Do you think it is a worthwhile endevour to mass reload ammo and sell it. I plan on getting all the necessary equipment to begin loading 9mm, 5.56, and .308. Where I live I can get barrels and barrels full of spent shell casings. I plan to start reloading and packaging the ammo is vacuum sealed bags, in quantities of 100. Basically I'm asking if anyone thinks this is a worthwhile idea, or is it not enough reward for the amount of work out in.
Also general ammo reloading operation thread
unless you somehow automate it. no
your time spend pulling the lever wont be worth it
>>29767206
unless you value your time at $5 an hour, no
>>29767206
most people wont buy homebrew reloads for good reason
>>29767238
I have a job, this would just be something I do in my off time
>>29767206
I would never buy reloaded ammo from a stranger.
>>29767242
You'd make more money/time as an Uber driver.
>>29767242
Yes...and if you make more than $5 an hour you should spend the time at your job instead of reloading to make money is his point
>>29767242
you value your free time at $5 an hour?
>>29767241
I already reload 5.56. I use a 62 grain bullet, and it's consistently pretty accurate. I've already given 200 rounds to a guy I know who is part of a local militia. He says he will test the ammo with his dudes, and if they like it, they will buy around 3,000 a month
>>29767217
This. Hand reloading is at best a huge waste of time if you plan on using the ammo, moronic if you're doing it to make money.
>>29767283
Ok fair enough. That's why I was asking opinions. I'll ditch the idea
>>29767283
I totally disagree. I reload 5.56 on a progressive press for my AR and make 77gr ammunition for 50ยข cheaper than a factory equivalent. I do brass prep watching TV and then I can spit out nearly 200 rounds per hour after prepping, effectively making my time worth a bit less than $100/hr.
These things are accurate AF to 500 yards. Haven't played too much past that.
>>29767261
kek and who's gonna pay for the damage when one of your rounds turns out to be a squib and it blows off the guys hand?
>>29767206
Best way to get brass is to go to local gun stores and ask permission to post, most likely people will want money for the casings.
I've got hundreds of casings in several boxes for when I can afford reloading tools.
Doesn't seem very profitable and likely won't save you much money, I think it sounds like a cool hobby and use of time. Kind of like building an aluminum forge/foundry. At the end of the day, you're casting ingots that are with like 50 cents a pound, but tossing old soda and beer cans and watching them turn into liquid aluminum is fun, its also fun to caste things from the aluminum even though they won't really be worth shit.
Any type of gun-related hobby, even if you're a really good smith who puts out great rounds and does a lot of restoration, is at best a hobby that will help you pay for the hobby, but you won't be paying your bills by cranking out 5.56 rounds in your basement.
I buy reloaded ammo from one guy because he has a great local reputation and he puts out some nice .38 jhp for about 40 cents a shot.
He does it to pass the time.
If you want to make a living out of firearms, you have to get a job at a factory and you likely won't be doing much aside from assembling and testing unless you're a certified and experienced smith.
OP, the real issue here is that to manufacture ammo for sale, like guns, requires a license and registry with the ATF. As other anons said too though, there's no money in it at that scale. In fact, there's no money almost anywhere in guns, profit margins are incredibly small unless you think up the next AR-15 or Maxim machine gun.
>>29767206
I would never buy from you
>>29767256
>automate it with a progressive
>can make thousands of rounds per hour
>>29767283
> Hand reloading is at best a huge waste of time if you plan on using the ammo
Says the kid with the $500 M&P15
>>29768818
And an automated progressive press costs thousands.
>>29768841
Try $1500 for everything you'd need
If he's going to be making money on top of using it for himself, it's all justifiable cost for a business
>>29768850
>Try $1500 for everything you'd need
I don't think you understand what automated means. If you still have to pull the lever each time it's not automated.
>>29768871
>it's so hard to put an electric motor and crankshaft on a press
Plenty of people have done it before
>>29768850
>Try $1500
A dillon 1050 alone costs 1800 and then you'd need to factor in the cost of a motor to drive the crank.
>>29768774
This OP, you need a type 6 FFL.
>>29767206
Unless you somehow get a federal license to produce commercial ammunition (FFL 6 or 7) & obtain multiple insurances youre breaking the law.
