Stocking up factory ammo vs reloading components

[w3453l]

I've slowly started buying primers and powder to reload for 9 mm and .223/5.56 as these are the calibers I shoot most, with the exception of 7.62 x 39 just because of the cheap prices on steel cased.

I don't have a press currently. Money is an object, and I figure reloading components will be harder to come by than presses and reloading equipment. I save brass from spent ammo, so the only components I haven't been buying are the projectiles.

What I wanted to ask is how many of you who reload still bother with buying factory ammo?

I know that currently reloading isn't so much about saving money as it used to be. But it seems to me that you can stock enough powder and primers to load more ammo than if you were to spend just as much on factory loaded ammo. Assuming that during shortages projectiles are still easily available.

With current prices on 9 and 223 as cheap as they are I get tempted to by a case, but then I think it would be a better investment to put that same amount towards powder and primers. I have a decent stash of factory ammo, but it's far from enough to last me a lifetime.

So again, does anyone here still buy factory ammo? And am I right in thinking that I'll be able to buy projectiles with ease during a shortage?

Thanks

[themonk]

Yes, I buy Wolf gold and cheap 9mm all the time. I will not do a class with reloads. It does not make sense to pay all the money for the class, travel, lodging to have issues with reloads. I very rarely have issues but I just dont want to risk it.

There are also months that I will shoot a ton and it's easier to buy a few cases vs sitting at the press for hours. Really depends How much time I have.

I primarily reload 300 blackout, 45ACP, and very very quiet 9mm.

In regards to getting a press; Check craigslist. There is generally someone getting out of reloading or moving that is selling everything. You can find some good deals. Also, Cabelas sells hornady presses and about twice a year they have huge sales. I was able to get a Hornady Lock-N-Load press with shell plates for 223 & 9mm for a little over $500. You can also get a credit card with them and they give you cash points which you can apply to purchases.

[TomMcC]

I load 9mm, and about a year ago I used to load .223. In the last great component panic it became a real pain to score the goods. I got burned out and just started buying Wolf Gold. Now that things are better I got sort of lazy, I work a lot and I've meant get back to .223 but haven't yet. I had enough 9mm stuff to weather the storm.

[HKGuns]

I have a stock of reloading components as well as a stock of factory ammo. My answer is to do both.

Powder - bullets and primers were all three in short supply post Sandy Hook.

[Kansaswoodguy]

I keep a couple thousand rounds of cheap wolf 5.56 NATO on hand for shf but I don't shoot any of it really, it shoots like crap 2-3 MOA. I keep way more components on hand but I shoot a couple thousand rounds a year of reloads way more accurate than factory ammo with the exception black hills it's great stuff. Best money spent for ammo is components imo. Hornady 50gr or 55gr vmax bullets and their 75gr HPBT match bullets can be had very reasonably and shoot very accurately for just plinking there are even cheaper bullets available. It really depends on your end use if you only need plinking shf ammo cheap steel case crap might be the ticket. If you want or need precision ammo go quality components. BTW I paid $89 a thousand for wolf 15 years ago omg I'm getting old:shout:

[markm]

So again, does anyone here still buy factory ammo?

I have no idea what it's like to buy factor ammo. It's been a long time.

[diving dave]

I reload for my more expensive calibers, 6.8,300 BO, 50BMG :dance3:..Most handgun and 223 I buy factory stuff.

[DBCDave]

The time spent reloading vs. money saved makes it not worth it to me. My time is worth more to me than money saved. If there were huge savings I might go back to it.

[HackerF15E]

The "worth it" factor all depends on the cartridge.

Reloading .30-06 for the Garand? .30 Carbine for the M1? Worth it to get components because, even considering the time for my effort, it is cheaper and better to reload.

5.56, 9x19, etc? Factory ammo, all the way. I have components for those, but mostly left over from what I stocked during the last two panics when factory ammo availability was low and prices were high. Given current price and availability, not worth my time to reload it.

