Does it Pay to Reload?

[Castaway]

This is my first post here, but curiosity has the best of me.  I have a press and have loaded my share of shot shells over the past 18 years.  A few years ago, I had a buddy that died and I inherited his supplies.  They are starting to dry up now and I'm at the point of replenishing my components or buying shells at WalMart.  Looking at the prices of shot, primers and wads, it's cheaper to buy loaded shells.  Am I missing something?  I don't have the luxury of buying shot by the ton or powder by the keg since I'm not around buddies that do a lot of shotgunning with whom I could split the cost.

[rickyp]

now days it depends on what you want to load for.

I just bought a box of 3" Remington   number 6 turkey shells for $6.00 this is a box of 10. right beside it was winchester for $9.00.
using  my hulls I can get a  3 1/2 lb of 6 shot for about $8.00 and 100 primers for $3.00 and ward for about  $6.00 (for 250). so I can reload  about 50 rounds for about the same as I spent for 10 rounds.

If I am loading a lot of trap loads then I could do better going with the cheep walmart  shells even thought they are not the highest quality.

[Bill In SC]

I have to agree with RickyP....

The price of components have shot out the roof.

Both me and my wife shoot skeet, and between us in practice and registered targets, we go through 20,000 rounds in a year. 

If you shoot a lot of the little guns, 28 and 410, it pays for it's self very quickly.  As Rick mentioned, for the 12 gage, you can get promos at walmart just as cheap as you can load them.

Me...  I still load the 12's and 20's along with the other ones because I have a pretty good stock of components.  When they dry up, I will have to think about it.

Bill

[Castaway]

Bill, are you one and the same that was over at Huntinfo.com a few years ago?

[Bill In SC]

Nope....   Not me...  Just went and looked at the site.  First time I have seen it.

[Castaway]

Years ago it was fairly active.  Met Graybeard over there.  Got to the point that it was inundated with trash posts by ghosts.  Occasionally, I drop by but haven't seen anything worth reading or commenting on lately.

[Graybeard]

I first went online in early 1997. Back in those days there were darn few sites such as this around. With all the searching I did I found perhaps a half dozen or so decent sites to visit and post on. Most of them now are either defunct or nearly dead. HIS was one of the best in those days and very active but Josh didn't take care of the forums and as stated above trouble makers ruined them completely and now the forums there are but a tiny fraction of what they were as a result. That experience is one of the main reason I am so strict with the rules here as I will not allow that to happen to GBO as it did to HIS.

The Coffee Shop, Shooters.com and another called by the initials SPAV were among the other sites I regularly visited and posted in those days. There were a few others but I've since forgotten what they were. The Coffee Shop got too commercial and added many people on staff at salary and just wasn't able to take in enough income to cover sit all and died. I honestly don't know why Shooters.com died but it did. We have purchased the content of that site and one day when Matt gets his round tuit we'll again post the information on our servers for folks to read but it will be read only not an interactive site where you can post.

Several of us who were regulars on those sites have since set up our own sites and many are still active. Rick Bin set up the 24 Hour Campfire and it's doing well. Jesse set up Jesse's Outdoors and Hunting Site and it too is alive and healthy. Jesse is the first one to do product reviews online as far as I know and is the one who helped me get set up to do that with manufacturers. Marshal set up Hunt America. I'm not sure if he still owes it or if it's still active. I heard rumors he sold out and that it shut down both but I've not checked lately so am not sure really.

I asked Matt to set me up a site back in '97. He asked me what the heck I wanted on it. I really wasn't sure but told him I wanted to post a bit about who I am and what I enjoyed doing and some info to help new handgun hunters wanting to get started hunting with handguns. He also found some free forum software offered by BraveNet. In those days they only allowed a maximum of 200 posts per site so when we reached that the oldest were chopped off. That didn't work too well but was the start of the GBO Forums.

Soon Matt wrote a software program using the older cascading type presentation and we used that for a few years and he even sold rights to it to a few folks who set up their own sites. But in time everyone seemed to leave that style and go to the type format we now use. Matt was going to write a program for that but it was a bit more complicated and before he ever got around to it we found other software already designed and in use so we went to the phpbb software. But we found it too easy for hackers to get into and mess things up so a couple years or more ago now we left that behind and moved to the current SMF sofware we now use. So far it's proven hacker proof for us.

Just a bit of history since HIS was mentioned here. It once was a really fine Forum site and along with the Coffee Shop were my two favorites.

To the question asked. No for 12 and 20 gauge it really does not pay to reload as shells can be bought about as cheaply as loaded unless you need some kinda specialty load then it might save a bit but unless you shoot a really lot of them it still really isn't worth it. For 28 and .410 then yes it is a good idea and you will save a great deal of money reloading them.