>I.E no it's not worth it unless you already have 3 Dillon 650's, a spare $15,000 in your pocket, and massive amounts of time.
A local veteran in my area started his own ammunition business, took him about 3 years and his prices are only a few dollars cheaper than Winchester.
>>29768883
you can get an electric motor at a junk yard, fudd shed, or surplus store/shitshop
Hell, you could buy 100 different kinds of electric motors at the shit shop I have down the road
They sell everything from muffler pipe to GP5 gas masks, to fireworks
>>29768600
>squib and it blows off the guys hand
And who's going to pay for the damage when you turn out to be a retard? but I do agree with the general sentiment of your message.
>>29768818
>thousands of rounds an hour
Until you get one destroyed primer and have to spend an hour and a half cleaning the press because you hooked a motor to the press to save time and couldn't feel the lack of a primer seating.
>>29768917
Being a retard doesn't take away your right to sue a bitch
You can NEVER rely on other peoples' aptitude to keep your ass free from liability
>>29767206
Be sure to get an ammo manufacturing FFL, anon...it's a felony otherwise.
if the machinery is fairly accurate for feeding powder, you can weight the ammunition to find any that were skipped or double charged.
the chances of getting a double and under together in a small batch are going to be extremely rare
youtube has plenty of automated progressives. Tempted to do it myself
>>29768990
>>29768917
>>29768600
When a squib fucks someone up, you're rekt if you don't have FFL license
Inb4 militia members are ATF agents
>>29769034
Ever stop to think why the YouTube progressives are so seamless?
Because they've loaded tens of thousands of rounds...
I can guanrantee it'll be different for someone just starting out, especially if you havent even reloaded before.
If that's the case you're begging to gravely injur yourself or someone else, and be entirely liable for it.
>>29767283
>At best a waste of time if you plan on using the ammo
What?
>>29767206
Selling specialty loads is probably worthwhile.
>solid iron boolits for greener mother earth!
>shotgun slugs that whistle when they fly through the air
>>29769166
I think his argument is that the money you save from reloading is less than the money you would have gained from working these hours.
It's true for most people, but not necessarily practical. I can't go to my boss and just ask to work extra, and I'm sure some people are in the same situation.
That is, if you don't consider reloading as an enjoyable activity, which most people do.
>>29769177
Never can't have enough dragon breath and incindiary loads
Confetti loads
Beehive
etc
>>29768934
>and have to spend an hour and a half cleaning the press
why would it take an hour and a half to clean powder off the press
>>29769195
Not if you reload old milsurp calibers. Even at my well to do income I save money on things like 8x50 Lebel, 6.5 Mannlicher, and 7.5 French.
>>29769082
>Inb4 militia members are ATF agents
So much this though. Your "friend" is just waiting for you to bring him a crate of unlicensed, undocumented 5.56 rounds so they can parade you around on the news as a success in the battle against domestic terrorism, at worst, and at best with some good lawyers you're still looking at jail time and thousands of dollars in fines.
Don't be the asshole who justifies the legislators to put bureaucratic non-sense between reloaders and their tools.
If you want to make some easy side money, get a Curio and Relic license, network your ass off, and maybe find some cheap crates of nuggets, nugget food, canned up 7.62x39, etc.
I know a couple out here who have a C&R license and they found an entire crate full of old soviet-bloc bandoliers and a crate of 8mm mauser stripper clips. They loaded the dirt-cheap bandoliers with 8mm clips and sold them at like a 25% profit margin that was still cheap as hell to the customer.
They also live in a refurbished trailer on a plot of land in survivalist country and their yearly property tax is probably less than one of my rent payments.
Still, gitgud at refurbishing shitty milsurp, buy it in crates with a C&R license, and piece it out for mad profits at gun shows and online auctions.
This is the only way to make any appreciable amount of money without a lot of connections and an FFL.
One guy I know goes from show to show buying cheap-ass broken mausers, nuggets, tt-33s, whatever that shitty .380 is that pops of everywhere, and PMs. Its a hobby to him to restore them, fix or replace stocks, shine up bores, etc.
He keeps a ledger to make sure he's making money off of it, and he is, but not NEARLY enough to where he could quit his job.
