I am just trying find some primers without paying s small fortune for.
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Cost Benefit of Reloading Pistol Rounds
- Thread starter Georgia Terrapin
- Start date
No disrespect to anyone. I am a firm believer in capitalism, and people selling products at a fair price. But I personally will never pay more for a brick of primers then it costs to get 1,000 good quality fmj projectiles. The prices are so high because of supply and demand. People are panic buying and driving up the prices. If people continue to pay 5 times what a brick of primers is worth that’s where they will stay. When they start to collect dust at that price, the price will then come down. Again no insult to anyone specifically but we are driving up the costs in our own market.
My Dillon 650 paid for itself in 22,000 rounds back when ammo was $160 per K for factory ammo. For me, that was less than 2 years of shooting. It was a no brainer to get into reloading.
Here's a current priced batch I did up Friday night. I bought the primers Tue. and got them Friday (aside from the 1k Limit, Midway isn't foolin` around)
Berry's Plated 115gr RN from Graf's $107.57
CCI #500 from MidwayUSA $107.48
Red Dot from Trader for waay below current costs..
But even at $31.30/lb (Powder valley limit 5 - 1lb shipped) = $19.67
9mm Brass is FREE, no matter what range you visit.. WMA or Private.
Total Cost for 1k $234.72
You can get setup equipment wise for $500 or less! So $734.72 for your first 1k 9mm and cheaper after that.
You can even luck out and get primers local for $80ish, 1k coated boolets for $70, and if you buy 8# of Red Dot @ once you can get down to $15.90/lb shipped..
So $166/1k 9mm range/target ammo.
Now of course this reflects current costs, not current availability.. It all still comes around, you just have to be persistent.
Berry's Plated 115gr RN from Graf's $107.57
CCI #500 from MidwayUSA $107.48
Red Dot from Trader for waay below current costs..
But even at $31.30/lb (Powder valley limit 5 - 1lb shipped) = $19.67
9mm Brass is FREE, no matter what range you visit.. WMA or Private.
Total Cost for 1k $234.72
You can get setup equipment wise for $500 or less! So $734.72 for your first 1k 9mm and cheaper after that.
You can even luck out and get primers local for $80ish, 1k coated boolets for $70, and if you buy 8# of Red Dot @ once you can get down to $15.90/lb shipped..
So $166/1k 9mm range/target ammo.
Now of course this reflects current costs, not current availability.. It all still comes around, you just have to be persistent.
I'm a plumber and pretty much have an unlimited supply of free lead and over 100 bullet molds I've collected over the years. Pistol loading in bulk gets really cheap when your projectiles only cost you a little time.
Reloading is the most money you'll ever spend "saving" money. Lol
If you reload you can do things that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do though. After the 2008 election .22 ammo completely disappeared for years. I started thinking about a work around and tried loading 7.62 × 54r brass with a 60 grain cast bullet and a couple of grains of pistol powder and shooting it in a Mosin Nagant carbine and was pleasantly surprised at how accurate it was. I now had a way to shoot pests around the house without having to pay insane prices for .22 ammo. The thing with reloading is to look at it as a longterm investment in your ability to make something go bang. Collect components and equipment over time and when its cheap stack it deep. At this point I could probably not ever buy another box of ammo and still shoot most of my guns for the rest of my life.
If you reload you can do things that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do though. After the 2008 election .22 ammo completely disappeared for years. I started thinking about a work around and tried loading 7.62 × 54r brass with a 60 grain cast bullet and a couple of grains of pistol powder and shooting it in a Mosin Nagant carbine and was pleasantly surprised at how accurate it was. I now had a way to shoot pests around the house without having to pay insane prices for .22 ammo. The thing with reloading is to look at it as a longterm investment in your ability to make something go bang. Collect components and equipment over time and when its cheap stack it deep. At this point I could probably not ever buy another box of ammo and still shoot most of my guns for the rest of my life.
Today I want to shoot 77Gr .223 Sierra match king Ammo for accuracy. I can’t get it at the store and am not hunting it down online and pay crazy high prices. I have been working on a load for my heavy barrel Wilson Combat urban sniper AR. I have plenty thanks to being able to reload!
Reloading can also allow a poor shooting gun to become a new favorite. Back a day or two when the 22lr crisis happened i was caught with only a few boxes.... I did reload. I took a very nice Ruger 77 in 223 that didn't shoot great and downloaded the 223 with a 40gr zmax (Remember those) with a case full of trailboss powder... the Ruger shoots those far better than I can. The round is quiet and was a great reloadable replacement for my 22lr gun. I sold all the rimfire stuff and bought several bulk boxes of the zmax bullets.... I still don't own a rimfire, but I do wish I could still buy the zmax bullets.
Reloading may be the only way to have ammo in the not to distant future. When component prices normalize I encourage anyone that wants to start to get busy. Unfortunately normalized prices will never be what they were before the election. The 1k primers for $25 is not coming back, but maybe $40 will be the new normal... who knows. Bulk ammo pricing will never go back either and reloading will make since for those who want to shoot regularly or possibly if you want to shoot at all.
Reloading may be the only way to have ammo in the not to distant future. When component prices normalize I encourage anyone that wants to start to get busy. Unfortunately normalized prices will never be what they were before the election. The 1k primers for $25 is not coming back, but maybe $40 will be the new normal... who knows. Bulk ammo pricing will never go back either and reloading will make since for those who want to shoot regularly or possibly if you want to shoot at all.
