i'm not shooting as much as i'd like to since ammo is kinda expensive, so i'm considering reloading. which i know nothing about. how much money will reloading really save me? i usually pay about 31-33 cents a round n shipping ups it to 33-35. how much do you guys estimate each round costs making it yourself?  ideally i'd like to load 69 n 77 grain bullets.

the other thing i want to consider is how much will a somewhat efficient but cheaper reloading setup cost me? if i'm going to have to reload 2,000 rounds to break even maybe this isn't what i was hoping for. and what would a reloading set consist of what parts and tools would i need?

Well lets see:
$400 Progressive press
$100 Scale
$200 Trimmer, Tumbler, Other case prep stuff.
$700 Total

$0.20 to reload, $0.34 to buy and ship.
Difference $0.14
Looks like you would have to load 5000 rounds to break even.

Someone will come along and say you can buy some Lee stuff and "get started loading" for around $150 or something. Good luck loading more than 100 rounds a week with single stage press. You have a day job correct?

. While the up front cost is great, look at it as a long term investment.  Stress therapy.   You won't break even for some time and if you do, you'll end up shooting more which will burn the difference.   I shoot waaaaaaaaay more than I did before a press

Those who start reloading to save money never do because they find out that it is just another hobby that costs a lot of money and time. If you are the

type that goes to the range and shoots 100-200 rounds once a month it will take you a long time to break even. Reloading and shooting are hobbies that

feed one another. Some reload to shoot more, and others shoot to reload more. It is a hobby that requires patience and attention to detail... there is no half assing

it when it comes to safety for the shooter and the firearm.

Hard to save any money reloading, the setup cost are prohibitive. Best thing you can do is buy someone out but those are getting harder and harder to come across as most people hang on to their stuff. Get into it not with the thought of saving money but as a hobby. I have been reloading for years but still buy 5.56 XM193 when its on sale, just horde it away.

Vince

When you say you're getting ammo for 31 to 35 cent per round I would assume that it's 55 and 62 grain, not the 69 and 77 grain you would like to load. The savings on 55 and 62 grain aren't that great but the margins on heavier grain bullets is much larger, especially high quality ammo like black hills

that is correct. and from the looks of it true.

still with the other posts in this thread i think maybe reloading isn't what i was hoping for. i was thinking maybe around $400 for an ok set up. which may be doable with used equipment (unless happy's numbers were already factoring in used equipment?).

the only problem is i'm not knowledgeable as to what i would need and what things are worth to avoid getting burned on a used set up.

as for having a day job, sort of, i've got a night job, and everything to do is closed when i get out leaving me with time to do nothing, or potentially reload.

Remember you have to find powder and primers too.  Reloading saves you money for each round you shoot. When you find it easier to buy components than whole bullets because of spreading out the cost you might shoot more rounds per trip. There is a spreadsheet online you can use to calculate how many rounds it will take and based on your shooting amounts how long it will take to pay itself off. For the 69 and 77 grains tuff it's  about half price. If you buy those bullets and treat them like they're rounds you purchased full price it won't do much. You'll have to shoot those rounds all the time.

You will save nothing. You'll end up shooting more for the same cost.
Go cheap on start up will only end up costing you more in the end. It's a monster of it's own kind that needs feeding. Time, space and tools are the sneaky ones that get you, not to mention finding components you want or need. The press winds up being the cheapest cost. If you accept this you'll do ok.

 

OP how many rounds do you normally shoot in a month ?

Cost is what ever you want to make it, right now I go between 3 differnt setups, one bench has a 1050 and a 550 and another has a Lee Single Stage

Give a little more info on your goals

Do you only shoot 556/223? Some other calibers have much higher "savings" such as 45acp. I can load lead 45acp for 11.5 cents per... Tailored to my gun whereas decent 45acp ammo is closer to 45cents a round to buy.... Savings add up when shooting 200-300 rounds per range trip.

