Do reloaders tend to have analagous hobbies?

[Tony k]

I just like to make things, tinker, and be self sufficient.
Reloading
Log structure restoration
Flint Knapping
Knitting
Weaving
Canning
Hunting
Fishing
Berry picking
Mushroom picking
Root gathering
Wood working (basic furniture)
Basic leather work
Sewing
Firewood cutting/splitting
Crosscut Saws

I'm not great at any of them, but I love creating things with my hands and my mind, and understanding how those things work.

I also like to hike, run, and ride mountain bikes. I've tried musical instruments, but music is beyond me. I'm so bad with music that I can hardly play the radio!

 

[Stumper]

Hmm. I load, cast bullets, tie flies, build fly rods, splice rope, do leather work, make arrows, make bowstrings and do minor gunsmithing. I guess I am into "productive hobbies".

 

[TBJK]

I like to build things. It doesn't really matter what it is, there is. Satisfaction on knowing you built that. I weld,wood work, try to gunsmith. I'd like to get milling machine & lathe but time,space & money don't allow. I used to build Jeep off-road parts but stopped due to I wanted to spend time with my kids as they grew up. I do off reading in my Jeep that modified severely from an 07 Jeep Wrangler 4 door. My kids are starting to get older now to where I can teach them how to do the things that I've learned over the years. I only hope that they become interested in it. All the stuff I've learned has been from mostly personal experience as my dad wasn't around & my grandpa had bad health.

 

[Sunray]

More about poverty than a hobby. Mind you, I hate paying retail and hate over paying for stuff I can make.

 

[TBJK]

X2 there ^^

 

[Sauer Grapes]

U guys have time for other hobbies? Not to mention extra money? Spent too many years doing carpentry. Not interested in anymore fabrication or building.

 

[strambo]

Homebrewing (brewing a batch right now) and recently Kydex gear making. Got into that out of necessity, had to make a custom holster and speed loader pouches for my wife's revolver so she could attend a 2 day course, nobody else makes what she needed.

I also like to cook and have a smoker, smoking meat is a lot like brewing; planning, then little bursts of activity followed by lots of waiting.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

^ That is awesome. I would love to try home brewing. When the wife and I graduate college and get out of this apartment and I have room, I definitely want to give it a try.

I don't have any productive hobbies necessarily other than reloading and casting.

The only other hobbies I have are golf and cigar/pipe collecting and smoking. Golf isn't that expensive of a hobby since I live on the course I play for little of nothing. The reloading and cigars are putting me in the poorhouse though.

 

[375supermag]

Hi...

Shooting, hunting and reloading are my only productive hobbies.

I read and study military history and paleontology. Not very productive, but very interesting.

I also build scale models of military vehicles, though I haven't finished one in several years. Hopefully, I will have more time in the future to pursue that hobby (I hope to retire in a couple of years).

I don't think building models is particularly useful, but it helps maintain manual dexterity, attention to detail and concentration, plus it is therapeutic to build something with your hands. My job (running a receiving dock) doesn't afford me that feeling.

 

[Walkalong]

Built this to put 2x2s in and staple cardboard to for targets. All from scrap I stashed behind the shop at work or at home. I'll dumpster dive, stop on the side of the road, you name it. I am an old time scrounger.

 

[TBJK]

Man I like that one, sure beats stapling targets to pallets.

 

[horseman1]

My list of things that I do besides reloading is shamefully long. I'm not great at any of them. I'm pretty sure I enjoy the "learning" part as much as the "doing" part of all these things I get involved in. Living where we do and having critters means I need to know how to build,fix, doctor and shoot stuff. Every hobby can be comically justified to her majesty as something I need to know how to do. It's really all in good fun, this justification. Being a country music singer was a little difficult and brewing beer was a pretty tricky as well to explain. We do live quite a long way from a liquor store.....

 

[GW Staar]

My dad's only hobby was his Construction Company. When he retired he had no idea what to do with himself.

I'm the opposite. There's no end to my hobbies......even though I don't have a clue what the next one will be.

I used to enjoy driving fast cars, golf, hiking, camping, shooting, plastic models, reloading, motocross, coaching youth baseball (12 years), being a scoutmaster (15 years), shooting, reloading, gardening, archery.

Then I got old and had heart bypass surgery.....that reduced the options.

I still enjoy:
shooting, reloading, Improving or building reloading equipment, building plastic models, gardening, grandkids. My chest has regained some strength, so I'll probably add a new 50 lb bow this year and hopefully work up again. 4X4 trips may be in my future......Idunno......whatever else comes my way. I just know I'm not going to have a rocking chair for a hobby until I'm forced to!

