My point of view is coming from a man who has been reloading for the last 21 years, and who has pursued precision handloading for the last 15. I have loaded ammunition for pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns using single stage, multiple stage, and progressive reloading presses. In addition, I have hand-casted lead bullets using lead that I have scrounged to create revolver ammo that has been reloaded as far back in the elemental chain as you can go.
Handloading is one of my favorite hobbies on it's own, and it is a good way to gain additional ballistic knowledge that will further your skills as a shooter. However, as much as I enjoy it and recommend it to others, I do not feel that it is the end-all, be-all skill that some survivalists make it out to be.
The two main reasons promoted for preppers to reload are: reduced costs to stockpile ammunition and the ability to load up your empty brass once loaded ammo is not available after the SHTF.
Let's examine these reasons and see if they make sense.....
There are lots of AR15's out there, so lets look at handloading some 5.56 NATO ammunition. I priced out the following components at MidwayUSA.com:
- Lake City Brass.............................................................................$221 per 1000
- Winchester bulk 22 caliber 55 grain FMJ-BT bullets.......................$99 per 1000
- CCI SR primers...............................................................................$29 per 1000
- Hodgdon BL-C(2) powder, 27.0 grains per round @ $22/pound......$85 per 1000
Total cost to handload 1000 rounds of 5.56mm, M193 clone ammo........$434 per 1000
This price does not include taxes (if bought locally) or shipping.
Now, compare that to some PMC XP193 55 grain FMJ-BT ammo that I found over at ammoman.com..............................................................................................$369 per 1000
And that price includes shipping direct to your door.
So, in this instance, it is at least $65 cheaper per 1000 to buy ammo instead of making it yourself.
Wait a minute, you say......I thought it was always cheaper to load your own ammo??? Well, it is, as long as you can re-use your brass several times. The cost savings in reloading your own ammo comes from the re-use of the brass, not the price of the other components. If you are stockpiling large amounts of ammo for an extended grid-down situation (and you should be) you are not in a position to save money by reloading. Your ammo is in storage, and its cost is fixed. In this instance, you are better off buying factory ammo for your preps.
Well, if there isn't a big cost savings there, at least you'll be able to resupply your ammo cache after TEOTWAWKI, right? The answer as I see it is "maybe".
If you are going to be in a situation where you can hunt often to feed your family, and you'll be using manually operated rifles (bolts, levers & pumps) then, yes you will probably be able to recover most of your brass so it can be reloaded.
But, if you are in an urban or suburban area where the main use of ammunition will be fending off rioters, looters or gangs of criminals because the rule of law has fallen, then you will probably not be able to recover enough of your brass on a regular basis to make reloading worthwhile. If you are using a semi-automatic rifle, carbine or pistol, it will be slinging brass all over God's green earth and the last thing you need to be concerned with during a fire fight is policing up your ejected brass.
In certain situations you may be able to nose around after the fact and pick up some brass, but overall my feeling is that you won't be able to recover more than 30% to 40% of what you shoot. This amount of diminishing return makes reloading a short-term proposition at best.
Another thing to consider is that in a long term survival situation there will be a tremendous burden upon your time every day. You will need to find food and prepare it, find/haul/purify water to drink, maintain security around your perimeter, chop/gather wood to heat your house, and have to deal with numerous sanitation issues at home among the other necessities for daily living. You are probably not going to have time to sit around and assemble ammo, whether you want to or not.
It is a safe bet to put away some bullets, powder and primers among your other preps, but I wouldn't get carried away with buying massive quantities. If you have more than one caliber to load for, try to choose the ones that will be the easiest to recover brass from. These will be your hunting rifles and revolvers, if you have any.
Having the skills, components and technology to handload ammunition is helpful and useful at any time, but I don't believe that it will have the significance that some people think it will during an extended survival situation.
The moral of this story is: Be ready to do some reloading, but don't count on having an endless supply of ammo.
LWM out..............
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