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reloading vs factory ammp

8K views 141 replies 49 participants last post by  camaross400 
#1 ·
I reload 9mm / 45acp/ and 10mm. with the 9mm if you watch sales you can buy 1000 rounds of Perfecta 115gr for $159 plus shipping totaling around $196. That is around $9.80 per box, with no time involved other than ordering. If you reload you will have somewhere around $175 in the same 1000 rounds and that is NOT counting you brass. is it worth it??? your thoughts would be appreciated.
PS... reloading 1000 rounds with a single stage press is a very time consuming project!
 
#2 ·
The coated lead offerings from precision bullet Co and misery bullet Co will bring the cost down some but will have beta accuracy and poa than most factory fmj.
Yes single stage is ridiculously slow. A turret speeds things up significantly, and the press is nearly equal in cost.
But the real savings is in 45. Especially in 10.
And to those who would say the coated lead fouls the glock bbl:
I picked up some shooters choice lead remover.
With my latest glock, a police trade gen 3 g17, I hit the range with 250-300 rounds of precision 125gr truncated flat point over 4.5 titegroup. Which is a relatively hot load.
All it took was 1 pass of shooters choice on the nylon bristled brush to clean the bbl. 1 pass :)
 
#3 · (Edited)
I still load 9mm from 0nce fired brass on a single stage. I comes to just less than $8 per box of 50. It is time consuming as I weight each powder charge. If I figure in my time it's a no brainer if $ is the only criteria. I'd be way ahead if I just bought cheapie ammunition (which I have done at times) in terms of time and money out of pocket.

My hand built reloaded ammunition is precision built, one round at a time and tweaked to get max accuracy/performance out the of guns I shoot it in. I have tested it against some premium SD rounds costing over $1 per round. So I can justify the time and reloading 9mm by the fact that I'm not shooting bottom of the barrel/bargain bin ammunition as target fodder. I shoot every session with the best ammunition money can buy or that can be made.

I have a different perspective plus I really enjoy the meticulous and repetitive nature of custom building 9mm ammunition one round at a time. It puts my brain in a zone that gives me Peace and centers me. Instead of watching TV or fishing or whatever folks due in their leisure hours I make top end 9mm. And then train with it....and then do it again. I also do the same/use the acquired skills with stuff like .32 acp and .357 mag. I build some really spectacular rounds which appeases me and gives a lot more satisfaction than saving a couple $ shooting cheap ammo - not that I have any issue with folks who prioritize cost per round/box over all other criteria. One size just never fits all...one perspective is not a good thing.

VooDoo
 
#14 ·
Yep. Without casting your own bullets, you should be able to load 9mm for about $6/box, and get better shooting ammo than whatever factory ammo you can find cheapest. Savings in other calibers (like .38spl or .380) gets considerably better.
 
#141 ·
If you are trying to justify reloading rather than buying just because of the price, its a no brainer if you are like me and reload because you love to do it. RELOAD.
I enjoy trying different bullet designs, powders and velocities. If you enjoy reloading it becomes part of the hobby. Just shooting some cheap FMJ would be very boring to me. Depends on if reloading is satisfying for you. If you enjoy reloading, get a Dillon.
 
#6 ·
Reloading for me is as recreational as anything. I enjoy experimenting with various loads, and there's just a great feeling of accomplishment when you assemble a load which is dead on accurate.

I reload for 45 ACP, 10mm and 44 Mag. Every now and then I'll buy factory 45 ammunition if I run up on a good deal on some. However 10mm and 44 Mag is only ever my handloads.
 
#7 ·
I have never won any matches using perfecta ammunition but lots of them using my own handloads. I actually stopped reloading 9mm for awhile when I could get 50 rounds of factory ammunition for $2.99.

Didn't start back up until my own loads gave me a competitive advantage.

I can also load 9mm for less than $40/1000 if I recycle. All I am spending money on is primers, powder, hi-tek coating and electricity.

On the time subject, I can load up 1000 before the mailman picks up the rounds you just called and made the order on, much less get it to your door.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Care to make the same comparison with your 10mm?

Or 357?

A box of decent quality 357 ammo like Federal 158 JSP is at least $25/50, premium ammo goes up from there.

I just got some premium Sierra JSP's for under $17/100 (sale at Midway now). With powder and primers I'm loading premium quality ammo for about $11/50. My practice ammo with plated bullets costs me $6.50/50.

After 15 years my initial outlay of $750 on press & dies & such has been more than covered, plus the ammo is just right. Not too hot, not too cool.

Sorry for the thread drift, just couldn't imagine shooting without handloading.

With 9mm you can go either way. If handloading sounds like a chore, buy 'em ready to go.
 
