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 Cost analysis of reloading setup 
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 Post subject: Cost analysis of reloading setup
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:04 am 
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OK I am looking to get into reloading. I went through the Pinnacle School of Reloading a couple months ago. It is too bad that I didn't get into it right away because I have forget some things now.

I want to know how much this is going to cost to get into so I made up a parts list with everything that I could remember from class. The prices are for generic parts. Please let me know if I missed something.

Item Count Cost total
tumbler 1 60 60
scale 1 55 55
Die set 2 35 70
RCBS Rock Chucker 1 115 115
Deburring tool 1 13 13
Calipers 1 30 30
Powder trickler 1 15 15
Shell holder 1 7 7
Hornady hand primer 1 33 33
Powder funnel 1 14 14
reloading manual 2 15 30
ammo boxes 10 3 30
reloading tray 4 6 24

Perisables
small pistol primer 5000 100 100
powder - unique 8 100 100
remmenington 9mm 115 FMJ 2000 115 115
case lube 1 10 10
corn cob media 4.5 20 20

So one is looking at about $500 to get setup with a single stage press with two pistol calibers. And about $440 for 5,000 rounds worth of supplies. That turns out to be 8.75 cents per round.

A quick estimate for 9mm is:
rounds cost cost per round
5000 943.5 0.1887
10000 1391 0.1391
20000 2286 0.1143
40000 4076 0.1019
80000 7656 0.0957
100000 9446 0.09446

So 10-20k rounds and you are doing pretty good on cost and you have custom ammo.

Does look approximatly correct? Did I forget anything?


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:05 am 
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Bah it destroyed my formatting...


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 Post subject: Re: Cost analysis of reloading setup
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:13 am 
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someone1980 wrote:
Did I forget anything?

When I started (shotgun) reloading, I didn't even consider the cost of the reloader itself. I bought it used, and I'm fairly certain I can resell it for at least as much as I paid for it.
Sure, it might cost you $500 in hard equipment to get started. But you can turn around and sell it in 5 years and probably get at least $300 out of it. I would only figure in some depreciation towards the "recouping my costs" figures, not the whole price of getting yourself set up to reload.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:28 am 
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Part of the reason for running numbers is I need to know how much is going to be spent now. That looks like around $800. Unless I forgot something. :)

Being that the cost of the rounds comes down around 20k rounds doesn't concern me at all. To your point, if I can recoup some cost from selling the press, or reducing the cost by getting some used hardware, even the better.

And if it get into that crazy 38 super, it should pay for itself in under 5000 rounds.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:30 am 
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Buying a used press is a great way to start.

I now have 3 single stage presses and have spent less than $200. With one of the deals I also got a scale, case trimmer, de-burring tool, dies, tons of brass, bullets, primers and powder.

Check craigslist.com and the paper.

One piece of advice - if you don't think you'll ever buy a progressive press, consider a turret press - especially one that allows you to easily swap turrets. That way you can set up a turret for each caliber and easily swap from one to another when switching calibers. You cut down on all the dinking around getting everything set up.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:36 am 
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You can always come over here and use what I have until you are ready to make the investment in hard equipment.

I hate to see someone spend that kind of cash to get started. I have made the investment.

There are a few things that you can omit/add that would save some cash.

You will need basically the following

RC Master kit - $269.00 that has EVERYTHING that you will need to get started.

Or you can buy a Dillon 550 or SDB for not a lot more that will come with all of the machinery that you will need but not the ancillary tools - one caliber conversion - without dies...

Lee Dies are a bargain - but you cannot use speer bullets with them for some reason in rifle calibers. About $25 a set with shell holders.

I would think that without perishables - given that you have a place to set this all up - you can get started for around $300.00 (this is single stage with good equipment) and is going to take you forever to load that much ammunition. You can buy the bullets in BULK from Hornady and they are not that bad in cost for about 3000 pieces.... Powder is high - primers are $20/1000 at this time unless you buy in bulk. Costs have gone up over the past few years - but not that bad.

As for a tumbler - you may want that - you can get one cheap - use walnut media - and Dillon Rapid Polish - $11/bottle - goes a long way.

About $400.00 and you are in business.


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 Post subject: 9mm??
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:47 pm 
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When I got into reloading 35 years ago, the Lee kit I bought was $7.56 TOTAL, and you could reload 9mm with that and just the components. In addition, there was NO, NADA, ZIP source for cheap 9mm ammo. 9mm ammo ONLY came in boxes of 50, and it cost about $8 in 1971 dollars for a box. I was really happy when I came across some CDM (Canadian military) 9mm ammo for about $3.50 a box.

These days, you can buy 9mm ammo dirt cheap in bulk from lots of people. If you add up all the costs of the components and ALL the reloading equipment, and compare that against 20,000 rounds of cheap bulk ammo, I don't think you're saving much money at all.

