Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Research on Reloading 9mm
jonm:
--- Quote from: OnTheFly on May 27, 2012, 08:11:00 PM ---jthhapkido,
18,000+ rounds this year?! :o I'm going to have to find another source of income if I'm going to every become competitive. :'(
Thanks for the reply. You have confirmed what I suspected regarding savings through reloading. You can't just buy in bulk. You have to buy in BULK to make reloading cost effective. Thankfully, my friend has a nice progressive press that he said I could use. We will see how that works out and if it messes up any of the reloading he is doing. That will save considerably on the initial outlay of cash. The only remaining question is where will the money come from to shoot THAT much even if I save money on reloading.
Fly
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you can buy by the 1000 and have it still be cost effective. It's just that if you buy more at a time, it will obviously be cheaper. 9mm isnt where the money is saved though, it is with rifle rounds and large/odd caliber handgun rounds.
JTH:
--- Quote from: OnTheFly on May 27, 2012, 08:11:00 PM ---Thanks for the reply. You have confirmed what I suspected regarding savings through reloading. You can't just buy in bulk. You have to buy in BULK to make reloading cost effective. Thankfully, my friend has a nice progressive press that he said I could use. We will see how that works out and if it messes up any of the reloading he is doing. That will save considerably on the initial outlay of cash. The only remaining question is where will the money come from to shoot THAT much even if I save money on reloading.
--- End quote ---
Less than you might think. Again, buy 5000 primers from Guns Unlimited, one 8lb keg of powder from the same place, and get together with two friends who each need 4000 bullets---that'll get you the three-case price from Montana Gold. That's more than enough components for 4000 rounds.
One way of looking at it is this: If you do the above, your cost is around $6.50 per 50 rounds if you reload, and buying factory loads is about $9.50 per rounds (for cheap plinking ammo). So, you are really only saving about $3.00 per box. That doesn't sound like much, right?
Another way of looking at it is this: You can make ~125 rounds for the price of buying 100 rounds. ---one quarter more rounds for the same price. If you shoot 4000 rounds in a year, you'll save $240 and you'll still have enough powder left over for next year (and most of the following year), plus 1000 primers left. (I'll note that'll mean your price per 50 rounds the following year will be about $5.06. So you'll save more. And have enough powder for 3/4 of the following year, plus half of your primers already paid for.)
What you have to do in exchange? Pay in terms of time reloading. That's it. I don't know about you, but I'll make that payment with a good progressive press. Spend an hour a week for 10 weeks, and you'll have your 4000 rounds all loaded up---saving yourself almost $250 plus having all the ammo you need for the year. If someone else has the press, so you don't have to buy it, so much the better.
If you don't have the press, about two years of shooting like that will pay for it---and every year after that will save you that amount of money. If you end up shooting more than 4000 rounds, it'll just pay itself back sooner, and you'll save more.
Plus, you'll have better quality control for your ammo (at least compared to the cheap ammo whose factory prices we are using for comparison).
JTH:
--- Quote from: OnTheFly on May 27, 2012, 08:13:52 PM ---One additional question for jthhapkido. How much research went into the powder weight (or any other reloading factors) to come up with the load you shoot? Like I said earlier, my friend can work the details to the Nth degree, but I can't imagine it is necessary to be that precise for handgun reloading.
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Depends on what you want the round to do. Merely cycle in your gun? Pretty simple---look it up in a decent reloading manual, pick a powder/velocity in the middle of the spread, and there you go. Nothing else needed.
You want it to feel like the rounds you carry for self-defense? Then you'll need to be a little pickier. Want it to be solidly competition-legal in terms of making Minor for USPSA? Little more research, and some time with a chronograph.
Want it to be the best round, accuracy-wise, in your handgun plus all of the above? Little more needed. :)
I note a great place to start for that sort of thing is the BrianEnos forums---there are a couple of great sub-forums there that give all sorts of reloading recipes that work. (Though any reload version will need to be checked in your specific gun, just to make sure.)
JTH:
--- Quote from: jonm on May 27, 2012, 08:22:10 PM ---you can buy by the 1000 and have it still be cost effective. It's just that if you buy more at a time, it will obviously be cheaper. 9mm isnt where the money is saved though, it is with rifle rounds and large/odd caliber handgun rounds.
--- End quote ---
Depends on your situation. For me, 9mm IS where the money is saved, because of how much I shoot. I shoot very little in the way of rifle rounds, so it isn't worth it to me to reload for that.
(For example, I mostly shoot Wolf ammo in my AR-15, and it isn't worth it for me to set up my 550 for rifle rounds. And when I do need rifle rounds that are more accurate, I have a friend who'll load up as much as I want as long as I send him the components. I pay him in extra primers, which is just like gold to a reloader. ;D However, since I use Hornady V-max bullets, and just get 500 at a time, it isn't cheaper than standard .223 factory ammo, though it is cheaper than .223 precision ammo. )
For 9mm, though, I save over a thousand dollars a year in ammo costs. Definitely worth it to me!
Even more importantly for people doing competitions, tuning a load to work perfectly in your gun while remaining legal for competition (in power factor) plus maximizing the accuracy potential---this is significant, particularly if you can add in some cost savings as well.
jonm:
--- Quote from: jthhapkido on May 28, 2012, 05:59:43 PM ---Depends on your situation. For me, 9mm IS where the money is saved, because of how much I shoot. I shoot very little in the way of rifle rounds, so it isn't worth it to me to reload for that.
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I was talking about the cost per round savings for larger calibers vs. 9mm.
I reload .223 with pulled 55gr FMJ, pulled powder, and wolf primers. Perfect plinking load. Cost is at .11/round. I HATE prepping brass though.
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