Jump to content

Cost of reloading .222 and .243


Recommended Posts

I know that this is not answering your question but I don't really consider cost when I reload because it is a sport/interest in its own right and it is to make a round that is more accurate in a particular gun. Although the 222 will shoot 55grn it is better with the 50grn. I have developed a load using a Sierra 50grn blitz and H4198 that will shoot one hole groups?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reason i asked is I fancy a small center fire .222 of 17hornet etc for foxs and such but one of the farmers was say .243 loaded with 60g heads will give similar performance to 22.250 ie flat and fast for foxs then load heavy for deer, so if its cheap enough to reload 243 to shoot foxs quite regularly then ill only buy one rifle, if its not cheap ill buy 2 rifles, i might just buy 2 anyway because why not

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about reloading but when totalled up, the cost of the kit, the faff factor and time etc, I now just go to HPS Target Rifles in Newent with once used brass, and they reload precision loads for me at 57p per round, .223 or 72p per round .308. For target work, that's usually Sierra match king bullets. Grouping at 100m is sub moa and very consistent. They'll load whatever you need though. I priced it up and would struggle to do it for much less especially when factoring in the kit needed even if the cost was spread over 5 years or so. Depends on usage, but you have to shoot a lot to justify home reloads on cost alone from my foray into it, and for vermin control or deer shooting, I'd recommend just going with the likes of HPS. For load development, they can also help and will make up small batches.

 

https://www.hps-tr.com/en/HPS-Target-Master-Ammunition

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main ammo cost is twice the powder use

You will gain nothing on foxes of note unless your capable of less than 1/2 moa placement at say 400 yards

The biggest cost difference is barrel wear the 223 was developed for full auto fire and the 243 was developed out of a thirty calibre 308. So expect at least two to three times the barrel life out of the 223

 

I like the 243 a lot and have had one for more than 15 years but if it were me and I didn't want to shoot deer I should today go 22-250 which will run equal to a 243 at 300 yards with full stack loads yet can also be run at just under 3000 fps with a lighter lower power one. Why? Because you will get a longer barrel life very little recoil and a very much easier thing to moderate.

Most of our foxing and vermin are shot this side of 200 yards anyway and a decent shot can manage that with a 22 hornet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about reloading but when totalled up, the cost of the kit, the faff factor and time etc, I now just go to HPS Target Rifles in Newent with once used brass, and they reload precision loads for me at 57p per round, .223 or 72p per round .308. For target work, that's usually Sierra match king bullets. Grouping at 100m is sub moa and very consistent. They'll load whatever you need though. I priced it up and would struggle to do it for much less especially when factoring in the kit needed even if the cost was spread over 5 years or so. Depends on usage, but you have to shoot a lot to justify home reloads on cost alone from my foray into it, and for vermin control or deer shooting, I'd recommend just going with the likes of HPS. For load development, they can also help and will make up small batches.

 

https://www.hps-tr.com/en/HPS-Target-Master-Ammunition

 

I reload because I enjoy it and reloading for Hornet,243 and 308 the price of the kit paid for itself in a year or so, but must say HPS offer a good service, I'm not far from Newent and get my 308 brass from them, you know its once fired and is usually top brass like RWS, and cheaper that the stuff offered on here. They also sell Viht powders and primers at very good prices along with 'patch out' products which I have found to be the best non aggressive copper removers on the market. The only down side is that HPS deal mostly in target stuff so only have 223 and 308 brass and I don't think they stock expanding ammo. Leamon reloading in Hereford also offer a reloading service and once you have found the sweet load then your going to save money. The main saving your going to make reloading yourself is re using brass, I think my last 100 once fired, which was RWS, cost £12, these will go on for at least another 6 reloads. That life can be extended by annealing, there are services out there that will also do that for you via mail if you don't want to try yourself. If your rifle shoots well with ppu or other low cost ammo and your not shooting loads plus reloading does not interest you in the least then this is by far the best way to go cost wise. Sometimes we expect to much from off the shelf hunting rifles, it wasn't that long ago that 2 inch groups at 100yds were quite expectable and that's still fit for purpose for deer. Cheap ammo and the more expensive brands differ in prices for a reason, you get what you pay for and personally I have never found cheap ammo to be consistently accurate in any of my rifles.

