Equipment important when reloading

This is the third of a multi-part series about reloading rifle cartridges.

The trigger is pulled when the crosshairs settle on the 4-point mule deer buck. The buck drops. The bolt on the .30-06 is worked, ejecting the spent casing. The casing is picked up and placed in the pocket of the hunter.

Hunters who are also reloaders recover every casing coming out of a fired rifle. Each case is then used again and again, seven to nine times, sometimes more, even up to 20 times.

Reloading-equipment-giant RCBS explains the money savings this way:

“At today’s prices, each round (for a .30-06) cost about $2 each. Of that, the primer, powder and bullet account for about .70 cents. So about $1.30 of every factory round is chalked up to the brass case plus the expense of loading it. Since you will be using the case over again, you save nearly 65 percent over factory ammo.”

The numbers for the cost of each component may vary. The amount of savings may also differ.

Four friends have decided to invest in the items needed to reload. A starter kit from RCBS is listed for $380. The starter kit would cost each hunter $95.

This includes all the equipment you need to begin reloading except for the powder, bullets, cases and primers. the cases will need to be cleaned unless they are new and unfired. New cases will cost more than the fired ones.

The hunter has been saving spent cases for years, so there are 200 cases in a box in the shed. Now he is ready to reload.

One reloader figured the cost of the bullets at .31 cents each, .06 cents for the primer and the powder at .20 cents. The total was .94 cents per round. The cost per 100 rounds of factory ammo, on the cheaper side, can cost in the $162 range or 1.62 per round. A savings of $68.

Another reloader figured the cost was .71 cents per reloaded round or $71 per 100 rounds, when store bought ammo was $110 per 100 rounds. A savings of $39.

These prices all depend upon the type and manufacture of the bullet, the powder and the case.

The total savings per year will depend upon how much these four hunters shoot their rifles. It takes time at the range to determine which reloaded round works best in a specific rifle.

Spending time at the shooting range, shooting at different distances will/should make a better hunter out of these four.

Next week: More tools used in reloading.