".

For that kind of money you can buy a Dillon 650 with a case feeder. Which is the top of the line reloaded for individuals. With the Dillon no bull guarantee, you won't take a big hit if you decide to sell it after a few years.

[Charles L. Cotton]

In addition to Tom's information, you can buy copper plated 230 gr. .45 ACP for $65 to $85 per 1,000, the last time I bought those. I now buy 230 fr. FMJ's in bulk and they can be had for around $75 to $80 per 1,000 (it varies a lot between purchases).

I my total cost for 1,000 rds of 230 fr. FMJ's is $95, with my current inventory. It may go up when I reorder.

Like Tom, I don't include the cost of brass. I must have 10,000 rds and it lasts a long time, unlike high pressure cartridges. I never buy new brass. When my wife and I go to Thunder Ranch, I buy factory ammo and bring the brass back. We always take 2,000 rds or more, so that's why I have a good supply. I used to buy S&B (good ammo), but it has a tight primer pocket (not crimped) that causes a problem with about 5% to 10% of the cases when reloaded the first time. I now buy Remington "Green Box" for less than $200/1,000, plus tax. I also like the Winchester "White Box."

Regards,
Chas.

[longtooth]

tehlump, I wont try to repeat above just confirm all. I load for about .07 a round too. Never bought any pistol brass of any caliber. Easy enough to pick up at the range. I have given brass to starters. If you are close to Lufkin would do the same for you. Also there is a FTF free brass add in this forum if you are close to Spring I believe. If you don't shoot 5K a yr and don't want to spend a Dillon $ then RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme is a good loader. It is what I use & load all my whole family can shoot. Me 2,000 .45 a yr. 500 .308, Mom & Wife 2,000 .380, son .40 & .223. Son-in-law .38 sp. All my hunting ammo in .308, .300 WSM, 30-30, Mom's 25-06. Wife won't hunt. I will say that I don't set & watch TV. Neither do I load for 2 hr. If 2hr at a setting is all you have, the single stage loader is going to be too slow probably. I will spend one evening sizing & belling 2,000 or so, then another evening,maybe a week later priming. I will then have a long half day or a late night in the loading room at another time to load them. If it is a job to you & you need the savings to pay you for your time I doubt you will stay with it. If you enjoy it as most of us do then you will. Questions or anything I can help you get started with let me know.

[tehlump]

thanks for the huge amount of information!

I'm still processing it so there may be questions to come.

I am extremely interested in competition shooting, however as I'm sure you guys know, it's not the cost of the weapon, it's the ammo costs for practice and actual competition. That is mainly why I'm interested in reloading...to make competition more affordable.

LT-I don't have time to watch much TV. I have a 11 month old son and work fulltime and go to school 3/4 time!!! I can watch the Cowboys play on Sunday and that's about it. My free time is mainly spent reading. I think that I would enjoy the experimentation of reloading...seeing what works best for my weapon. I believe I would enjoy the relaxation of reloading...some time to concentrate on a simple task with the bonus of having tangible results when I'm through for the day.

where can I find a reliable internet source for reloading equipment? I would like to check prices on the RCBS and Dillon.

[one eyed fatman]

I reload 22-250 for half the cost of store bought.

[tomneal]

If you want to cast your own bullets please contact me off line.

tomneal@houston.rr.com

I have some Lyman casting tools that are available to someone that will use them.

[seadawg221]

I have an "Reloaders Cost Calcualtor" that I built in an Excel Spreadsheet
that I can email to anyone who would like to have it.

Like the others here I have found that I can reload the 45acp for about half the price of store bought ammo.

I normally use Bullseye Powder, Winchester Primers and Barry's Plated RN bulletts.

[Warhorse545]

I reload for the .45 Both APC and Colt. And for several rifles that you just can not readily find ammo for. The Carcano and Swiss Rifles come to mind. The 7.5 Swiss is out there, but with the large number of rifles coming into the country I do not see the ammo supply holding out.

I originally got into reloading for some 8mm's that I had when there just was not a lot of Surplus 8mm ammo around. That situation has changed, but I foresee that it will dry up in time again.


With reloading I can shoot my older rifles and not be worried that I will not be able to find ammo for.


Stacey

[ExNavyInHouston]

I reload for the pure joy of it. I rarely even worry about the costs and certainly don't factor it in my loads.

I reload 9mm ammo for IDPA shooting and love experimenting with different powders and bullets. I love taking them out to the range to put them through the Chronograph.

I know some guys make a sport out of find the lowest cost source for powder, primers, casings and so on. I just leech off their knowledge. However, I do share my chrony info (my unscientific research).

I have the luxury of not having a spouse to explain why I need Vhitavouri powder - haha!


Charles A.

[longtooth]

Welcome aboard ExNavy. Glad to have you & especiall another loader aboard. I am not new at loading but definately not one of the seasoned, experienced, encyclopedic, old hands. I look forward to learning from you.

[TX Rancher]

I agree with all the reasons listed on this thread, and while I like the reduced cost of reloading, it’s not the major draw for me. The main one is the ability to “customize� my loads.
My rifles all have a different “load� they like. By balancing bullet weight and velocity, I can substantially improve the accuracy of my long guns and still maintain knock down power for hunting or defense. Even if reloading wasn’t cheaper, I would still do it for my rifles just for the accuracy.
My pistols are a different story. To me my pistols are for defense exclusively, and as such reliability is more important then tack driving capability, so I reload pistol for a different reason.
During practice I noticed my wife would do well for the first 15-20 rounds and then her groups would start to expand. By 50 rounds she was having a hard time keeping double taps in Center Of Mass (COM) on the target from ~ 15 ft.
Her choice of weapon is a Kimber CDP (45 ACP), and when using full load defensive rounds it can have a non-negligible kick. Basically, she was developing a flinch. I would have her dry fire and the flinch would go away, but next live fire practice it would come back, and I noticed each time it took less rounds for the flinch to appear. Her desire to live fire practice started declining so things were obviously going in the wrong direction…
Enter reloading as the solution. I down-loaded rounds to the lowest level that would consistently cycle her Kimber. The recoil was substantially reduced, and we could practice literally for hours with no sign of her developing a flinch. To me, the recoil is on the level of a Glock G19 (9mm), actually slightly less. Her accuracy has improved dramatically and so has her speed.
After several sessions with the light loads, to determine if they were have a detrimental effect on her ability to hit with defense power loads, I had her use full power loads at the end of the next session. Accuracy was not impacted at all and her time was only minimally impacted. Of course time from the buzzer to first hit was not impacted at all.
So now when we practice the first and last clips are defense rounds, all others are reloads.
To me the bottom line is she practices more, is more accurate, faster, and much more confident in her ability. All that due to reloading…how do you put a price on that?
My pistol reloads are for practice, competition, and plinking only. For carry I use brand name ammo. While I have excellent success with my reloads, my quality control is probably not as good as say Federal or Winchester and I don’t want to trust my reloads for carry. There’s also the legal issues, if I’m forced to respond to a threat with my firearm, I suspect using factory ammo would play better with a jury then reloads. But this is secondary to the reliability issue (a distant second at that!).