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Many commercial shells available at your local retailer these days or on line via the Internet are built outside the US. Wolf shells, for example, are built in Spain. While I have found the Wolf clay target loads (1-1/8-ounce of #8) to be excellent, the consumer has very little history of these companies to use in evaluating possible purchases. Reloading your own shells gives you much greater control over your shooting.

COST

Many reloaders will tell you that they save money by building and re-building their own shells. Obviously, considering the cost in components and the time and effort, they cannot save money if they are only shooting a few boxes of shells a year. From this perspective, if you do not shoot often, you should probably not bother to reload because you may never recoup the initial investment. For instance, a MEC 600 Jr. Mark 5 single stage reloader is about $120. After that, you can expect to pay about $11 for a bag of 100 Fiocchi 12-gauge 2-3/4-inch hulls and 14 ounces of Hodgdon’s Clays powder is another $15. A 25-pound bag of #7-1/2, #8 or #9 Olin chilled shot (2 percent antimony) from Ballistic Products is $18 per bag; a bag of 200 G/BP Wads is about $5; a box of Fiocchi 616 primers is $20 per thousand. Add a few knickknacks that your local dealer or a reloading buddy recommend, and you are going to spend a minimum of $200, and that is for absolutely minimal reloading.