Been looking at getting into reloading shotgun shells for sporting clays, but my question is, during normal times without price gouging of supplies and what not, is it really worth reloading shotgun shells? Do you really save any money? Or is it more of a pain than it’s worth?

If you get into reloading trying to save money you will probably be disappointed, however you can control your situation of not running out of shells or getting stuck not having ammo. Right now primers are going to be a serious roadblock for you, shotgun powder and lead shot is pretty readily available now though but the prices are increasing by the day as well as loaded stuff so that’s about a wash IMO. If your interested in a new hobby and willing to spend the cash to do it then I say go for it. You can spend a fortune or a small fortune buying the equipment needed so that’s a personal question you have to ask yourself, is it worth it?
If I were you I would come up with a budget you can spend on the equipment and components right now, that will be the easiest deciding factor right now. You may be shocked at what that investment looks like to get started now,

Just my opinion, typically you begin reloading because it is something you enjoy, your trying to make quality ammo tailored to your gun, or you are tryign to make some form of ammo that is not readily available and or very expensive because it is not common etc.

Doing it just to save money for run of the mill factory ammo isnt a driving factor to me and boy howdy did you pick a bad time to get into it.

I reloaded a lot of shotgun ammo in the past when shooting leagues, it did save a little but not compared to the promotional shells that were available but I could reload good target ammo that patterned much better for a little less than the promotional and at a good cost savings to the higher grade ammo.

Getting used equipment can offset the cost of going new, which is what I did back in the day for shotshells and metallic cartridges as well.

As a reloader for about 44 years I find it does save some but that is offset by how much more one shoots and lets face it shooting is more fun the more one does.

Who ever said reloading saved money didn't know what they were talking about. " You just shoot more"

My FIL reloaded AA's for years, never knew him to miss a bird. I got his MEC650 and components to load 5-6 thousand 12 gauge rounds. I'll get busy with that if I ever get caught up.

Here my two cents. It does save money loading metallic cartridges but it takes a long time before that is realized. I’m mot sure about shotgun as I don’t load for it.

For example, i have loaded 2k match grade 308 win rounds in last 4 months at $0.79/rd. That comes to $15.80/box. To give you an idea before the craziness kicked in. to buy a box of 168gr Federal Gold Medal Match it usually averaged about $32/box out the door. That is a substantial savings. Now that same box is averaging $62/box. No brainer. I am still shooting as normal and not having to table my hobby or more accurately passion for long range shooting because of all that’s going on. I also get the benefit of ammo that can produce 1/2 moa groups or better.

If saving money is your goal then you will need to purchase supplies in bulk. Shipping fees and hazmat charges drive the prices up. After you find a load that you like consider purchasing the powder in multiple 8 pound kegs at a time. The wads can be obtained cheaper by the case than by purchasing single bags at a time.

The biggest advantage I had found in reloading is my ability to load what I like shooting. Back in the early 1980's I thought that 12 gauge shells had to have 1 1\8 or 1 1\4 ounces of shot loaded to what was called "high brass" levels. Now older, wiser, and a much better shooter looking back at my records the heaviest shot shell I have loaded in 5 years has contained 1 ounce of shot. The majority of the shells have had 3/4 or 7/8 ounces of shot. Its more important to point the shotgun in the right direction than it is to have hundreds of more pellets flying through the air to a large degree.

These 12 gauge 3/4 and 7/8 ounce loads are much more economical than the typical 1 1\8 ounce load since shot is the most expensive component in the shell. They not only save money, but they save wear and tear on you. The recoil reduction dropping from 1 1\8 ounces of shot to 7\8 ounces of shot is substantial.

As always use published reloading data to develop the load. Never trust bushing charts without checking the powder drop on an accurate scale.

The smaller the gauge, the more you will save. 28 gauge and 410 is where savings are substantial. TLoving laid it out pretty good. Making the loads you like to shoot and can’t buy is the biggest advantage.

Yes, on a per round basis, you save money handloading. I've found the p.r. savings to be substantial for metallic cartridges, not quite as much for shot shell but a little... and I'm talking about in normal times - I'm sure everyone who handloads anything has seen substantial savings over the past year and not had to worry about the crazy shortages. But do you actually spend less money? Hell no - like others have said, you just end up shooting more. It's fun, you pay less per round shot, you get more accurate reliable ammo made specific for your firearms ... it's a win win. Near impossible to get into handloading right now though - the supply of materials is almost completely choked off...you would probably get so frustrated trying to get what you need to handload right now, that you give up on it before you really got to start it and that would be a shame as it's a fun skill to have and exercise.

I definitely appreciate all the info, but after trying to track down everything I would need to get into this, like many of y’all have stated, it just isn’t the right time. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is!

When the cycle flips there will be a lot of people selling at a loss. Might have to wait a while just be patient.

