Reloading ammo - worth it?

.223 Rem in my case. I've found myself shooting a bit more lately, and I started looking into reloading to try to make it a little more economical. My initial shopping around and calculations indicate that it would cost me, in the quantities that would be practical for me, around $.25 a shot (materials only) to load the 55 grains I tend to favor for anything but match-type shooting, while I probably pay $.35 a shot on average for the stuff I usually buy. I'm not worried about the equipment costs, I'm just not sure the ~$.10/shot savings, while significant in the long run, would be worth the time and effort. Just wanted to know from those with any experience with reloading on here if my numbers are ballpark and your thoughts on the matter. Thanks!

Full disclosure - I am not a reloader, but have completed a fair amount of research recently and will add to the discussion a bit.

To answer your specific question: I dont think $0.10 a shot (or $2 a box of 20) is worth the investment of time or equipment for general shooting. If you want to do it as a hobby, however, you cant really run an economic calculation for that. If you are shooting match or customizing your shot loads, then definitely.

For me, reloading would save me about $25 a box of 20 for the ammo I shoot, as I use several hard to find rounds and round combos on the commercial market. I want to shoot more, and reloading would make that more economically feasible for me, as well as provide me with a more readily available source of ammo.

Do it for fun or to maximize the accuracy potential of your rifle. The 223 can be found on sale often enough for you to keep shooting cost down. I have 4 different Weatherby's and to buy the ammo with the bullets I prefer it would cost $70 to $90 per box and you can load a 240 Weatherby for +/- the same as a 243 Winchester.

Three reasons to hand-load " Fun, economics, better accuracy "

Yeah, I'm thinking now I'm probably going to stick to purchasing my .223, and maybe look into reloading for the more exotic pieces I like to pull out on occasion (6.5 Grendel, .50 Beowulf). Thanks for the input guys!

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Originally Posted by thf24

Yeah, I'm thinking now I'm probably going to stick to purchasing my .223, and maybe look into reloading for the more exotic pieces I like to pull out on occasion (6.5 Grendel, .50 Beowulf). Thanks for the input guys!

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What I do is load for accuracy with the best bullet available for the game that I am using that rifle and load for.