Since we are getting tied into all of the holy grails of Internet gun arguments this month, I thought to myself, “Why not complete the circle and get people riled up about another one?”
Yep, reloading. I periodically hear from people who proclaim that reloading is the answer to whatever ammo discussion we are having, and I have even thought about doing it myself, but I just don’t see a reason to do it. I have blogged about reloading at least 4 or 5 times, but it’s been awhile, so let’s rehash it
There are a number of reasons given for getting into reloading ammo.
Cost Savings
I examined that back in 2020. To begin reloading, I would need to get the equipment, so right there you are looking at $400 for a progressive press set, and another $300 or so for tools and accoutrements. Then there is the ongoing cost of supplies:
| Item | Average Cost, $ |
| Small Primers | 70/1000 |
| Large Primers | 140/1000 |
| Gunpowder | 50/lb |
| Brass | 60/1000 |
| 9mm Bullets | 200/1000 |
| .45 Bullets | 400/1000 |
- all supplies sourced from Midway Shooters’ Supply
- Brass sourced from US reloading supply
- Also note that 10mm & 308 brass are out of stock
9mm were the cheapest bullets I looked at, .45 were the most expensive (even more than rifle), so I used those two calibers to give us a good range of costs. So even assuming that we can get the supplies, it costs an average of $620 for 1000 rounds of ammo to be reloaded, plus the cost of the press and equipment, which would be amortized across the ammo you reload with it. It also takes about 2 hours to load 1000 rounds of pistol ammo. More for rifle.
Buying quality stuff, I can buy ammo right now for:
| Caliber | cost $/1000 rounds |
| 62gr, .223 Green Tip | 570 |
| 150gr, .308 | 880 |
| 9mm FMJ | 200 |
| 9mm JHP | 330 |
| .45ACP | 320 |
| 10mm | 1250 |
Except for 10mm and .308, it costs more to reload the calibers I have than it does to simply buy it, and that doesn’t even include what my time is worth.
Shortages of Supplies
Yeah, I get that you can load ammo when it is unavailable commercially, but it’s also true that there can be shortages of primers, bullets, and other reloading supplies. I think this is a wash.
Risk
Reloading carries a risk. A person loading in their garage is more likely to make an error than commercial reloading. While it is a small risk, it can’t be ignored. If you are running a 4 Sigma reloading operation, then there is a .006% chance that a round will be improperly loaded. That seems pretty good until you realize that one round in every 17,000 will cause a problem. This doesn’t happen in commercially loaded ammunition because they use lasers and precision scales to make sure that defects are rejected before they are sent out.
Conclusion
That leads us to the end. The first thing we see from this post is that there are not many things that we haven’t already looked at in the nearly 7,000 posts and 18 years that this blog has been around.
With that being said, reloading remains a poor choice, at least for me. You may feel differently with regards to your own situation. If you like to sit at the reloading bench, then this may be a good way to spend a Saturday. Some people like to tie flies, some like to load ammo. To each their own.
26 Comments
TRX · March 13, 2025 at 7:13 am
> Except for 10mm and .308, it costs more to reload the calibers I have than it does to simply buy it, and that doesn’t even include what my time is worth.
—
I went through the same figures a couple of years ago. Except for a couple of oddball calibers, it was cheaper to buy factory ammo than to reload.
Years ago when I started reloading things were much different. But after the engineered post-2001 component shortages and ridiculous price increases, that’s no longer true.
Tom235 · March 13, 2025 at 7:34 am
Reloading is a hobby. As a hobby, it represents a cash/time neutral or loss to the hobbyist. It’s not my hobby, my ammo is intended for a serious use. I buy from professionals that produce a product with equipment hobbyists can’t afford from a manufacturing environment hobbyists don’t have. Doesn’t mean hobbyists shouldn’t enjoy their hobby.
There. That should stir the pot up a bit.
Dan D. · March 13, 2025 at 11:25 pm
You perfectly described my thinking as well. Some of my friends love ham radios to death as well. I just smile and wave.