I hope your right but something about this time definitely seems different, I’m honestly not sure their will ever be good times rolling again with how low everything has gotten and screwed up society has become. I pray your right but I think your wrong, this is like gambling on the stock market now, buy now or later lol

Huge difference this time. The reasons behind the current situation and previous situations may be the same/similar - but this period was also accompanied by something we didn't see previously - MASSIVE federal spending....the largest spending spree the US government has ever engaged in...which has resulted in insane levels of inflation (and we've only seen the beginning on that)... coupled with world wide lockdowns and the related impact...then add on crazy levels of new gun owners and the corresponding supply demand (which will probably go down one day, but not back to what it was - and if anything, given the current rate of unrest, rioting, etc.. in the country, we'll keep seeing it go up for years to come). And all this without even taking into consideration the impact the current administration's policies have had and will continue to have for the next 4 years at the least.

I think we'll start to see supplies becoming available to the handloading market again, this year sometime .... but the old prices, don't hold your breath. If anyone is holding out thinking those prices will 'return to normal', you might as well give up this hobby because it's not happening. The pricing we see right now, is the 'new normal'. If anything, they'll increase more.

And by new prices, I'm not talking about the gouger pricing... but the price increases we're seeing at major retailers - primers jumping up to 7-10c/primer, etc...

So at the moment the supplies are non existent and with hunting season fast approaching you think items are going to become available this year? I like your optimism but I think it’s a long shot at best. I’m definitely not willing to risk it, I’d be willing to bet by July prices go to a level never dreamed about like primers at $300 plus a brick.

I mean March 2020 - May 2020 everything really started disappearing, but you could still get powder/primers if you were on enough notification lists.. June 2020 - March 2021, primers were almost impossible to get, powder was hit or miss unless you were after the extreme powders like Retumbo which became impossible to get. But end of March 2021 - today, I've seen the supply starting to flow again... don't get me wrong, it's still extremely difficult to get items but not impossible. You can pretty much get some powder every single week just paying attention to MidSouth, Midway, and PowderValley....sure, the best ones go dry in 30 minutes or so (others are around for hours) but the flow is there throughout the week. Now primers are a different story... I lucked out and scored 15k SRP BRs just recently...and then right after that, I was able to score another 2k SRP from Midway (1k 400s and 1k BR4 - they're limiting to 1k per type for any 7 day period right now).... And I could have scored some LRP and SPP from Midway but I've got plenty so I didn't. Just this week I even saw that PV had SPP in stock for a bit. Point being is that we are starting to slowly see the flow come back. I'm certainly not saying that it's not a [censored] situation right now, but the last few months is a big change from the 10 months before that - it's promising seeing the flow start to trickle again. We're even starting to see ammo back on the shelves where I live - Hell, I was in Walmart a few weeks ago and they had a ton of ammo...they even put all their 22LR Thunderbolt ammo on sale for 0.018/round...I picked up 3 boxes of 500 for $9 a box. 22 Ammo being the only ammo I actually buy, I handload everything else.

So, here's to hoping the current trickle turns up a little and that your prediction about what's going to happen this year is wrong Ol Thumper!

I think all mine were $30 per 1K or less...maybe 3.5 cents per...

There are a few on this post that can remember the inflationary times where if you knew you were going to need something eventually that you bought it right then as in 6 months the price would be 3-6% higher. Companies gave cost of living increases a couple times a year. Sure is looking a lot like that scenario is coming right at us. I sure hope I am wrong.
I think as far as reloading supplies go we are maybe a year away from close to normal availability except maybe primers. Just an opinion though no real facts to back it up.
I think the smaller bullet/ ammo makers will do well as the hunting season approaches and folks who are still clueless go to buy hunting ammo for the upcoming season this Fall.
Human nature being what it is I doubt any self respecting handloader after going through this primer shortage will stop buying until they have 10 or so years supply on hand. That means all that show up on shelves for the next year or so will be immediately purchased.
It wouldn’t shock me not to see any primers at local stores for a couple more years but I sure hope I am wrong.
Oh and here is my first get ahead of inflation purchase....

I know where your coming from, that’s why I’m sitting on 100k plus in primers and more powder than I care to admit to I like where your heads at on getting ahead of the inflation pricing I have mad respect for that set up…

Very nice, I like it. Maybe one day I'll drop 11k on a Mark 7 Revolution setup.... would be sweet. https://www.markvii-loading.com/loading-presses/the-mark-7r-revolutionr.html

Don’t plan to add auto drive but did put a bullet feeder on it. Goal was to only have to run 223 brass thru machine once... size/ decap then trim/swage/prime /powder/ bullet then crimp if so inclined.
Here is after I installed bullet feeder a few minutes ago. Now just waiting on power trimmer and Lyman dies that didn’t show with the order

I put some rudimentary loading items up today. I'm asking a lot for the wax to make Ben's Liquid Lube only because it's out of production. There's a few things there to start though. I was looking for some leather dye I used to stain the refinish job on my 500E because I need it for a lever rifle redo but found stuff I don't need any more. I still make BLL but have enough supplies to last the rest of my life considering I PC a lot of the bullet's I cast now. Long way to say get what you can while you can. Buy while the prices are going up. Sell then too.