MRA Maverick .308 Win. 20" Barrel

[u/ClubDeTirDeMontreal]

[u/dgod40]

I've wanted this for a while now but I have nowhere to shoot and stretch out 308. And the price of ammo is no bueno.

Beautiful gun though. How do you like it?

I think one of those magpul DT-PR™ Carbine Stock – Mil-Spec would look sick on this rifle

[u/CurlyWurly61 → u/dgod40]

As a .308 owner, I agree 😂 shooting nearly $1.50 on the cheap end, per round hurts a little

[u/CryptidWorks → u/CurlyWurly61]

✨reloading is the solution for .308✨

If you're just after plinking rounds you can absolutely throw reasonable rounds together for less than a buck each. Just takes time, patience watching for sales, and the initial setup cost.

Even my high end ammo is only $1.50/Rd. At the moment and that's 178gr ELD-X in Lapua brass over Varget. The cost for the brass is spread over the number of reloads, and mine last 10+.

To buy something comparable it's about $4/Rd (Hornady Precision Hunter)

If you want cheap, re-used factory brass + campro bullets + whatever bulk powder is on sale. I got 8lb of H335 for $300 not too long ago. That's 1300 rounds worth, roughly, making the powder cost $0.23/Rd. Campro bullets are about 0.30/ea, primers are 0.08. total cost not including brass is $0.61/Rd.

Suddenly comparable to cheap brass cased 7.62x39/5.56.

They won't be match grade, but if you're looking for cheap shit to burn at a 100yd plinking sesh, it's easy on the wallet.

[u/CurlyWurly61 → u/CryptidWorks]

This is huge... wow. I'll have to eat the start up costs... but I typically spend 2 hours at my range. I'd be getting my money's worth in no time...

If I were to reload .308 I think i'd send 100+ down range

Did you start with a "reloading kit" and buy the extras, or did you source out every part?

[u/CryptidWorks → u/CurlyWurly61]

I picked up stuff as I found it on sale. Gun shows, for example, are awesome for cheap, lightly used dies.

Dies Haven't changed much in the last fifty years, and a lot of old dudes who reload a box a year eventually kick it or downsize. The result is common caliber dies show up at gun shows for like $15-20/set. They're normally about $100 new.

If you're going to regularly burn through a ton of ammo you'll want to look into something like a lee auto-indexing turret press, a progressive press if you want to get real fancy (but they're pricey), or just be ready to sit down and spend about an hour and a half in a given session with a single stage. An automatic powder dispenser (I use a Lyman gen6) will greatly assist with both speed and your sanity. When you get the rhythm going a single stage isn't bad.

You could probably find a starter kit with most of what you need, minus caliber specific dies.

Excel sheets will be your friendnfor calculating costs and planning materials.

Start saving all your brass now.

[u/Q-Ball7 → u/CurlyWurly61]

I'd be getting my money's worth in no time...

Hold on. Realistically, it's going to take you a few thousand rounds to break even.

Yes, Campro 147-grain .308 projectiles are relatively cheap but they're still $300 per thousand. But consider also that rifle powder is generally about $100 per pound, and 1 pound only does slightly less than 200 rounds, so you'll need 6 pounds, or 600 dollars worth of powder, to load 1000 rounds. Primers will run you another 150 per thousand, which brings your total cost of 1000 rounds, ignoring brass, to $1050.

1000 rounds of comparable factory ammunition in this caliber will cost you 1500 dollars, so you only save 500 dollars per thousand rounds... which means you'll have to load 2000 rounds to break even on the bill of materials alone. Let's say you buy a cheap single-stage press and dies, which will be another 500, so that's 3000 rounds you'll have to load before you get anything resembling a positive ROI (a progressive is about 1500, so 5000 rounds). And by that time, you'll probably start needing new brass, which is another expense...

Reloading arguably doesn't make sense if you're just cloning M80- bulk-pack PMC ammunition is pretty reasonable for that job. If you're doing more niche stuff where the off-the-shelf ammunition costs $4/round (compared to the fancier reloads that, though its projectiles are even more expensive, are only around $1.60/round- for they use the same amount of the other components).