lessons from the fallout from the last 8 years - and some humor

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anothernewb

anothernewb

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Even with recent events - I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel the "pressure" coming down from the last few years. To that end I've been reorganizing the supplies I have collected and have come to a realization.

realistically - I won't have to buy components again for more than a decade. perhaps longer in certain calibers. I have totally surprised myself with what I was able to amass despite the shortages.

The constant threats to the reloader have also convinced me to purchase casting equipment. I was surprised to learn that in my local club - casting had largely fallen out of favor, as many had moved to buying commercial cast. In addition, my interest also happened to coincide with the renovation of the outdoor range - which hasn't seen any real earth work in 15 years. Those combine netted me with something approaching 2800# range scrap ingots. Again - perhaps enough lead to last my remaining years.

The recent past has forced me to be a bit more judicious and flexible of a reloader. as I have amassed reams of notes of a not insignificant number of powder and bullet combinations for various calibers, but in the other sense. I look at my basement and garage cabinets and think.... No wonder I'm habitually broke. So that's where all my money went.

I (and my credit card statement) for one am breathing a sigh of relief that I can comfortably walk by a shelf of reloading components and gear with an eye of apprasial, instead of possessions, and my heart no longer pauses on deleting an email from the various online suppliers.
 
I started shooting right before Obama’s 2nd term. I didn’t start reloading until a few years ago. So getting anything was rough and expensive. So the plan was and still is to get a little when I can. Replace what I shoot, plus at least one more time. So the minimum is twice what I shoot.

I’m not fond of hoarding, so I’m trying to build up enough supply so I can get through the next panic/shortage. The goal isn’t five lifetime supplies but enough that I can shoot when I want.
 
I hear what the OP is saying. It's refreshing to see pistol powder on the shelves and not think (oh! I have to buy that right now! It may be the last usable powder I see for a year!). I still can't bring my self to pay 8 cents a round for .22LR though. It's good to see it on the shelves but I'm not paying that. Other panic buyers can have it. Walmart still never has any .22 around here.
 
Every time a thread like this comes up, I go look at my supplies. Apparently, I have much, much more on hand than the average reloader.
So I wonder to myself, just how much is enough ?

The answer I give myself is usually something like "...well, another 10k of that primer, and 2 more 8-pounders of this powder should be enough...."

But it never is.
 
I have seen no constant threat to reloaders. Gun ownership yes, but no threat to reloaders.

I have seen people buy things in unprecedented volume. I understand stocking up and buying in quantity to save money, and have done so for decades (I have several thousand bullets and several thousand primers, along with a good quantity of powder from trying so many things), but people are buying 50,000 & 100,000 primers at a time. Same for powder, buying 16 pounds of a pistol powder that will load 20,000 plus rounds. Crazy.

Not that I care how much people buy, but to say reloaders have been under constant threat is not realistic.

And anyone who used credit cards to do it (The absolute worst way to borrow money short of a loan shark) needs their head examined.

Says the man who just ordered 1K of blem .40 bullets for his kids (500 per kid). And now that .22 LR is back, a case of Auto Match for each for them. :)
 
I have always been intrigued by reloading and 2yrs ago joined a local hunt club for a close place to sight the hunting guns in and train with my pistol a little bit and then the varmint hunting and target shooting bug bit me cause now I actually had a place to shoot rifle and barrowed an old lee single stage c press, purchased dies, cheap scale and manual and then I found this place and became completely screwed! I had to have a powder thrower, better press, reload for all my hunting guns cause once I seen how the 223 shot with reloads and how cheap I needed everything to shoot well and cheap, more books, more tools, try several powders and primers to see just how close I could get those holes. Before I knew it I had a credit card for the local shop and put a good scope, dies, press, powder, primers, etc on that card. I would troll midway, midsouth, etc for bullet deals and snatch them up and pay later cause it was a good deal and I was so afraid I wouldn't have components for ammo I had yet to even find good loads for. I have 2-3 powders for 223rem that didn't work. Bullets that didn't shoot well, tools I really didn't need. It was stupid what I did!