#11 ·
Always been a DIY'er and tinkerer. Casting/reloading is not time consuming, it fits right into my lifestyle. On the cost saving angle, I do a butt load of 45 Colt. 1000 rounds cost me $70 in materials to make. From my shorty powder puff load to modern hunting loads, about 7 cents each. Have never bought any factory 45 Colt ammo, so checked about 6 ammo venders online. 61 cents each is the cheapest I saw, $610 for 1000 without shipping. And I doubt it would be a load I would be happy with. I'm not a hard core Dillon user, just use a lowly LCT and find reloading to be very rewarding.
 
#12 ·
As others have said - I love reloading. Almost as much fun as pulling the trigger. Like many other hobbies, you can spend as little or as much as you want. I've had great luck with most of Lee's equipment. If you are a volume shooter - folks here will tell you Dillon is the way to go (and everything in between). For me, it is an extension of my shooting hobby. Love it.
 
#13 ·
I load for several cal. I us a Dillon 550 for the rounds I shoot a lot of. I reload for two reasons it's cheaper and I like to reload. I use the coated lead bullets for 95% of my shooting 9mm ammo is costing me 10.6 cents per round that's including the shipping cost on all of the components. Plus I'm getting about 2" groups at twenty five yards. Right now I'm shooting about a 1k rounds a month I can load about 400 rounds and hour if I want to but about three hundred rounds and hour is the norm. I don't count the cost of brass because I've picked buckets of them over the years and I bought the Dillon used 20 years or so back for a couple hundred bucks and have really enjoyed it. Reloading is almost as fun as shooting for me lol.
 
#15 ·
i use lead for outdoor plinking and plated for everything else.
Dillon 550 now has a setup for .380, 9mm, 38 special, .357 magnum, 40 S&W, 10mm, 44 special and 44 magnum.
just prepped around 6000 .223's. when the price goes up on them again, i will acquire a toolhead and dies for that as well.
sometimes i will load a better projectile, XTP's or some other bullet i find a deal on, but the range fodder is done as cheaply as possible.
i enjoy the hell out of it.
when the global warming season is upon us, to the dungeon i go, cranking out rounds, boxing them and storing in ammo cans.
turn on a football game and reload.
got into this during the wonder nine craze. my youngest son wanted to shoot 9mm, and a nine year old boy with 15 round mags goes through a pile of ammo!
we had lots of quality time together because dad reloaded.
 
#18 ·
My quest is top quality and consistency - not pounding out a hundred rounds in minutes. When I compared the rounds we produced with a single stage to a mass production press the tolerances opened up to an unacceptable level. I was not impressed with the tolerances on the progressive presses.

To each his own. I'll build 'em one at a time.

VooDoo
This makes sense for a long range setup, but what do the tighter tolerances do for 9mm?
 
#20 ·
I shoot better when things are consistent and have tighter tolerances and repeatable results. It's just more beneficial for me to train with the best ammunition I can buy/build. Others may not realize the benefit but my original point was: If the most important thing is cheap ammunition there is no reason to build 9mm.

I have other reasons to reload other than just saving money. To others it about the production or cost savings only and I salute those folks as long as they are getting what they want out of it. Or just buying cheap 9mm ammunition and reloading other calibers. It's all good to me.

VooDoo
 
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#19 ·
Yes it did...unfortunately the mass production process of the Dillon added too much slop to the equation and I went back to single stage.

My quest is top quality and consistency - not pounding out a hundred rounds in minutes. When I compared the rounds we produced with a single stage to a mass production press the tolerances opened up to an unacceptable level. I was not impressed with the tolerances on the progressive presses.

To each his own. I'll build 'em one at a time.

VooDoo
You're going to cause some heads to spin on this board, but I agree with your last statement the most in that "To each his own". You do what is right for you!
 
#21 · (Edited)
You are just buying/reloading the wrong way. Not counting brass, you never count brass unless you are buying it each time, my 9mm runs right at $110 at current component prices. A bit less or more depending on what bullets you go with.
Never on anything but a progressive or your time is worth nothing. Plus I get ammo that is far more uniform than the cheap alum or worse, steel cases stuff. Plus I can tune the ammo to do what ever I want. Quality progressive, I spend very little time producing the ammo. Fact, I make $$ making my own ammo. At an easy 700rds an hour, $200/1000 for factory, $70/hr NET isn't a bad pay scale. Even if you loaf along at 600rds/hr, $60/hr NET, I would have to gross over $100/hr to net $60 & work, which is not as enjoyable as reloading.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Yes it did...unfortunately the mass production process of the Dillon added too much slop to the equation and I went back to single stage.