That is NOT to say that if you have a restricted buget and time on your hands that you shouldn't do it, but trying to base it COMPLETELY on cost savings is not realistic, particularly with 9mm. It's a very fun hobby, and you can reload stuff that you can't buy (like Norma factory spec 200 grain at 1200 FPS ammo), but for the bulk calibers like 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, or 357 the savings are minimal at best. For me it did initially cost me less ($7.56) to get into reloading, and after that the trade-off between shooting slightly more for the same amount of money was acceptable, and I NEVER, NEVER looked at the numbers that hard. Would anybody here like to run the numbers for their wive's shoe expenditures versus their own gun expenditures??

Oddly enough, these days I'm probably saving a TON of money reloading, with 50AE, 50 GI, and 500 S&W ammo well at over $1 a round. At this point, however, it's a fun hobby and money is no longer an object.


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 Post subject: Re: 9mm??
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:10 pm 
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Seismic Sam wrote:
Oddly enough, these days I'm probably saving a TON of money reloading, with 50AE, 50 GI, and 500 S&W ammo well at over $1 a round. At this point, however, it's a fun hobby and money is no longer an object.


Your a 50 kind of guy, aren't you?


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:29 am 
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one other thing is TIME<

this is why i so heartily recommend the Dillon presses.

A Dillon press set up with one set of dies is like 380 delivered, with most of the big stuff on it.
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=12&dyn=1&
They have an amazing warranty, if it breaks, we fix it type of thing and they stand behind it.

It costs about 50 bucks or so to add another caliber, I use a SDB and a 550B and love them both. The 550 is worth the extra 60 or so dollars over the SDB but the SDB does a great job.

Sure you will pay more, but if you are shooting 300 0r more rounds at a time, it really pays off fast. I can load 500 rounds of pistol ammo in about a 1 hour or so,

Drive out to see Jon walton at Gunstop and talk to him. He will not steer you wrong.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:36 am 
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1911fan wrote:
one other thing is TIME<

this is why i so heartily recommend the Dillon presses.

A Dillon press set up with one set of dies is like 380 delivered, with most of the big stuff on it.
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=12&dyn=1&
They have an amazing warranty, if it breaks, we fix it type of thing and they stand behind it.

It costs about 50 bucks or so to add another caliber, I use a SDB and a 550B and love them both. The 550 is worth the extra 60 or so dollars over the SDB but the SDB does a great job.

Sure you will pay more, but if you are shooting 300 0r more rounds at a time, it really pays off fast. I can load 500 rounds of pistol ammo in about a 1 hour or so,

Drive out to see Jon walton at Gunstop and talk to him. He will not steer you wrong.


I agree!

Unless you're certain to load rifle ammo within the year, you can't go wrong with a Dillon SDB. I'd never reloaded squat before I bought mine and it was not hard to learn at all. 500 rounds in an hour is a VERY realistic estimate for this press -- that's taking it easy, paying very close attention, etc (all of which you should do).

When I bought my Dillon 650 last spring, I sold my SDB and my SDB dies on Ebay for roughly 70% of their new value -- all went "Buy It Now" and within 2 days of listing. John Walton @ Gunstop was astonished at the prices used equpment fetched.

The point being that even if you don't like the press, you can EASILY get rid of it and get a LOT of your money back, either to spend on ice cream cones or a different press setup.


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:28 am 
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1911fan wrote:
one other thing is TIME<

this is why i so heartily recommend the Dillon presses.

A Dillon press set up with one set of dies is like 380 delivered, with most of the big stuff on it.
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=12&dyn=1&
They have an amazing warranty, if it breaks, we fix it type of thing and they stand behind it.


I noticed this one says "Pistol Calibers." Is this model limited to pistol calibers, or does it come just setup for pistol and all you have to do is buy a rifle die set? If I am going to spend $370 dollars, I would like to be able to reload rifle also. 500 an hour sounds awesome!


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:43 am 
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Check out the link you quoted above, and read the description of the press. It says rifle or pistol.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:04 am 
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Brewman wrote:
Check out the link you quoted above, and read the description of the press. It says rifle or pistol.


I read the whole thing and looked at the options and never saw that. :oops: The bold, upper case "pistols" on the top stuck out to me I guess. My bad!!!!


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:31 am 
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for the price of your Rock chucker, you can get 3 Lee Challenger "O" presses and not have to change out any dies until you change caliber.

Just a thought is all.


http://www.grafs.com/fc/product/74147


Another thing you would want to concider BEFORE you buy anything.


Get your C&R FFL. It will save you about a third of what you have listed in costs.

Those same Challenger presses would cost me less than $25 each with my C&R ffl. That alone would pay for the $35 filing fee of the FFL. It's good for 3 years.


Graf's, Midway, Brownell's and several others recognize it as a dealer and give you a dealer account.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:45 am 
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Wow! Really great info guys.

I want a single stage because that seems like it is easier to develop loads on. But I do have to admit that being able to crank out 500 rounds in an hour would be a good deal better, for what appears to be not much in the way of increased cost.

Used or the C&R FFL looks like the ways to go for buying equipment.

Thanks again for all of the information!


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