The Economics of Handloading Part 1 (The .30s With 180 Grain Bullets)

***DISCLAIMER***

This post contains handloading data.  These loads are derived from maximum published data provided by powder companies and should not be used as "starting" loads.  I cannot be held responsible for misuse of this data or for typographical errors.  Use at your own risk!


(continued after the jump)

Saving money isn't the only reason people load their own ammunition, but the latest boom in handloading has been undoubtedly spurred by economic reasons.  Wholly disgusted with factory ammunition prices, I decided to investigate just how much handloading would save on a per round basis.  Once I got going with the number crunching and data collection, I realized why there aren't very many published articles on this.  It took me several hours to squeeze out any useful information from this...and I thought I was being lazy by only including one bullet weight.  I don't think it helped that I picked the most saturated category of cartridges on the market: the .30 calibers.  The bullet weight I chose is 180 grains, which is a good all-around weight.  The 7 cartridges I chose are the .300 Savage, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .300 RCM, .300 WSM, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .30-378 Weatherby Magnum.


A few notes about the following chart:

• I used regular (non-sale) prices from MidwayUSA for components and ammo
• I calculated brass cost based on being able to reload it 4 times, YMMV
• All bullet weights are 180 grains
• All loads are published maximums from Hodgdon (reduce appropriately if using)
• No hazmat fees, shipping, sales tax, press, or die costs were calculated
• Yes, I pulled this straight out of Google Docs

My thoughts after my mind has been thoroughly numbed:

• Handloading definitely saves you money and those savings cover the cost of dies and presses very quickly.
• In a lot of situations, you can work up a load with a premium bullet for less than or equal to the cost of a boring old soft point factory load.
• Hornady's Superformance line may outperform most handloads, but you can get damn close at less than half the price.
• Even though the .300 Savage uses less powder, the .308 just barely edges it in per round cost because components are more readily available and tend to be cheaper because of that.
• If you actually have a Weatherby Mark V in .30-378, you can probably recoup the cost of the rifle by handloading 400 rounds instead of buying them from the factory ($6.20/round? Really, Weatherby?). 
• I could have easily included more loads in this chart, but it would have quickly become unwieldy.  Plus, I've already spent too much time on this post!