Re: Hornady 178 BTHP loads?
Turbo54,
No offense taken, and no intention to mischaracterize or attack you.
if you look around, you can find bullets for far less then $0.30/rd delivered...Maybe not 178HPBT, but certainly 175SMK (I paid $0.20/rd delivered). 150FMJ is evem cheaper...$0.15-$0.20 max!
Deals on powder can be had, (ran into a gentleman at a gun show that can get me 2000MR at dealer pricing approx 60% of what are on websites)...point being with a little elbow grease, you can significantly lower your cost...it depends on how hard you wanna work for it.
However, for those without an inside track:
you can (could?) buy 1,000 pulled 175SMK for about $0.22-$0.25 per 1,000 rds...that comes out to $4.40 - $5.00 depending on whom you buy from.
Powder can be had for $165 for 8lbs delivered. There are 7,000grains in a pound, so that works out to $0.0029 per grain. Assuming 47.5gr per load, powder cost is ~ $2.80 per box of 20.
$4.40+ $2.80 = $7.20...that is the basis of my claim of being able to reload for about $8/box.
Brass, yes, brass is difficult to quantiy...you may get 14 reloads out of one or just one reload....we'll leave it alone...however, on gunbroker, one can buy 500 completely prepped LC brass for about $100...you can save even more money if you buy 500-1,000 at a time.
I think you get my point. Yes, reloading is not inexpensive, but if one is paying $18/box for their reloads, they aint doing it right.
I hear you on free time. I value mine tremendously as well. I will not divulge my income on the internet, however, I can afford to pay waay more than $18/box for ammo and still shoot the same amount...the miser in me will not allow that however.
Please dont take this post as an attack.
I see too many people who want to try reloading, but are told that they wont save that much money, and will burn throgh time...i think its a shame. The more people that can be gotten into this hobby, the lower the price will be for everyone in the long run.
Sorry for the thread hijack...I want to pick up some 178HPBT to try as well. I refuse to buy a box of 100 at the local store for $35 however, so i'll wait and look for deals to pop out.