Out in my shed amongst the mouse traps and home made contraptions reloading a few rnds also offers some escape and tranquillity from a house full of teenagers. :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I reload because I enjoy it and reloading for Hornet,243 and 308 the price of the kit paid for itself in a year or so, but must say HPS offer a good service, I'm not far from Newent and get my 308 brass from them, you know its once fired and is usually top brass like RWS, and cheaper that the stuff offered on here. They also sell Viht powders and primers at very good prices along with 'patch out' products which I have found to be the best non aggressive copper removers on the market. The only down side is that HPS deal mostly in target stuff so only have 223 and 308 brass and I don't think they stock expanding ammo. Leamon reloading in Hereford also offer a reloading service and once you have found the sweet load then your going to save money. The main saving your going to make reloading yourself is re using brass, I think my last 100 once fired, which was RWS, cost £12, these will go on for at least another 6 reloads. That life can be extended by annealing, there are services out there that will also do that for you via mail if you don't want to try yourself. If your rifle shoots well with ppu or other low cost ammo and your not shooting loads plus reloading does not interest you in the least then this is by far the best way to go cost wise. Sometimes we expect to much from off the shelf hunting rifles, it wasn't that long ago that 2 inch groups at 100yds were quite expectable and that's still fit for purpose for deer. Cheap ammo and the more expensive brands differ in prices for a reason, you get what you pay for and personally I have never found cheap ammo to be consistently accurate in any of my rifles.

Out in my shed amongst the mouse traps and home made contraptions reloading a few rnds also offers some escape and tranquillity from a house full of teenagers. :yahoo:

 

Agree with that. I guess that you will learn a lot reloading for yourself, and it offers ultimate flexibility with load development. As I shoot both 223 and 308, I find HPS really useful guys and am sure they'd load SPs if requested (can't think of any reason why not, especially if I bought the bullets). I've found PPU ok in the 223 but not especially accurate. However, it's proved to be a disaster with the 308, only 50% of rounds chambering (the other 50% being too tight due to variations in cases or crimping), so I wont go down the cheap .308 ammo route again as it seems a waste of money and time. HPS Wipeout products are good and they also make and sell really great value synthetic boreguides at £15 a pop.

Edited by Savhmr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Factory ammo has improved a lot honestly at say 200 yards with 222 and over you have difficulty separating the best of both camps using a factory rifle

 

I wrote of this on here going back 5 yrs after having to buy a few factory rounds for foxing. It opened my eyes

 

The thing is loading gives you more flexibility and availability

Link to comment
Share on other sites

222 is one of the least fussy rounds there is. it will shoot just about anything you shove in it. i shoot anything from 40 grain varminters to 52grain a-max. even the ppu shoot very well indeed, only reason i reload was to save money and i couldn't get steady supply of ppu back then. ppu is 47p a click and reloads 49p

my t3 is coming up for sale very soon. dies and brass too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i reload for my .222



powder is £38 a tub h322 you get about 346 loads from that = 10.9p per round


100 hornaday vmax 50g are £19.99 = 20p per round


primers are 4p each


total 35p per round for my foxing rounds



my plinking/rabbiting rounds are


same powder but 326 rounds per tub so = 11.6 per round as lighter bullets use more powder


100 40g soft nose £14 per 100 so 14p per round


same primers so 4p


total of 29.6p per round



colin


Edited by colin lad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You haven't included your casing costs Col. What do they work out per round? The top quoted costs for your foxing round (just to be a pedant!) work out at 35p/round before you include casing costs.

 

I guess there needs to be an allowance for those reloading on the kit costs spread over a period of years. Hard to quantify but for decent kit, I guess an annual allowance of £50 wouldn't be out of the way? (ie writing the kit off over a period of years including replacement costs of wear items).

