That depends heavily on how much you shoot. Even at only 3-4K rounds of 9mm/year, it only takes a few years to pay off a reloading setup with the savings it generates. If you shoot 10K rounds/year, you'll be money ahead in barely more than a year. If you shoot 500 rounds/year, not so much.Originally Posted by fly out
My rule of thumb was a year to break even shooting 5K a year loading pistol and rifle ammo. 2nd year was the payout but that was before the perfect storm. If a person could actually buy everything they needed today it would pay for itself a lot sooner but I don't think that's possible. One can't even buy a basic press. Titan Reloading, Amazon and Brownells all show the Lee Classic press out of stock. I was thinking about upgrading to a T7 but that won't happen any time soon.
https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-classic-cast-press
Last edited by Borderland; 02-05-2021 at 02:49 PM.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Start buying little things like calipers, scale, etc. Build up.
#RESIST
I couldn't do 1K/month on a SS press and I'm retired. I wouldn't even want to try. 500/month would be my limit with SS. Even with that I'm eyeballing a progressive. I do like the electronic scales tho. I constantly check my Frankfort Arsenal with weights because I don't trust it as much as a beam scale. https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/fran...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Titan, Midsouth and Midway all get stock in and sell out again pretty regularly. I ordered the Lee Classic Turret from Titan for $134 a week or so ago, received it a couple of days ago. There is a discord reloading channel that posts info, including in stock notifications, and the traffic it generates is pretty astonishing. That was how I found the press. Both the T7 and the Lyman All-American 8 have been in stock within the last week or so as well. I sit at a desk all day for a living and I work at home these days so I can have the discord channel running in the background and pinging me when something comes up. That made it quite a bit easier for me.
Thanks. I'm not real fast with the internet searches.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
As a teenaged USPSA competitor, decades ago, I burned through more than 1 8 lb jug of WW 452AA / WST powder in 45 ACP loading my match ammo on my dad's well used RCBS A2 single stage press, by myself. I was shooting 1-2 indoor matches a week, 2+ outdoor matches a month, plus practice. 200- 250 Rounds / Hour IS possible on a single stage with good work space ergonomics, solid technique, a nintendo generation kid's eye-hand coordination and focus (assuming starting with brass that is already cleaned and powder dispenser was unadjusted from last loading session). That being said, I bought my first Dillon at age 18 and never looked back. I discovered that, I could without effort load 350-400 rounds / hour without working near as hard. It was no small feat to pay for it as a teenager- a Dillon meant a lot of $55/sleeve of 5k primers, $65 a 8 # jug powder, and $27/1000 200 gr. lswc's I wasn't buying let alone the number of $0.59 bean burritos from Taco Bell. Fast forward to late 2010's (excluding the current craziness) and Dillons are a bargain compared to the inflation on everything else I listed. IRC correctly 550b's were $289 in the mid1990's and a SDB was $179.
Skinner Precision LLC official Account
07 Manufacturer specializing in Competition Rifles
I just want to get away from the case handling that goes along with a single stage press. I have the time to do it but that doesn't mean I want to do it. I used to shoot a lot of trap and used a progressive press to load. A friend introduced me to loading shot shells with a progressive press and I would never do that without one. I'm not sure why I've keep putting off buying a progressive press. I might have to soon anyway because I think my reloading area is about to be downsized by a move. A progressive would make a lot of sense there as I'm being overwhelmed with brass in various stages of prep. I must have 20 ammo cans full brass that's been cleaned, sized/decapped, or flared/primed ready to load. A progressive press would probably eliminate most of that.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
I'll have to look into that one. I spend a lot of time advising new reloaders locally.
It's definitely rough. I'm currently calculating how much I can shoot given my current supply presuming I'm unable to get any primers at all for 24 months--and frankly, I can probably toss a bunch of my rifle primers onto the small pistol pyre, given I only have maybe six pounds of rifle powder total. But that's okay, 25 rounds of 6.5CM goes a long way (literally! haha, puns!). In the meantime, both of the guns I'd be interested in buying are unobtainable, as are the optics I'd mount on them. And I can't frivolously spend my money on the new computer I'd also like to build, because AMD Ryzen 9s and 3080 GTX cards are difficult, if not impossible, to purchase. The New Truck Fund grows fat.
If I were you, I would get into woodworking. Take the time to build a big, solid reloading bench. That's more or less what I've done--my reloading area is more than doubling in size, and I'm going from 2 reloading presses (one permanently mounted, the other a quick-change setup) to four permanently-mounted presses: the Lee Classic turret I started with, a Lee AB Pro, a Forster Co-Ax for rifle, and a Dillon 750 with casefeeder, bulletfeeder, and primer tube filler.
Which brings me to another point, semi-useful--you mentioned diving in with a Dillon, but look at how I'm setting my area up. The Dillon with all its toys is probably close to $2k. The Forster Co-Ax and RCBS Chargemaster are another $650-ish. But that auto-indexing Lee Turret continues to hang on. It's faster and easier than the single-stage, but can be switched between calibers in a minute or two.
Hi Wise_A
I actually thought about the reloading table. That's hard in my case. I don't want to work in the garage, it would be so nice I can be in the family room with the tv on and do the reload. That make it hard to have a table sturdy enough to put the press on to reload. I have a work room, but nothing in it, it's hard to sit there alone and spend hours reloading. Also, my work bench in the room is only a folding table, not even close to the sturdiness needed for the press. I think RCBS sells a small table, but it's like over $150!!!
Reply With Quote