[masan]

Like themonk, I still buy factory for classes, so some 223 and 9mm.

Mostly because I am loathe to leave my own brass, that I have spent time prepping to my standards, laying in the dirt/gravel/dust.

Otherwise, I use my own loads for everything else.

During a shortage you won't be able to find much of anything with ease.

[Kain]

Going to be another one who will say to stock both. i will stock calibers, as well as gun parts, and mags, for things I don't even own yet, just because you never know. And if nothing else, lots of stuff is cheap right now and it can always be good trade fodder. I do reload a good bit, though like others cheap range ammo, 9mm and 5.56, even junk .45acp, I buy factory to run. For SD/HD ammo I generally buy factory. Which reminds me I need to grab some more gold dot.

[MegademiC]

I only reload 40 right now. Iirc, loading pistol is a lot cheaper, 223 is cheaper for the quality you get.

So I stock up on pistol components and buy factory 5.56 and have a stash of 40 and 9mm carry ammo.

[Jimbeaux82]

I stock both ammo and components. I buy bulk 5.56 - 55 gr brass ammo for plinking and practice but I load 64 gr and 77 gr for other purposes since they tend to be expensive. I reload for all of my precision rifle and hunting needs. I buy lots of 9mm factory brass ammo for practice as well as cheap steel ammo for my Russian caliber guns. So it all depends on what guns and for what purpose.

[b2dap1]

Both. I buy factory whenever I can and save every piece of brass I can get my hands on. I don't reload as much as I like but I have my system all set. I like to keep about enough reloading supplies to reload every factory round I have on stock give or take. I think we are in a time right now when we should be stocking up. Not for SHTF but just for this crazy election season we are headed for!!

[w3453l]

Thank you everyone, I figured it's still a good idea to buy factory loaded ammo but just focus more on the reloading components.

Interesting that some find .223 to be one of the cheap calibers. Then again I have been shooting mostly AK's and 9 mm since I started shooting altogether.

And yes my idea of SHTF is election season. I don't really buy into the FEMA camp/zombie/North Korean invasion theories. I'm planning to buy some quality ammo for the 9 mm's and AR. Enough to load a good stash of magazines for a real emergency. But aside from that I'm just trying to get as ready as possible for when ammo gets crazy expensive and hard to find.

The one trend we always see is people saying "I remember buying X for only Y amount"

I also would like to get into .308, and I might start looking into some components for that as well.

[wilson1911]

Primers will be the first item to go. I have 50k pistol primers and 12k rifle primers. Get a few pounds of your choice powder and find a second that you like for a backup. Normally bullets are always found, keep a lookout for specials.

You save more on rifle ammo than on pistol. 556/AK is an exception to the rule tho. The savings come when you get an actual rifle caliber like 308, 6.5, 338. buying a single is great to learn on, or keep things simple and never upgrade. Upgrading your equipment and or buying new things to reload with can add up into the thousands. Learn to load all the calibers you shoot, except ak ammo. You never know when its going to dry up.

I still buy box ammo also tho. Getting 1 box each payday is a great way to start your stash. As others have stated, its great for class or if you do not have time to reload. If you get a chance to buy a 308 most any gun will do for a learner, but if you get a rem action, you can blueprint it later on. The important thing is to teach yourself how to work up a load that is accurate and consistent. Reloading skills are acquired over long period of time.....but mostly your just learning what errors you are making.

Even getting a 22lr rifle to learn on is great.

[Bimmer]

One way to look at it: Figure out how long your current stock of ammo and components would last you.

When I first started shooting, back in the 1990s, money was tight, ammo was cheap and plentiful, and the errornet didn't really work. So I would just buy several boxes of ammo at a big box store on the way to the range. I never had more than a "one month" supply of ammo on hand — just enough so that I could actually load my guns if the S really hit the fan.

