I bought stuff to reload 45 acp last week, then realized reloading is more expensive than buying new! At least I do have the stuff when ammo becomes tight.
Bought a box of Blazer CCi ammo with a new gun and they are aluminum casing. Worthless as teats on a tomcat.
yes and no
if your trying to make ball ammo for practice buying fmj and load it , yes it costs equal or more because the manufacture makes it in such quantity that the mark up on the powder , the primer and the projectile are equal too or greater than the markup on the laoded ammo.
if you start talking hollow points or hunting ammo that changes some
I started reloading with 44mag because I could buy a hundred Hornady XTP bullets for 25 dollars , 3 dollars for 100 primers and 16 dollars for a pound of powder 44 dollars and I could make 100 rounds and have powder left to make 400 more
a hundred was really costing me 33 dollars to load
a box of 50 rounds loaded at the store was 40 dollars
it was costing me 16.50 a box of 50 to load hunting ammo these were 2011 prices but both have gone up the components and the loaded ammo
there can be saving to be had in loading target ammo in 9 and 45
http://www.acmebullet.com/Acme-Bullet/45-ACP-Lead-Bullets/45ACP-230RN-NLG-CoatedAcme hi-tech coated bullets 500 bullets for 58.50 comes to 11.7 cents a projectile , figure pistol powder is up to about 20 dollars a pound round and sat 7gr per round you get 1000 rounds per pound last I saw large pistol primers they were 42 dollars a thousand.
11.7 cents + 2 cents + 4.2 cents = 17.9 cents per round on a sale you can't buy 230gr 45acp for 9 dollars a box of 50
in 9mm I run 124gr acme the bullet runs 7.4 cents each 1.4 cents in powder and I had been getting primers for 3.3 cents that will go up I am sure 12.1 cents a round or just a bit over 6 dollars a box
if like most reloaders you then shoot 3x as much the savings will be absorbed
the Acme hi-teck coated bullets run through a Glock just fine I have shot thousands of them with never any leading or issue.
however at this time all components and ammo are in very very short supply and that will mess with prices