Losing Motivation To Reload

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Like most folks my interests are plural. I like to hunt, I like to fish, I like to tinker with motorcycles, and I like to reload. Life has its seasons and there are times when one interest is drowned out by the other things. Currently my reloading is nearly at a standstill as I am a new parent to a couple elementary age kids, and am not comfortable with loading while distracted. My interest in bikes has died because I don’t want anybody on a bike with me, so it would be selfish to tie up time and money in a toy just for me. The girls can’t hunt yet either, so 3 of the 4 hobbies are extremely diminished. The only thing left is fishing, and they enjoy that, so where 3 recede 1 blossoms. Bike money looks like it’s gonna be boat money next year as my little Jon boat isn’t optimal for a growing family that’s currently at 4 folks and looking for 1 or 2 more to join the crew.

While I’m not reloading much, I’m getting brass prepped and getting ready for bulk loading when I finally get back on the press. I know I will come back very very soon...but I am divesting of the brass I have accumulated that I know I’m not gonna use.


I posted the info above at 3:26. By 4:30 I was on the water limping back to the truck. I took the kids to the lake to just cruise and swim a bit, but now I get to go back to my mechanic hobby since I lost a water pump and cooked my outboard. It still turns over and fires so maybe no serious damage, but I’m going through this one.
 
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yes, I can see how loading a bunch of 9mm on a SS press can become a chore... especially when the bottom line of each round is such a big factor in your pleasure. When you count every penny, it is easy to find a burden in an otherwise pleasant pastime. I use a LCT, and that helps a lot to ease the work burden. Even with my 9mm!

I haven't loaded anything in about 2 months, even though I have thousands of rounds worth of components on hand. Haven't been shooting in weeks, either. I have other things to do this time of year. My honey bees take up all my 'hobby time' this time of year and then some! You want to see an expensive hobby? Try beekeeping! Unless you're able to produce honey or surplus bees to sell, it's a wallet biter, for sure. Not to mention the work....

In the fall I'll be returning to brewing my beer and making mead. That's another very expensive hobby. I haven't brewed beer in several moths, either. It becomes a chore sometimes because it is a lot of WORK. Heavy lifting, cooking, bottling or kegging.... Sheesh! But I know I will go back to it, because I find it a pleasant way to bide my time, custom handcrafting something that I could buy in a store, and the results please me.

I will get back to loading again eventually. You see, I don't think of it as "fun", but it is certainly a pleasant way to spend my time. There is a certain 'zen' aspect to my hobbies, when I don't fret about the work involved, or about how much money I'm saving. You see, I have tuned all of these things, bullets, brew, and honey, to perform to my own needs. I know the products of my hobbies are superior to store-bought, and these almost always cost less per unit than the cheap white box ammo, thre cheap MillerBudwiserCoors swill, and the cheap imported honey made of corn syrup and God-knows-what.

It ain't work when you enjoy creating the fruits of your own labor.
 
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Lots of folks base what they reload for on cost per rds. vs. factory or type of press / time required they crank out there ammo on and how much they shoot a particular caliber. I've never really paid much attention to all that as I still use the same old single stage Lyman Crusher press I started out with and if I haven't figured out how to reload any caliber I shoot at a lower cost by now I would seriously rethink why I reload at all.

The main calibers I reload for are 9 x 18 Mak. 9mm, 38/357 Mag. 45 ACP, 30-30, 300 Sav. 7.62 x 39 & 7.62 x 54r. I have some SD ammo for the 9 x 18 and 9mm as well as a stash of steel case X 39 & 54r ammo that I picked up years ago on the cheap that I don't shoot as I can't replace it for what I paid for it but using my cast lead bullets I can load it as cheap and for the type of shooting I do there is no loss of performance on target.

Many years ago when I started reloading I made a decision to stay ahead of the curve as far as components and materials. I scooped up ever pound of free lead I could get my hands on as well as every brass case left behind at the public range, I also bought items in bulk when possible. I have more lead that I will ever use up and enough bullets cast that will last for a couple years, I also recover a good percentage of my cast lead bullet for my berm to be melted down and use again. As for brass I don't think I will ever wear out or loose all the brass i have, I have coffee cans packed and stacked four deep with pretty much ever caliber I shoot with the exception of 9 x 18 Mak. I only have around 1K of those that I made from once fired 9mm brass I also made all my 300 Sav. brass from range pickup 308 Win. brass.

There is just so much I want to do with different firearms and load combinations and different bullet styles an alloy combinations, getting bored or tired of the process is not even in the picture. I'm looking forward to retirement so I can spend my days doing something I really enjoy on a more regular basis.
 