Once you get set up and get some experience with loading, you'll find that you can indeed save money loading the loads you want rather than the loads you can find on the shelf.  You can make your loads as precise as you have the patience to strive for, or as cheap as you're willing to deal with, or anything in between.  It will indeed cost you up front, but that's good because you'll look hard at what you're getting and what your options are.  Eventually, you'll get to want this or that [tool i]for a real purpose[/i] rather than just because it looks cool.

I'm with dryflash; don't let the negative posts derail you.  Give it a shot and you may find you enjoy the loading as much as the shooting.

I went with a turret press. It will never save you money. You might save per round, but like they said above, you will shoot more. Or you will buy better equipment so your rounds are better and more accurate. Then you will buy more so you can produce more rounds at the same high quality. Then you will one day see a sale on 25K primers and 50 lb of powder that you like and if you buy it all at the same time, it saves you on hazmat fee and takes a whole .03 off your cost per round. Then you see bullets in bulk for $.043 cheaper each than buying them normally. Now you are in the hole a couple grand. But hey, I can shoot 69g SMK for under $.25 a round when neck beards are happy to pay $.31 a round for crappy 55g FMJ.

Start small and work your way up as you feel the need to. Jumping into a progressive might be too big of a leap for you. But what do I know? I still own a turret press after 7 years.

I am one of those people that enjoy tinkering and making stuff. I do not drink, smoke or watch sports. My fun is tinkering in my shop.

I started reloading 2 years ago. Bought a turret press from RCBS. I started reloading doing .223. Of course I started in Dec 2012 right at the height of the panic. I found powder, primers and bullets by watching the EE here and various web sites. Even at the inflated prices I can reload a round for under 25 cents. Now that prices are coming down and I have enough stock I am buying when I see deals.

A typical range day my son and I would go through 2-300 rounds. It would take a few hours of work to get that many ready on the turret press. I tumbled, sized and tumbled again to remove the lube. Then I checked each case for length. I trimmed the long ones. Then I primed. Then I would drop powder in 50 cases at a time and then seat the bullets. Did several thousand rounds this way.

My latest purchase, 6 months or so, is a Hornady LnL AP progressive press. There was a learning curve to this press. I just put it together and was having issues priming and spilling powder. Once I did some googling I found that I needed to pay attention more to the setup and case prep. Now I have it running like a clock. I also found that swaging was giving me trouble when priming. Some pockets were tight and some were perfect. Now I ream them and have no issues. I tried the RCBS on press swager. Sold that and bought the Dillon super swage.

I run the cases through the progressive twice. Once to de-prime and size. And of course the second time to load. I still trim off the press with a Gracey trimmer I bought. I think I will be buying the Dillon trimmer for my press soon. This will save a set in the process. I also plan to get a case feeder and eventually a bullet feeder.

I can tell you from my experience just dive in. It is fun, rewarding and you can save money in the long term. Especially if you load match ammo or expensive calibers like .308 or .30-06.

i usually shoot 150-200 rounds at a time n try to go shooting at least twice a month, although sometimes i can't. so lets call it 300.  but i'd definitely like to shoot more than that.

right now i only shoot 5.56 sold off the .22's n 9mm's, i'd consider shooting 300 blk if i could make it reasonably priced.

Please, please, please do not let any negative comments discourage you.

It's true you probably won't save much money, but you'll be more satisfied in shooting

your own ammo, you'll get to know your rifle and firearms in general a whole lot better,

and you'll always have some rounds no matter what the anti-gunners do.

For sure start with simple press, most complicated you should start with is a turret press.

You can find a Lee Deluxe 4 Hole turret Press Kit for around $140. Other bits and pieces:

tumbler and cheap crushed walnut/corn cob media, case length/headspace gauge,

and other stuff you'll figure out as you go.

I recommend the Lee Deluxe die set for .223/5.56x45.

Beauty of the Lee turret press, you can buy more disks/dies and set up for pistol calibers.

Takes me about 5 minutes to switch from 9mm to 45ACP or .223.

And the turret can be used as a single stage simply by lifting out the indexing rod.

Lots of knowledge here, lots of folks willing to help.

Welcome to the most enjoyable, satisfying hobby!

***Need to make a note: most new reloaders don't know, it is a federal offense

to sell your reloads without proper licenses, and the ATF is always looking to make a bust.