 

When you look at it this way, it costs more than perhaps one might initially think compared with something like the professionally reloaded route, and in some cases, more than some factory rounds.

Edited by Savhmr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

222 is one of the least fussy rounds there is.

 

on the whole I would agree, but in my experience it has only been less-fussy with reloads

 

I have two .222's and owned another before

A BRNO Fox Mod 2, a Sako S491 and a Handi Rifle

 

none of them shoot factory ammo well

I have tried, PPU, Sako, Norma, Federal in a variety of weights and all were in the 2-5" range at 100yds

truly dreadful

 

shooting reloads the BRNO swallowed anything and I had a real issue picking charge levels for best accuracy as they all went under an inch

tweaking OAL brought the 52gr AMax into the 0.2 range

they also all shoot 60gr Hornady soft points

 

Saying that I havent had much luck with factory ammo in any of my rifles with the exception of a .270 shooting 130gr norma (which is eye wateringly expensive!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You haven't included your casing costs Col. What do they work out per round? The top quoted costs for your foxing round (just to be a pedant!) work out at 35p/round before you include casing costs.

 

I guess there needs to be an allowance for those reloading on the kit costs spread over a period of years. Hard to quantify but for decent kit, I guess an annual allowance of £50 wouldn't be out of the way? (ie writing the kit off over a period of years including replacement costs of wear items).

 

When you look at it this way, it costs more than perhaps one might initially think compared with something like the professionally reloaded route, and in some cases, more than some factory rounds.

lol yeah your right 35p and maths was one of my strong points at school though that was a few years ago now,

i should allow for cases but use cases i have from factory rounds i brought before i started loading got about 300 i saved them just in case,

i did look at prices for cases and see 100 at £20 so buying them you need to add that into it too i guess though if you can load each case half a dozen times i guess that's £20 divided into 600 bout 3.3p so foxing rounds now come out best part of 40p per shot still good though,

 

edit to say shooting your 1st fox, muntjac, and cwd with your own hand loads is priceless worth every penny

Edited by colin lad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

:yahoo:

222 is one of the least fussy rounds there is. it will shoot just about anything you shove in it. i shoot anything from 40 grain varminters to 52grain a-max. even the ppu shoot very well indeed, only reason i reload was to save money and i couldn't get steady supply of ppu back then. ppu is 47p a click and reloads 49p

my t3 is coming up for sale very soon. dies and brass to

 

I love your little sale testers you shove into these forums Activeviii, bit like the old trick of putting pieces of coke adverts in cinema films so we would all be thirsty at the break. :lol: Well it works :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love your little sale testers you shove into these forums Activeviii, bit like the old trick of putting pieces of coke adverts in cinema films so we would all be thirsty at the break. :lol: Well it works :yahoo:

Just giving a heads up for when I sell it. Just cerakoting it to graphite black as it had a tiny mark in it and I wasn't happy with it. As you know, I look after all my gear. I like it looking new and shooting straight. Lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

on the whole I would agree, but in my experience it has only been less-fussy with reloads

 

I have two .222's and owned another before

A BRNO Fox Mod 2, a Sako S491 and a Handi Rifle

 

none of them shoot factory ammo well

I have tried, PPU, Sako, Norma, Federal in a variety of weights and all were in the 2-5" range at 100yds

truly dreadful

 

shooting reloads the BRNO swallowed anything and I had a real issue picking charge levels for best accuracy as they all went under an inch

tweaking OAL brought the 52gr AMax into the 0.2 range

they also all shoot 60gr Hornady soft points

 

Saying that I havent had much luck with factory ammo in any of my rifles with the exception of a .270 shooting 130gr norma (which is eye wateringly expensive!)

Choosing the most accurate at only 100 yards is the single most ineffective test to separate the best from the rest I can think of

100 yards will show clear differences in 22 lr though

Very surprised you did that bad with 222 factory against re- loads. Don't honestly know why that might be it's not something I have seen

In fact it's so bad I don't think I ever will. I wonder were all your handloads on once fired brass?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...