Its a hobby man, trying to turn it into a career will either ruin it for you or require you to do some training and get some certifications.
>>29769441
You want to sell some of that 6.5 Dutch?
>>29769513
Wrong 6.5 Mannlicher. Mines Greek.
>>29767206
what kind of press are you getting? lets hope it is progressive
>>29769355
Primer fuck tard.
If anyone gets under your shell plate you gotta fix it.
>not that you'd know or understand why that's important
You're totally ready to reload
>>29768707
Son of a bitch, you made me want to start casting aluminum nuggets now.
>>29768707
>>29772253
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSoWxG30rb0
This is the video I watched when I read your post about making a foundry
A friend of mines dad used to sell ammo in the 80s in Cleveland. He'd make up special batches of shit ammo to sell in the hood. I think he considered it his patriotic duty to get as many hoodrats killed as possible.
>>29772448
God bless this wonder state's population.
On a side note, I think every felon I've met has a gun. I'm pretty sure everyone but the MDA types has a gun. It gives me an odd sense of pride.
>>29769195
Using a 650 or 1050 with bullet feeder you can load over 1000 rph easily.
Let's consider a common round like 45.
$259 a case of 1000 at SGAMMO
for ~$0.26 cpr.
You can use coated bullets which cost less and work just as well. The blazer brass we're comparing to isn't defensive ammo anyway so it's a fair comparison.
1000 230 gr bullets are $104 at Bayou, or 10.4 cpr.
Primers are going to be around $25-30 per 1000, so call it 2.7 cpr.
Powder charge of something like titegroup is going to be ~ 4-5 grains. Call it 4.5, for ~1555 rounds per lb. Fast pistol powders are typically inexpensive, call it 21-22 bucks a pound (and less in bulk). This is 1.35 cpr.
10.4 + 2.7 + 1.35 for 14.35 cpr, and it can easily be less. Brass is a sunk cost, it's free for the taking at ranges and 45 brass can be used essentially indefinitely.
So, 14.35 cpr vs 26 cpr for budget ammo. Handloads in this example cost 55% of the store bought, and that's not counting the shipping on the ammo (45 at walmart is well over 20 a box much of the time). The prices for reloading supplies were conservative and jive with what I see locally, online would be offset by hazmat fees without buying in bulk.
So, $143.50 per 1000 vs $269 per 1000. That is saving $125 per hour you crank that handle, which pays off pretty much any reloading setup outside of a camdex very, very quickly. Unless you are literally top 1% of wageearners in the US you are probably saving money by reloading even common calibers, and the amount increases dramatically with rarer or more unusual fare.
If you really want to get nitpicky and maybe you pick up and sell your 45 brass, you can get maybe ~65 shipped per thousand. Maybe. Figure you're paying ~13 to ship it, and the opportunity cost to not reload is on the order of ~70 dollars per 1k rounds, or 70 dollars per hour. Still good money.
Now go reload match 308 or better and watch the value go even higher.
This is all napkin math, don't fucking sperg out.
You're a fucking retard if you reload for any reason other than personal enjoyment and shooting more.
Commercial ammo sales don't pay worth shit.
I only reload precision loads for rifle and hollow point defensive loads for pistol. Any attempt to reload bulk ammo is not worth my time. Plus, when bulk reloading, any enjoyment of reloading goes right out the window and it becomes "work."
>>29767261
>>29767206
OP you cant legally load your own ammo for sale without an FFL 06 license
yes it is a worthwhile endeavor if you get all the legal permits, leases in commercial zone, hazmat storage lockers and inspections passed, 2 million dollar automated factory machinery and unionized labor factory workers figured out. then you can have a tough time competing with domestic creators of ammo like winchester. youll never compete with cheap slav labor until you move these processes overseas
i stopped reading after like the 5th post because too many retards in here.
/thread
>>29774562
did you forget to factor in the FFL 06 costs, or just plan on going to prison after selling for a few weeks?
>>29776877
Not talking about selling it, the post I was responding to said it was a waste of time for personal use.
Small scale production for sale inagree.
If you are willing to go illegal: sell ammo on the darknet. People are paying $100 for 100 bullets
