107
by CowboyT
Now, since this is a "time vs. money trade-off" thread....
Remember that most of my reloading is done progressively. With ease, I can pop out 350 rounds of .45 ACP in an hour on the Pro 6000. On the Pro 1000, I've done 375 rounds/hour of .38 Special on quite a few occasions, though my average output is closer to just over 300/hour.
Let's look at the cost of the time, using the above cartridges. Say you spend an hour reloading. Say you make $100,000 a year, which is hardly unusual in the Information Technology field. That turns out to be about $50/hour. A typical box of FMJ "range-fodder" ammo, say, .38 Special, will cost about $30. In one hour, assuming about a (slightly conservative) 300 round/hour output, I've made $180 to $200 worth of ammo.
Now, let's look at .45 ACP. Typical cost for that is about $35. Assuming my typical, and somewhat leisurely, production rate of 350 rounds/hour, we're looking at $245 worth of ammo. In one hour. So, that person making $50/hour just ended up with either $180-200 or $245.
Now, let's subtract expenses. First, we deal with the $50/hour wage, so we're looking at $130-$150 for .38 Special, or $195 for .45 ACP. Now, let's subtract the actual cost to make the box of ammo. For .38 Special, normally that's $3.00/box of ammo, and for .45 ACP, that's $4.50/box of ammo. That's actually somewhat negligible, given the other figures here, but we'll call it $5.00. That's $125-$145 for .38 Special and $190 for .45 ACP.
Now, we subtract the time for bullet casting. Just to keep things simple, I'll stick to .38 Special for this example. I have made 6,000 bullets of .38 Special in about 12 hours. That's 500 bullets an hour. That's another $50/hour in wages subtracted, so we're looking at $75-$95.
I already included the cost of the lead for making those bullets in the cost of each box of ammo. But I'll share lead cost calculation with you as well.
The bullet mould that I use for .38 Special is Lee's 358-105-SWC, which drops at an actual weight of about 110 grains/bullet. This is what I use for my "powder-puff" load that's easy shootin', but it also replicates factory .38 Special in-flight ballistics (chronos at 850 ft/sec). So, 1lb of lead, i. e. 7000 grains, will get me 7000/110 = 63.6363 bullets. Call it 60 bullets/lb for round figures. To get 500 bullets, that means 8.3lb of lead alloy. Each lb of lead is about $1.20. That's $9.60; call it $10 even. Again, I already figured that into the cost of making a box of 50.
Hmm...$75 to $95 per hour...after all expenses...and I'm having fun doing it as well....
YEAH, IT'S WORTH IT!! :-)