Earl Harding · March 13, 2025 at 7:47 am
This analysis is spot on for the most part.
If all you are doing is loading plinking ammo, then what you say makes sense. I do reload plinking ammo, but only because I got a huge haul of components years ago at a bargain basement price. Oh, and I tie flies too!
Where the equation really changes is with match ammo which is currently running at around $2.00 a round for what I shoot. And the various odd ball C&R rifles I have where even plinking ammo runs close to $2.00 a round. I’m loading those for around $0.85 a round. Saving $100 every time I go to the range is significant and over a year single year covers the cost of equipment.
Denis · March 13, 2025 at 8:32 am
Your assessment is correct, for your needs. If, like me, you have firearms that require obscure or hard to find ammunition, reloading becomes necessary. It is also necessary if you need or want to wring the greatest possible precision out of a particular rifle (handguns much less so).
Divemedic · March 13, 2025 at 8:33 am
That’s why I say that it depends on you and what you want.
Andrew · March 13, 2025 at 9:30 am
Years ago I traded a rifle for another rifle and a stack of loading equipment and supplies, from a guy who was getting out of it.
I have yet to use any, and actually sold off much of the things due to not being what I would use, calibers I didn’t plan to own, etc.
If I ever get another (long barrel) 357 I might experiment with loading just because I already have the stuff.
SP RN · March 13, 2025 at 10:51 am
I’m retired. I find my time at the turret press relaxing. When I was working full time, reloading never fit in.
I bought my equipment for $50 from a person selling what was left of an estate and shoot only 38/357 which is still $25-$45 for a box of 50 commercial ammo. My primer/ bullet/ powder cost comes to 18c/ round, or $9/ box of 50.
If one shoots 9mm or 223, one can buy commercially loaded ammo for equal or less than one’s cost to reload.
Yes, it’s all one’s individual choice.
Boone · March 13, 2025 at 10:59 am
At the risk of saying, I concur and bringing very little to the conversation, the above comments echo my feelings and crunching of numbers for reloading cost as well. If I was doing any precision shooting would be the only reason for me to reload again. I never encountered a rifle I could not get to MOA or less just by finding the sweet spot in a reload formula based on bullet weight and grains of powder. There was also the sweet satisfaction of harvesting game using your own ammunition, but I no longer have those hunting opportunities any more, either.
Slow Joe Crow · March 13, 2025 at 12:01 pm
I agree on reloading common calibers. Apart from some proof of concept during the crazy time of 2020 I don’t reload 9mm or 5.56mm. I do reload .38 Special and .308 because the costing works out. .38 is less common and considerably more expensive than 9mm so even plinking ammo is worth doing. It’s the same with .308, I can make it cheaper and adjust to my rifle.
Anonymous · March 13, 2025 at 12:03 pm
This comes under the heading of too each his own. I own a lot of rifles and pistols that you are not going to find ammo for in the store, I reload. 2 out of 5 sons reload, learned at Dad’s knee if you wanted. BTW 64 year old big game hunter, started at 14. I have never harvested an animal with store bought ammunition, another crazy reason I reload.
CAG · March 13, 2025 at 12:09 pm
As noted in a previous post, having obscure cartridges (in my case, blackpowder rounds for old Winchesters and Colts) is one reason. Another niche reason is for those of us stuck behind enemy lines here in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Kalifornia it’s a way to bypass onerous ammo background checks that are grossly inconvenient and block online purchases. One can still buy all the components without restriction and roll your own, however.
Vlad the non-Impaler · March 13, 2025 at 1:38 pm
Where/when did you price these components? 9mm range bullets are $120 for a thousand. (Berry’s double plated)
45 of the same brand are $180 for 1k.
For range/match work these work well.
I can’t match up those prices unless I’m buying 1k of Hornady XTP’s or Gold Dots.
The competitions I shoot don’t have a power factor. Light recoil and faster follow up shots are what I load for.
I bought bullets, primers and powder when it was cheap and stacked it REALLY deep.
Like rest of my lifetime deep.
