Surprising 9mm Reloading Cost Calculations

[Luke]

The videos I've seen it looks like it takes a long time to load ammo on it. If you already have a slow press why would you upgrade to another slow press. It might be a little better, but your half way to a 650 at that point.

[Mitch]

Auto indexing without at least a case feeder doesn't speed things up much. Proprietary dies? Hard pass.

If you're only loading 1 pistol caliber save up and get a 650 with a case feeder. I wish I would have done that instead of the 550 personally.


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[olstyn]

Auto indexing without at least a case feeder doesn't speed things up much.

Well, vs a 550, it's one less action you have to do with your hands at every cycle of the press. Even if it's not precisely faster, it's smoother. That said, I agree about the SDB; if you can even vaguely conceive of loading more than one caliber, it's just a waste, and similarly, if even a hint of a want for a case feeder and/or bullet feeder is somewhere in your consciousness, there will always be a nagging voice in the back of your mind making you regret not springing for at least a 550, a LnL, or a 650.

[GuanoLoco]

Well, vs a 550, it's one less action you have to do with your hands at every cycle of the press. Even if it's not precisely faster, it's smoother. That said, I agree about the SDB; if you can even vaguely conceive of loading more than one caliber, it's just a waste, and similarly, if even a hint of a want for a case feeder and/or bullet feeder is somewhere in your consciousness, there will always be a nagging voice in the back of your mind making you regret not springing for at least a 550, a LnL, or a 650.

If you are reloading in any volume and you value your time than that nagging voice can get pretty loud after a while.

If not, a 550 will do the job but I found 300 rounds an evening session about right for me, 500 and I was quite tired. I keep a 550 for mixed calibers and within a few hundred rounds I am over it.

How much do you shoot a week or month? How many live fire training sessions? Planning any big classes where you will shoot many hundreds or thousands of rounds? Can you egt ahead of our consumption or are you going to be stressing about loading enough ammo for the next even just-in-time?

[mmc45414]

Removing crimps is another thing I don't do. There have been some crimped cases I couldn't prime without removing the crimp, but not many. Offered with my usual disclaimer that you'll be killed or wounded should you try this.

I have 45 cases I have been loading forever that have/had the crimp. It can occasionally be clunky but not that big a deal.

I bought some "raw" 9mm brass from Grizzly Targets. Their site says they are getting out of the components business, but still have 5gal buckets of raw 9mm brass, estimated to be 8,000 cases, for $139. To OH shipping was $29, but that is still right at two cents.

It was for sure raw, and some of them were crimped. I have not loaded them yet but I experimented with seating a few primers and they seem to not be a problem on the 650.

[olstyn]

If you are reloading in any volume and you value your time than that nagging voice can get pretty loud after a while.

If not, a 550 will do the job but I found 300 rounds an evening session about right for me, 500 and I was quite tired. I keep a 550 for mixed calibers and within a few hundred rounds I am over it.

I'm nowhere near your volume levels, but even so, that nagging voice is there. I have a LnL, and I'm quite happy with it, but I do want a case feeder so it'll be faster. Someday I'll succumb to the desire to smooth out/speed up the process. The budget currently says no, though, cause I'm poor, and unlike the press itself, a case feeder won't save money in the long term, so I'm resisting the urge for now. Probably a present to myself when/if I get a better job, or something along those lines.

[dbateman]

There's a lot of good info in this thread.

There's two things I'd like to add.

1. I don't count the cost of my brass when working out the cost of reloading.
I just chalk that up to a one off expense, my current batch of 38super brass is probably 8-9 years old, I don't know how many firings are on the cases but they're still going strong.

I am about to replace my batch of 38super brass but only because I've lost X amount and I just feel like replacing it, mind you I've had my replacement brass sitting here ready to go for a year or so...

2. The Dillon Square Deal B, I own one.
It was the first progressive press I owned, for what they cost I think they're a pretty good press.
Sure they are no 650 or 1050 but if someone is not shooting large volumes per year and has some spare time a Square Deal would serve them well.

[dsb]

There's a lot of good info in this thread.

There's two things I'd like to add.

1. I don't count the cost of my brass when working out the cost of reloading.
I just chalk that up to a one off expense, my current batch of 38super brass is probably 8-9 years old, I don't know how many firings are on the cases but they're still going strong.

I am about to replace my batch of 38super brass but only because I've lost X amount and I just feel like replacing it, mind you I've had my replacement brass sitting here ready to go for a year or so...

Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind, how much brass vs. how many rounds per year are you talking about? For example, you have 10k pieces of brass that you've reloaded twice a year for 8 - 9 years?

Thanks,
Dave Bateman (the one in GA)

[LittleLebowski]

I'm nowhere near your volume levels, but even so, that nagging voice is there. I have a LnL, and I'm quite happy with it, but I do want a case feeder so it'll be faster. Someday I'll succumb to the desire to smooth out/speed up the process. The budget currently says no, though, cause I'm poor, and unlike the press itself, a case feeder won't save money in the long term, so I'm resisting the urge for now. Probably a present to myself when/if I get a better job, or something along those lines.

How do you like your LnL?

[Mitch]

Every time one of these threads comes up, I get really close to ordering a 650.


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