Starting out .223 Reloading .... is now as good a time as any ?

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K

KRW

Well-Known Member
I used to reload years ago and up until the pistol ban and then sold all of my gear off as was never going to have a use for it ever again .......

Fast forward 25 years and here we are, having recently purchased my first .223 for pest control I am considering starting backup with reloading, I figure the way things are going price wise that purchasing the kit along with a box of primers and enough consumables to suit should last me quite a while and help offset increased costs of ammunition over the coming years, Just trying to convince myself that its worth the hassle.

Can you guys tell me what 53gn/55gn can presently be reloaded for cost wise against the present cost of available ammo and what the availability of consumables is like as don't seem to be able to find .223 lead easily available.

Checking on what I have got squirreled away and found a box of primers I bought for.410 reloading about 10 years ago which has £45 sticker on it and a box of small pistol primers fromway back then, no price on those but can bet a fair bit cheaper than today's cost.
 
Unless you’re shooting 1000+/year, I wouldn’t bother. If you’re on a 1:12 twist and only shooting vermin, there’s lots of budget factory ammo out there that’ll do the job.
This coupled with the lack of consumables, makes it imho a no brainer.
DG
 
The generally accepted opinion is that reloading isn't saving much, if anything unless you do it in real big bulk. Also, thanks to Uncle Putin and his war/not-a-war in Ukraine, consumables, especially powder is in short supply.

Even if you are doing it to save money, the initial outlay of equipment can be hard to overcome too. You really need to reload if a) really good accuracy is important to you (and most factory ammo is pretty darned accurate) and/or b) you enjoy it.

Of course the war in Ukraine won't last forever (probably) but costing-wise, you still really won't save that much money at all.
 
Ive been reloading for over 15 years, I didn't buy any fancy or expensive kit and without a shadow of a doubt I am still out of pocket, saying that I have had hundreds of hours at my reloading bench tinkering and fiddling with stuff which apart from trying to free a stuck case were all enjoyable
 
I'll buck the trend and say I've saved overall on reloading over the years doing it. Buy right, buy just what you need and don't get suckered into more specialist kit aimed at competition shooters, and if you shoot often, then you'll save in the long run. My local gunshup charges around £27/20 55 Remington accutip bullets. I can make up something similar (PPU cases/hornady 55gr Vmax) for around 60p to 65p per shot based on 3 reloads of the PPU cases. Do the maths and you'll see for every hundred rounds you're saving £75 so a basic reloading set up will pay for itself in around 400 to 600 rounds based upon the maths. For me, that used to represent a year's vermin shooting and that's without taking into account range work and load development. It's the latter that uses up and costs. normally you might expect to expend 50 rounds max on getting a decent load but even that factored in, where 223 is concerned, reloading's a no brainer. It's a pastime in it's own right and whilst some enjoy the process, others find it chore.

If you find it a chore and shoot less than say 300 to 400 rounds annually then it's possibly not worth it unless you factor in repayment costs over something like 3 to 5 years.

The advantage is a round tailored to your barrel and quarry whereas these days it can be a lottery finding sufficient stocks of suitable ammo, and consistently getting the same stuff from any one gun shop for factory rounds.
 
Buy 100 rounds of factory, shoot it and keep the brass. Over a few months scour the classifieds on here for a simple press and dies (there’s usually someone selling up a full setup fairly regularly) find out what powders you can get locally to you then work out a load accordingly. When you see primers, buy them!

Hopefully you will be able to get everything ready for when you’ve shot the factory rounds and have brass available.

Tooling wise I put my reloading setup together (secondhand single stage press, new lee rgb dies, trimmer, hand primer) for less than £100

Will you save money? Depends. You’ll have to do your own calculations.
Is it another element to your hobby that can be done when it’s pi**ing down on a winters evening and you can’t get out? Yep!
 
I know you have a .223 but with .222 Remington it was often advised to use small pistol primers for better accuracy, and you did write above that you still had some.
 
Definitely NOT sensible advice for 223 pressures when cup thickness of a pistol primer is just .017"! NO do NOT use them for 223. Use the ones specified for the pressure which are between 19 and 25 thou cup thickness depending on make and whether magnum or match grade.
 