FROGO207 said:
I guess I am in the minority as I LIKE going slow and reloading on a SS press. I have a pile of brass and process it over the winter when I rarely get to shoot because of the cold. Then I load up enough ammo for a range trip or so and go shoot it up. The act of reloading forces me to stop and pay attention to the reloading and the other distractions go away for a while. Call it my escape from the daily grind if you will. I sometimes think that it is more fun to reload than to shoot---especially the accuracy aspect, even for handgun ammo. YMMV
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Its funny to see that written, because that is the biggest attraction to me of casting, reloading, shooting and hunting: I can be totally focused on what I am doing without a lot of stress, and all of the BS from the rest of my life just goes away. I have to have 3 or 4 hours to go shooting, so if I am lucky it happens twice a moth these days. Hunting season is what it is. In the off months when I do not have time to get to the range, the garage where my bench is set up lies just a few steps away.
 
Too bad to hear. Id say take a couple months off, then see if you want to give it a shot. Another thing worth considering is buying a different press. Even a Lee Classic Turret with a Inline ejector would save you alot of time, and they arent that expensive, so "payoff" time actually can be done even on cheap 9mm. Next thing is doing something like buying a progressive, but the payoff will be long, but the work in equals alot more rounds out with a progressive.

I reload so I can shoot, but I enjoy chasing small groups, so part of it is that. So its big batches with a progressive for me, and small runs of accuracy ammo on my SS. My son likes to shoot as well, so its something we can do together. The worst part for me is processing brass, but I have enough brass on hand that I only need to process a couple times a year, when we do it, we process about 5000 pieces. When we load 9 and 223 we generally do 1000 round runs on my LnL, so about 2 1/2 hours and we have it done. Then we can take a month off, and come back and do it again. This cuts down on the tedium alot. A friend of mine got me into reloading, and even he comes over to use my equipment for processing and bulk loading pistol and rifle. Just saves alot of time.
 
I know how you feel. I have had another hobby since I was a kid (model airplanes) that I have had to walk away from a couple of times, and I happen to be in the middle of my third period away from it right now. I'm sure I will get back into it, but for now I am loving reloading and shooting. It is also something that I enjoy with my wife, and she prefers using my handloads in 9mm and 45acp. Even though I can't save much by reloading 9mm, I still do it.

I started out only reloading a couple of pistol calibers, but I now do 16 different handgun and rifle calibers. I find myself sometimes getting tired of one caliber, so I get a gun in a new caliber and start experimenting all over again. 44 magnum was like that for me. It started with a revolver, and then a lever action, and then a semi-auto. Figuring out what each one likes is part of the challenge.

I try not to look at reloading as a means to an end. The time in my reloading room (a 12x20 detached building) is time away from everything - a way to clear my mind. Even though I have a progressive press for the 9, 40, 45 loads, I do a lot of my calibers on my turret press, in single-stage mode. Repetitive tasks are sometimes therapeutic for me, but I try to limit those to an hour or so at a time. Rifle brass prep is that way, I may start with a box of 500 range pickup brass, and I will trim/chamfer/debur for an hour at a time until they are done. I look at it as a way to unwind.

And then there is the engineering type in me that loves gadgets. I bought a chrono and have sent thousands of rounds across it, looking for data that will help me improve my loads. I've learned a lot from that. I'm saving up my coin now for a couple other gadgets that I never knew I couldn't live without.

Buy some factory 9mm ammo to shoot, but don't get rid of your reloading equipment.
 
I have given up 'experimenting' with handgun ammo. I shoot several 'common' calibers and essentially load the 'standard' loads in all of them. Not any point to experimenting. I reload on a progressive and tend to load all I can stand to fill up the supplies.

For rifles it's different. I collect WWI rifles and work on duplicating the velocities and trajectories of the original loads. I collect a few 'sporting rifles' of the interwar period and work on accurate, reliable and suitably powerful rounds for them. That is interesting.

I'm at the point where I don't shoot 9x19mm much. I have three pistols that are sort of collector items and I don't shoot them much (S&W M39, an FN High Power and a Browning marked High Power from the 60's). I could sell off my dies and components and buy FMJ ammo for them and never note the difference.

And, like toprudder, I get a sense of calm and relaxation reloading.
 
Don't overthink it.
If you're not having a good time doing it, step back and take a break. See if it comes back around.

Life is too short to spend your discretionary time doing things you don't want to do.
 
Reloading pistol ammo has always been a means to an end for me, it's just not that entertaining. I use progressive press for that and I load what I can use. For some reason, I REALLY enjoy loading rifle cartridges and these I load on a single stage. I have all the usual stuff, trimming lathe, case prep center, and electronic powder dispenser so I have eliminated a lot of the hand tools from the process. I once met a guy at a training course I was taking and he was into his second career. Apparently he retired and his plan for retirement was taking his boat out every day to fish. He said that at one point that was about all he had to do, so it began to feel like going to work, so he figured he might was well get paid and took another job. If you are not enjoying it, then it is no longer a hobby!
 
