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Cost Per Round Estimator

Brass amortized over its full lifecycle, plus powder, primer, and bullet. Returns the true cost per round, plus per 50, 100, and 1000.

Brass case plus powder plus primer plus bullet equals one loaded cartridge

What These Words Mean

Reloading: Building your own ammunition. Instead of buying boxes of factory ammo, you reuse the brass case (the metal shell) and combine it with fresh powder, a fresh primer, and a fresh bullet.
Brass / case: The metal shell that holds everything together. The most expensive single component, but you reuse it many times.
Primer: The tiny ignition cap at the back of the case. Sold in boxes of 100 or 1000.
Powder: The propellant that pushes the bullet out. Sold by the pound. Each round uses a few grains (1 grain = 1/7000 of a pound).
Bullet: Just the projectile itself, the part that flies. Sold in boxes of 50, 100, or more.
Amortized: Spreading the cost of brass across all the times you'll reuse it, instead of pretending it's free after the first shot.

Brass

How much one new brass case costs you and how many times you expect to reload it before retiring it. 5 to 10 reloads is typical for bottleneck rifle brass.

Brass cost (per case) Reloads expected per case

Powder

Powder is sold by the pound. The charge weight is how many grains go in each round (your reloading manual will tell you the safe range for your cartridge and bullet).

Powder price (per pound) Charge weight (gr)

Primer

A box (or sleeve) of primers and what it costs.

Primers per box Primer box price

Bullet

A box of bullets and what it costs.

Bullets per box Bullet box price

Brass / round (amortized): –
Powder / round: –
Primer / round: –
Bullet / round: –
Cost per round: –
Per 50: –
Per 100: –
Per 1000: –

How Brass Amortization Works

Most cost-per-round calculators only account for the second firing onward, hiding the real cost of new brass. We split the brass cost across the total number of expected firings (1 + reloads). If you buy a $1.20 case and expect 6 reloads, that's 7 firings total, which means $0.171 of brass per round, not $1.20 on the first one and zero after.

If you don't reload your brass, set "reloads expected per case" to 0. The full case cost gets attributed to the single firing.

Disclaimer. Educational. Not load data. Always verify against a current published reloading manual.