The WalMart where I live, the price never went down.
It’s $23 / 100 at one store and $25 / 100 at the one 4 miles away.
I’ve never seen the $10 prices mentioned here from time to time.
I hear you loud and clear. Looking at popping a cherry on a brand new Dillon very soon. I bought Sierras loading book, tons of info but very nice and a good place to start.
My local china-mart just raised prices $3.00/box nearly across the board, all brands!
WWB - 45 acp now $36.97 (up $4.00)
Federal - 45 acp now $18.97 (up $3.00)
WWB - 9mm now $26.97 (up $3.00)
This sucks…ALOT!
True, but too time-consuming for me. The volumes of pistol and carbine ammo I shoot…reloading would have to become a hobby unto itself.
Rifle take longer so you have a better argument there.
However pistol goes much faster. With a progressive press it not unheard of to safetly load 200 to 400 rounds and hour. Do you really shoot faster than that?
I just loaded 50 .45 acp in about 15 minutes going slow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCFFpHyHyB4&feature=related
What are you talking in terms of volume?
I shoot and load 2 to 2.5K a month of 9mm… I can load that in 3 hours on my Dillon XL650 with case-feeder.
Rifle .223 I shoot and load about 600-800 rounds a month of match/target rounds 55g BT’s and TAC. Case prep takes me about 1-1.5 hours if I have to swage. Another 1.5 hours to load.
Total, I spend maybe 10 to 12 a month to get my required rounds spread out through the month. That’s not rushing btw, I usually load 400 rounds of 9mm here or there takes me 30 minutes.
The reloading vs time issue is all… the more you spend in good equipment the less time you spend at the bench. Invest now and be committed and your done. I spent a little less than a $1000 to load 9mm on the XL650… just machine, case feeder and dies. With my saving of over $150 a thousand over Walmart factory at my rate I paid the tooling off in less than 4 months.
What is your cost per round for 9mm and .223? Have you tried to calculate how many rounds it takes to break even given the cost of the reloading equipment?
Reloading is something I’d like to try and the XL650 looks very nice. But I’m not sure if I shoot enough to make it worth it.
Considering into the equation my brass is free… 124g FMJ cost’s me $104-$115 a K and 135g moly coated lead round nose costs me $80-91 depending on primer buys.
.223 is about $150 a K, 50% savings over buying XM193.
I know it took me less than 4 months to payoff my upgrade to a XL650 (2k a month) and about 5-6 month to pay off my $400-500 tooling investment to load .223 (quick change toolhead, dies, RT1200B trimmer, Super swage 600, extra toolhead/stand, case gauge, plus little extras.
What is your monthly shooting requirement and how much time do you have to load?
I wish I had the time to reload. Since ammo at walmart don’t seem like a good deal anymore, I just buy ammo online now.
I’m selling off my surplus CCI Blazer and Winchester 9mm and 22LR ammunition. PM if you’re interested.
I don’t shoot much at all now, partly because of cost. I was just curious about the break even point. Is it possible to load rounds with performance similar to the Black Hills TSX rounds? It would be nice to have something like that in reasonable quantity. But at $70 per 50 retail, I can’t afford much.
If your regularly shooting that type of ammo then the savings would probably be even more dramatic.
I can’t speak for loading match grade .223 but I will give you a pistol example:
I first got into reloading when I started shooting Bullseye about 12 years ago. At that time a box of Federal Gold Match .45 185gr SW were about $25 for 50. That was the accuracy that you need to compete (my pistol shot 1 5/16"groups at 50 yards with it). I could reload my own with similar accuracy for about $4 per 50.
I have not calculated costs recently but I would imagine its about $7-8 per 50 now while the Federal is $40+.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=464716
I’m not sure how you could justify practicing and competing at $43 a box unless your the Army pistol team that gets it for “free”. Especially since you need 180 rounds of .45 for a match. That $155 (vs $28-$30) to to just shoot a match…forget about practice. So you see how fast you can break even.
That’s $1400 a K retail. I would imagine even with a high quality yet modest loading set-up like say a Rockchucker single stage kit. You would easily break even after a year shooting 100 rounds a month. I can’t break it down for you to the dollar… that’s up to you but my gut says if you want to save shooting match grade rifle, reloading is most definate your means to save.
Even if I had unlimited $$ I would still reload for precision rifle as you can customize your load.
I believe the Army Rifle team, with unlimited resources, still handloads all their 600 yard ammo for Camp Perry and other long-range competition.
My local Walmart is now at over 34 for 40 S&W and over 36 for Winchester white box x100…
Glad I have a 22lr conversion for my 226.
Well put.
My volume as an absolute number doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, it’s too great for me to find reloading worth the time relative to the kind of shooting I do. I used to handload 30.06 for deer hunting, and .44 magnum for deer hunting. These days, I don’t need accuracy beyond what I can have shipped from Palmetto State Armory. I’m willing to pay the difference in price between factory and handloads so that I don’t have to reload. If I found something enjoyable about it or needed nuts-on accuracy, that would be different, but I already have more hobbies than I can juggle as it is. I can’t justify the time it would take, especially relative to my interest level in the process.
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