Do not follow the advise quoted bellow. You can easily roll 100 quality rounds in an evening on a single stage, once you learn what you are doing. Buy one of the more complete starter kits, start small and see how you like it. If you use your own brass(or range p/u) and shop around for components you should have little trouble cutting your cost per round by 50%, start up cost not included. But as others have stated, reloading can become a hobby in it's own right.  

+1 on this advice.

Included some prices for a Lee Turret kit. A little more than $250 but will get you started.

I find that it does a good job in producing both rifle and pistol rounds.

I may not be able to crank out as fast as a Progressive, but I get to spend a little more time doing this hobby that is extremely addicting.

Free brass should be readily available at your local range.

If powder and primers aren't available locally, always try to buy in bulk to offset Hazmat fees.

If you can't afford to buy in bulk, do a group buy with friends.

If you don't have friends that reload, look in the Hometown section and make new friends.



Edit to fix my math.

The above costs are reasonable, although it may be slightly on the low side, adding in 1-2 manuals, case or headspace gauge, dies, calipers, etc.
OP also mentioned loading 62gr and 69r rounds.
For 'plinking'/general purpose 55r FMJ or SP, figure your cost will be around half of purchased factory brass ammo - this is a baseline, and holds true for me in both .223 and 9mm for 'non-special' rounds.  As you start moving into more match or special purpose ammo, the costs generally tend to be better/less than 1/2.

You'll do well if you're able to buy in bulk online (8-48# of powder, 10k primers or more at a time, ideally along w/powder, and at least 500 bullets or more at a time), vs walking into an LGS to pick up 100 bullets, 1k primers and 1# of powder at a time.
You can go 'cheaper' with various single stages (e.g. RCBS Rockchucker), but I've got to tell you - my time has value, and you couldn't pay me to load the 3-4k .223 and 6-10k 9mm a year I shoot on a single stage.  A Lee Classic Cast Turret (not whatever they call the other one, 'deluxe'?) was my personal 'lowest' model press I was considering, and wouldn't change that now (loading on a LnL AP, would buy again in a minute).

YMMV as always, but it helps to consider how much you shoot per year, and of what (weight/type), how much you spend per year on ammo, and seeing if you'd be able to spend in a 'chunk' quarterly, bi-yearly or even a single purchase yearly of the same amount to build up components, then calculate what your real savings and break-even point is.

Let's say you went with the Lee Turret kit, and along with the other bits and pieces

your start up cost was $300. I just loaded 1,000 rounds of 45ACP (I know you're looking

at loading .223 Rem) 200gr HP for out of pocket cost of $105.

That makes $405 investment for about $700 of factory equivalent ammo.

I'll burn through these 1,000 rounds by end of November, so in this hypothetical

I've recovered costs and made savings in a month after starting to load my own.

But like most have said, you really don't save money but get to shoot nearly twice

as much for the same money. Plus you get ammo accuracy tailored to your firearm.

You shoot a lot more, you spend more. Cost per round is lower, satisfaction is high and the sense of being less dependent on the whims of the market and politics is liberating.

I bought the Lee Anniversary kit, it's a single stage.  I'm happy with it and it gets the job done.  I don't do bulk shooting so it gives me time to reload before the next range day.  You can save your money and start with the Lee kit or just buy the best now.  Lee kit comes with everything you need except the dies & loading tray.  I have my eyes on the Dillon 550b but I want to get a few more years out of this Lee.

thanks for the responses guys, i realize that saving money may not be the best word for it, i guess my main goal is to get the cost per round down, so i can shoot more.

can anyone link me to a good price on the lee bundle that's been mentioned?

You realize the way you quoted with my post that it makes it look like you're saying my post was negative?

FS Reloading and Amazon list it for about $185. Amazon offers free shipping while FS Reloading charges about $25.
Amazon Classic Turret Press Kit
FS Reloading Turret Kit

ETA links.

