How cheap to load a round of .223...today

venatic

Active member
While replying to a post I was wondering to myself how much it cost to load a round of .223 in today's market. Not counting brass.
I am not talking about that can of BLC-2 you bought for 4.00 28 years ago either.

How much if you had to load a bunch could you put together a batch for?

I ran my numbers based of powder/bullets/primers that I have bought in the last 90 days and came up with under .17 cents.

That's a load of 23gr of 1200R with a Sellier&Bellot SR primer and 55gr Hornady SP bullets.
 
$3.40 per 20 rounds is dang cheap
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Mine are not figured with todays prices. But with my prices of what I have in-stock from a few years ago is running right at .20 per round. I can't get it down to where you are but I'm close. I try to keep an eye out for sales or free shipping. This is also with using 1lb jugs of powder. But now I am down to a couple pounds of H335 and am going to switch over to 8lb jugs so I might be able to get it down a little cheaper. I hope.
 
$190 varget @ 25gr per drop and 7000 in 1# can. 280 loads per 1# can for a 8.5 cents per drop.
$3.50 for 100 primers, for 3.5 cents per
$45 per 250 50gr vmax, for .18 each.

Total = 30 cents
 
Well, using what I have in stock, the price of which seems to be pretty comparable with some internet research I just did, I am coming out right around $.18 per round. That is using a CCI-450 primer, W-748 bought in an 8lb can (27 grain load), and the Midway Dogtown 50 grain spitzer. That is a 1/2 MOA load in my CZ-527, and an excellent coyote killer. About all I could ask for.

Another load I use is with a 40 VMAX bought in the 250 round boxes I caught on a Midway sale a couple months ago, and using H-4198. It comes out about the same per round. Bullet a little more, but uses less powder, so better yield there.

Now I do have some 55 Remington spitzers I picked up at an estate sale several years back for $3/100 that shoot pretty good, and that drops the per/round price substantially. But that ain't what we are talking about...
 
Didn't add mine up right the first time. Need to not be in a hurry. Here is the new total.

Price of powder $30, divided by divided by the weight of your charge 28.0 gr/load) 12 cents per round
price for bullets divided by the number of bullets in the box. $83/500 - 17 cents per round
price for primers divided by the number of primers in the box. $35/1000 3.5 cents per round

Comes out to 33 cents per round.

Of course most of mine is being loaded for less than that because I have supplies that I bought before the gouging started and the stores increased their prices.
 
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Being geographically disadvantaged, I had to figure in hazmat/shipping charges (one hazmat on combined order powder/primers) so my prices are higher than most.

Based on current prices (assuming availability
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) In original cost, forgot to add (estimated) shipping on the bullets. Here is breakdown.

8# H335 or Ball C ($164.00) + 1/2 hazmat/shipping ($19.25) = $183.25
8# = 56000 gr. divided by 26.3 gr = 2129 rounds or .0861/round/Ball C
" " " " " " " " " " 25.5 gr = 2196 rounds or .0952/round/H335

5000 CCI 400 primers @ 120.00 plus 1/2 hasmat/shipping = $139.25 or .0279 ea

Nosler 55 gr. NBT blems $16.45 + 3.00 ship (est.) = $.1945 ea
Nosler 55 gr. SB blems $9.99 + 3.00 ship = $.1002 ea

So:
55 gr. NBT/H335 = .3156
55 gr. NBT/BallC= .3065
55 gr. NSB/H335 = .2233
55 gr. NSB/BallC= .2142

By the way, Nosler's stock of blems seems to be on the increase.
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Regards,
hm
 
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If you are posting the prices, can you please list the total prices of each of the components.

When i reload, i try my best to find what i think are good deals. But, I guess since i am 50% higher than two others, i might not be getting a good deal or paying to much for the components.


Price of powder __, divided by ( 7000 for one pound or 56000 for 8lbs divided by the weight of your charge ___gr/load)
price for bullets divided by the number of bullets in the box.
price for primers divided by the number of primers in the box.
 
I'm around 35 cents per round for 223 using vmax. I must be paying too much for powder and lead? Powder is around $28.00 a lb. and vmax at $17.00 per 100. Still cheaper than paying $20.00 a box for Hornady super performance. My grandson just bought 2 boxes a Cabela's at his cost. He works there. I showed him that my reloads had the same specs that his super performance loads had. His dad has been after him to stop being lazy and reload. Maybe this will wake him up!
 
