Why should I homeload?

[phil384]

Having just paid £38 for 20 RWS .243 rounds from Haslemere Guns can someone please tell me:

How much would all the kit be to homeload? How much does it work out per round compared to shop prices for ready made ammo and is it any better?

Just ballpark figures chaps.

Thanks in anticipation...

[Spanner.]

If you should half a dozen Deer a year don't bother but if you get through a reasonable amount it is a no brainer.

Other option is see if your rifle likes PPU, superb value.

I reload for my 17FB and it costs about 35p per round, factory if you can get it is £40 a box

I just use a hand press and it works fine, you don't need much to start with.

Press, Dies, Scales, Trimmer, Tumbler or Ultrasonic, Priming Tool, Primer Pocket Cleaner, Vernier, Brass, Powders and bullets.

Lee do a starter set and you can add the trimmer and tumbler as you go you don't need them to start with.

Prices of components vary a lot also depending on make.

[dodgyrog]

The only reasons for reloading are:
1/ To achieve more consistent results on target.
2/ You MIGHT save some money if you shoot a lot - if you only shoot 100 to 200 rounds per year it's not worth the expense of getting all the equipment.
3/ You get pleasure out of the flexibility that reloading gives you - it becomes a hobby in itself.
BTW I reload everything I shoot.
If you choose to reload get some quality equipment and invest in the RCBS DVD's that explain reloading.

[tacfoley]

Having just paid £38 for 20 RWS .243 rounds from Haslemere Guns can someone please tell me:

How much would all the kit be to homeload? How much does it work out per round compared to shop prices for ready made ammo and is it any better?

Just ballpark figures chaps.

Thanks in anticipation...

Basically, once you have bought all the necessary gear - much of it second-hand - and that need not cost you much more than around £200 or so, you will be winning the moment that you outlay adds up to less than you are paying out on store-bought ammunition, which is why around 80% of all shooters homeload. Asking if it makes any difference in quality, well, the fact is that you can tailor a load precisely for YOUR rifle and its little foibles. That's why EVERY benchrest shooter reloads, and 99% of all target shooters reload.

With regard to store-bought ammunition, well, If all you buy a year adds up to less than a couple of hundred pounds, then no, it's not worth it to you.

But basically, you can duplicate - even improve - that factory ammunition for around 35% or less than it costs you right now.

Watch a few Youtube articles by the makers - RCBS, Hornady, Speer, Lyman and so on. And ask questions here, too.

tac

[sir-slots-alot]

Whether it worthwhile reloading will depend totally on the amount of bullets you shoot and the level of accuracy you getting / or expecting .


If you firing 50 bullets a year - It will take a long , long time to reoup the cost of the reloading gear and the cost of all the consumables.

If your firing low numbers - Do you know somebody who is currently reloading who would let you use their press.


If your going down the reloading route. Its probably going to cost you between £200 and £350 to get yourself set up - i(f you buy good used)


Dont under estimate the cost of consumables either.

Decent 6mm bullets typcally cost £25 - £35 depending on make.

Cases are about £60 per 100 new - Better brass such as lapua or Norma is signifcantly more. Once fired brass is round £35.

Powder - Vit 160/140 for example (Good choices for 243 ) approximately £72 per kilo - This will give you between 350 - 380 shots (depending on charge)

Primers are about £5 per 100.


A completed 243 round

Bullet 25p
Powder 17P
Primer 5p
Case 60p ( New- but you can reload many times)

Total = £1.07 per shot and 47 p therafter (discounting the cases)


ATB
Alan


.

[zanes]

My Reasons for homeloading:

Availability
Ability to tune loads to your rifle
Ability to load "specialist" rounds (light gallery loads) that aren't commercially available
Ability to produce solid slug shotgun shells
Cost (.44 Mag gallery loads come in c. 15p/bang last time I did the sums. Slug loads are massively cheaper than factory (if that's actually available. .308 with a good HPBT is somewhere around 35p/bang IIRC).

The first step for any homeloader should be buy books- I'd recommend the ABCs of Reloading by James and a load book (though that's slightly superfluous now with powder manufacturer's websites- that said they're useful for initial powder selections).

Kit wise, a Lee kit and a set of their .243 dies should get you going for your needs.

[Randy Bohannon]

Och man, because it's fun and satisfying.


Privi is usually cheaper these days.

[phil384]

Thanks guys, I'll have to look at youtube. Something to bear in mind, I imagine it could become quite obsessive!

I'm currently paying £1.90 per bullet so it may be worth doing. However, if my rifle likes PPU I may not bother!

Cheers all.

[tacfoley]

Thanks guys, I'll have to look at youtube. Something to bear in mind, I imagine it could become quite obsessive!

I'm currently paying £1.90 per bullet so it may be worth doing. However, if my rifle likes PPU I may not bother!

Cheers all.

You are being robbed - that's almost £200.00 a hundred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most .243 bullets hover around £25 - 35 per C, as noted. Where are you paying almost nine times as much?

tac

[zanes]

You are being robbed - that's almost £200.00 a hundred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most .243 bullets hover around £25 - 35 per C, as noted. Where are you paying almost nine times as much?

tac

OP is talking about price per complete round (as per first post but then called them "bullets" in his follow up post).

For complete rounds that's top end of the market but not especially unreasonable looking here:
http://www.dauntseyguns.co.uk/products.php?cat=13040

PPU well worth a try as if nothing else their brass is pretty darned good and well worth saving for future reloading.

Top tip: Bring in bullets from the continent. Far cheaper (in the case of my .308 bullets literally half the price) than over here and not a problem to have S5 shipped direct to you (subject to FAC authorisation and the border authorities do apparently check this!)

[loiner1965]

you wont save money you just shoot more lol

[phil384]

Dauntsey's are £30 for 20 RWS, Haslemere Guns charge £38. Hard to justify and for the sake of him making an extra £8 out of me I won't be back. Silly.

[Dalua]

you wont save money you just shoot more lol

There's certainly a fair bit of this in it!

I started reloading about two years ago, when I quite unexpectedly became enthused with target-rifle shooting after joining a new club intending to use their range for the odd bit of stalking/foxing-rifle zeroing.

Anyhow at that point, as folk have remarked, it became clear that the amount I'd be shooting as well as the quest for better-than-factory accuracy for the target-rifle made investing in some decent gear (a couple of hundred quids'-worth for a RCBS kit and Mitotuyo vernier) seems sensible. Because I then had the gear, since then I've probably spent another couple of hundred on various dies (and other odds and sods, many of them not strictly needed) as I've increased the range of calibres I load for (started with .308 target, then on to .303, .270, .223, .243, .308 stalking-rifle, .357mag. I've just got dies for .22-250.)

The stock of bullets, powder and primers on hand is certainly another couple of hundred quid tied up.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, and I emphasise I've no experience of this, I understand that using a Lee Loader costing £30 or so a man with a rifle and a supply of once-fired brass from it can knock out small batches perfectly-servicable rounds without too much trouble. Anyone who's tried this might be able to add some more detail - but depending on the OPs circumstances, this approach might be a better bet than a bench-full of costly gear.

[sidesy]

two things that are priceless

1. Accuracy
2. Accuracy

[kennyc]

the Lee loader .