Reloading, Part 1: Do I have to?

I'm going to do a string of posts about reloading, and this first one is about the necessity of it and is it worth it.

First, the big question is: "Do I need to load my own ammo to shoot accuratly at long range?" I would say it is a definite no. Factory ammo is very good if you are willing to buy the good stuff, and in most things gun related you get what you pay for. It's probably not going to be the $20 a box stuff that works just fine for hunting. Of course, some calibers are more expensive than others. You can't shoot a 50 BMG for the same price as a 270 WIN if you go shot for shot.

Before you jump off this page to go look for reloading stuff, let me warn you reloading is not cheap to set up. I'm sure we've all heard that reloading is cheaper than buying factory ammo. If you count only the round you make, yes. Remember you're going to spend $500-$1000 just to get started without making a single usable round. Then you still have to buy all the components. you need for making what ever individual round you want, including more equipment(dies).

So is it worth it? I figure with my 270 it'll cost about(using round numbers for ease) $2 per round for factory ammo that is close to what I'd make myself. I figure I can make it for 50-75 cents. Let's use 75 cents to be on the safe side. So for every round I make I save $1.25 and get exactly the load I want down to .01 grain of powder and .05 mm tolorance on the shell, bullet and overall length(the ability to have exactly what you want is something you will not find with factory ammo)

The second big question is how much am I going to shoot? If I'm just hunting once a year, I'll use maybe a box every year to sight in and take into the field. In that case it's going to be a savings of $1.25 x 20 rounds x 1 year which equals $25 a year. It's going to take at a minimum 20 years to pay off the investment I made into the equipment. If I want to shoot three boxes a month the math looks like this: $1.25 x 60 rounds x 12 months. The savings is $900 a year. In that case I've paid it all off in a year of shooting reloads vs factory ammo. So it really does depend on how much you want to shoot. The more you shoot the more savings you have. The dirty secret is most of us just shoot more because it is cheaper to do so, and end up not saving any of that money. Personally, I'm happy to do that.

One last thought is what else do you want to reload for? Remember the $500-$1000 is a one time deal until you want to upgrade your equipment. Each caliber after that is probably $50-$100 for new dies and any other little parts you need. So if want to reload because you want to do a lot of shooting with a 270 WIN, and you like hunting with a 303 British, you can get set up for it without needing to shoot it more than once a year, and still not sink more money in it than would be practical.

One the other hand if you have more money than you know what to do with, by all means get some reloading gear, even if you just go hunting once a year. You get exactly what you want out of your loads and it's generally an enjoyable activity.

-Steven Kipp