[JasonJ]

I went to wal-mart for some ammo.. i hate the wal-mart.. but.. alas, ammo was cheap there.

so im looking through the glass cage to check on quanity, make sure its there.. and what do i see before me?

Blazer braass 45acp and Federal bulk pack 22lr are BOTH approx. $2.50 higher in price than last time i purchased!!!!

it now costs me an extra $5 to buy those two.. near $40 for 100ct WWB 9mm 115gr, the BB 45acp and a box of 550 bulk pack Federal.

im buying online and going to think harder about investing in reloading the 45. screw this crap.

 

[Strangerous]

yep, or buy a handloading buddy the entire set of .45 dyes, brass, bullets, powder, and primers. He will probably load them up for you on the cheap... probably for free if he can keep the powder, and 25% of the rounds, and you will still come out better.

 

[Guest]

You can get into reloading for a very small investment. If you were to purchase lee dies($25), a lee single stage loader($20), lee case trimmer ($5), a lee priming tool ($15), and a lee auto-disk powder measure($25) you would be able to load high quality ammo for a small fraction of what you can buy ammo for. I started loading with lee equipment a long time ago and never had any problems with any of it.

HOWEVER, ammo component prices are also rising, and like everything else in this economy are ONLY going to keep going up. Around where I live I can still buy name-brand primers for @ $17 / 1000 , Russian primers are going for @ $11 / 1000 and most powders for @ $20 / lb, but some areas I have heard prices are higher.

 

[Mordecai]

Cheapest lee set I can find online is $60, so where are you getting $20?

 

[Silicon Wolverine]

midwayUSA has entry level lee dies for 20-24$. the ones you are looking at are crabide 4 die sets.

SW

 

[Guest]

lee 3-die carbide set = $26
http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/167545
lee single stage press = $27
http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/167155
lee priming tool = $16
http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/167308
lee auto-disc powder measure =$25
http://www.grafs.com/metallic/product/167601
lee case trimmer = $4.50
http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/167249
lee case trimmer cutter stud = $5
http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/167346

all of these come from a place that charges only $4.50 shipping on any order, SO I don't think I was too far off on my off-the-top-of-my-head guess quoting. This would be an entry level reloading set-up ,which is what I started with and used for a few years before upgradeing to a more production based system. A person using this setup should not have much trouble loading 100-200 rnds an hour.

 

[Strangerous]

100-200 rounds an hour on a single stage press? Seriously? I'd like to get a Lee Pro 1000 Progressive Press. That's if i decided to start reloading.

 

[Guest]

100-200 rounds an hour on a single stage press? Seriously? I'd like to get a Lee Pro 1000 Progressive Press. That's if i decided to start reloading.

not counting the trimming of coarse, 100+ rnds an hour is easily obtainable from a single stage press.

 

[JasonJ]

im ok with 100-200 rnds an hour. i like to take my time. im always sad that cleaning my 4 guns only takes me 1.5hrs if i go slow.

so that list up there... is that a complete list of all the hardware i'd need, except for my brass, powder, primers, and bullets?

 

[PrimalSeal]

I can't get 100 rounds an hour with my turret press as I weigh all of my powder loads instead of throwing them... I found my powder measure to be seriously lacking in the throw department with both H110 and Unique... So, I take the time to weigh each and every load regardless of what I am reloading.

 

[Guest]

jasonj, that list is the essential components you will need. down the line you might want to clean your brass (brass tumbler), but for that if you fill a bucket with hot water, few drops of anti-grease dishsoap and a squirt of lemon juice, and just swish them around for a few mins, they will come surprisingly clean and shiny (good job for the lads if you have any running around). some day you may want to cast your own bullets, though that is another investment of about the same amount of money, and there are health risks with lead exposure, which we as shooter are allready exposed to. But that list will get you reloading quality ammo at a fraction of bought prices.

 

[Guest]

PrimalSeal, I have a 2 redding powder measures, 1 has a rubber "wiper" and one does not. The one without the "wiper" does not meter as good as the one with the "wiper" with many types of powder. The lee auto-disk has always metered my powders very good (+- .1 grain). I too now use turret press's , what kind of turret press do you use?

 

[PrimalSeal]

I have the Lee's classic turret press and the Lee's Pro 1000 progressive press.