A few good places for equipment and components in no particular order: Mid South Shooters Supply, Wideners, Midway, Graf's and Powder Valley. Get a manual or the basic set up first. Read, read and read some more.. Then buy in bulk your powder and primers, together online for a single  haz mat fee. Order the bullets in bulk(heavy) on a different order.

Price it out by piece, as you need add a double disc kit for .223 IIRC and I'd toss the Lee scale and find a used RCBS on ebay or some place

Nope, it will cost you more, plus take up space for the press and reloading table... Learned this the hard way, but I don't totally regret it.

I also would strongly recommend buying once and crying once... I went blue and am happy, I would have probably spent more buying any less then buying it again.

If you are buying premium bullets like the those two, the rounds will cost $0.25 to $0.35 each to reload.  

If you buy ammo with those bullets, it will cost you $1.00 each.  

With a savings of $0.65 per round, your reloading gear will pay for itself in no time flat.

I started out on a Lee Loadmaster and eventually upgraded to a Dillon 550.  If you are very  mechanically inclined, ie you buy a European car and are able to work on it yourself, then a Lee progressive press will work fine.  Just remember, the Lee will require a lot of tweaking and constant, minor adjustments.  It will be hundreds less to buy.

If, on the other hand you don't want to spend a lot of time performing adjustments.  You simply want to painlessly reload every time you pull the crank handle the moment you pull the press out of the box and want it to stay that way for thousands of round, buy a Dillon.

One thing I need to add that others have mentioned, over the last twelve years of reloading, I have loaded close to 30,000 rounds.  I have yet to save a single dime.  It seems I just shoot a lot more.

Exactly

You're spending around .34 cents per round for 55 and 62 grain and if you reload that type of ammo the savings margin is small but still significant in quantity. Where you'll really save big money is on the heavier stuff

It's easy to get overwhelmed when you are looking at starting reloading. I think you should go for it. At the least most reloading equipment holds value if you change your mind

After watching hikok45's video showing single vs progressive set ups I think I just want to skip straight too a progressive set up rather then spend money n upgrade later. I found the Dillon 550 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005DH9W8G/ref=mp_s_a_1_sc_1?qid=1414721142&sr=8-1-spell&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70


So. If I buy this what other equipment would I need? I may buy the press. And sit on it a while until I get more money together.

Here's a great place to buy Dillon stuff , Brian will help you set up just how you want it with all the bells and whistles or just what you need to get going.

I paid for my press doing .308. 5.56 has come down to nearly $0.27 a round for brass cases M193 spec stuff. I've even seen greentip for less than $.30 a round

Meanwhile good .308 is a buck a shot for anything other than ball, and ball is nearly $0.75. I can reload it for around $.40 for match grade/hunting loads.

9mm is cheaper to buy today than reload, 45ACP is about break even.

I have however found that I enjoy the process of reloading. It within itself has become a new hobby and one I can do at home for a few hours before or after work.

What? Where?

Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon.

V

I did this when I first started reloading because I knew I wanted a 650.  I ended up breaking down a lot of rounds because when you make a mistake you just make a lot of copies of a mistake.

After pulling all those bullets I went and got a used Rockchucker and started from I should have to begin with.  A single stage will always have room on my bench, most calibers I have two dies sets for.  One for the 650 and one for the Rockchucker.  I make test rounds,ladder sets, dummy rounds, pull bullets and make small batches of rounds (30.06 and 8mm Mauser) on it.

Right now I am playing with 300BLK on the Rockchucker, I won't set up the 650 for it until I am happy with the results I get from single stage.

If I looked at the number of rounds I have fired and then say what if I had shot the same in all factory rounds the difference would be huge. I average 2,000 rounds a week of 9mm. Winchester white box would cost me around $500 a week. My cost reloaded is about $240 a week. For a low volume shooter I don't think it would matter so much but for us high volume shooters reloading is a necessity.

The Lee bundle is good, but get a different scale.  I really dont like the Lee scale.  The RCBS 5-10 or 10-10 are much better scales than the lee.  I use Lee equipment, that scale is hard to use with the ball bearings.  Maybe it is because I had a good scale before I tried to use the Lee, but to me, the scale is hard to use. It will however get you by and is better than nothing.

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