Topic: To reload or not to reload? That is the question

[e11charlie]

So just had my first class. Went well. Definatly would be fun. So here I sit deciding if it would be worth it. Initial cost is high. Long term would pay off even buying 6k count unused brass. I don't shoot as much as the competition shooters. I mainly go out and blast targets and work on my tactics. Might get into hunting later as the shit gets heavier. I normally only shoot maybe 1k rounds a year due to cost of ammo. Reloading would allow me to shoot more. Reloading would give me a hobby as if I don't have something to fill my time I go completely nuts (thank you for that US Army). Plus reloading would give me more ammo to shoot more yada yada yada. I am just undecided if it is worth the initial cost. Input, pointers, why you do it please. Don't know what press I will use. I am leaning more towards a single stage turret press. This way I am incomplete control of every aspect.

[NGO]

My single stage just sits in the corner anymore...about the only thing I use it for is 300 Mag. and a couple other large calibers.

Save up your money and get a Dillon 550, still can make a several hundred rounds in one evening and enjoy a great weekend of shooting. Plus the cost , when you consider all the accessories you will want for a Dillon is a lot less than a 650. ( Which I sold for my 550, because all the accessories would have cost a fortune ) Plus I'm not shooting thousands of rounds every weekend.

Starting out with the single stage is good, but you will quickly want some speed for fun rounds.



Yes you will shoot more. NO, you will not save any money.



Warning, you will become addicted, and with reloading it never ends...the combinations are endless, the precision is never satisfied....just a friendly warning.

[XDMHMMWV]

   
To reload or not to reload? That is the (a stupid)  question

There, fixed for ya

Get the Hornady LNL it will cost you less than the Dillon.
If you have your own brass, you will save about half on reloading expenses. Also, you will be able to tighten up those groups.
From the Box o Truth http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu8.htm

[2big2fail]

I like what NGO said, it's so true. Consider this, when you load your own, the variety of ammo you shoot can vary a lot.  Like, load cast or really cheap ammo for those shooting days when others (like kids) will be blasting the mountainside to bits.  You can adjust you're velocities and bullet weight.  Load for penetration, for hunting, competition, accuracy and any number of variables.  To put it simply, you can tailor your ammo for any variety of needs.  IMO, that's the greatest advantage.

[J Mack]

Initial cost is high.

Is this your only obstacle?
 Reloading doesn’t have to be expensive to be efficient.
I’ve seen Rock crushers go for $60.00 with a set of dies used and hear about them going for much less at yard sales.   

[mopeman440]

Well, I started out with a single stage, actually two of them. I had a buddy who reloaded, and got me started. I would have my son decap on one press and I would be running the other press either resizing or seating bullets. We had an assembly line of sorts going. I think a single stage is a good place to start, you can start out slow, and once you get rolling(no pun intended) you can expand your setup. By the time I bought my 650, I could not keep up with all the shooting my wife, son and I were doing! I got the Lee anniversary set up to start with and had no problems with it, it's still on my bench, I use it for my small batch rifle stuff. I also bought a Hornady 366 off the swap meet here and reload shot gun shells now too!

[emathey]

I make 10 cent 9mm, I just bought a 650 but at half or less than half of factory cost I'll make up the difference eventually.

[e11charlie]

No initial cost is not the only obstacle. I can afford the initial cost. I will primarily be shooting .223. The savings versus actual ammunition cost is not all that different. So far the reasons I am looking into reloading are such: 1 Savings (understand not much on the popular calibers but some savings) 2 More control over how much I have to shoot. 3 More control of how accurate my weapons are (at first I would be looking at accuracy loading and not precision loading) 4 Last but not least SHTF cenarios (like two years ago when .223 was almost $25 a box).  5 Giving my hands something to do. Reasons I am thinking not to reload: 1 Again initial cost.  2 Actual savings (this is dictated by many things like current climate or current ammo prices. Also I havnt picked a pistol yet so that will come into play. Looking at single action .45LC).  I am a completely analytical thinker, so before I take a step I calculate as many conceivable variables as I can come up with. Which could be another pro as from what I have gotten so far that is what reloading is all about. I might actually like it just for the analytical aspect. I get bored easily if my mind also does not have something to chew on. I know I can greatly reduce initial cost by finding a used one rather than a brand new one. If I can find someone who doesn't think their shit is worth it's weight in gold.

