When do you ditch a caliber?

The only caliber I've ever ditched is 40 S&W. I ditched it because my arthritic wrist won't stand up to shooting it anymore. I didn't sell it. I gave to a grandson that's a fan of that caliber.
I didn't ditch my Super Blackhawks, I just repurposed them to 44 special. They are pussycats with 44 special, especially with handloads.

Toprudder said:

Hi, my name is Bob. I'm a reloadaholic.

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Don't worry Bob. Until you start buying guns specifically because you want, or have to build ammo for them because factory ammo is unavailable, you're not hooked on the hard stuff yet. When you're truly hooked, you'll be a handloadaholic, not just a reloadaholic.

WestKentucky asked:
When do you ditch a caliber?

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When I no longer own a gun that will shoot that ammunition and have no prospects of getting another one that shoots that caliber in the foreseeable future.

I'm of the camp who says... Use it, fix it, sell it, give it away, throw it away, but never store it unless you are likely to (not "might") need it again!

I try not to be a hoarder. I have the genes (not a genetic thing though, it is a materialistic decision, and it isn't a good one) from both sides of the family, so I try to beat back the tendencies!

Toprudder said:

Hi, my name is Bob. I'm a reloadaholic.

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I'm in the same boat, except I don't collect brass- I just can't resist buying guns in calibers I don't own, then I have to get the dies and components. I also load 7.62 x 39, 7.62 x54R and 12 and 20 gauge shotshells, even though my reloads cost more than factory ammo. I can't ever seem to be able to part with any of my guns (a lot of them are old military), so I don't get rid of the dies.

.308 Norma said:

Don't worry Bob. Until you start buying guns specifically because you want, or have to build ammo for them because factory ammo is unavailable, you're not hooked on the hard stuff yet. When you're truly hooked, you'll be a handloadaholic, not just a reloadaholic.

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Hey, don't push me, I DO have a 7.62 Nagant. I did manage to buy some factory ammo when I found some on clearance, but may have to start handloading for that.

I do have a friend that has a 1863 Spencer 56-56, and he has to jump through all sorts of hoops to be able to shoot that. He is trying to drag me down that rabbit hole with him.

WestKentucky said:

I have dies for every caliber I have ever loaded except .44 mag. I have dies for stuff I plan to load, stuff I used to have, and a couple sets of duplicates just because I might eventually decide to change things up in common caliber like 9mm, 357 mag, or .223. Then there are 2 die sets that sit there with me scratching my head. I had a 10mm and I keep thinking I want to buy another but I know I won’t anytime soon. I have had a few .308s and don’t care for them all that much. I have components too, but I wonder if I wouldn’t be better off selling my stuff and buying bullets for the things I load more regularly.

So from one reloaders to another, when do you finally break down and part ways with stuff thats just sitting?

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Been there done that, I know where you are coming from.
Sold about a 16 sets of dies on ebay this past year, some for calibers I have got rid of & some were from
triple sets due to buying other whole reloading sets. I sold a lot of my bullets & cases to a fellow I taught reloading
to.
I got rid of 270 Weatherby Mag // 300 Weatherby Mag // rifles are gone & their
reloading eq has been leaving in pieces.
I consolidated my calibers into the ones I use a lot like 30-06 // .308 // 7mmRemMag // 8mm Mauser // .223 // 7mmo8 // 22 Hornet
.357 // .44Mag // 45LC & some more. The only ammo I buy is 45 Auto simply because I never mastered semi auto pistol reloading
& it is the only semi pistol I own.
And to go beyond that have decided on --no more-- testing various loads for proven rifles or revolvers, they perform
perfectly after all these years of reloading why would I try any more bullets just because a mfg says their new bullet
is better than the one they sold me last year.
For instance Hornady 150 gr SST does most of my 308 & 30.06 rifles perfectly. The others vary a little.
We, as reloaders feel secure seeing shelves packed with ---STUFF--- when we can get by with lots less overstock stuff.
I have sold my unrealistic stuff & bought condensed versions.
Ironic thing, I drop the weatherby rifles & calibers I got for Elk hunting in the west,
ok my health fails & I can never make it out there, ok get out of the big gun business.
Now I have Elk in the back yard !!!!-----but we can't hunt them here.
Then looking at them up close out my back window at 20 yards, a 30.06 would
knock them down easy enough.

My daughter can sell my surplus reloading stuff when I die... I won't part with it when I am alive. Used dies don't seem to have much resale value... I might as well keep them.

MikeInOr said:

My daughter can sell my surplus reloading stuff when I die... I won't part with it when I am alive. Used dies don't seem to have much resale value... I might as well keep them.

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True, my daughter in law sold my stuff for me, of course I agreed to the price.
Stuff goes cheap.

I'm hesitant to get rid of things like dies.

A year or so ago, I found some reloading stuff at a garage sale. I got there too late, because he said he had a lot more stuff that had just sold.
Anyway, there was a set of Hornady .44 magnum dies there that looked brand new. He sold them to me for $8.00.

I didn't own a .44 at the time, so I bought them for trade fodder on the forums. I traded them off and a couple of weeks ago I bought a .44 magnum. I just went and purchased the exact same die set for $49.99 at Academy because I'm a child and couldn't wait for dies to ship. So I could have saved myself $42.

It just comes down to enjoyment for me. If I don't enjoy shooting a particular cartridge and I have explored different platforms from which to shoot it to no avail, the gun and cartridge get nixed. If I had reloading supplies for it I'd nix them too.

OP, it sounds you still have the 10mm itch. I'd keep your dies. Ditch the rest.

Walkalong said:

Me too, my .380 dies lay dormant for over two decades before I needed them again. They don't go bad, I am not hurting for space........and I'm a scrounger by nature. One little box of dies isn't getting in the way. Heck, I have empty ones laying around. Well, neatly stacked all together, but ......

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The cost of manufactured goods, especially precision ones, goes up steadily - or the quality goes down. The last thing I want to do is sell off dies and such, find myself needing them a decade or two down the road, and at that point pay three times what I spent on the original. Shelf space is cheap.

I go in phases. I was big in to military surplus bolt guns for quite some time. Then I went away from them and got in to different guns. When I sold those rifles, the dies went with them along with any brass or ammo so it was a clean break.
It freed up safe space and funds to buy other things. Safe space is usually at a premium, as most here can probably attest.