JASmith Wrote:Bonas' cost breakdown assumes the brass is tossed after just one firing.
I have gotten 14 reloads for a single piece of brass - and was full-length resizing for every shot meaning that eah shot stretched the brass a bit. Many of us get more than five. That means a conservative estimate of the amortized brass cost is about 20 cents. That just might drop the per round price to about 90 cents.
With respect to equipment, think in termos of golf clubs and pool tables. How many think of that cost as part of their sport beyond making sure they can pay for it?
If you're going to amortize the brass, you have to amortize the equipment too. Also, it's not realistic to calculate costs by saying this brass I paid an actual dollar for really only costs $.20 because I'm going to fire it at least five times and recover it five times. Many shooters, including I, simply don't have the opportunity to recover all their brass every time they shoot it, assuming they're comfortable reloading bottle necked cases five plus times in the first place. Many others would never get to five reloadings because most shooters are low volume. This is an example of jockeying the math to rationalize reloading as a way to save money. It might work for you, but it's not a solid assumption across the board.
The break-even point for Grendel reloading is thousands of rounds down the road from the first round, as it is for most center fire rifle cartridges. With a $1,500 set up and $.30 amortized brass cost, it's 3,000 rounds to break even. You're also +/-75 hours of time to the break even point. Many reloaders will never get there. .
None of this accounts for the time or cost of load development either. You have to spend considerable time and money just to get to the point of having an accurate load for practical shooting. Nobody ever adds their development costs to their per round costs of their good loads. Also, most reloaders eventually wind up with powders and bullets they don't have much use for. Nobody ever mentions those sunk costs either. Reloading Grendel is great for many things. Saving money isn't one of them currently.