53 gr v-max $18/100 = .18/rd
H4895 @ $25/lb @ 25.5g/rd = .09/rd
Win SR primer $3/100 = .03/rd

Total is $.30 per rd.

I plan to bump the charge up so that will up the price a bit, but this is a load I developed pretty quick when it was cold and didn't want to get to max load and then have issues when it got warm out. Shoots .5-.75 pretty regular so I guess I can't complain.

Shelton
 
Here are my numbers
I bought 16 lbs of powder locally and price worked out to 20.50 per lb with tax.
Purchased 6000 bullets for 465.00
Primers were on sale for 18.99 with tax also 20.50 per 1000

Powder at 23gr cost .0674
Primers cost. .0205
Bullets cost. .0775
Total per round. .1654

The bullet chosen really drives the price up. When I jump up to a ZMax type bullet that adds another .06 per round.

 
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Well, you guys made me go back and re-figger since I was low. I realized, to be truely accurate I should be adding in tax and everything else. So here we go.

Primer, CCI-450, tax added, 3.8 cents per round
Powder, Win-748, 8lbs bought local w/tax, $160 (jug says $145 so I added some for tax) 27.0 grain charge, = 8 cents per round
Bullet, 50 Dogtown (couple years ago) 10.5 cents per round (on sale, that is being generous)

So that load is about 22 cents per round.


On the 40 VMAX load, I caught those bullets on a killer sale a few months ago, and pretty dang sure I got 500 of them to my door for right at $80 +/- a bit, but could be wrong. Powder Valley lists them at like $38 per 250 before shipping so I think I am right on that number. That puts them at 16 cents a piece, a little more than I thought. But using H4198 I am using less powder too, so that compensates some.

Anyways, either the Dogtown from Midway, or the Varmint Nightmare from Mid-South are good options for putting together a quality load at an economical price.
 
4 lbs of IMR 4198 @ 17.50/lb, 2000 Midsouth 55 grain softs with cannelure for $154 plus shipping ($10?), and CCI-500s at $.035/each.

Figure 300 rounds/lb. = $06.1/round
Projectile @ $08.2/ea
Primers @ $.035/each

So right at $0.18/round...
 
I am using an 8# jug of Tac that I paid $160 for. That is $20 per pound and 269 loads per pound equals $1.50 per twenty. Primers at $.04 per shot costs .80 per box. for bullets I use Midsouth Varmint Nightmares from Hornady. Since I live in Tennessee, I have to pay tax and shipping, so the bullets cost me about $0.11 per shot for $2.20 per box. Grand total per twenty is $4.50/20. Sadly the cost will go up when I find another 8 pound jug of Tac.
 
8lb jug of wc842 100 bucks
Primers 40 a thousand
Nosler 55gr seconds 10.99/100
25 gr a charge I get 280 charges per pound=
.041per charge
.04 per primer
.109 per bullet so
Right close to .18c a round minus brass
The powder is local so no tax or hazmat
 
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I am using the following components, all prices incl 6% tax:

xtreme jacketed 55 gr bullets @ $53.16/500 = 10.6 cents per bullet
Ram TAC @ $28/lb divided by 7000 gr per pound multiplied by 24.5 gr per charge = 9.8 cents per charge
Primers @ $35/1K = 3.5 cents per primer

Grand total = 23.9 cents per round
 
I am loading 55 gr.Sierra Blitz King, WSR Primers, TAC Powder, And once fired military prepped brass. Cost on March 2 purchase for complete round was 26 cents. Blitz Kings are higher then VMax, and my primers were .40 higher per hundred. Cases ran $115 per 1000. POWDER IS ABOUT 12.62 A POUND by 55lb. KEG. I get $50 a thousand for loading and it comes out to about $300 for 1000 rounds of dog town ammo. YES I AM BUYING IN BULK. and load on a Super 1050 Dillon. Runout on this loader is consistantly .001 of an inch.
 
The best I can do with components bought in the last 6 months is 23 cents a round..IMR powder, CCI or winchester primers and 500 bulk packed 55gr soft points. GW
 
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