My quest is top quality and consistency - not pounding out a hundred rounds in minutes. When I compared the rounds we produced with a single stage to a mass production press the tolerances opened up to an unacceptable level. I was not impressed with the tolerances on the progressive presses.

To each his own. I'll build 'em one at a time.

VooDoo
Myth, the press has little to do with the quality of the ammo. Quality SS, turret or progressive, no diff. If you were getting poor ammo on a quality progressive, YOU were doing something wrong. My machinist buddy has slapped gauges on every part of a 650, he tells me amazingly tight tolerances for a machine with so many moving parts.
 
#25 ·
The dies matter more than the machine.

With the right dies in a Dillon they can make more accurate ammunition than any single stage with less ideal diesets.

Not that it makes any difference when talking about pistol ammunition or factory ammunition that is made in rates of many thousands an hour.

Also doing something slow doesn't equal making something better, if your making crap on a progressive it will just take you longer to make the same amount of crap on a single stage.
 
#27 ·
I use X-treme bullets 37.26 for 500 for 124 gr copper plated. I buy them when they have 10% off and free shipping. Can’t see using jacketed bullets for punching holes in paper. I also get better accuracy with them than with 124gr. PD hollow points. I get winchester primers now at our gun shows for 30.00 for 1000, since Federals are nowhere to be found. I buy two cases at a time. Just in case Federals should magically appear back on the market. Powder I get from Powder Valley or Graf & Sons, I buy 16 or more pounds of powder at a time. All of my pistol and revolver brass is range pickup. I have never have had any problems doing so in 41 years of doing so. .380, 9mm, .40, .45 acp and gap, 38spl. 357 mag. I might have bought 44mag brass, been to long ago to remember and no longer have the guns.
If progressive presses produce bad ammo then why does most of the major competition shooters use a progress press. Even David Tubbs uses a modified Dillon 550 for out to 600 yards.
But then if a person feels that they produce better ammo on a SS more power too them. But when you start shooting 300 to 500 rds. A week a SS press get old fast. Been there done that.
 
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#30 ·
You could cut the time spent reloading in half without sacrificing quality if you got a good powder measure and then checked the accuracy of the powder measure with your scale about every 15-20 rounds or so.
If you pick the right powder you can have an out of the box stock progressive powder measure that throws the same powder charge to the tenth of a grain, all day long.

Some even have space available for extra dies that will double check powder charge.

If you take the time to set them up just right they can even detect differences in case volume despite the charge being right on target.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EU9deSKm48


And they don't just check every 15-20 but every single round you load.
 
#37 · (Edited)
I load for 9/10mm/22-250/45-70. The last three I load for easily pay for the dies and take chunks out of the price I paid for my press and caliber conversion kits. The 9mm is the only one that ever makes me think should I just buy some ammo. I used do that and I also didn't shoot near as much. I haven't technically saved any money reloading. I shoot four or five times as much as I ever have. I shoot ammo I made myself and there is pride in that. The dillon powder measure consistently gives me 10-25 standard deviation depending on what Im loading. There really isn't a whole lot of difference in fps/accuracy/standard deviation when shooting any of these caliber's at the distances they were meant to shoot at. Most of the time the bullets trajectory is better than my shooting ability. I can load 100 9mm every 7 minutes, consistently without a bullet feeder. I usually get around 200 rifle cartridges out an hour and around 400 10mm an hour. The time I have involved in reloading is minimal. Case prep takes some time but I just spread it out over days when I have time to watch some Netflix and do trimming, chamfering case cleaning etc. I enjoy reloading, but its not about saving money to me.
 
#45 ·
I load for 9/10mm/22-250/45-70. The last three I load for easily pay for the dies and take chunks out of the price I paid for my press and caliber conversion kits. The 9mm is the only one that ever makes me think should I just buy some ammo. I used do that and I also didn't shoot near as much. I haven't technically saved any money reloading. I shoot four or five times as much as I ever have. I shoot ammo I made myself and there is pride in that. The dillon powder measure consistently gives me 10-25 standard deviation depending on what Im loading. There really isn't a whole lot of difference in fps/accuracy/standard deviation when shooting any of these caliber's at the distances they were meant to shoot at. Most of the time the bullets trajectory is better than my shooting ability. I can load 100 9mm every 7 minutes, consistently without a bullet feeder. I usually get around 200 rifle cartridges out an hour and around 400 10mm an hour. The time I have involved in reloading is minimal. Case prep takes some time but I just spread it out over days when I have time to watch some Netflix and do trimming, chamfering case cleaning etc. I enjoy reloading, but its not about saving money to me.
Technically, you have saved money per round. What you do with your savings is for you to decide. Shoot more, take the wife to dinner, but you do save per round.
 
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