Reload shotgun waterfowl loads, or just buy em?

[syoungs]

Fixing to buy shotgun shells for the year, and had a few questions for you guys who reload steel/ heavier shot for waterfowl.

1. Is it worth it to load your own, performance wise?
2. Where are you buying your components
3. What's the typical cost to roll up something heavier then steel?
I've got a mec600 jr that's never been used and a lee loadall I've used a bit in the past,taking the cost of that stuff out of the equation, is it worth reloading steel shot? Not looking to save a ton of money, but if I can buy premium components or hevi shot type shot, and keep the cost around 1$. A shell it might make sense.
 
Then again, 200$ at Rogers and I can have a case of 3" shells here and ready to rock....

[Oh Mah]

 

[bowNarrow]

when i was reloading i think i was doing boxes between 6-8 bucks. that was steel shot shells only. i was only doing it for the fun fact of knowing that i was taking ducks and geese with shells that i made.

[j_h_nimrod]

I reload rifle and pistol a lot and save a pretty fair amount of money and typically gain some measure of performance. That said, i ran the math on reloading shotgun shells quite a few years ago and came to the conclusion that you could barely break even on price.  With no real performance increases it was not worth the time for shotguns.

[AWS]

I shoot pre-war sxs's for my waterfowling and most of mine take 2.5" shells.  I load all of mine with ITX, Nice Shot and Bismuth and I only load 7/8 and 1 oz loads at about $35./25.  If I were shooting a modern shotgun I'd use factory steel loads.

[BigGoonTuna]

i enjoy reloading, but haven't gotten into doing shotshells.  there's a hornady 12ga setup at the local pawn shop that they're asking $150 for, and currently have a 40% off sale going on, so it's a little tempting...

i think the biggest concern would be the price of shot and availability of powder.  hardly ever see alliant steel on the shelves, that seems to be the "go to" for many.  i've been buying waterfowl loads by the case from rogers, and recently cabelas.  it's hard to justify reloading when you can buy case lots of good ammo for under a hundred bucks at times.  i never used to figure available time into my hobbies, but having a 17 month old running around, free time to do stuff like load ammo just kind of evaporates.

[huntingfool7]

If you pay the highest normal prices for shot/wads/primers/powder a box of 1-1/8 oz steel loads will cost about 9.50 box.  It's not tough to cut a couple bucks off of that.  Most of my steel handloads cost 7.55 for 25 rounds or .30/shot.

Cost for heavier than steel shot varies a lot.  Highest performance shot is TSS at $45.00/lb.  TSS #6 will roll a swan at 45+ yards and stone geese at over 60.  There is no commercial round that can compare/compete but those shells are nearly 4.00 a pop for a 1-5/16 oz load.  You likely won't find any TSS #6 pellets in the birds either.  Hawglips on shotgunworld or duckhuntingchat is the go to guy for TSS shot and he will provide load data to his customers.

Most of my heavier than lead loads contain HW13 from Reloading Specialties and ITX10 / ITX13 from Ballistic Products.  These loads cost less than 1.65/shot using normal over the counter pricing.  My actual costs are closer to a 1.12/ea.  They are better than equal to any comparable EMI Hevi product that you'll find on a retail shelf.

I have not played with bismuth yet.  Bismuth is currently on sale at Rotometals for $15/lb in 10 lb bags.  That puts a 1 oz load at $1.11/shot. 

Most of my favored loads are in 2-3/4'' hulls.  There is plenty of room to get velocity and payload in a short hull without additional costly fillers.  Your shot price is the biggest factor on your actual costs.  The numbers used above assume full retail on shot/wads/primers/powder and buying in smaller quantities.

[CP]

$109.99 to your door.  Tax free & free shipping.

https://www.rogerssportinggoods.com/ammunition/fiocchi-steel/fiocchi-steel-warlock-hunting-load-12-gauge-3-1-1-5-ounce-1550fps.html

[Henrydog]

I shot a lot of trap...and reload 12-15k 12ga a year.  I do it because I enjoy it, and I make a load for the performance spec's I want....you will not save any money.

[h2ofowlr]

I just purchase them.  Equipment costs, supplies and my personal time would make the costs exceed that of catching the sale prices from Rogers. 

[syoungs]

Thanks for all the info guys! This year I'm buying em, though I am going to look into ballistic products and  roto metals,  if I can increase performance significantly, I may start going that route for good loads, and the days the ducks won't decoy well.

I guess steel's worked well for me the past 6 years, and it sure is easy when you got a flat of it on the shelf!