Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Cost of Reloading is Kicking my butt!

Finished reloading a bunch of ammo for myself , my brother, and my son and I started to total up the cost- which I haven't done for a few years.... it's just a hobby, right?

Well, for my brother's 30-06 he wanted some 180s loaded for deer and elk just to simplify things so I picked up some Accubond seconds from Shooter's Pro Shop. Loaded up 100 rounds, including the 15 I used for load work up for his new rifle and totalled up the damages-

100 Nosler Accubond seconds- $70
1 lb of H4831 $36
100 Primers +/- $8
Total $114 +

Brass was our pick up from past shooting sessions so it was basically free, but if I had to pay for new brass, add another $50-$75....

This is crazy! I'm looking forward to things getting back to almost normal someday relatively soon...

Bob

Try buying 100 rounds of factory 30-06 loaded with 180 Accubonds. I'm guessing a bit more than $114 if you could even find it.

EXACTLY!

Lol, let’s see Winchester 180 ABCT goes for ~45-50 bucks per 20 add shipping and handling round it to ~300 bucks. Now Nosler trophy grade 70 bucks per 20 round up to ~400 bucks and complain about 1.25 per. Now that’s really funny.

Bob, this is one reason most of us are well stocked up on things that cost MUCH less, even a year ago. However, with this being said, there are still good deals out there to be found. I've found plenty. Too bad you didn't have a less expensive bullet handy that would still work well on deer and elk. The 750 winchester powerpoints I bought from crod1972 a few years ago for $75.00 (for 750 bullets), would have worked just fine for your brothers hunting... The cost of reloading is no where near as much as factory ammo you find in the stores. If you can even find it these days. Handloading is a great hobby and is necessary for fine tuning a load to each rifle. There are many benefits in making your own ammo. The cost of that ammo is entirely up to you and how you prepare..

Oh, I'm aware of the costs of reloading and components guys. I've been doing it for around 50 years now, but it seems the cost of components is going up more every year. One of the reasons I reload is so I can use high end components like bullets without having to pay the premium price that manufacturers are charging for their "premium" lines these days. Making them shoot tiny groups makes me happy, but I'm a bit more judicious in purchasing my components these days and looking for all the deals I can find. These days, a deal is being able to find what you need, regardless of price. For my 26 Nosler, I use Accuconds also and bought about 200 rounds of Nosler factory loaded rounds from somebody for less than the Nosler brass would have cost me. I was able to find some pull down powder for it that works great that somebody else linked me to and it was around $58 for an 8 lb keg....

My lucky finds on bullet stashes over the years are about gone now, so I'm always on the lookout to replenish my stocks these days....

I'm going to have to go back to not looking at the cost of my hobbies ... makes it a lot more enjoyable being in the dark....


Which reminds me, I'm just about out of H4831 now... time to start watching for a decent sale or get on a watch list with about 50 retailers until they get some in....

Bob

Bill your brother accordingly. Why should you cover his expenses. Reloading is still less expensive than buying new factory ammo. Why do you think prices will ever come down or back to normal. Maybe this is the new normal. The shooting sports and hunting may be in serious trouble?

Oh, I'm sure he will take care of it. Fact is, he couldn't even find factory ammo anywhere for his 30-06, so I offered to help him out and load for him like I've done for years. No really bitching as much as just blowing off steam and thinking out loud....kind of like doing a contracting job for somebody and you realize you have to break it to your customer that the job is going to go way over budget?

Bob

I’m glad I have a good supply, always looking for more.

Keep and eye on the small town gunshows too. There are some in your area, even if it means you have to drive 50 miles. My club puts on this type of show every other month. Unfortunately they are going to have one next Saturday, when you are going to be on your deer hunt. But there was one in Washugal a few weeks ago and a buddy from my club had a table. He said he sold 50 pounds of powder there. I've been to other small shops and ran across quite a few good deals. A month ago, I was at the coast and ran across a couple boxes of these:

They are working out quite nicely in my new to me 7mm08.