Match 308, 30-06 and my new toy 6mmARC
will be fed their diets of match/hunting ammo as usual. I use a progressive press for pistol ammo and a single stage for rifle.
As an aside, do you expose every box of ammo to look for anomalies? I’ve found factory ammo which included 2 – 380acp rounds in a 9mm box. God knows what load those had in them! I’ve had factory 45 ammo that was loaded the wrong overall length. (A quick fix was just running it through my seating die)
It’s *very* rare but it does happen.
I’m not setting speed records with loading, 15 min per 100 and rifle gets done when it gets done to my satisfaction.
Every hobby has its own rewards and if factory ammo is your thing, okay by me.
I’m now retired so I’ve got time on my hands. Before at the fire station I was getting paid $24 bucks an hour to reload at the slow station I eventually retired from.
Aussie shooter · March 13, 2025 at 2:01 pm
I bought all of my reloading gear because of the actions of our overlords… oops I mean govt. You should read what the newly re-elected leftist govt has introduced into Western Australia. The political class are salivating to bring it into the rest of the country.
I have my own supply for my own personal hunting requirements for probably the next thirty years. Enough to see me out. Though powder might become an issue as it ages out.
What our lovely leaders will do next is go after ammo. You can still have one or two bolt actions but no seeds = no noise.
I expect a “pager-type” situation with factory ammo available to the public, to occur, slipping the odd hot load in to make people too scared to shoot. Machines are worn or whatever excuse. Courts are bought so expect limited chance of suing. But maybe that’s just what they want me to think.
The other bonus is I craft my loads for my rifle & the specific game I’m chasing. Best accuracy & most humane outcome for the animals I eat.
Phil · March 13, 2025 at 2:03 pm
You are correct on costs based on current component prices. I got into reloading years ago because I loved shooting .41 mag guns, and factory ammo was very difficult to find and very expensive when you could locate it.
Fast forward to today, and I still handload because there is an advantage for competitions that either have a power factor requirement or do not have a power factor requirement. To illustrate this, Action Pistol requires a power factor of 120, which is well below much of the factory ammo available out there – you have an advantage in reduced recoil if you can load down to the 120 PF as opposed to most of the factory ammo out there. On the other hand, there is no minimum power factor requirement for Steel Challenge, so optimizing the lowest recoil ammunition for your gun provides an advantage in recoil recovery when running the stages.
I’m sure folks that compete in other disciplines can provide additional examples. Having said all of the above, my carry gun has factory ammo in it at all times.
Gryphon · March 13, 2025 at 2:56 pm
That was exactly my conclusion, about 35 Years ago. Too Much Time, Too much Risk- a couple of Missed Charges and Bullets stuck in Barrels, that had I been Rapid-Firing, would have resulted in a Burst Barrel, and I was Out. Tom235 is correct, it’s a Hobby; I would add that if your Hobby is Precision, Long-Range Target Shooting, yes, you have to Reload, spending a LOT of Time making sure that Each Round is Identical, down to Micrometer Inspection of each one.
Don Curton · March 13, 2025 at 3:03 pm
Not to argue the point, in that I agree that currently it is cheaper to buy ammo versus reload, but some of your prices are way off and I fail to see how you get an average cost of $620 per 1000. I’m getting closer to ~325/1000 for 9 mm practice ammo and ~400/1000 for .45 acp practice ammo. Still more expensive, but not by that much. Remember the brass is largely re-usable, so that’s another one time (or periodic replacement) cost versus a constant cost per round.
I still mess with my reloading setup, but mostly for cowboy loads like the .45 long colt which is mongo expensive to buy off the shelf. Like you said, it really depends on your situation.
Danny · March 13, 2025 at 3:57 pm
Agree with your assessment on reloading. After adding up the real cost it didn’t make sense for me. What I decided was to allocate an amount monthly for ammunition. Gradually it turned into a significant stack.