I also had assumed I guess incorrectly that the current Bill in SC was the same old Bill in SC that used to post here and at HIS and other sites in the early days of the internet. Hearing that he is not makes me wonder what the heck happened to the other Bill in SC. He and I used to swap e-mails from time to time as well as talk on the various forums. I seem to recall he set up a site of his own some years back but don't recall the URL to it and don't know how well it has fared.

[mountainview]

Castaway,
If you have the time and enjoy the reloading process or just enjoy creating your own personal premium loads, it might be worthwhile to get back into it. Otherwise, my loader is collecting dust since my time is limited and when I have any available I would much rather be at the range than reloading which tends to be a bit of a chore. 12 and 20 promo loads are not much more than my pet reloads and I have found that for the number of hunting rounds I go through, buying what I need through one of my clubs is the best bet. When I consider the cost of bulk purchases of components buying what I need (when shells go on sale) also better optimizes my cash flow in the long run.

[Questor]

Castaway:

You're not missing anything. You may as well get the Walmart ammo. I do some reloading because I don't like the idea of wasting the hulls after one firing, and I don't really need 1 1/8 ounces of shot. But there are no savings in it.

I assumed that the MEC 9000 is as reliable a press as the Dillon cartridge progressives. That was a bad assumption. It's just too much hassle to reload and I'll probably give it up at some point.

[Val]

You can buy cheap target loads such as the Walmart offerings and it's probably close to a wash. However for quality field loads you will save money by reloading. It's a function of what kind of reloads and the quantity you need. The cheap commercial ammo uses the cheapest lead which is softer and does not penetrate like good quality lead. Yes the price of reloads is going up but so is the price of storebought ammo. There's probably a lag in the price of some of the commercial ammo due to large quantity buys or contracts with suppliers.

[rifleman]

Sounds kinda similar to metallic reloading. For the common caliber, or non premium bullet loads, it's tougher to really "save" much. But for the unusual, or magnum, or premium bullets, it can pay back  for some.

The other factor, is as a hobby that you like to do winter nights, or as "therapy". I just love to reload, and shoot targets or game with loads that "I" made or worked up. Very much a satisfaction thing. I'd dearly love to start shotshell reloading but the majority would be for trap shooting that are the cheapest shells available as stated by others.

Dave

[Val]

I just got some feedback from some of my trap and skeet shooting buddies that the cost of the cheapie reloads from Walmart have gone up in price.

[rickyp]

so has the stuff to reload for the shot.

[coyotejoe]

I enjoy experimenting with metallic reloads, make up small game loads for the 45/70, plinking loads for the .44 mag and such. I haven't even blown the dust off my shotshell loaders in years and the last time I did use one it was to make up some black powder loads. I long ago concluded I could not reload for less than the cost of cheap factory loads which are fine for "practice ammo". For serious game loads perhaps I could beat the factory cost but how many of then do I actually need? For most hunting a box of 25 will last me several years, except for dove hunting, where again I am satisfied with the cheap factory stuff.
  When reloading shotshells the only thing we reuse is the cheap plastic hull. For all of the other components we have to pay much more than the ammo makers pay for the same items, in fact we buy most of our components from the ammo makers, so why would there be any savings?

[jbmi]

With the components I have on hand I am still reloading quality shells for $3.65 a box. These are 1 1/8oz loads using new #8 shot, Remington STS, or Winchester AA hulls.
I've also found reloading the cheaper hulls like Gun Club, Top Guns, and Estate hulls work great for about 2 or 3 reloads then get tossed. I use 1oz. of reclaimed lead, and get all the free hulls from the dumpster, I can reload these at less than $3.50 a box. I practice with the 1 oz and shoot competition with the 1 1/8 oz.  I really can't see any difference in my scores, but it's a mind game thing for me.
I enjoy reloading, last year I reloaded a little over 14,000 12 ga. trap loads. I have the time to do it and would rather be reloading than sitting in front of the TV.

[woods]

     You will save alot on the smaller guages, I shoot a 28 ga. and for winchester AA it's 9.50 a box. A round of sporting clays costs me 19.00 I can reload these for about .08 cents a shell. You also must realize the larger lots of componets you buy the cheaper you can reload. I purchase lead by spliting the cost among other reloaders by the pallet  and powder by the 8 lbs keg and primers by the case split among the same fellows. If you can get together with a couple other reloaders you can save alot in bulk.

     woods.

[SuperstitionCoues]

I don't know about saving $$$ anymore.  I load my own so that I can customize my 7/8 and 1 oz.  target and field loads so they are a little lighter than standard factory ammo, and a little heavier than the managed recoil stuff.  For me, that is where the economy is.