the worst part is when you get to the full autos. a 20 round mag goes quick so you buy more mags then you use more mags it's a huge cycle. now put dollar signs to it. ouch times ten. every time i pull out my gse (gun smoke enterprises) built m-4 with the 100 round beta drum mag i blow through about 500 bucks in ammo.

 

All depends on what you mean "worth it".

Personal satisfaction, pride in doing it yourself, teaching your kids something better to do than Poekmon, yes it is worth it.

Does it save money? This really depends. Some rounds are almost not worth reloading. I reload a lot of 223, but one time about 20 years ago I figured out that reloading plinkers myself with just regular FMJ and bulk powder etc, I was only breaking even with the reloads that my local gun shop sold in bags of 500. If I was reloading with good heavy(63-73g) bullets(Modern ARs love heavy bullets) and comparing against new rounds, then I saved money.

Other cartridges like 7mmRemMag or even 30-06 are more practical to reload since good quality ammo is fairly expensive while I could reload good quality pretty cheap. It has been a long time since I figured out what each round cost, but foggy memory recalls that it cost me roughly 10-15 cents per reload of decent quality versus surplus at 30cents per round and good quality factory rounds costing something like 75 cents per round, this was years ago. Now I don't figure in the cost, I just do it.

Reloading is like knitting or other hobbies. Even if you don't save money it is worth it to some people. Reloading also allows you to tune your load for your gun. I have several guns that don't shoot worth a darn with most factory loads or even some of my reloads. But, after experiementing, I have turned a few "mediocre" shooters into tack drivers just by tweaking the load. That is how I discoverd that the AR15s with the fast twist barrels love heavy bullets much more than the old GI 55g FMJ loads. Both my ARs will put three 63g rounds thru a dime at 100 yards with no problem, these guns are not tweaked.

Plus reloading can cause fun unexpected results. For example, I used to reload in the living room with a **** carpet. Sometimes my primers would escape and sneak into the ****. Not a problem when I was single. When I got married my wife used to get upset when her beater brush vacumm would suck up the unexploded primers and explode them. I thought it was funny but she didn't. Now I reload in the garage.

Depending on your personality, reloading can be fun relaxing and rewarding. If you save money, look at it as icing on the cake.

A BIG money saving tip for those lucky enough to be near a bullet factory... Most factories will sell their seconds at essentially scrap metal prices. I used to drop by the Sierra Bullet factory when they were in California and I would buy bullets, that at least to my eye were about 98% perfect and my guns loved them, at essentially about 1 cent apiece. You bought them by the pound for a little over what lead cost by the pound. Wonderful stuff. Worth asking your local bullet maker if they sell seconds or rejects. The only thing to make sure of is to make sure the bullets were about proper weight(some were either empty jackets or partil fills), not deformed, and proper diameter. Like I said 98% of the time the bullets were perfect for plinking and some semi serious target use. Out of a box of maybe 50 pounds(yes pounds) of bullets, I might get less than 5 that were suspect or obviously not useable. Man I miss being near a factory.

Jim Henderson

 

Pretty much in agreement with this. This is a hobby for those that like to do it themselves. I haven't reloaded on several years, but I liked collecting pistol brass, inspecting and cleaning, melting my own lead, and molding it, playing around with different powders and amounts, and pressing them together. It was something enjoyable to do on a cold winter / rainy day. When you factor in the time and energy to do it, unless you reload thousands, it is probably cheaper to just buy. But then that is why most of us on this forum tend to do our own things on our trucks. Plus I don't trust anyone else to work on mine.....

 

Well I've decided to get into the reloading action for good. I found a pretty sweet deal on ebay for a Lee reloading kit, with all the basics to get started, cost me about $70 with shipping. I know that its not a Dillon or RCBS setup, but I hope that it will be a great learning tool. I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for a used progressive loader, so that once I find a load that my guns like, I can crank them out cheaper than buying new (mainly for use in my 9mm and .223).

Thanks for everyones advice.

 

if your crankin out 500rnds a weekend, and you start reloading your own ammo, eventually the time will pay off and you have saved a quite a chunk of change. Ive learned this from my father and grandpa. i reload mainly because its one of my hobbies and is a good pass time whent heres nothing else to do, i have all the equipment, reloading powder, bullets, primers, etc... you can find cheap reloaing equipment at gun shows, i figured up my cost of reloading .243 rounds vs buying them off the shelf and it came to be im saveing half the money and when you reload your own rounds you can take the time to make them perfect for better accuracy when target shooting, with the right equipment when reloading it ends up paying off after time when your popping off hundreds of rounds at a time. have fun

 

Like some have said, it depends on what you are reloading. For example, It's not really worth reloading .357's, but, it's by far worth reloading 41 mags. Stock up when your load goes on sale really can help lower costs too. Generally individual reloading components are hard to find on sale. Also, off brand shells work well for practice and fun shooting. I know for a fact, it's no longer worth reloading 12 ga for target shooting, unless you custom load. The off brand companies can mass produce ammo a lot cheaper than it can be reloaded at home.

One place where reloading comes in handy is making loads that can't be bought in the store. We do a lot of that for target shooting. It's nice to know exactly how the shells are going to perform every time, becouse you know what is in them. One thing though, Make sure you know EXACTLY what you are doing if you try loading custom loads, they can get very dangerous if done improperly.

 

Re-loading .223 is not cost effective due to the price of commercial ammo! But if (AS stated above) you are looking to custom load that is different.
If you are going to reload .223 and run them through an "AR - M16" you will find yourself running into a lot of problems. A bolt action or single shot is different!

I have been there and done that!