If you guys don't mind, can we get a ballpark figure while we're discussing this? I only shoot 9mm, and for me to get involved, it looks like I need to drop $2k to start and then $500-1000/yr to support a 1k rounds/month shooting habit? That sound right?
Fairness leads to extinction much faster than harsh parameters.
Your cap cost is high and your running cost is low. Buy in is about $600 for a square-d and all the shizznat. 1k rounds costs about $100 to build so $1200 running cost -- but if you cut your ammo cost in half I will be surprised if you don't shoot twice as much.Originally Posted by BaiHu
Ignore Alien Orders
Mmm. I need to go find that build your reload set up thread. Thx!
Last edited by BaiHu; 02-03-2016 at 11:48 PM.
Fairness leads to extinction much faster than harsh parameters.
I wish I still had the spreadsheet I used to add up the pricing when I was doing my research on what I needed to buy and where to buy it. I gave each needed item a row and then put prices from various vendors in the columns. The column with the smallest sum including shipping indicated where I should buy everything from (I was trying to save on shipping by using only one vendor if possible). IIRC it worked out to a little over $700 all told, and Midsouth was the winner in terms of the lowest pricing, but I already had the dies I needed for 9mm and .380, so those would have made it more like $800 if I needed them as well. It'd be easy to spend more on a nicer scale or a wet tumbling setup, etc, and there are a million small tools you can buy if you want. Realistically, though, you shouldn't have to spend more than $1000 even if you go with some more expensive stuff than I did unless you're going straight to a Dillon 1050 setup.
JAD has it right about continuing costs. 12K rounds/year is only going to get down in the $1000 range if you're using the cheapest bare lead bullets and the cheapest powder you can find and buying everything in pretty serious bulk amounts. That also assumes brass is free, which for 9mm, it usually mostly is. (I pick up more than I shoot at most every match I attend, and that's only picking brass after I help with teardown.) I'd expect reality to be more like $1300-1500/year, depending on what components you choose, and it might be more than that if you go with all premium stuff.
Just remember, you will not save any money reloading, in all likelihood you'll spend more. But you'll also shoot more for that money.
...and to think today you just have fangs
Rob Engh
BC, Canada
How old are you and how long will you be reloading?
I have been reloading since around 1975. I started with one of the pound them in, pound them out Lee Loaders. I moved up through the ranks until I now have a Dillon 550 and a Dillon RL1050. I bought the 1050 long enough ago that it cost $895. It was a good investment.
I have some sort of factory ammo cost phobia. Every time I open a box of factory, I think I am wasting money.If I have a big bag of countless reloads, I don't even think of the cost.
I buy components in bulk and have a supply to keep me for a while. None of the shortages caused me to curtail shooting.
I like Dillon Blue.
I am wired the same way. I also think nothing of spending $20 on shells to shoot $20 worth of skeet targets, but if I lose a $7 arrow it drives me crazy.I have some sort of factory ammo cost phobia. Every time I open a box of factory, I think I am wasting money.
Copy. The only progressive I have experience with i my 650, but I have to say, it can be a bit picky as well. Looks like a rube goldberg contraption to me, but it is genius, no question. Since the Loadmaster costs as much as a caliber change on the 650, I figured I'd try it one of these days.
http://www.mikesreloadingbench.com/m...0bench_022.htm
Last edited by SLG; 02-04-2016 at 07:12 AM.
I know I'm in the minority, but having gone the expensive route right out of the gate, I do think there is another way.
Figure out exactly what you will reload. If it's only 9mm, and nothing else, and that 9mm is in real quantity, and you don't have a lot of time to devote to reloading, then a progressive is the way to go. A Lee Loadmaster with just about everything you need will run you $250 shipped. See posts above.
A Dillon 650 or 1050 might be a better way to go, but will cost you way more. The Lee will cost you one full caliber change on the 650, so its kind of money well spent to try things out and see what you like and if you stick with it (many people think they will but don't).
If you want to reload more calibers or smaller quantity, or change any other variable, there are other presses and setups that may work better for you, and often cost way less.
This is right on for that quantity, assuming you aren't buying brass, but it's still cheaper than factory. I bought a case of ammo for a class for about $200. If that's what you're paying for factory you can spend $900 on equipment and be even the first year.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
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