Cost to reload?

Has anyone calculated what the end cost is to reload a box of 1 1/8 light 12 ga. shells? I haven't been able to calculate a cost because I don't know what I'm going to end up paying for primers as I have yet to find any for sale here in Michigan.

 

Im reloading 1 1/8oz for around $6.00/box.

Shot $40/bag
Primers $270/5000
Powder $180/8 lbs
Wads I think we're $100 +/-

 

Saturday's price in southern Wisconsin -- 130 mile and three stops -- AA 1# powder $39.99 --Lawernce Shot $55 --Wads $12.50 -- Primmers $55 -- 20 grain 1 1/8 loads $8.72 a box plus 5.5 sales tax on all the supply's = $9.19 a box, not figuring gas price at $3.25 a gal. -- Makes a person hate those cost calculator -- Was a lot more fun when I just loaded them and shot them.

 

In my experience, reloading common types of shot shells is not very cost effective. Turkey loads and pheasant loads are much more cost effective. The big payout is in quality, though.

 

I'm at $200 for 8lbs of American Select, $50/1000 for primers, $15 for 500 wads, $50/bag of shot, and free hulls. I'm only loading 1oz loads, but I'm at about $6.73/box.
My biggest savings are with .410 and 28ga, about $5/box and $5.77/box, respectively. For 20ga, about $6.16/box.

 

So it looks like if I can find shells at about $80 a flat I won't be saving that much. I don't know what I'll end up paying for primers but $200 is what I paid for the keg of Red Dot that I have and my shot was bought at a price of $48.00 a bag. I guess the savings isn't really that huge provided I can get shells for $80 a flat and I've been seeing Winchester Super Targets in multiple places for about $7.50 a box.. The only thing is my winters are usually spent either reloading or ice fishing and the fishing hasn't been good and would like to reload to fill in the gap.

 

Frankly, pre-COVID, reloading 12ga wasn't worth it, and 20ga was borderline, even with the cheaper component prices. At about $20/case (or more...I haven't seen shells for cheaper than about $90-100/flat near me), it's worth it for me to reload 12ga and 20ga. I'll always reload .410 and 28ga, since the savings are huge and I probably shoot .410 almost as much as 12ga, these days.

 

These would be my costs if I had to purchase every component at prices available to me today.

Since I seldom load anything more than 7/8 oz even at these prices reloading saves money.

The last time I bought factory ammo I was paying $68 a case which is a lot better than most can find it.

 

Cost is immaterial. I can tailor my reloads to my guns, get better than 'factory' performance in a specific gun with a specific load. BTW, generally it cost less than 'factory' loads, also. Not much, but enough for me.