Jonesy · March 13, 2025 at 4:00 pm
To be anywhere near cost effective, you’d have to have a a progressive press where you can crank out volume. ROI isn’t great. At one point several brothers in law and I contemplated buying a system and components to keep us all stacked in common calibers. They don’t train as much as they should so that became moot.
And then you have the prepper on the homestead who has enough components to make ammo for years in a long term grid down scenario.
Doing it as hobby or specialty ammo is probably where most of us lie. Lately, for me, it’s reloading .44mag
JD · March 13, 2025 at 4:02 pm
your full of it I reload at half factory price getting my brass free off the range floor.
My shooting range allows people to pick up all the brass they want.I get primers at Cabelas/Bass pro shop lg or small for $90.00 a brick of one thousand.Bullets fmj on line $80 to 120
for 230 grain 45acp and $80 for 1k 115 grain 9mm.Ammo is cheep now but back when there was a shortage I reloaded near half factory price.
B · March 13, 2025 at 5:09 pm
I used to reload both pistol and rifle. At one point I could reload 9mm for about half of what it cost for factory ammo. .45 cost about 1/3 and .38/>357 was somewhere in between. 5.56/ .223 was less than half and 7.62/.308 was even better than that.
Now the economics have changed and the only thing I reload is precision rifle ammo. I only do that because I can get significantly better, more consistent, rounds, making it easier to eliminate variables.
The economics are no longer there for reloading most ammo.
Gerald Dreisewerd · March 13, 2025 at 6:10 pm
You’re quite correct that you won’t save much if any money loading common cartridges like 9mm but step away from the common cartridges and the savings mount.
Plus there are other reasons to reload.
You can get cartridges that you simply cannot buy. My 9’s luv RMR’s Match Winner bullets but I have to reload these myself. You want .38 Target ammo? You’ll have to do it yourself.
Another aspect is accuracy. You can reload ammunition far more accurately than commercial ammunition. My best example was an HK-91 I owned some years ago. Military ammunition would shoot about a 6 inch group at 100 yards. My reloads using the same weight bullets loaded to the same velocity would shoot 3/4″ groups.
Finally you can experiment. One load I recall is where I loaded a 100 grain half jacketed bullet meant for the M1 Carbine onto a 7.62 NATO case. The load cycled the HK-91 nicely and velocities were over 3,000 fps. It was kind of a goofy load but positively explosive on groundhogs.
Steve · March 13, 2025 at 7:57 pm
If you have to buy brass and lead, yes, you come out way behind. That’s where friends come into the picture. If you have a free range, set up to collect the lead, and your friends have no need of spent brass, it’s a way to shoot for a fraction of the price of buying even reload range ammo.
Even the soft .22 lead is useful to thin down the antimony and tin that inevitably builds up in range lead.
Glacialhills · March 14, 2025 at 12:15 am
How come no mention of rifle barrel shotgun slugs. Even the ole Remington sluggers are 6-7 bucks a box and some of the fancy sabot’s are running 40 bucks! For five rounds….those are 50 cal prices. Now I could see you being able to beat that price at your home bench, even counting in your time. And I miss the Remington copper solids…so, who knows, might get a little press just for shotgun slugs.
Hank · March 14, 2025 at 2:58 am
Looked into it. Got a couple pals who have reloading equipment. They only do it occasionally, for a dozen or so rounds at a time because it’s so time consuming. And it ain’t cheap. It’s said the best time to buy the equipment was 10 years ago. Second best time is now. Came to the same conclusion as you, DM. It takes a lot of rounds to get the ROI. Glad to see I’m in good company.
Peanut Gallery · March 14, 2025 at 3:14 am
Where the cost savings can be significant for range ammo is in the sourcing of the components. Your 200/1k for 9mm is legit at that source, however it can be found for as low as 50/1k at some sites. Also, the cost of equipment varies greatly, and one can get started for about $150 all in. Plus the real savings is in reusing brass, 9mm can be reused dozens of times.
What reloading allows isn’t necessarily cost savings, but more time on the range for the same $$$, and the KSA’s of being less dependent on the market for your barrel feedstuffs. Hard to put a price on that peace of mind.