ChesterP said:
I'll buck the trend and say I've saved overall on reloading over the years doing it. Buy right, buy just what you need and don't get suckered into more specialist kit aimed at competition shooters, and if you shoot often, then you'll save in the long run. My local gunshup charges around £27/20 55 Remington accutip bullets. I can make up something similar (PPU cases/hornady 55gr Vmax) for around 60p to 65p per shot based on 3 reloads of the PPU cases. Do the maths and you'll see for every hundred rounds you're saving £75 so a basic reloading set up will pay for itself in around 400 to 600 rounds based upon the maths. For me, that used to represent a year's vermin shooting and that's without taking into account range work and load development. It's the latter that uses up and costs. normally you might expect to expend 50 rounds max on getting a decent load but even that factored in, where 223 is concerned, reloading's a no brainer. It's a pastime in it's own right and whilst some enjoy the process, others find it chore.

If you find it a chore and shoot less than say 300 to 400 rounds annually then it's possibly not worth it unless you factor in repayment costs over something like 3 to 5 years.

The advantage is a round tailored to your barrel and quarry whereas these days it can be a lottery finding sufficient stocks of suitable ammo, and consistently getting the same stuff from any one gun shop for factory rounds.
Click to expand...

I have saved an absolute shed load reloading, every round I load saves me £0.40 to £2.00, and because I shoot with 2 target clubs I get through thousands of rounds a year.

This is based on stocking up when things are cheap and keeping an eye out for bargains.

Generally, with the cost of consumables now, particularly primers and bullets, savings are much diminished so you need to shoot a lot of rounds to cover initial set up costs.

If you shout 20-40 rounds on fox / deer a month, I really wouldn’t bother
 
Gunner223 said:
Is cost everything ???? I get great satisfaction just dicking as I call it, getting the right load sorted, then 100 yds or 200yds touching clover leaf holes
and thinking ..ck me ive done a good job there ??puts a massive smile on my old face.
Click to expand...

Dunno, just component assembly at the end of the day, no?

Sure, you can tweak your handloads a little bit vs. factory ammo, load some different powder/bullet combinations and gain confidence in your equipment, but at the end of the day, if the components (powder, primer, case, bullet) cost more than loaded rounds (we are fast approaching this point!), then what is the point?

Bit like opening a few boxes of imported parts, bolting them together and declaring you have 'built' yourself a 'custom' rifle... :norty: :fib::doh:
 
But...they're not. You can still reload cheaper, in .223 as per the advice sought in this post, compared with factory rounds and I haven't yet found a factory round which give the precision in my rifle of something like 69gr TMK handloads. The difference for me was anything but "a little bit". Sub half moa 5 round compared to around moa with the best factory load I've so far tried. Trust me, that matters when at 300 yds on a rabbit for example. We're not talking kill zone on a small deer at say 100 yds where it doesn't make a lot of difference but for what the versatile 223 is used for on vermin control it does matter. The OP asked for pros/cons and the pros, a least for this little cal mostly outweigh the cons. Possibly not the case for 30 cal on deer where the value of the deer outweighs any benefit from reloading other than because there's satisfaction from doing it.
 
ChesterP said:
But...they're not. You can still reload cheaper, in .223 as per the advice sought in this post, compared with factory rounds and I haven't yet found a factory round which give the precision in my rifle of something like 69gr TMK handloads. The difference for me was anything but "a little bit". Sub half moa 5 round compared to around moa with the best factory load I've so far tried. Trust me, that matters when at 300 yds on a rabbit for example. We're not talking kill zone on a small deer at say 100 yds where it doesn't make a lot of difference but for what the versatile 223 is used for on vermin control it does matter. The OP asked for pros/cons and the pros, a least for this little cal mostly outweigh the cons. Possibly not the case for 30 cal on deer where the value of the deer outweighs any benefit from reloading other than because there's satisfaction from doing it.
Click to expand...

Maybe read the OP's question again, 53/55 grain ammo... 69 grain TMK's were hardly raining down from the sky or being found in the bargain bin the last time I checked..

OP might have a less fussy rifle as well!
 
I load .223 for 30p a shot . I buy bullet heads per 1000 for £150 , using speer 52g hollow points and 55g soft points , fedral primers and vhit 130
 
Tim1989 said:
I load .223 for 30p a shot . I buy bullet heads per 1000 for £150 , using speer 52g hollow points and 55g soft points , fedral primers and vhit 130
Click to expand...
You’ll get around 280 loads out of a 1lb tub costing approximately £50 : £17.5p/shot. Primers £100/1000 : £0.10p/shot. Bullets & brass for 2.5p/shot…?
You must have stocked up a long time ago.
DG
 
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