I find this humorous, but I have to side with the Excel guys if you are looking for ease and speed. Once you setup the spreadsheet, which for anyone with Excel experience is fairly simple, it is much faster to plug in numbers, than to do it long hand or with a calculator.

On the other side of this, how often do you have to figure the cost of reloading a box of shells?

I think some folks like to play with their computers!!

I made one up and use it occasionally. If anyone wants it PM me with your email addy and I'll send it to you. You change the item cost in the cell, hit enter and you get cost per box and per shell. Entries are, wad and primer cost per 1000, shot per bag, powder cost per pound, shot load weight and powder load weight. Simple little excel spredsheet.

Or just use one like this thats already out there.

http://www.losttarget.com/costcal.htm


Steve

I do a lot of excel stuff at work. I have a simple sheet that I just drop the component price / quantity into to give me a cost / box number. It's quick and easy. I rarely use it though, be cause unless the price of something changes dramatically, the cost per box doesn't change enough to be bothered about.

I also have one that gives me rounds / lb of powder. for example, 8lbs of red dot, at 17 grains/shot, 1lb=412 5lb=2059 8lb=3294

Which, now that I look at it, I can't believe I shot well over 3K rounds this summer. Probably closer to 4k. Huh.

I have a co-worker, who rarely "reads", listens to Audiobooks constantly.

It would be one thing listening to said Audiobook while driving (like a trucker), working for hours at one of our blasting cabinets (abrasive paint removal), but SITTING AT HIS DESK AT BREAK TIME (which is when I pull out an old paper book for 10 minutes).

I also enforce a STRICT limit on my Extraneous And Pointless Reccordkeeping, there are a whole host of things some people feel they need to keep for others to throw away eventually, 98% of that information is useless and pointless to me.
Prior to a midsummer discussion on this very board, I haven't figured "reloading cost" in nearly 2 decades. Don't care. Don't matter.
I sure as heck don't ascribe a "cost" to my time, because that time is not being removed from someone willing to pay me for that time.
If I spent a day loading ammo, away from work, when I could have been at work making $30 an hour, then my loading time is costing me $30 an hour.
Same thing mowing my yard instead of going to work.

However, if I spend that day loading on a Saturday, or some other holiday I am not scheduled to work, or I am On Vacation and already being paid that day, that "time" I have has NO value, because no-one is offering to pay me for that time, so it has NO COST.

I reload(ed) to save money. I want to know the cost of my reloads compared to new ammo simply so I know whether to buy new ammo or reloading supplies.

I have used an Excel sheet. It's probably still lurking somewhere on my hard drive or a thumb drive. Now I just use an on-line calculator I have bookmarked.

I do that too. Always listening to Audio books. Pretty hard to read a book while reloading ammo, walking the dog, or doing chores around the house. And they're free from the library, so why not?

I maintain that you can be attentive to one thing or another. Either you are listening to the book or loading ammo. If you are trying to do both, then something is not being observed as it should be.
Even worse is driving and listening to an audiobook.

I tried on an Excel spreadsheet, but found my MEC 9000G to be a superior tool.

You don't talk to people or listen to the radio when you drive? I don't seem to have any problem it.

This.

Me, I usually have music going, the radio or an MP3 player.

The music is basically just background noise that I don't really pay attention to, but it is there, filling the otherwise silence which has it's own way of being distracting.

A number of times, I have had to go back and listen to the exact same Guntalk Podcast 3 or 4 times to actually "listen" to it, because I was paying it so little attention when it played the first time (or 2, or 3).

A book I would have to concentrate on to follow the story.

Exactly my point about having to concentrate on the book while driving is certainly a recipe for unpleasant happenings.

I've never had any problems with it. I've been more distracted by other people in the car I'm having a conversation with, or even when a good tune comes on.

Not hundreds of published loads for 12 gauge. Try more like hundreds of thousands. And many more for the other gauges.

Your copy and paste problems are probably due to a format issue. The data in published on-line sources is most likely formatted in HTML or PDF or even a newer format, and it's not just data, but also format instructions. So a spreadsheet does not know how to paste "just the data" properly. You may have success with saving what you copy as a "text only" file ("txt" file extension), then importing (reading) that into your spreadsheet.

If this were an EASY thing to accomplish, there would already be "mash-ups" of what web sites have for published loads all rolled up into a giant database to be searched quickly. Think small and just record what components you want in about 3-6 loads that you know run well in your guns. Buy those components when one goes into "low inventory" status. Or you spot a sale on one of your 20 favorite components.

Besides, new powders and wads and even hulls come out every year. Who really wants to find all those new combinations? Hint - not even Hodgdon nor Alliant!

Keep it simple - everyone else does (either in their head or even a loading log book).

Good luck, GJ

Sample Problem: [i]A case of 5000 wads costs $68. [/quote]

Wow! $68 per case! That is a bargin.
Mind saying where and what wad?

bp

Agreed Mark. I listen to Audiobooks while driving and reloading and have no issues keeping track of either activity. Also, as far as the spreadsheets, yes I can do the math. I choose to do them in a spreadsheet (where I keep all my load data) so I don't have to do it again if I am trying to recall what I pay to make my ammo. It takes seconds to do and its there if I want to look at it. I constantly get assked what my costs are for various loads. I load for a lot calibers ( like many of us) so this is a simple way to keep records that works for me. To each his own i guess.


Mum-O-Killowe

And that right there is the difference between us.

The ONLY time I have EVER been asked about my costs to handload ammo, is people on message forums asking the entire forum "what does it cost you", and EVEN THAT (exception for SGW because it's an obsession around here) is less than once a year, on all the rest of the forums combined.

40 years, 20 on The Internet, and I have been personally asked about how much my ammo costs fewer times than fingers on both hands.

Here's mine -- pretty simple to follow, just enter costs up at the top, powder in the grid for the appropriate load/gauge, and the sheet does the rest. Click the link, it will open a view of the spreadsheet in DropBox, click the download icon and that will DL the xlsx spreadsheet file to your computer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwzg0c4qkty8i ... .xlsx?dl=0

haha I bet there are many more differences. I'd bet on your shooting and loading experience over my limited knowledge / skillset. I do shoot a lot ( mostly IPSC and 3 Gun ) and I have met exactly 2 guys that still reload shotgun up here so I often get asked what my costs are for shotgun as guys assume I've found a $0.15 load or why would I bother. Reloading is an extension of the hobby of shooting for me that keeps me connected to it when I can't get to the range. Having a cost analysis ( that admittedly is not accurate with fluxuating costs ) is just another small part of it for me.

I see you're in Newton, Ks. I'm originally from Wichita but live in Canada now. Just got back for a couple weeks about a month ago. Was good to see the Motherland.

Cheers,

Mum-O_Killowe

I love using Excel to track what I've used and what I need on average for a month. There is not an easier way than that.I'm tired also of writing it on papers as I tend to lose them all time, and then I have to start everything again from scratch! So for me using a Google sheet is the most comfortable way. The only thing I never liked about them is that I had to find how to remove duplicates in google sheets which was a challenge to do one by one as it took me half a day.