I'll buy that for indoor ranges, but I shot at one outdoor range, where you were not allowed to police your brass, that had big signs up forbidding the use of steel cased ammo. I seriously doubt that it was an air pollution problem, but more an issue with having to cull out steel cases from all of the brass they collected.

Steel is easy to cull from brass. Aluminum is not.

It varies.

My self-defense rounds use Hornday XTP bullets and nickel plated cases. They probably cost as much as commercial ammunition, but I'm betting my life on them, so they are loaded slowly and with a great deal of care.

My training rounds use factory lead bullets and brass cases. There is a cost savings from loading my own, but it is not much compared to factory blulk purchases. The reason I load my own is not so much cost as the fact that I have a practice load and a self-defense load that both reliably impact the target at the same place. I can't count on that from commercial ammunition with different bullet configurations.

That's about where I'm at. Exact figure would depend on what bullet I'm using.

Since my buddy & I have started casting our own I'm sure the average has decreased quite a bit.

My indoor shooting range allows only brass (and nickel) ammunition, no problem with reloads. No steel or aluminum cases. The brass is swept regularly by the RO unless you specify you are a reloader and need your brass. Since I shoot revolvers about half the time, the empties go right in the bag.


But getting back to reloading 45acp, shooting lead is the way to save money imho.

I've been reloading since the mid '70s.Some of my nickel .38 brass don't have nickel anymore and some of my .45 acp brass have barely readable headstamps from hitting the bolt face.
These 2 low pressure calibers can be reloaded 30 or more times before brass lets go.So if you have 10Ks of each,you can shoot quite a long while before you have to replenish your inventory!

My cost to reload .45acp is about $5 for a box of 50. This is with zero cost for brass, and using powder coated 200gr SWC bullets.

If you’re new at this, I think it pays to stock up/invest in reloading components as they seem to go up in price pretty fast. I’m working off powder that cost $17 per pound and primers that were purchased at $20/$25 per thousand. Same with bullets, lead has increased in cost a bunch over the past 10 years. I used to buy a bag of lead shot for around $25. I checked yesterday and they are at $45 per bag...! It’s nice to be working off old stock/prices!

You can definitely save a lot of money reloading. Especially when doing the larger and/or more exotic calibers.

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NRA Life Member

So if I do my "handloading saves money" math for loading 16 different calibers :

equipment investment : About $2445

powder : about 322 lbs of powder = $8300
primers : about 66K = $2376
brass : thousands of pieces and absolutely NO idea $$
bullets: about 85K a wild guess would be an average of .08 ea = $6800

so i'm at a grand total invested of $19,920 not including my purchased brass which again I have no clue as some is purchased new, some is purchased once fired, and a lot is "free" gun club range pickups. So by my estimation I will start saving money after I load about 35,000 rounds. I shoot about 50 rounds a week, so in about 14 years I "might" start saving money. I'm investing now for a fun retirement hobby (got about 15 years till retirement) I could care less about the nickle/ dime cost arguments, as I've said many times I handload for the passion, the precision, the relaxing therapy, and the independence.

Seems to me that you’ve over-bought for your needs... .

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NRA Life Member

Well, if you basically buy a factory worth of equipment and supplies, then yeah, it will take a while to recoup the investment.

I have more like $500 in equipment,and another couple of thousand worth of supplies. So my payback time is a little more reasonable. FWIW, you don't really count the They are an alternate and significantly reduced cost (compared to buying ammo).

The equipment counts, but the consumables, not so much.