 

[sawdustdad]

I am a woodworker at heart--early American furniture reproductions, grandfather clocks, desks, etc. But I am fascinated by all things mechanical and electrical and will build/repair just about anything I need. Just spent a few years restoring a bunch of old cub cadet garden tractors. Ran out of space for the tractors (have 9 running). Shooting and reloading is another excuse to "tinker."

 

[Walkalong]

Man I like that one, sure beats stapling targets to pallets.

I stole the basic design from the ones at our range. I made it wider, it sits a bit taller, and the 2" square tubing is longer.

 

[Steamdonkey]

Raging electrical / electronics geek, also love RC cars planes and heli's. Enjoy biking to work (~3000 mi/yr) with my insane homemade headlight. I have a motorcycle too.

 

[gojuice101]

Another homebrewer here, which used to work directly to my benefit because it gave me stuff to drink. Now that I don't drink anymore I just brew to brew.

Other hobbies are more widespread. Motorcycles, reloading/casting, software design and development.

And of course fishing and hunting. But I don't consider them hobbies. More of a way of life.

 

[Win1892]

I collect old Winchester leverguns and just about everything else. I shoot a varied number of guns, a lot. I bought 40 acres to build a 300 yard range and wound up clearing 7 acres and setting it up for RVs to host friends up for the weekend a couple of times a year. Built a bathhouse and an outdoor shower.
Currently building a 40 x 72 enclosed workshop for the tractor, mowers, and 79 F100 flatbed truck. Ride a 1991 Harley FatBoy that I have customized myself. Have had Jetskis, four wheelers, and powerboats over the years. Still have a 30 foot sailboat.
I buy most everything used and normally get a deal, so I'm not breaking the bank.
Each hobby leads me into the next one it seems. Shooting led to reloading, then to building the range, then the camping area, then the barn.
I work at something until I'm finished, then I start something else.
Can't imagine it any other way.

 

[IWAC]

My other hobbies aren't really related to shooting & reloading.
Writing, knifemaking, Photography, woodcarving and reading... altho I do read lots about shooting/reloading!

 

[Candyman87]

Yes, I shoot and I reload for it. Likewise, I scuba dive and am a factory certified technician for a few brands of regulators I use. I also maintain my own motorcycles and bicycles.

Anything worth doing is worth knowing how things work and doing it yourself unless not financially viable, in my opinion.

 

[berettaprofessor]

I checked "no", that reloading is my only productive hobby.....but I garden as well....there wasn't an option to say, "well, I don't make bits and pieces to improve another hobby, but I do have a second productive hobby."

 

[stubbicatt]

My other hobby is maintaining and riding motorbikes. My passion right now is a 1958 BSA DBD34 Gold Star. She's all there, and all original, only needs time and money. Something about that 1 1/2 Amal GP carburetor howl at 6500 rpm... Just stirs my soul.

I also ride a modern Triumph, which is a heck of a nice pastime, especially here in the mountains when the snow melts and the sand and gravel is removed from the roads.

I think the one thing they share in common is the mechanics of it all, which fascinates me.

 

[Ranger Roberts]

I really enjoy woodworking and metalworking. If it's broken, I can most likely fix it. I like to build things that make my life easier. I enjoy working on my cars/trucks/motorcycles/4 wheelers and dirtbikes. I play several instruments and pretty much every sport under the sun (or under the bar light if you count pool and darts). Pretty much anything using my hands I guess.

 

[deadeyedog270]

Hobbies where do I start. Not a hobby but full time stay at home dad thousands things to do. I have a house under constant remodel. I do scroll work and other wood working. I knit and do embroidery. I am a part time student and 4-H leader. Like my wife says my head is a scary place with the millions of projects going through it.

This is a yarn swift I made my wife.

 

[Joea132]

I take pride in making things myself and understanding how things work. I garden and hunt for food. But I also have tried tanning the hides for fun. My other big hobby is winemaking. Again, it goes back to making my own stuff and understanding how things work.

I tend to have a scientific mind and really enjoy understanding the chemical and molecular processes behind everyday things like a cartridge going off or the fermentation process. I even tried growing my own tobacco to roll Cigars. It didn't work so well.

Growing up, I was the kid that took the TV and VCR apart just to see what was inside. And I always put it back together properly. (having extra parts after putting it back together means it runs more efficiently, right?)