Cost to Reload?

[STUMPJMPR]

How much is it costing you guys to reload 12 ga 2 3/4" lead field loads?  I'm interested in possibly starting.  Price of New hulls vs recycled.  I shoot about 6-10 boxes a year.  It may not be worth starting. 

[PowPow]

STUMP, I was hoping you would have got an educated reply by now. Since you haven't, here is mine instead.

I got a Lee Load All for Christmas, waited for deer season to end to start looking at it.

I haven't done any hard math on it, but just looking at component prices, it would seem that, for 6-10 boxes a years, it would not be worth it, considering that Rem Heavy Dove goes on sale at Academy sometime around dove season, and Estates are $ 4.99 a box.

I think the reason to reload shotshells is the same as reloading for rifles; either high volume shooting, or to make something you can't buy. My plan is to make some lite 20 ga 3/4 or 5/8 oz loads for my wife to try on clays, and some 12 ga 3" 1-7/8 oz #8's to shoot at doves with a cyclinder bore when no one is around to make fun of me (throw up a cloud of lead and see if something scomes down).
Don't see me shooting high volume like clays. Shooting an auto, you spend more time hunting hulls than shooting.

If you were shooting a 410 or 28, it would definitely be worth it to load. The Lee Load All won't handle those gauges, only 12,16,20.
But you can re-load once-fired 410's and 28s' by hand, crimping with a deep well socket, or do brass hulls. search Youtube.

You may want to give it a try one day, so stick to one brand of shell and pick up your hulls at dove shoots.

[dakotashooter2]

It's hard to load 12ga 2 3/4" field loads for what you can buy if you watch the deals. You'd have to buy supplies in bulk (5,000 wads and/or primers) to get much of a savings and even then it wouldn't be much. Upper end field loads which can cost $12-$15 can be loaded cheaper as can be the sub gauges.......
Based on buying minimum quantities of components
Wad -.03, primer.-04, powder-.08, shot-.10 (1 oz), hull- .03 (3 uses) = .28  shell = $7 box   maybe $6 if you watch for deals
That is figuring shot at $40/25lb    word is it may go up to $60/25lb

[PowPow]

Just ordered some shot, wads, and hulls, so I have a better handle on this.
Looks like my first 20 boxes of 25 (if all goes right) will cost about $10 per box, including the cost of my Lee Loader.
Wouldn't be worth it if I was making something I could buy off the shelf.
Plus its a pain picking up hulls slung from an auto or pump.

[STUMPJMPR]

That doesn't sound too bad considering the last box of 12 ga Federal Hi-Brass 6's cost me $14.00.  I shoot mostly 6's.  I may look into it some more after I get my other press set back up.  I'm in the process of building a reloading bench.

[omegahunter]

The way I look at it is that I am making hunting loads the way I want them made with magnum shot for what you would pick up cheap Sunday afternoon clay shoot shells with chilled shot.  But primers have doubled since I bought them last and I know that shot has also doubled in price.
 
I also make my own 3" turkey loads.  There are big savings to be had there!

[eastbank]

its hard to beat the cheap wallyworld field loads with the  increase of componets costs, but if you look around at gun shows, flea markets and yard sales you can find deals to keep your cost down along with buying in bulk with some friends. for me i also like to reload shotgun and rifle shells. eastbank.

[darkgael]

For six to ten boxes a year.....buy them at Walmart (if you can find them).
For volume loading, however, even couple of cents less per shell makes a difference. If one has the time.
I do have the time. I am loading between 8k and 10K shells a year at this point.
My costs are fairly low, even compared to Walmart.
I use a MEC 9000.
I get hulls for free....load them from two to ten times. Wads I have to buy.......at about .04 apiece in bulk buys. Primers, as noted in an earlier post, are about .035 cents each (so far = .075 spent). The least expensive powder that I know of is Alliant's Promo, with costs me 11 dollars a pound in bulk (18 grs per load = 380+ loads per pound for just under .03 a load (.11 total so far). Shot is selling here for  $37/25lbs. Now....here is helpful difference.....I have a shot asker and access to free lead. So I make shot and mix it 50/50 with factory shot for a loading cost of $18.50/25 lbs. I load one ounce loads.
So...shot is under a nickel a load. Total cost is 16 cents a shell or four dollars a box.[size=78%] [/size]
But I have the time and the tools......without the shot maker the cost would be over five dollars a box.

[alleyyooper]

Last time I priced out a cost per box of reloaded shot shells I was doing 16ga.. Try to find them at Wally world or any other box store. Hulls are what Ive gathered for years and have a couple 55 gallon barrels worth. shot was also bought by the ton during a club buy. The price I came up with was $3.63 per box. The cost upwards of $20.00 a box when you can find themn at a gun shop.
I also load for 12 and 20 use a couple of 9000 mecs for those and a 600Jr mec for the 16's. To me it isn't so much the cost savings but the satifaction for getting the job done with you own made ammo.
    Al

[SHOOTALL]

Before Bill Clinton's Assault weapons ban it was very economical to load most any shell , the ban came along and anything related to guns went up in price mostly due to panic buying. Then  the market settled down and it was once more cost effective . Then Y2K, Then OBAMA's election and now the crisis over massacres . It has been an up and down market. We are either at a up time or going up as panic buying has driven cost way above normal once more. With that said now may be the worst time to start reloading shotgun shells as every possible need is at an all time high. On the other hand some feel this time prices will not recede. My 2 cent worth which is about all it's worth, powder is expensive and hard to get. lead is twice what it was a short time ago, primers , what primers? all make it costly to reload. Now if a dealer has not powder , lead or primers to sell he has to inflate the cost of presses, dies, wads and anything else he sells to make up for the loss income from what he does not have to sell. So if money is not a constraint and you want to try it go for it but if saving money is the goal now might not be the time.