[luvmy45]

I'm in my annual .223 processing mode... if you want to come over I'll let you prep a thousand or so .223 case's in the trimmer/sizer and swage the mil crimp ones 

Seriously though, if your analytical , and like to work with your brain and hands, reloading is great. Work at the bench, go out and enjoy the fruits for your labor, then go back and tweak it.

If your new to reloading, bottle neck cartridges are a bit more of a challenge, but not impossible. There's plenty of us around that would be happy to show you the ropes, and our setups.

[popsgunner]

let me dealve a little deeper, WHY do we reload, y'all have hit the obvious reasons, let me reaffirm some of the sub reasons:
We reload because we can control the outcome  MORE of of hobby and the end result, shooting, we can concentrate on the minutia of the activity and thus enjoy it even more, we take a very active role in this hobby, like riding a motorcycle it's not a mindless venture you must be engaged at a cerebral level, it is interesting, it is stimulating, you will make mistakes and learn from them, just like life but in microcosm.........
Ok I'LL stop
Pops

[J Mack]

I can afford the initial cost. I will primarily be shooting .223.
 Looking at single action .45LC). 
If I can find someone who doesn't think their shit is worth it's weight in gold.

Ok so let’s make this easy.
1)   Buy the press of your choice.
2)   Buy these dies from me and I’ll give you 200 pieces of .556 brass free and sell you as much as you want at a greatly reduced rate.
3)   If you buy the .223 dies I’ll give you a new in the box .45 LC lee die set.
4)   Bring your new press over and I’ll help you set it up and making ammo and donate the reloading components to do so.

[kreativecid]

For me the initial buy-in was a bit of sticker shock. So I continued to buy 9mm from Wall World or wherever "cheap" could be found. Comes out to about 21 cents per round, and 45acp, gosh, that was about 30 or 35 cents per? More? A huge pile of brass accumulated on the back 40. At the time I was just paper punching, no match play.

I'm over-analytical, too. I'm frugal. I like deals. I like precision. So I purchased a 550b and all the other stuff. Went around the back 40 and picked up a year's worth of brass out of the mud. Yep, that's a lot of brass stomped into the clay and weeds.

For me it's a hobby. A way for my OCD to play. I'm a perfectionist. I like buying guns. Now I shoot multiple calibers and as most know not every barrel/gun likes the same ammo. I don't tout "it saves money" anymore. I do it because it's relaxing.

9mm is about 10 cents per. 45acp costs me about 15 cents per. Don't have to drive and deal with retail sales headaches (waiting, people, making small talk).

[ekuo]

I reload because CDI.  Don't believe me?  Just check out the Dillon catalog.

[popsgunner]

I agree with Evans.

[fj40mojo]

Ok so let’s make this easy.
1)   Buy the press of your choice.
2)   Buy these dies from me and I’ll give you 200 pieces of .556 brass free and sell you as much as you want at a greatly reduced rate.
3)   If you buy the .223 dies I’ll give you a new in the box .45 LC lee die set.
4)   Bring your new press over and I’ll help you set it up and making ammo and donate the reloading components to do so.

DO IT!

What a fantastic offer JMack.

[e11charlie]

Ok so let’s make this easy.
1)   Buy the press of your choice.
2)   Buy these dies from me and I’ll give you 200 pieces of .556 brass free and sell you as much as you want at a greatly reduced rate.
3)   If you buy the .223 dies I’ll give you a new in the box .45 LC lee die set.
4)   Bring your new press over and I’ll help you set it up and making ammo and donate the reloading components to do so.

Deal!

[Jaggy13]

I was in the same position you are for years.
I shot about 1k a year and it never made financial sense to start reloading.
It wasn't until I decided to start shooting comps that I really got after it.

Looking back, I wished I had just listened to all the great advice and jumped in on a Dillon right away.

