Meanwhile, the cost of 200 rounds of Winchester USA 9mm 115-grain FMJ cartridges is $59. Given the component costs listed above, the cost of 200 pieces of 9mm brass, plus the bullets, primers and powder to load 200 rounds totals $85.50. The strategy is, buy factory ammo to get fresh reloading brass if the cost of a given number of rounds of commercial ammo is less than the cost of an equal number of new cartridge cases, plus the cost of bullets, primers and powder to load them the first time. $3.50 - 0.13 pounds powder-4.5 grains per load x 200 loads (Hodgdon Universal at $27 per pound)īefore going further, note an important principle regarding getting handgun brass for reloading: Often it is more cost effective to buy and shoot factory ammo and then reload the fired brass, rather than to buy new brass for reloading.$25 - 200 bullets (Ranier LeadSafe plated round nose, 115 grains).With the parameters set, here is the reloading economies evaluation for each cartridge.ĭie and component costs for the 9mm Luger are: These quantities correspond, more or less, with how much of each I would typically carry to the range for a serious practice or plinking session. I felt it was karma that these recipes are very close to my pet loads for each cartridge.įinally, I decided to do the analysis for 200 round batches of 9mm Luger ammo and 100 round sets of. 223 Remington load with 22.2 grains of Alliant RL-10X powder and a 55 grain pointed soft point bullet at 3100 f.p.s. The Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, 9th Edition (2012), lists a 9mm load with 4.5 grains of Hodgdon Universal powder under a 115 grain FMJ bullet, which yields a muzzle velocity of 1100 f.p.s. These are examples of economical factory ammo, suitable for practice, plinking and shooting varmints, that are closely comparable to the reloads I want to analyze. 223 Remington with 55-grain PSP bullet and Winchester/USA 9mm Luger with 115-grain FMJ bullet. The factory loads I chose for cost comparisons are the Winchester Super-X. I ignored shipping charges and sales tax, as these will vary. The die and component prices below are rounded values of MidwayUSA online prices for each item, as of July, 2015. For consistency and to save myself time and confusion, I used only one source for price data, MidwayUSA. Once I had set these parameters, I collected relevant data on the cost of everything needed to load the cartridges, including dies, brass, bullets, primers and powder. In other words, my analysis of the cost of reloading the cartridges will include amortizing the cost of dies and brass. Then, I assumed that the reloader does not have loading dies in the two subject calibers, nor a supply of brass for each. To focus on the basic economies of reloading, I assumed that one already has a loading bench setup, including press, powder measure, scale, case cleaning system, etc. 223 Remington load is my go-to varmint medicine. I shoot volumes of these loads for practice and plinking at the range, plus the. Next, I decided to limit the study to one common loading in each cartridge, a 115-grain FMJ load for the 9mm and a 55-grain soft point load in. I chose for examples the two cartridges that I reload and shoot the most these are the 9mm Luger and. How much money can one save by reloading, and under what conditions? This is what I found when I explored the issue. (The only relevant article on this website is The Potential Savings from Loading Your Own Ammunition, by Lance Robson). It occurred to me, though, that there is very little specific documentation of this. I have long been convinced of the conventional wisdom that reloading ammunition is more economical, in terms of monetary outlay, than shooting factory ammo.
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