Reloading vs. Buying Shotgun Shells

This time of year that my gun club (SSP) has their “annual reloading sale” where members can buy reloading supplies and/or cases of shells at discounted prices.

Knowing that lead (and all metals) had gone up recently I started doing some figurin’ about what reloading would run me per box this year.

I shoot 3 dram, 1 1/8 7.5’s and 9’s (trap and skeet respectively).

Red dot powder 4lbs was at $49
25# of 7.5 and/or 9 was at $41
1000 primers at $30
1000 wads at $20
I have 1000’s of hulls… so $0 on them.

I took these prices and put them into a reloading calculator I found at this website: Shotshell Reloading Cost Calculator

The calculator uses grains instead of drams… so I found out that 1 dram = 27.34375 grains and I use 3 dram loads so 82.01325 grains.

The calculator also asks “How many decimal ounces in your load?”… they have a chart below the calculator which shows 1-1/8 = 1.125.

So I took all of this info and put it in the calculator. I came up with $7.72 per box (25 shells) or $0.31 a piece for reloads!!

My club is also selling cases of these shells brand new for $51.50 per case (10 boxes) or $5.15 per box through this sale.

Can buying new really be $2.57 ($7.72 – $5.15) per box cheaper? If so, it’s like I get a free box every week (I shoot 50 rounds) by buying versus reloading.

Someone please tell me what I’ve done wrong in figuring this out. This can’t be right?

I shoot at West End in Rosemount. We bought componets from the club and 12ga 1 1/8 AA equiv are $4.71 a box to reload. I do know they calculated that using the current prices of their componets.

Mwal

I think you can figure the cost by hand

primers 3 cents per shell
wad 2 cents per shell
Shot 12 cents per shell
Powder 4 cents per shell

So, the total would be 21 cents per shell, times 25 shells would be abut 5.25 per box. Also, I think your computation on how much powder you’ll need is a little high. I think about 19-22 grains of red dot would be the proper amount for trap loads (going by memory).

Anybody have any rifle reloading equipment they want to sell? PM me

Hi Jon,

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I think about 19-22 grains of red dot would be the proper amount for trap loads (going by memory).

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I agree with the power estimate for Red Dot..

Maybe you should just stick to catching Big Northerns

Jack..