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Hi

 

Just trying to guage how much reloading powder costs in different part of the uk, here in N Ireland i can pat £40 per 1lb of varget to £65 per 1kg of vit 150

 

£39.99 for a 1lb tub of H335 here in Lancashire.

 

That price prompted me to work out how much a reloaded round of .223 Rem costs me..... 41.98p.

 

That's 24p for the bullet (Nosler BT), 3.7p for the primer, and 14.28p for the powder (280 loads from each tub). In case anyone's interested.....

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£39.99 for a 1lb tub of H335 here in Lancashire.

 

That price prompted me to work out how much a reloaded round of .223 Rem costs me..... 41.98p.

 

That's 24p for the bullet (Nosler BT), 3.7p for the primer, and 14.28p for the powder (280 loads from each tub). In case anyone's interested.....

 

 

brno

 

if you used sierra varminter heads you could bring your cost per round down by 9 or 10p, and i think they are really good.

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Most powders seem to be in the region of £36-40 a tub. Proportionally more for a kilo. That puts most reloaded rounds in the ball park cost area of buying factory PPs. Now I know that some people will have issues with the PP bullets compared to say Sierras or Nostlers but in my experience the difference is not that great.Try them, you might be suprised.

My friend who shoots more foxes than most just buys PPs now for his .223 and I have started buying their .303s in preference to spending hours in the garage reloading them. When I run out of powder and bullets that will be it.

 

Obviously I can't speak for others who must make their own decisions on the matter but I am coming to the conclusion that reloading is a waste of time for CF rifles except in the pistol calibres where it still comes out much cheaper. I don't really see why the powders are so expensive when the American suppliers are still selling it for half the price we pay. Its not that much dearer to import it and powders like Vhit come from Europe anyway.

Edited by Vince Green
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While Prvi is a similar price to reloads, it's not good ammo. Some rifles shoot it, but mine don't. By reloading I get tiny groups, better terminal ballistics and more confidence, so worth it IMHO!

 

Its very much horses for courses. In my .303 out to 600yds I can't say I see much difference between PPs and my "Sunday best" reloads using very expensive Sierra matchkings and Vhit 140. PPs are definitely better than the Portugese rubbish going round a few years ago although the boxes look very similar and a lot of people who tried the Portugese stuff now won't touch the PP because its tainted by association. Its also a lot better than the Greek HXP.

 

A few years back Laurie Holland wrote an article about reloading for the .303, he tested various loads and combinations but as a control to measure the others against he bought some factory S&B. When all the results were analysed the best under test was the S&B. he was a bit put out about that because the article was intended to show how you could raise the game by careful reloading and instead it proved the exact opposite.

 

S&B is another very good make of ammo and very under estimated. They are owned by CBC now. Their .308 match ammo was really good but its disappeared again. Its European and a lot cheaper than the American imports. I don't know why we don't see a lot more of it on the shelf instead of names like Federal and Winchester. There seems to be a myth that the US makes are the best but I would challenge that.

 

Its a grey area, but good to discuss alternatives, and I'm not necessarily advocating one course of action over another. I haven't mentioned the extra pleasure and sense of achievement you get from using your own reloads, a big plus IMO.

 

However, what is useful is to keep the subject bubbling away and air all the pros and cons because you can't necessarily say reloading is cheaper or better than buying factory ammunition any more. I also think that somewhere along the line we are getting ripped off.

 

Twenty years ago we were buying bullets like Sierras direct from the States for peanuts but they are not allowed, or won't, sell them to us any more so we have to pay sky high prices instead.

Edited by Vince Green
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