Why do you reload ammunition?

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I reload and cast so I can shoot more for the same money, also to have ammo when none is on the shelf or the price is jacked up. IMO it's easier to keep 10,000 primers, several pounds of powder and lead on hand than loaded commercial cartridges. I stock up in times of ready and inexpensive availability and avoid doing without or paying through the nose during panics.
 
i want to learn reloading so i can have ammo when you can't find it at the store. i've also still got it in my head that i can save money by making my own.
 
I've got a co-worker who is an experienced hunter and fisherman. In fact, he teaches a fly-fishing course at the local college. I was talking about reloading - he doesn't reload - and he was asking the same question: "why do you reload?" I started to describe the many aspects of it, and then I told him how it was relaxing, how I go into the zone concentrating on getting it right, and how that concentration blocks out other thoughts of the day. He suddenly exclaims, "Oh! I get it! Like tying flies!"

He could probably save a lot of money buying flies, but he still ties them himself. It is a hobby all its own, distinct from the actual fly fishing he does. For me, that's reloading. It's closely associated with the shooting and hunting I do, and also a hobby of its own.
 
Zahn said:
I've got a co-worker who is an experienced hunter and fisherman. In fact, he teaches a fly-fishing course at the local college. I was talking about reloading - he doesn't reload - and he was asking the same question: "why do you reload?" I started to describe the many aspects of it, and then I told him how it was relaxing, how I go into the zone concentrating on getting it right, and how that concentration blocks out other thoughts of the day. He suddenly exclaims, "Oh! I get it! Like tying flies!"

He could probably save a lot of money buying flies, but he still ties them himself. It is a hobby all its own, distinct from the actual fly fishing he does. For me, that's reloading. It's closely associated with the shooting and hunting I do, and also a hobby of its own.
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Excellent analogy! That's what I was thinking as soon as I read your first 2 sentences about having a co-worker who is an experienced fisherman and teaches a fly-fishing course.:thumbup:
Our oldest grandson used to make a few bucks by tying flies for a local fly shop while he was in high school. Tying flies and selling them isn't quite as tightly "regulated" as building ammo and selling it though.;)
 
I started to make ammo that just wasn’t available like I wanted it. Then it was to get better accuracy, then it was to be self sufficient and also save money. I also didn’t want to depend on anyone else if something were to happen and ammo sales were restricted or suspended or whatever. M I achieved all the above, and still do. I cast and coat my own, I scrounge brass and lead everywhere I can, trade what I don’t need, sell what I can to buy more components. It’s not hard to save money reloading, get a good setup and stop buying hardware. My setup payed for itself the first 6 months I had it, 30 years ago. When components are available again and the price seems to bottom stock as deeply as you can so the next shortage you will be one of the guys going yup, I’m still shooting pre-stupidity prices and saving tons of money. My loads for 9, 38, 357, & 45 still run me $45/1000 and will continue to do so for the next ~70k rounds, then It will go up to $51/1000 till I can’t shoot anymore and my kids get it.

I make the most accurate rounds I can for each gun, many in the same caliber. I load mostly by the ammo can so each batch usually lasts a while. I enjoy loading and seem to do more of it than unloading lately. Not sure if that is a problem, but whatever. I don’t hunt, shoot competitions, or do mag dumps, but I do enjoy a few hours shooting till I’m done and some days it’s 150 rounds, some days it may be 600. Not worrying about it is a huge plus, I’ll just go home and load it back up with components I’ve had for 10+ years.
 
Part of it for me is history. I like the history of reloading. The gear, the powder, the guns. Romanticized ideals of loading in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in Alaska during a cold dark winter, and then taking game during spring and summer and fall.

I save money though. I couldn't afford to shoot but a box every once in a while with prices being $30+ for 45 auto, $50 for 44 special. But for $20 a month I can shoot all I want. $200 worth of supplies layed in during the good times is 3000 rounds worth of components compared to 4 boxes of 44 special or 6 or 45 auto.

When I started reloading 45 auto was $20, and I wouldnt dare have been into a caliber like 44 special because of cost and availability.
 
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Bazoo said:
Part of it for me is history. I like the history of reloading. The gear, the powder, the guns. Romanticized ideals of loading in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in Alaska during a cold dark winter, and then taking game during spring and summer and fall.

I save money though. I couldn't afford to shoot but a box every once in a while with prices being $30+ for 45 auto, $50 for 44 special. But or $20 a month I can shoot all I want. $200 worth of supplies payed in during the good times is 3000 rounds of worth of components compared to 4 boxes of 44 special or 6 or 45 auto.

When I started reloading 45 auto was $20, and I wouldnt dare have been into a caliber like 44 special because of cost and availability.
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^^^And you know, this is yet another way in which reloading has NOT saved me money. I've bought a lot of guns that I otherwise wouldn't have purchased because they'd be too expensive to reload. The more I think about it, I don't think reloading has saved me any money!
 