Then I started reloading, and I moved to the middle of nowhere, and I got a real job and moved into a house (storage space!), and nowadays via the internet it's cheaper to buy ammo and components by the case of 1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000...

So now I have a 5-10 year supply of ammo and components... If prices skyrocket or things become unavailable, then I wait years for the crisis/hysteria to resolve itself.

That said, NOW is the time to stock up. Ammo and components are readily available (except Hodgdon Clays), and they're as cheap as they've been since early 2008 — the market is bouncing along the bottom, IMHO.

Edit: I just checked, and Hodgdon Clays is in stock again — of course that shortage had more to do with Hodgdon's production problems than any political hysteria, anyway.

[waffentomas]

I stock both. Mainly reloads go down my guns and I just hoard factory. When I need some brass because of attrition, I'll shoot factory and then buy more of it. I have a mixed lot of about 100k of primers and around 50 lbs of powder. I load for a lot of calibers, over a dozen, but when the price is right I just buy factory to have on hand. I won't buy it a full value, whatever is on sale/cheap clearance is what I buy...it just takes patience sometimes to wait for the deals.

[kwg020]

I only buy 9mm .40 and shot gun factory ammo because I do not reload them. For .45, .38 and .223/5.56 I have not bought a factory load in 30 years.
kwg

[nate89]

I load 9mm and 223. The only ammo I buy is either carry ammo, class ammo, or when I am shooting at a demo and am required to shoot factory through demo guns. I load 9mm for <$100/k and .223 is about $180/k, so the savings is worth it for the amount that I shoot, and the time it takes me to reload. I am currently scraping some money together to do a bulk primer/powder order that will get me through the next year or so fot both calibers. I think the projectiles are the easiest of any of the components to get, and if it gets really scarce, I can start casting 9mm in my 6 cavity mold. If you can get a deal on a progressive press of some sort, it really cuts down on the time.

[mic2377]

I pick up a little bit of factory ammo here and there, mainly to put into the SHTF stash and to shoot occasionally to replenish my brass supply.

Besides that, I exclusively reload, mainly because I have found the quality of my reloads to be much superior to factory ammo. For example, my general blasting ammo load of either Hornady or Speer 55 SP over H335 shoots groups that are less than half the size of standard M193 ammo, and it isn't even using a premium BTHP-type bullet. I also like to stockpile other ammo like 300 BLK and 9 mm subsonic, where there are HUGE cost savings to be had via reloading.

[1986s4]

I have a stock of reloading components as well as a stock of factory ammo. My answer is to do both.

Powder - bullets and primers were all three in short supply post Sandy Hook.

What he said! 1000 primers were going $50.00 and up in my area, which I refused to pay as I had a supply that got very low until things eased up. If you are serious about reloading get a Dillon and don't look back. Buy factory ammo for serious use and reloads for training. I bought 10,000 of the cheapest Tula primers I could find, one dud in 10,000, not bad.

[Ernst]

I can afford to buy all the factory ammo I want and need. I buy it cheap and stack it deep, very,very deep.

[w3453l]

"I load 9mm for <$100/k and .223 is about $180/k,..." - nate89

Is that with components you purchased recently? Or is this from powder and primers that were bought during "the good days"?

[nate89]

That is current. 3,500 125 grain coated bullets for $200 shipped, 8lb kegs of titegoup and bulk primer orders together to save on shipping. I have been using s&b primers that I have seen for 20 bucks per k from cabelas, although I don't live close enough to one to make it worth it.

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[nate89]

I got 4k wolf 55 grain projectiles for 40 bucks off the standard $240, and add in 8lb kegs of TAC and bulk primers, and there you go. I have to wait for deals, but I try to buy in bulk so I'm not constantly needing to buy componants.

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[rcoodyar15]

all my stockpiled rifle and pistol ammo is factory.

for my precision rifles I only shoot reloads. Really all I shoot now. much more accurate. Plenty of powder, bullets and primers if I would just quit buying new calibers.