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Posted: 8/3/2014 4:54:07 PM EDT
What is your component cost per round for plinking .223 ammo? I've come up with about 25 cents per round with recent component costs (reloading brass 4 times).If only I had got into reloading 10 years ago and stacked it deep  .
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todays prices buying in bulk, it comes to 19 cents. .03 primers, Winchester local buy. I know that's cheap for primers, so add 1 penny, if you pay $40/1000 .09 55gr xtreme FMJ includes shipping .07 powder, local gun store. I purchase 8lbs Win 748 or sometimes AA2230 at once. |
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Range pickup brass/Tulaammo boxer primed steel: Free Fiocchi small rifle primer: $0.035 23.8gr H335 @25.99/lb: $0.088 69gr Swaged .22lr jacketed soft point: Free (if you really want to pinch pennies, maybe $0.0001 from the cost of electricity to melt the lead, as lead and .22 cases are mined from berms and picked up from the range). Total cost: Under 13 cents per round ($0.1231) Yes you could say my time is also worth money, but as a part-time/self employed, full time university student, my time is worth NOTHING!  Edit note: These are my current replacement costs, I stocked up well before the panic so my current powder and primer costs are $0.025 and $0.04 respectively, giving a sub 7 cents per round cost. |
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todays prices buying in bulk, it comes to 19 cents. .03 primers, Winchester local buy. I know that's cheap for primers, so add 1 penny, if you pay $40/1000 .09 55gr xtreme FMJ includes shipping .07 powder, local gun store. I purchase 8lbs Win 748 or sometimes AA2230 at once. Pretty much the same components/powders as you at the same prices. |
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Pretty much the same components/powders as you at the same prices. Quoted:
Quoted:
todays prices buying in bulk, it comes to 19 cents. .03 primers, Winchester local buy. I know that's cheap for primers, so add 1 penny, if you pay $40/1000 .09 55gr xtreme FMJ includes shipping .07 powder, local gun store. I purchase 8lbs Win 748 or sometimes AA2230 at once. Pretty much the same components/powders as you at the same prices. |
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Guess I'm close in costs on components.
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These are my current replacement costs, I stocked up well before the panic so my current powder and primer costs are $0.025 and $0.04 respectively, giving a sub 7 cents per round cost. I had a 100rd box of WWB the price tag was $11. I would just shoot once in a while back then, but now that I'm able to shoot more, prices are up there. |
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.03 primer, bought local on sale, stacked deep.
.08 Hornady 55gr SP, bought on sale, stacked deep. .107 H335, 25grs, bought local $30/lb, didn't stack very deep. .00 Free range brass, all current LC. $0.217 per round for 2K rounds = $434 for 2 50 Cal ammo cans full of shooting pleasure. |
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A friend and I go in half on everything.
We lucked into almost 1000 cases from a couple of guys stationed at Jackson that were at the range with their GFs blowing through ammo. I had a buddy on another forum, he's here too, donate he and I 800 55gr Hornady's during the panic, and I had two boxes of 100 that I had $8 each in. I had powder I bought for $18, Varget, before the panic, but we bought some AR Comp for $25 in the middle of it. To get 1000 rds it will average me $23 per lb. I bought 5000 CCI 5.56 primers along with 1000 large pistol magnums , using discounts during the panic, but sold three 5.56 cases at enough profit to pay for the two remaining that I have as well as the pistol ones, so I have nothing in the primers. So, with that info, using the hand load calculator from handloads.com, Cost / round $ 0.103 Cost / 50 $ 5.16 Cost / 1000 $ 103.13 |
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Best I can come up with at current market prices:
$0.0812 - Hornady 55gr SP ($487.24/6000ct shipped from Midsouth) $0.0667 - 25gr H335 (6 jugs at $141.50 from Powder Valley, total of $896.50 shipped) $0.025 - Tula Small Rifle ($125 per case, local) $0.00 - Brass (If you can't find 556 for free then something must have happened politically in the last 2 years) Total: $0.1729 per round Per 1k = $172.90 This is pretty close to as cheap as you can get in today's market. Obviously you can do it cheaper by factoring in cost offsets by selling off extra stuff, making your own components, or using your components that you bought years ago at lower prices. |
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todays prices buying in bulk, it comes to 19 cents. .03 primers, Winchester local buy. I know that's cheap for primers, so add 1 penny, if you pay $40/1000 .09 55gr xtreme FMJ includes shipping .07 powder, local gun store. I purchase 8lbs Win 748 or sometimes AA2230 at once. This is pretty close. Can get bullets for .08 if you look and primers for 2.5. |
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27 cents: .04 primers .14 bullets (55gr Hornady bought locally) .09 powder (bought locally by the pound) The brass doesn't cost me anything, as I get more free once-fired brass from friends than I'll ever need. Sweet baby Jesus you need to order your bullets online sir! 
