I'm looking to get started in reloading soon, and I wanted to look at how much it would cost per round for a small batch (about 200 rounds).
At the cost of components from Midway (bullets and brass) and Cabela's (powder and primer, locally so I don't have to pay Hazmat), I come out to about $0.84/round, with extra powder and primers left over.
What I'm using to get that number:
Bags of Winchester brass, 50 per bag- $18.49 ea. , $73.96 total = $0.3398 per case
Hornady 178 AMAX, boxes of 100- $29.99 ea., $59.98 total= $0.2999 per bullet
Varget powder, 1 lb- $25.99 ea., assuming a load of 45gr (pretty low estimate from the .308 load depot thread) at 7000gr/lb, I'll need at least 2 lbs, so $51.98 total=$0.16708 per load (probably lower than it would really be at a developed load probably anywhere from 0.2-1.0gr higher)
CCI primers, per 1000- $29.99 total= $.02999 per primer
Add it all up= $0.8367685714285714 per round
Does this seem like a normal cost/round for reloading? It seems like it is pretty close to what factory bulk ammo costs. Could I get a better cost/round with a larger batch at bulk price components?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: I just realized that would be only the cost/round for the first batch. The brass' effective cost would be less per reload I used them for. New estimate for cost/case = (at an estimate of 8 total uses) $0.046225, New cost/round at 8 total uses= $0.543195, which is a lot closer to what I would have thought.
The cost per round would be even lower if I wanted to buy all the bullets, powder and primers for all 8 loadings would probably be lower, because I would need at least 11 lbs of powder and all 1600 primers and bullets, so I would buy in bulk and save money that way.
At the cost of components from Midway (bullets and brass) and Cabela's (powder and primer, locally so I don't have to pay Hazmat), I come out to about $0.84/round, with extra powder and primers left over.
What I'm using to get that number:
Bags of Winchester brass, 50 per bag- $18.49 ea. , $73.96 total = $0.3398 per case
Hornady 178 AMAX, boxes of 100- $29.99 ea., $59.98 total= $0.2999 per bullet
Varget powder, 1 lb- $25.99 ea., assuming a load of 45gr (pretty low estimate from the .308 load depot thread) at 7000gr/lb, I'll need at least 2 lbs, so $51.98 total=$0.16708 per load (probably lower than it would really be at a developed load probably anywhere from 0.2-1.0gr higher)
CCI primers, per 1000- $29.99 total= $.02999 per primer
Add it all up= $0.8367685714285714 per round
Does this seem like a normal cost/round for reloading? It seems like it is pretty close to what factory bulk ammo costs. Could I get a better cost/round with a larger batch at bulk price components?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: I just realized that would be only the cost/round for the first batch. The brass' effective cost would be less per reload I used them for. New estimate for cost/case = (at an estimate of 8 total uses) $0.046225, New cost/round at 8 total uses= $0.543195, which is a lot closer to what I would have thought.
The cost per round would be even lower if I wanted to buy all the bullets, powder and primers for all 8 loadings would probably be lower, because I would need at least 11 lbs of powder and all 1600 primers and bullets, so I would buy in bulk and save money that way.