Figuring cost per round when reloading

[kmrs75]

I make this up this past weekend. This may help someone figure out how much you would save when reloading.

All shaded areas are user inputs.

Cost per pound of powder
Gr per bullet

primer cost
number of primers

bullet price
number of bullets in box

and quantity

If there is something you would like to see different let me know.

http://ubuntuone.com/3gxTfD8ytfHwQw32lD3bho

For some reason i cant upload it but here is the file. could someone upload it for me. Thanks Ken

 

[dstegjas]

I have been reloading center fire rounds as well as shot shells for a lot of years now. When I started, it was more about saving money then anything else. When you are young it's always about money. I remember calculating everything out just as you have done above. At some point the process became more about the passion of improving my shooting accuracy then the dollars. I am sure that most out there can relate to that. I can tell you one thing though. All the money I saved by reloading. I found that it just allowed me to spend more money on components to shoot more. So did it really save me money. Probably not, but time on the range is better then any day in the office.

Jim

 

[Zep]

It's the initial costs that still scare me and I have been doing this a while.

Shotgun is inexpensive, just a MEC Jr. and a good scale. But metallic, jeepers as I strive to improve accuracy the tool collection keeps increasing.

Don't get me wrong, I love reloading but it ain't cheap. When newbies at the club approach me I now tell them I suggest they buy factory for a year or more to make sure they really like the sport before they send for the Sinclair catalog.

 

[britz]

reloading is an investment. there are two ways to figure it. one is a pure financial gain. this is usually hard to do when you are planning on reloading for accuracy (which most of us on this site do). one thing is for sure... if you reload you will shoot much more. If you take a $0.20 savings per shot and have $700.00 worth of equipment to pay for then you will not break even for the first 3,500 rounds. if you shoot 1,000 rounds per year= 3.5 years. 7 years if you only fire 500 rds per year...

If your serious about shooting than a $500 -$700 investment in reloading equipmnet is similar to purchasing a new rifle or a scope...

the real investment is the time!

 

[MNbogboy]

This is fun...I copied it out and added brass cost per unit, pieces per unit, cycles per piece, cost of brass/cycles, and added that to the total cost per piece...which carries over to the per 1000 cost....

At several thousand rounds per year I best not show my wife how neat this works....good thing my .260 brass lasts an average of 25 cycles or so, because I am burning powder in 3 .260s now.....My 25-06s however do not fair that well.....

Good work,
Randy

 

[aviatrix]

Lemme see.

I've slowly been buying books, scales, calipers, dies, presses, brass, bullets, this that and what not; some of which I probably should have passed on and I haven't loaded the first round.

Hmmm, I guess my cost per round is somewhere in the neighborhood of unlimited so far.

 

[Zep]

yea but you are having fun, priceless.

 

[snowpro440]

I like most, worried about the cost when I started, but after shooting so much and not hitting what i wanted to , I soon bought better components and better equipment to reload with and it all came together with better accuracy.
Cheap and fun works with a .22gun)

 

[wnc-coyote]

This is fun...I copied it out and added brass cost per unit, pieces per unit, cycles per piece, cost of brass/cycles, and added that to the total cost per piece...which carries over to the per 1000 cost....

At several thousand rounds per year I best not show my wife how neat this works....good thing my .260 brass lasts an average of 25 cycles or so, because I am burning powder in 3 .260s now.....My 25-06s however do not fair that well.....

Good work,
Randy

That is what I was hoping to do. I was just not able to make it work. I don't have any experience with doing these. Could you post a link to it with the changes you made?

 

[FEENIX]

Figuring out the material cost per unit is the easy part. True cost is another, where you factor in initial cost, material cost, and the hardest one and obviously the most expensive part is the labor cost, etc ...

I think most of us here load as a hobby, for better accuracy, gain better knowledge, etc ...

Labor cost is something most of us don't factor in because, the time we put in is our fun time, nonetheless there's an associated cost and whether we like or recognized it, it is very expensive, esp. those that take extra steps (i.e. annealing, fire-forming, etc ...) to gain every advantages they deem necessary in order to achieve their intended accuracy/load goals.

There are guys here that would take tremendous amount of time just to sort the bullets, brass as part of their accuracy quality control check before any loading is done. I know at least for me, I spent most of my time prepping - actual reloading process is quick.

In short, because we have so much fun doing so (that we do not pay ourselves , the labor cost is a washed item and the only material cost we have any savings realized is the brass because it is the only item we can "RE"-LOAD multiple times - this varies on brand and load pressures. Just my 2-pence ...

 

[JackinSD]

Here is an online cost calculator:
Reloading Costs Calculator « Ultimate Reloader

 

[wnc-coyote]

Sorry double post