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Sweet baby Jesus you need to order your bullets online sir! Quoted:
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27 cents: .04 primers .14 bullets (55gr Hornady bought locally) .09 powder (bought locally by the pound) The brass doesn't cost me anything, as I get more free once-fired brass from friends than I'll ever need. Sweet baby Jesus you need to order your bullets online sir! Yeah, I'm loading quality 6.8 ammo for a tad more than that. I'm in it right now for .30 cents a round, once I need more primers it will jump to .40 cents, but this is match ammo or premium hunting ammo. I could load the cheap fmj stuff for .22 cents per. |
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Quoted:
Sweet baby Jesus you need to order your bullets online sir! Quoted:
Quoted:
27 cents: .04 primers .14 bullets (55gr Hornady bought locally) .09 powder (bought locally by the pound) The brass doesn't cost me anything, as I get more free once-fired brass from friends than I'll ever need. Sweet baby Jesus you need to order your bullets online sir! I can save another 5 cents or so if I buy in bulk, which still puts me around 22 cents a round. |
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My .223/5.56 is precision I suppose, but it's my all around round and used for plinking. It's about .25 a round.
Hornady Z-Max 55gr 26.4gr Hodgdon CFE-223 LC once (twice or thrice)-fired brass CCI 5.56 primers (#41?) That's not buying in bulk, aside from the Z-Max in boxes of 500 |
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Quoted: I'm reloading plinking rounds for $.0849 per round. I still have another 8k components at that price. We bought about the same time. I'm doing M193 loads for 8.1ยข per round and have just over 9,000 rds of components (surplus 55grn M193 bullets, Win SRP, H335, LC brass) left too. In addition, I've got components (68grn Hornady bullets, TAC, Remington 7ยฝ primers, Win brass) for slightly over 6,000rds of precision, 500yd loads at 15.9ยข per round on top of the the 55grn ammo. When I bought them, I thought I had enough to last forever, however, then my son go into shooting big time and he's eating up my reserves. |
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Since I replace every round I shoot at the time I shoot it, my price varies with the times. Right now, it's hovering around $0.21/round for 223 55 grain, $0.15/round for 45 and $0.11/round for 9mm.
The way I figure it, the cost of the components I first stocked up were a one-time charge, and the continued real-time cost of shooting as I replace components is the operational cost to track. Obviously buy cheap, stack deep, etc. - that will make things rosier to a degree. |
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.04 cents per primer (CCI-BR4).
77 grain Sierra Match Kings @ .21 cents each. .07 cents for 23.5 grains of Varget purchased in 8lb. quantities. .10 cents per case for new Winchester brass purchased in bulk 20 years ago. Five reloads per case reduces that cost to .025 cents per round. .42 cents per round ($8.40 cents per box of 20) for custom tuned match ammo designed specifically for accuracy through my rifle. Federal 77 grain Match ammo costs $1.50 per round and does not perform as well as my handloads. The cost drops .025 cents per round every time I reload the case until five firings, then it's sold for scrap. Surplus Lake City is still widely available but doesn't compare with the money I saved buying 4550 new Winchester cases in the early 90's for $440.00. It's been over a decade since large quantities of new bulk brass has been available for purchase. If I were stating out now I would purchase a large quantity of Lake City once fired and prep it myself. I would not purchase already resized and trimmed brass from any source simply because I want final control of the finished dimensions. Whatever you pay today for bulk purchases will seem like a pittance fifteen years down the road. The costs of these products go up and up. When I stated reloading around 1985 .308 168 grain Sierra Match Kings retailed for $9.99 per 100. Primers were $8.00 per box. IMR-4895 was $10.00 per pound. 30 years down the road the cost has more than tripled. |
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I'm in the $0.21/round club.
$35 for 1000 primers $190-200 for 8lb of powder $40 for 500 xtreme jacketed bullets tax The biggest cost is bullets. Xtreme bullets are $0.09/bullet and Hornady is $0.14 around these parts. you're going from $0.26/rd to $0.21/rd right there. Powder math just makes you annoyed you can't store more kegs of powder at home...or find any to buy. $200/56,000 grains is $0.0035/gr * 26 grains = $0.09/round $30/7000 grains is $0.0042/gr * 26 = $0.11 56,000/26 = 2153 rounds from an 8 lb keg of powder. It's only 269 for 1 lb. 2000 rounds * $0.02 = $40 which is a free 1 1/3 pound of powder for buying in bulk if you use $30/lb as your price with tax. Per round it's only 2 cents difference buying 8 lbs vs 1 lb. |
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I only got into reloading 18 months ago. So I had no low cost reserves. Spent a ton of time scouring the EE, local shops and watching online for components. I bought 1000 rounds of nice fired and picked up several thousand more at the range. So not counting the cost of brass I am at $ .25/rd. Now that prices are coming back down and supplies are easing up I have been stockpiling to survive a drought. My son and I like to shoot so reloading helps us keep the cost under control. I think I can get under 20 cents now that prices have returned to a more normal level.
I have not included the reloading equipment into the equation. Obviously to pay for that it will take a ton of ammo. I enjoy tinkering in my workshop so reloading is fun. I can justify the hobby with the cost savings over time. |
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