Whiterook808 said:
Reloading pistol ammo has always been a means to an end for me, it's just not that entertaining. I use progressive press for that and I load what I can use. For some reason, I REALLY enjoy loading rifle cartridges and these I load on a single stage. I have all the usual stuff, trimming lathe, case prep center, and electronic powder dispenser so I have eliminated a lot of the hand tools from the process. I once met a guy at a training course I was taking and he was into his second career. Apparently he retired and his plan for retirement was taking his boat out every day to fish. He said that at one point that was about all he had to do, so it began to feel like going to work, so he figured he might was well get paid and took another job. If you are not enjoying it, then it is no longer a hobby!
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There is a lot of truth to that!
 
What is your purpose in shooting handgun ammunition? Do you just have a quota of holes in paper that you have to meet every week?
 
labnoti said:
What is your purpose in shooting handgun ammunition? Do you just have a quota of holes in paper that you have to meet every week?
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I don't shoot handguns ever week but I like to at least once or twice a month and it's usually an all day affair with friends just enjoying the company and shooting various targets bullseye or otherwise as friendly competition. Also in this day an age being proficient with ones own handguns is a good skill to have for hunting or otherwise. As I get older my eyesight and reflexes aren't as good as they used to be so every little bit of practice I get is a bonus.
 
Has anyone else reached this point in their life?
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I find myself loading for firearms that I am into shooting, and that changes. For awhile I was into loading for 9x19 but I am more focused on .357 mag 44 spl and 44 mag for now, 380 acp 9x19 and 45 acp are taking a rest for now.
I have been more focused on reloading for rifle lately, I need to pick my battles in order to be successful.
 
slowr1der said:
I'm finding it hard to stay motivated to reload these days. Especially pistol ammo. It's become more of a chore than a hobby. Has anyone else experienced this? How did you get over it?

A few years ago if you'd asked me, I'd have said that I'd never care to shoot centerfire ammo that I didn't reload. I reloaded almost everything that I shot on a single stage press and I couldn't believe other shooters wasted their money on factory ammo. I enjoyed reloading, saved a lot of money, and had more accurate rifle ammo, which I shot a lot of.

Well, today I still reload most of my rifle ammo although I don't enjoy it as much, I still can't imagine going back to factory ammo. I like the increased accuracy that I receive and the cost savings is huge. I usually save $15-20 per box of ammo which adds up pretty quickly. I've also found that I dread load development and the time it takes. My range time has gotten severely cut down with my current job and I'd prefer to spend it shooting instead of testing.

Worse than the rifle ammo, I've gotten to where I absolutely dread reloading pistol ammo. It takes forever to reload on a single stage. I'm also not accurate enough with a handgun to tell if I'm getting slightly more accurate ammo or not. I wouldn't know the difference between a 2.5" group at 25 yards and a 3" group, because I can't shoot any better than that anyway. I've also found that I have to shoot plated bullets (or lead) to really save any money at all and I've yet to find a load that shoots as well with either of these as factory ammo does for me. If I load FMJ ammo, I have some loads that shoot great, but they cost as much or more than factory ammo.

Then to top it off, since I mostly shoot 9mm, I've noticed that I can pick it up on sale pretty often for $7 - $7.50 per box. I'm literally saving about $1 per box if I reload with plated bullets, and I'm spending about the same if I use the Precision Delta FMJ bullets that I really like. If I figure 100 rounds an hour (which is cranking it out on my single stage), I'm literally saving $2 an hour at most.

So I thought about a progressive press, but when I'm saving $1 a box it would literally take me 30 + years to just pay for the equipment, and it would still take up my time. So it hardly seems worth it. So much to my dismay, I've started buying factory 9mm again and it's what I've shot my last few range trips.

Has anyone else reached this point in their life? It just seems like for 9mm it's no longer worth it for me to reload it. Or at least right now while it's so cheap and readily available. Is this a phase you guys have gotten through? The thought of not reloading everything I shoot does bug me, but it just doesn't seem to make sense.
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Short answer is shoot more, it will come back to you. Necessity is the father of invention, & hobby.
In truth I also go thru the same thing because real life problems & DRAMA can cause anyone to loose
the zeal for anything. It might be worth mentioning that political threats cause urgency to arise in our
love of freedom so we protest it by performing our acts of freedom in the face of oppression. So we
shoot our guns & reload ammo & buy firearms & ammo.
We also worry about the availability of ammo in the future so shoot more & save the cases until then.
With a good supply of powder & bullets waiting for when it hits the fan.
 
I know
Got over 100 rounds of 9mm load development to fire.
Either the weather or my precious granddaughter will get in the way on my day's off.
 
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