That being said, there is also a lot of great benefit from having a single stage press around.
Especially if you are going to mainly reload 223. You could start off with a single stage and later if inclined, add a 550 or whatever then and still use the single stage to prep your brass.

I was riding along with a buddy that was picking up a transmition for a bronco and I saw a single stage lyman (Their version of the rock chucker) laying in the weeds. I asked how much that would cost, he quickly said, how bout $20? it even had a .45 acp shell holder on it. I couldn't pass it up. Now I have my 550 and single stage side by side. When I finish loading pistol, I step over to the single stage and decap/resize 223. Then they can be checked for size, and when I convert my 550 back to rifle, it's fast, and easy to crank out.

If you could take 2 years worth of your current ammo budget, I think you could be into a press and make your first years worth of ammo. Then every year your cost would stay low and your press would be closed to paying for itself by the end of that second year.

Then with JMack's offer, I don't think you can go wrong.

Or just go over to Luvmy45's house and be a slave for a weekend... Crank out 1k for yourself and come back this time next year....

[fastfire]

I am big into precision and have always used a single stage.
Allways wondered how consistant the powder dump is using a progressive?
I have used a RCBS progressive 12ga.

[NGO]

http://montana.craigslist.org/spo/2767399455.html


http://www.onecraigs.com/craigslist-search/index.htm?cx=015798947652255651354%3Acymayug0us8&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=dillion+550&sa=Search&siteurl=www.onecraigs.com%2F

[XDMHMMWV]

I am big into precision and have always used a single stage.
Allways wondered how consistant the powder dump is using a progressive?
I have used a RCBS progressive 12ga.

With Hornady's non precision measure, the charges are within .2 of a grain. I don't have any experience with the precision one.
You can always load single stage on a progressive, just bypass the powder measure, and pour it yourself. I do that with my Casull loads.
Then I go progressive on the plinking rounds.

[RGinIdaho]

Allways wondered how consistant the powder dump is using a progressive?

More than accurate enough for most uses. I would submit that long range say beyond 800yds, might be the exception. But, depending on your load development, you might surprise yourself.

I've consistently gotten single digit SD's over 10shot strings in pistol cartridges produced on a dillon 550. Not that you need that level of consistency for most pistol work but it does illustrate the point.

When I shot long range handgun silhouette we dumped everything. Of course were only looking at groups on 1/2 sized chickens at 200m for worst case accuracy.

Since the 454 casull was mentioned above I'll toss out some numbers for it. From my notes, 20,29,30,17,20,15,17,16,10,28 are SD's from a load worked up for the 454 on a progressive. All loads were dropped from the Dillon measure in a progressive manner after obtaining an accurate setting on the measure over 10 pulls of the handle. Those are loads over a range from 23.0 to 27.5 grains of H110 in .5gr increments. H110 is a very fine ball powder. The bullets were 360gr WLNGC's. All chrono results were for 10shot strings over and Oehler 35P. My notes also show two five shot groups of 1.5" on the best load. I probably didn't test at longer ranges as I am sure I was working up a load for AK and was only going to shoot at extremely close range if at all.

I know these were shot offhand because that's how I generally test short range pistol loads. I also know where I tested them and there are no rests available other than trees. Wow, can you believe that I was once young and stout enough to shoot 100rnds of full house 454 and still hit the target? I'm betting it would hurt these days.

I wouldn't worry about the "precision" thing when it comes to progressives. It leaves you with choices to dump or throw as noted elsewhere in the thread. I don't weigh each charge unless I'm loading ammo for long range(over 600yds).

IMHO, 200rnds a month or above, go progressive. I generally recommend a single stage from a yard sale or craigslist to start then a move to the progressive. Hang on to the single stage for precision work and other heavy duty chores. Starting on the single stage also breaks learning the process down into managable chunks and cuts down on mistakes.

[emathey]

I'm very happy that I learned on a single stage first, or I'd have been lost on my progressive.

[kreativecid]

What is CDI?

I reload because CDI.  Don't believe me?  Just check out the Dillon catalog.

[egress81]

Chicks dig it (CDI)

[Nealio]

Just shoot more, then the decision is easy!