Stockpiling ammo is a reason. If one is poor, or at least not wealthy, you can stock primer and powder much cheaper than loaded ammo in your calibers. During normal times, I used to go by academy and buy 2 pads of primers and 2 boxes of 22s every time I got paid. That adds up quick. Course I also buy bulk when I have a bonus or extra.
 
GravelRider said:
The more I think about it, I don't think reloading has saved me any money!
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I don't have to "think" very much at all to realize reloading costs me money. But what the heck? It's money that I'd probably spend on something less rewarding anyway. And trust me - in my 73 years on this Earth, I've learned of a lot of things that are less rewarding than handloading.;)
 
.308 Norma said:
I don't have to "think" very much at all to realize reloading costs me money. But what the heck? It's money that I'd probably spend on something less rewarding anyway. And trust me - in my 73 years on this Earth, I've learned of a lot of things that are less rewarding than handloading.;)
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I LOVE this quote!
 
KY DAN said:
I pose this prompt just to have something to talk about.

I feel the only reason I reload is to have the ability to posses ammo on hand in the quanites I feel I need for a given period of time. I started loading when I was 13 and found out grass cutting money didn't buy many Aguila 38 specials at 4.99 a box in 2005 let alone 357 magnum. So I bought a lee loader and ordered bullets and supplies through a local shop. I quickly had a mountain of the weakest 38 special loaded with unique I ever seen, I stuck I don't how many bullets in a colt commando(I didn't know lee made more than the dipper in the set). With that said a Smith and wesson 10-5 never stuck a bullet idk why.

My dad was a Vietnam veteran and a weekend warrior, we went camping and he showed me how to set ambushes in the woods for foot patrols.... Normal childhood activities

He provided financial support for the big stuff, I think in his mind of y2k type events 1000 38 specials or a few hundred 270 winchesters would be ballistic wampun for his own betterment.

To sum it up I load simply because it's what I always have done and I half way like it on poor weather days.
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This is a very complex question:
Why don't I buy ammo when I can spend twice as much on bullets, powder, primers to load three times the rounds than Federal at half the quality of Hornady that looks like 1913 enfield rounds all to triple the risk of blowing myself up. Spend many hours processing mixmaster brass off the ground to save pennies then spend $800 bucks on a blue press and $3000 more for addons that should have come with press to load 16 calibers not counting cost of other presses and other equipment needed. It is comparable to going to the Ford dealership and buying all the parts to build a new Ford pickup including a 599 c.i.d. turbo charged diesel motor to power a 1/2 ton pickup with 44 inch tires and an eight track player in it. Justifying the money,parts and time assembling truck with all the customizing you can do by buying all parts separate so you can drive down the road at 300 mph. So after pondering all this I concluded I could not come up with a good reason to reload so I asked my wife why I do it.

She said "cuz you're a man"!
I think it because I gets a smile on my face every day when the brown UPS truck pulls up!
 
It is a hobby i enjoy.It lets me shoot more, lower price per round or at least it was.The problem now is i cant get components, primers being the
major one i face now!
 
It's fun.

I guess it's fun for the same reason picking Huckleberries or catching fish is. I could buy many things, including ammo that are more satisfying to obtain myself. It's not that I won't eat a fish someone else caught or shoot a bullet someone else assembled, cast, etc it's just very satisfying to roll up your sleeves and do it with your own hands.
 
Bazoo said:
Growing a garden sorta mentality.
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Excellent! I used to work with a guy that always wanted to argue. And sometimes I'd foul up and let him draw me in.
He must have told me about a hundred times that reloading wasn't "worth it" to him because "a box of 30-06" ammo would last him for 4 or 5 years. Of course there was no explaining to the guy that I reload because I enjoy it, and not just because I shoot a lot.
On the other hand, Mr. Argue was an avid vegetable gardener. And I used to tell him that growing my own vegetables wasn't "worth it" to me because: first off, my wife and I only had two kids (he had four) to feed, and second, we could buy vegetables cheaper than he could grow them if he figured his time was worth anything at all.
I won. I'm sure HE didn't think so, but I did.;)
Bazoo said:
I enjoy splitting firewood with an axe for some reason.
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Me too.:D
 
because... well, I have a 270 Wby Mag... and a box of shells is 70 bucks. *(last time i bought them anyway, several years ago). And... well, because I have a 300 H&H mag.. I paid 70 bucks for 30 rounds, years ago.. and a 300 Wby mag... I wont even look at the current price of those. A box of 224 Valkyrie went from $15 for 20 rounds to $25 for 20 rounds in the last year. 45 colt is not cheap, but I have 3 guns that eat it.

that, and it is calming. and nobody bothers me. and I can turn on the tumbler so I cant hear the wife.

All valid reasons, I think.
 
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