reloading shot shells

JJ Grandits · #1 03/19/08, 06:57 PM

Seems like shotshell prices are going through the roof. I'm thinking of getting into reloading and have been looking at the various components. The basic question I have deals with the economics of it. If you already have the hulls what does it cost you to produce a box of reloads? Lets say 12ga 1 1/8 oz 7 1/2 shot 3 grams. Any ideas?

Oldcountryboy · #2 03/20/08, 10:50 PM

How much are use shells going for in your area? I walked into a gun shop the other day and they had a big bag full of shells for .08 cents each. Don't remember if they were 12 or 20 guage. But since you can use them several times I thought maybe that wasn't a bad price. I didn't look at them real good either so I don't know if they were high or low brass.

Ed Norman · #3 03/20/08, 11:26 PM

I guess you'll have to figure it out with prices from your area. A pound of powder contains 7000 grains. A bag of shot is usually 25 pounds. You'll have to price wads by the bag. Buy your primers by the thousand. So peek in a manual to get an idea of a charge weight you'll need, your bag of shot has 400 ounces or 355 shells with your 1 1/8 oz load, add the cost of a wad and a primer, and off you go.

I'm all set up to load 12 ga and 410. I usually buy cheap dove loads because they can beat my price at times and I just don't enjoy shotshell reloading like I do metallic reloading. But I can save a bunch on 410 for DW's garden defense gun.

JJ Grandits · #4 03/21/08, 04:39 AM

I checked out the prices at Midway. Seems powder is the biggest cost. I may have figured wrong. A lb. of powder is $16.49. There are 256 drams in a lb. Therefore a 3 dram load would cost you over $.19 a shell in powder alone. Did I figure this wrong? All together I come up with $.40 a shell for reloads. that can't be right.

mdharris68 · #5 03/21/08, 06:31 AM

In 95' it cost me about 9-11 cents per shell, considering the hulls were free,(picked up at the trap range) and the powder was purchased in the largest quantitiy available. I have heard that powder prices are way up so it would be interesting to see what you come up with.

**alleyyooper** · #6 03/21/08, 09:29 AM

In 98 it cost me $3.78 to load a 25 round box of 16 gauge shells. Biggest cost today is the lead. It has gone thru the roof and last time I looked it was over $35.00 for 25 pounds.
Powder still isn't what I call horribale is price here yet.
If you belong to a sportsman club you can some times get huge savings by the club buying by the semi load.
We have two clubs in the area that do this. BUT you have to be a dues paying member.

Al

Ed Norman · #7 03/21/08, 10:14 AM

Drams is some archaic blackpowder measure shotshell loaders can't get over. Forget it and use grains of powder. Here is a random page from a reloading site showing various loads of powder with a specific hull and a 1 1/8 oz shot charge:
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloade...eid=3&gauge=12
The various powders use 15 to 30 grains or more, just pretend your powder takes 20 grains. You'll get 350 loads per pound of powder.

Also, you have to sort your hulls by brand and type. Shotshell loading is very specific to hull type. If you try to run every assorted hull thru the loader, some won't take a crimp, some will swallow the wad, all sorts of problems. Sort them and use the recipe called for.

And get a good reloading manual before you start. Figure out your recipe before you buy components, one wad won't work in place of another many times.

Michael Kawalek · #8 03/21/08, 10:55 AM

JJ Grandits
Absolutely you got it WRONG. Under no circumstances what so ever should drams be used for reloading data. That is absolutely totally incorrect, and would result in an exploded gun. The dram is an old standard the goes back to 19th century black powder shooting. If you look closely at the box it actually states "dram equivalent". That means the amount of modern gunpowder inside is the equivalent of that many drams of BLACK POWDER.

Modern smokeless powder is much, much more powerful than black powder. If you tried to load 3 drams (that's 82 grains) you'll blow up the gun, assuming you can even get that much smokeless powder in the shell. Most powders only need 15-20 grains of modern powder to be that equivalent of power level.

I've never bothered buying powder via the mail because of the 20$ hazmat fee. My local gunshop sells powder for about 20$/lb, so I'd have to buy a very large quantity of powder before I'd break even. The single most expensive item is going to be the lead shot, because of the shipping cost. At today's prices, let's say you'll use about 5.7cents of powder, 3.0 cents of primer, and 10.0 cents of shot for each complete shell. Your variable cost for 350 shells would be 65.50$, or 4.67$/box. Add in the cost of a shotshell reloader, say 100$, and the total cost to make your first 350 shells would be 165.50, or 11.82$/box.

By the time you got around to finally loading your 350th shell, you'd know by then whether you love it or hate it. My advice would be to first link up with a friend that reloads, and ask him to show you how to get started. You'll have the advantage of learning from someone who knows what they're doing, and has the background literature on reloading to do it safely. If you have a good time during your first reloading session, I'd say go for it. If it seems like too much work for you, then it's best to stick with store-bought!
Michael

JJ Grandits · #9 03/21/08, 06:08 PM

Thanks for the input. Will eefinately work with a friend who reloads to learn all the ins and outs.