The Overall Cheapest Rifle Caliber

Note: Prices are from early 2022, aggregated from many websites and excluding remanufactured ammo. Reloaded prices based on starting loads of IMR 4895 powder for most cartridges.

What About Steel Cased Ammo?

There’s a trend toward steel cases for cheap ammo nowadays.

Some people shy away from steel cases, but I say, let them fly.

The main concern people have regarding using steel-cased ammo to save money is how it can accelerate barrel wear. (This is likely from the Eastern Bloc manufacturers using hotter burning powder, causing increased throat erosion, but I digress).

The cheapest brass-cased .223 I can find right now costs $0.08 more per round than steel-cased .223. This saves $80 per 1,000 rounds....

So, yes, shooting steel-cased ammo still saves you money!

The Cheapest Practical Rifle Calibers

Most of the advice above applies to for-fun shooting. Paper doesn’t care about what type of bullet you’re using, making cheap rifle shooting easy.

But what about those rifles which are for use against the live game?

You don’t want to cheap out when hunting or defending your life. You ALSO don’t want to get a gun that prices you out of being able to hunt.

A rifle I love is my Marlin 1895 GBL. However, it’s chambered in .45-70 Government. That gun’s practice ammo is $2.50 a round! Hunting ammo costs $3 per round or more, which means I don’t take it out much.

So, let’s look at some highly-effective cartridges that won’t bleed your wallet dry.

The Cheapest Rifle Caliber for Big Game Hunting

.308 Winchester wins for being the least-expensive big game hunting round. It’s just too common for any of the specialized hunting rounds to compete.

You can take almost any game in North America with a .308 rifle. Only the biggest animals shrug it off.

If you’re hunting a Grizzly, then your ammo costs are going to be a rounding error on your hunting cost spreadsheet.

The Cheapest Rifle Caliber for Varmint Hunting

While I love small-caliber varmint loads such as .17 HMR and .22 Hornet, .223 Rem is exceedingly common and is, in fact, a varmint round.

It’s not the best varmint round, but it is the least expensive.

The Cheapest Rifle Caliber for Long Range Shooting

Low-volume, high-precision shooting muddles the discussion a bit when it comes to cheap rifle practice.

There’s no such thing as a cheap long-range load. Some are cheaper than others, though.

In my experience, 6.5 Grendel is the best long-range precision round for inexpensive shooting. 6.5 Creedmoor, another common long-range rifle round, always seems to be about $3-$15 more per box.

6mm ARC is about the same price but is less commonly available.

.223 match ammo exists and is cheaper still, but it’s not as long-ranged as these heavier calibers, so I still place 6.5 Grendel as the cheap long-range king.

The Cheapest Rifle Caliber for Self Defense

.223 wins here, too. I favor .223 as a self-defense round for reasons I’ve covered before.

Price shouldn’t be a consideration for the actual loads you use to defend yourself. Get the best self-defense ammo you can then take advantage of cheap ammo to be well-practiced for if such a bad event comes to pass.

The Cheapest Rifle Caliber to Reload

I remember when 7.62x39mm ammo was cheap enough, it cost you more to reload it than buying new ammo!

That’s not the case anymore.

For most cartridges, reloading equalizes costs.

.30-30 Win and 7.62x39mm both use .30 cal bullets, similar primers, and about as much powder. Provided you have empty cases, which are reusable and thus don’t shift the cost much, these two cartridges will cost about the same to reload. Calibers are where costs change, though. Larger, heavier bullets tend to cost more than smaller, lighter ones, though bullet prices tend to be in bands.

For example, .358 caliber Hornady InterLock bullets are about $0.12 cheaper per unit than their .270 bullets. And larger calibers require more powder as well, also increasing costs.

This means that the smallest caliber with the lightest powder load to achieve your goal will be the cheapest caliber for you to reload. This depends heavily on your desires.

For example, this is part of what led me to reload 6.5 Grendel instead of 6.5 Creedmoor for long-range shooting. They both use the same bullets, but my Grendel is cheaper to reload than the Creedmoor and is just as effective at the distances I’m comfortable shooting. If I wanted to push past 1,000 yards, then I’d upgrade to 6.5 Creedmoor.

However, for poking holes in paper, .224 bullets are almost always the cheapest. 60 gr .224 Hornady V-Max bullets cost the same as .20 gr .17 caliber bullets, for example. This makes .223 the cheapest rifle cartridge to reload.

Tips for Cheaper Rifle Shooting

REMINDER: Completely unload your rifle before pulling the trigger when dry firing!

No matter how you spin it, high-volume shooting can be expensive. Here are some methods you can use to maximize your training without feeling like you’re throwing money into a bottomless pit.

#1 Dry Fire Practice

I can’t always get to the gun range. So long as I have access to my guns, though, I can get in some trigger time every day. Except for recoil management, there’s very little practical difference between pulling the trigger on a full or empty chamber. Most of what makes you accurate—breath control, stance, and trigger control—can be practiced by dry firing your gun.

Careful observation while dry firing your gun can reveal any jerking and allow you to fix this problem before you develop a flinch. This will save you money with real ammo, too, as all the bullets will go where you want them to go.

Make sure your gun is completely unloaded before pulling the trigger, including the magazine. I even have a dedicated dry-fire mag with the spring and follower removed!

Failing to follow the basic rules of firearm safety will be more expensive than any range trip. (continued next page)