On the same trip to the coast, I found these at a little market place that sells guns and ammo:


Yep, that's $5.00/bag of 100 .277 130gr bullets. I won't get into an argument on how well these bullets shoot and how well they work on game. I know for a fact that they do both just fine:


Reloading costs are still far below the retail cost of factory loaded ammo. And it goes without saying that hand loaded ammo will shoot far better than factory ammo, if you are versed at fine tuning a load. Figure out how much this 10 shot group would have cost, had I been shooting factory ammo:


Factory ammo even close to what I handloaded is $117.99/box of 20 at midway and is discontinued right now. The 10 shot group above cost me $4.15 vs. $59.00 (for factory ammo). Its pretty self explanatory why I handload.

Bullcheidt. It's not the "new normal". Guys like you spouting of that bs is why prices are going up. Prices will go back down to where they need to be. There are some stores that are not gouging. Its up to us to choose those stores and boycot the others that are gouging us..

Reloaded my first rounds back about 45 or so years ago for a Marlin 444. I still remember that a box of 20 factory loads cost $14. I bought the pound of powder, 100 primers, and a box of 100 Speer bullets and it cost me around $25! I had the brass from shooting factory stuff and a buddy had the dies and press etc. I still remember telling him that " man I had to spend $25 buck to get all this" and I still remember him telling me " yes but you have 100 rounds of ammo and still have powder left over.
Times sure have changed.

With all this stuff going on with powder etc. I have been going thru a lot of old stuff and loading up range fodder to play with and burning up some old/odd stuff that I do not load with. In this last year I have gone thru a few 1 lb cans of powder that had a price tag still on them and none were over $12/lb

Prices are up, but it’s hardly kicking my butt. OTOH, if I didn’t have ammo for hunting and my other shooting, that would hurt like Hell. Just filled in a couple of small cracks in my primer supply at about twice “normal” pricing, but that little nagging worry is gone now. It’s just the price of doing this business. Better by far than driving around on $3 gas looking for them and ending up with maybe one over-priced flat, or maybe none.

I had an old can I bought as a kid.. $3.65.. 4831 was a $1/#..

I fool myself on not having too big a price tag for hunting loads...

If I was going to work up a load, I will load up 10 rounds and take it to the range to zero the scope if that needs done.

If that works, I bring those 10 empty cases home and reload them to take them with me hunting...why do you need 20?

If I shoot a round or two out hunting and miss what I was shooting out, I bring those cases home with me and at the reload bench, reload those two rounds..

I've only got 10 rounds with me when I take a rifle out to hunt with.

I've also started to dis/assemble those rounds when I finish the season, and put the components back into the container they came out of... minus the primers of course.

Heck this season I have brought home about 150 rounds of 223, and about ten of 243, I've found laying on the ground at Gravel pits out in the Forest Service land.

Run them thru the tumbler over night to see what I have, toss out the crappy ones.. and zip lock up the keepers...

I consider that is how you survive democRats in office...

and yeah, I made purchases when things were cheap under Trump's Administration.....

Brass is not a problem, especially when you pick up range brass over the years...

You think that's bad? Go buy a boat.

I grew up doing what all the grownups did around me - take a box of ammo and put them all in the leather carrier on my belt.

Then, finally, around 15 years ago it dawned on me when was the last time I used more than 2 rounds to knock down dinner? Why was I carrying all this ammo?

Feeling very brave, I cut the ammo I carried in half - 10 rounds - and nothing bad happened!

Now I'm down to packing around 5 rounds in one of those handy Norma plastic carriers in my pocket.

Last week I snuck up over the hill and glassed an elk at 467 yards. Hmmm... doable, but why not get closer. So, back down the hill, around the saddle to the other side, and used the wind to mask my approach and came up behind him at 131 yards. 1 shot, dinner down.

Still had to pack 4 rounds back to camp along with the elk though...

Normal.....hmmm. I believe this is the new normal. Going forward, reloading components will only become more expensive and hard to find.


I hope I'm wrong.

I agree. Something wrong with those people..