Brownells Gun Techs Steve and Caleb are back to tackle one of life's important questions: Is reloading more economical than buying new factory ammo? It certainly is if you're reloading obsolete, obscure, specialty, or wildcat cartridges. For example: .25-20 Winchester lever action rifle ammo sells for about $1 a round, but Steve can reload it for 10 cents a round - quite a savings! For common cartridges like 9mm, .45 ACP, .223, or .38 Special, where inexpensive bulk factory ammo is plentiful, it'll be harder to save money by reloading. Casting your own lead bullets used to save a bundle, but the most common source of lead - old wheel weights from tire shops - has pretty much dried up. If you have a source of free brass, such as a friend who owns a range, there's another way to save.
Then there's the Reloader's Dilemma: the more ammo you load, the more you're encouraged to shoot, and as you get accustomed to shooting that much, you'll need more ammo. In the end, you produce more ammo but you don't really save much in absolute dollars, though your cost-per-round goes down! During industry-wide ammo shortages, such as we're experiencing right now, reloading can be a way to ensure you have ammo - but only if you went into the "ammo drought" with a healthy stock of powder, bullets, brass, and primers. So is it really more economical to reload? The answer is YES, if you're disciplined!