 

[Guest]

I use a lyman 8-station All-American turret press and a Lyman 6-station tru-line junior turret press for most of my reloading these days.

 

[rimfirehunter]

If you shoot .40, .45, .357Mag, .44 Special, .44 Mag, .41Mag or .45LC reloading is the ONLY way to go because those calibers saw the largest increase in prices due to the heavier raw materials used and popularity.

I reload the .44 Special otherwise I would not be able to shoot but a couple boxes of ammo every few months. At $20+ per 50rds its not exactlly a plinking caliber, but I can reload a 100rds for half what a box of 50 factory rounds cost. If I cast my own bullets the cost would be around $5 per 100rds provided I didnt have to pay for the lead, but right now I am not set up to cast so I buy bullets in bulk and it is cost effective.

I also reload 9mm and .380acp. The 9mm is still cheaper to reload but only by a couple dollars per 100 when compared to WWB at Wal Mart. I get a better cost margin when loading .380 because its always been more expensive than 9mm. Again I buy bullets in bulk so the savings do add up over time.

All of my loading is done on a Lee 4 hole Turret Press with a Lee Hand Press as backup or for de-capping. A progressive press is nice if you want to reload large quantities of a set caliber, charge and bullet weight but at this time I dont have a need for such high volume loading.

 

[Silicon Wolverine]

im selling my .45LC basically due to ammo prices. When i bought it .45s were about 15 bucks a box for the good stuff. lead cowboy loads were 10-11. now im paying 30+ for lead cowboy and standard ammo is basically non-existant.

SW

 

[Sakdog]

Here at my local wal mart I havent seen anything but .22 go up in price it went from 9.88 a box to 11.97 (Federal value pack). WWB 9mm .40 .45 and .38spcl have all remained the same (Maybe for a short while)

I agree Reloading is the way to go. Ive only been reloading 9mm now but doing so with very decent numbers. some people consider 9mm not worth while to reload as if there is no big difference in cost per round. my cheapest cost on 9mm is Wal mart @ 15.72 per box plus tax comes to 16.99 so a total cost of 169.99 per 1000 rounds or 16.9 cents per round. My numbers so far on 9mm are as follows:

Per 1000 rounds $8 on primers (Cheap russian primers) $11.22 on Titegroup powder and $34 on lead round nose 124 grain bullets for a total of $53.22 per thousand rounds.. Now say for instance my supply of cheap russian primers dries up... and Winchester primers can be had for about $20 per 1000 the cheapest I can find out here.. thats still $65.22 per 1000 .. Signifigantly cheaper than factory.

As a side note my brass is free.. I just pick it up where I go shooting... I pick up all the centerfire brass that I can find out there and that which I dont shoot or dont wind up reloading can either be traded off or sold as scrap for about a buck a lb. or more.. which I would toss that money back into more reloading consumables bringing down my Cents per round even further. when I go shooting its not very unlikely that I will pick up 25-30 lbs of brass while out there..

Reloading is definitely the way to go. single stage is cheap and easy to learn on. once you get reloading you will likely not care too much about what your startup costs were because you will have a blast doing it.. I know that I sat around figuring my startup costs and how many rounds Id have to load to "break even" all that crap went out the window once i got my hands into it. Its a good investment

 

[Guest]

Sakdod, You might wanna check around to get a better price for your scrap brass. I have been getting @ $2 a pound, and I too find about 20+ lbs when i go shooting, which pretty much pays for my shooting.

 

[Sakdog]

Yeah i still gotta shop around.. Still havent turned any brass in... for scrap at all... I did sell some .223 to some local guy who wanted to pay $60 for 1000 empties.. Which was fine with me but other than that... Ill shop around Ive heard of some folk getting 1.50-2.50/lb for it.. im just storing up a decent sized load of it for now..

 

[Guest]

I never scrap out the rifle brass I pick up, that stuff is very sellable to reloaders. Right now, If all goes well, I will be trading 500pcs .308 brass i been saving for a like new hi-point .45 acp. I have about 400 lbs of scrap brass (mostly 9's and 40's) that I am going to scrap. My daughter (16) and her boyfriend have another @150 lbs (about 60 lbs of 22 rimfire) they have been saving to scrap for some concert they are going to. I called the scrap yard this morning and right now they are paying $2.35 lb. , and it seems the scrap prices are only going to go up.