doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reloading costs vs factory loads

Every blown up gun I have had 1st hand knowledge of was the result of a reload. Blow up one gun and how much have you saved??. I loaded for years with out a problem but I buy factory loads now.. I know multiple experienced reloader that have blow up guns. Blow up a gun with factory ammo and you have a case with the manufacturer , Blow one up with a reload and you are on your own.

I have shot 16 gauge exclusively for the past 28 years and have yet of see a box of 16 ga. 7/8th ounce loads on the shelf at any of the big box stores or even smaller sporting goods stores here in the West. If I want to shoot my preferred load I have no other alternative to reloading.

This is the reloading calculater from trapshooters.com

http://www.trapshooters.com/pages/reloadcalc/

My cost for a 1 oz load came to $5.15/box

using Green dot and 1 oz load

I'm nearing the bottom of a 1000#s of reclaimed that I bought for $1.08 a pound. Had Claydot,& primers purchased many moons ago in stock. Claybuster wads are purchased as needed. I can run 400-500 rounds thru my Spolar in no time. I'm still below $4.00/Box which is OK by me. I've inspected my barrels with my Hawkeye bore scope and have yet to see any sign of scratches from the reclaimed. I know others have not been so lucky.

I know of one, new Spanish gun from a very well-known and reputable maker, that blew with a factory load. Some years back, Remington had some barrel failures. (870? 1100?) I doubt all of those were reloads. Matter of fact, I also recall that one was settled class action, which would seem to indicate that Remington admitted the problem was on their end, not the shells.

You do have a better legal case, however, if it happens with a factory shell. No question. Reloading does involve a certain amount of risk, and requires caution.

I have been reloading for the 56 years, probably have not bought 10 boxes of shells in that time period and have yet to blow up a gun.
I fell in love with a 16 GA #2 AyA and soon discovered that suitable ammo was hard to come by and payloads are limited.
For the last 9 years I have reload RMC all brass hulls and the majority of my reloading is for upland bird hunting and do so for diversity and quality. The cost associated with the number of rounds fired in any season is insignificant. My loads use 3/4 oz. 7/8 oz., 1 oz., 1 1/8 oz. ejecta and factory loads with these payloads are are not available in 16 GA.
If I was still target shooter, I would continue to reload primarily because I have the presses in 28, 20, 16 and 12 gauges and thousands of old style AA hulls for each gauge.

I reload to get the light loads I want for the older guns.
I find it a nice way to spend some time. Others may not.
9/16oz 12ga loads are tough to buy off the shelf.

The real savings are in the 410 I load. I don't load 28 but I imagine that's the same deal as factory ammo's probably crazy high.
But I continue to load 12. Lot's of components, I'm not picky and do admit to interchanging them on a low pressure load, especially primers & hulls.
Still no Ka-Booms after 50yrs of reloading shotgun, rifle & pistol.
If I save a buck a box,,that's OK. I'm still not too proud that I'd pass up a dollar bill lying on the ground and not pick it up.

The two guns that I know blown up were factory and used factory ammo. One WAS a Browning GTI with Win AA handicap load and the other a Mossberg pump with Federal ammo In the Browning case , Winchester took the blame and in the Mossburg, my friend just threw is away after no resolution I overloaded one time--loaded 48 gr 7625 (double load) in a federal Paper case , bad recoil in my SidexSide
but no lasting damage.

I'll fess up.....I blew up a 687EELL....top barrel...about 6" ahead of the chamber....my reload (STS,Win Primer,Clays and Claybuster). No recoil at all...splintered the forearm and no one was hurt.(shooting five stand) I didn't feel it was a bad reload. I shot the rest of that batch without incident. No use to pursue Beretta replacing.....

I used the calculator for my 12 and .410 loads. My 12's are $4.34 a box. My .410s are $3.76 a box. My wholesale source for both shells is $5.30 a box for Federal Top Gun 12s and $9.19 a box for AA .410s. The saving per box is $.96 a box for the 12 gauge and $5.43 a box for the .410s. The saving for 20 and 28 would probably be proportionate, since we use about the same shot charge for 12 and 20, 7/8 ounce, and the 28 and .410 should be very close too. I say that because my normal 28 gauge load is 11/16 ounce, a bit less than the normal 28 gauge load. The counters on my 28 and .410 loaders, installed a few years ago, show about 30,000 shells loaded. The savings rounds off at about $6000 to $6500. I am willing to reload for that savings, although combined with the big gun savings, may not be worth the effort, since the big gun savings is not that much. The realistic saving may not be more than a couple of dozen skeet shoots. However, without the reloaders, we could not load the specific loads we choose to shoot. I have no idea how I could acquire the loads I have required over 55 years of loading without having a loading room and loading my own shells.