As the title says.

I reload most of my ammo, but the fact is that my cost to handload cheap plinking rounds is only slightly cheaper than buying factory. That calculation is a lot different when loading match grade or high end hunting ammo, but I digress.

Trying to decide between using brass case remanufactured ammo or steel case commie ammo. With respect to reman ammo, being a reloader, I am acutely aware that it has to be done properly or Bad Things occur.

Who are the reputable commercial reloaders, who don't cause KBs?

Never had a problem with Parabellum Research

Their equipment is all computer controlled so all the rounds (.223 spec rather than 5.56 spec) in a batch are the same, and their customer supplied brass program can bring the cost down as low as $.23/round.

Black Hills blue box ammo

The ONLY reman I'll use is Black Hills...................

Just to be clear............. you are from Texas and the company you mention is in Texas..............Any connection?
Do you have any connection to the company?

Same here!

They have proven themselves to make high quality ammunition for 30 years.

Can't go wrong with Freedom Munitions

I gotta call BS. Hornady 55 grain SP cost me $.07 a round. Powder $.07 a round. Primers are $.03 a round. $.17 a round and brass is $.05 once fired and can be reloaded many times. We are talking $.01 a round amortized cost. That is $180 per 1000 for very high quality ammo. You can't find Wolf steel cased garbage that cheap, you cant find wildly inaccurate Freedom Munitions that cheap and the closest equivalent ammo is $.25 a round.

To me, reloading is way better ammo at sub cheapest crap ammo prices. $.18 a round to reload, $.20 to $.22 for Wolf/Tula steel cased, poorly reloaded mixed head stamp brass cased ammo for $.22 to $.25 a round.

A 10-25% discount for WAY better ammo is not insignificant. And you get ammo that is twice as accurate, matching headstamps, etc. .vs mixed headstamp, unknown powder charges, 3 MOA accuracy junk. I do not run steel cased in my guns, so for me, it's a 20-30% cost savings.

The cost savings is definitely there not considering labor rates. It can definitely be a great hobby to save money, but what is your time worth, if you have time available? Maybe OP works doubles 6 days a week, or maybe he makes great money and doesn't want to spend the time because his labor rate is so high he could go do some OT and make far more than he'd save.

I'm in the category of no time to spend, so this question is quite valid.

What's the break even cost as well? A single stage press setup can be had quite cheaply as far as I know. But it's slow. What, 200 rds per hour?

If you go full retard and whip out the credit card, on a progressive, you can easily drop 1500, no?

How long might it take you to save $1500? Considering you make 5.56 for $170/case, and a good brass case goes for around $300/case, you're saving $130. So we need to make over 10,000 rds to break even in that example.

In OP'S case, does he even shoot that much to make it worth it? Maybe he's a case a year shooter. $1500 investment, plus labor, to take 10 years to break even on the investment.

Do NOT misconstrue that to be an anti-reloading argument. It CAN certainly save thousands, and produce much more reliable and accurate ammo. For some though, due to time/space/money, it's not worth it.

Years ago I bought a crapload of Black Hills Blue Box 75gr, never had even a single failure.

Wow, first post to recommend the one brand that blows up the most firearms.  What a coincidence .

[url=https://www.ar15.com/member/user.html?id=456331]FritzTKatt's analysis is excellent.[/url]

I threw out a bunch of freedom munitions ammo after others were having serious problems. I would advise you to stay away from them.

Probably the worst Noob comment ever!

Go read about how many have had problems with Freedom Munitions before you start offering ammo advice.

I'm not saying that every round is a kaboom waiting to happen but its far from "Can't Go Wrong" territory.

Yup. Too many of the others have blown the shit out of too many guns.

I honestly took that post as a troll.

Reman is for suckers







But I have a box of Gorilla Troop M855 to try lol. Otherwise tempted to try Black Hills based on how much cheaper it is in comparison to new. Although MK262 would be bought new for sure.

You are getting components cheaper than me then.  0.08 to 0.09 is about what I'm getting for powder, 0.08 for bullets, and 0.04 for primers.   I'm running 20 to 22 cpr for 55gr FMJ.  Maybe if I could buy a couple of thousand dollars worth of components at once I might get my cost down, but I can't do that.

I'm already running a Hornady LnL AP progressive with case feeder, so that ship has sailed.

Though I admit I am considering selling it off and going back to a Lee Classic Turret press. The truth is that I find I don't load huge lots (500 at one sitting is the most I ever really do).  I spend as much time doing caliber changes as running and that's assuming there are no malfunctions which, inevitably there are.  Ultimately I work on it more than I use it.  Maybe I should've coughed up for Dillon but I expect it would have some of the same issues.  Oh yeah, and there's also the perennial issues with primers not seating deep enough.  This as opposed to the Lee which changes calibers quickly and generally just works with a minimal amount of drama.

That's another thread entirely, however.  I will say that that the thing runs pretty reliably running 223 and 9mm.

I use Freedom ammo, but someone on here made a great comment regarding new vs reman.  I use reman pistol ammo (45ACP) without worry all the time because the cases are virtually indestructible and the round is relatively low-pressure.  Rifle ammo, OTOH, is much higher pressure, and more prone to generating case flaws.  Case flaws are what cause ka-booms.  As such, I won't use reman rifle ammo at all, but would use new manufacture rifle ammo from most of the bigger reloading companies without worry.
I think Freedom has more documented kabooms because they sell far more ammo than anybody else.  I've heard of guns getting blown up using all sorts of big name factory ammo too, so it happens when defects make it though the line.

I could respect your comments until the last 2 sentences:

I think Freedom has more documented kabooms because they sell far more ammo than anybody else.

They don't sell far more ammunition than anybody else............. their QC sucks.  

I've heard of guns getting blown up using all sorts of big name factory ammo too, so it happens when defects make it though the line.

Every time I read of a kaboom here.............if it's ammunition related.............. its Freedom munitions............. not the others.

Is that where you send them your brass and they load it for you, or they take customer-supplied brass and load it for their general market?

Imagine brass that has been stretched far over and over, or range pick-up brass with unknown loads on it.

It's on its last leg and even a 45,000psi load will cause it to case head separate.

I don't want that brass anywhere near my zip code, let alone my range bag and mags.

This is my biggest red flag with reman.

Reloading is not a hobby.  I'm not trying to be edgy, but the right mindset towards reloading is required for it to be a safe discipline.

With a hobby like building model airplanes, maybe the worst that could happen is inhaling too much glue or I jack up my paint job and have to sand and start over.

With reloading, there are a number of things that can go wrong.

Case failure = action destroyed in many cases
Over-charged load = firearm damaged or destroyed
Incorrectly charged load (pistol powder in rifle cartridge) = firearm destroyed
Primer handling leading to unintended detonation (especially in a primer tube in a progressive machine-very bad)
Squib followed by normal load = firearm damage or destruction

In every one of these cases, loss of eyesight, limb, and even death can and has occurred.

Reloading must be treated and thought of as a potentially-dangerous discipline if multiple layers of safety protocols are no followed.