I have about 5k small rifle primers and now that I've found my go too load for 223 I seldom shoot it. I found a go too for 38spl and haven't shot it in 5months. I used to go to the reloading shop and if it was on sale I grabbed it. Gander went under and put all the powder on clearance and I came a hair of buying all of it just to "test" but purchased all the benchmark cause its what worked the best.

We need to relax and stop letting the internet and what others have feed us. when a guy on here said he had 20k primer I thought I needed 20k primers but after a year or so realized I did this to better my ammo for cheaper and not to see how much I could hoard. I almost did it today when I seen my favorite bullets on blem sales for way cheap but realized I have 600 bullets sitting in a box in the basement that will last me until this time next year so why spend money to sit in the basement.
 
Ohihunter2014 ouch
That hurt just reading it.

My sorry is basically the opposite. I was the victim of a campus shooting. We were barely getting by and I was working part time jobs to get by. When things started to improve I bought a Lee hand press. A coworker gave me some Win 231 some #7 and when I could I picked up a set of Lee 9mm Dies.

I’d been saving my brass and the local range always has a ton.

I picked up a Hornaday scale, and I already had a set of HF calipers.

I then picked up a Lee hand primer and then had to get the shell holders to go with it when I learned the were unique to Lee primers.

I also did searching on how to clean brass without a tumbler.

After depriming on the hand press I realized that the hand press was good for depriming and doing a few rounds but awful for anything more. So I picked up a Lee Classic Turret.

I loaded the gifted bullets and powder and loved shooting my own ammo.

Along the way I’d pick up a pound of powder, a thousand primers and a hundred bullets.

I’ve since added tools, 223 dies and now buy my bullets online. I’m just now to the point of going to buy powder and primers in 8 lb when I get some extra $$$

My point is one can build a basic setup fairly cheap then keep improving it as funds allow and needs are discovered.

From this, I recommend people don’t do what you did and instead get a basic setup see if they like reloading then once they have the basics down and know how to make safe ammo, get fancier gear if they feel the need. This way if they hate it they won’t be out much.
 
Hokie_PhD said:
Ohihunter2014 ouch
That hurt just reading it.

My sorry is basically the opposite. I was the victim of a campus shooting. We were barely getting by and I was working part time jobs to get by. When things started to improve I bought a Lee hand press. A coworker gave me some Win 231 some #7 and when I could I picked up a set of Lee 9mm Dies.

I’d been saving my brass and the local range always has a ton.

I picked up a Hornaday scale, and I already had a set of HF calipers.

I then picked up a Lee hand primer and then had to get the shell holders to go with it when I learned the were unique to Lee primers.

I also did searching on how to clean brass without a tumbler.

After depriming on the hand press I realized that the hand press was good for depriming and doing a few rounds but awful for anything more. So I picked up a Lee Classic Turret.

I loaded the gifted bullets and powder and loved shooting my own ammo.

Along the way I’d pick up a pound of powder, a thousand primers and a hundred bullets.

I’ve since added tools, 223 dies and now buy my bullets online. I’m just now to the point of going to buy powder and primers in 8 lb when I get some extra $$$

My point is one can build a basic setup fairly cheap then keep improving it as funds allow and needs are discovered.

From this, I recommend people don’t do what you did and instead get a basic setup see if they like reloading then once they have the basics down and know how to make safe ammo, get fancier gear if they feel the need. This way if they hate it they won’t be out much.
Click to expand...
Hard to read if everything is jumbled I'm on my phone and fat fingering everything. If your last paragraph pertains to me, yes, I was stupid in what I did but glad I did it. I've now slowed down so I don't have $5k in stuff sitting around. If I need powder cabelas is 15 min away I'll grab a pound at a time.

I agree do not do what i did. I let things consume me too much. Always see something bigger and better and it eats at me and I crack! Lol
 
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I started reloading when I lived in Roseburg OR, (about 6 or 7 years ago) Back then all I was feeding was a 40S&W Hi Point ( laughter is allowed) I got tired of paying $30 a box for the cheap stuff (Blazer) I bought my first press kit (a Lee Challenger Kit that came with everything except a manual and dies) for $129 including shipping. I then bought my Taurus PT24/7 .45ACP. I bought a Ammo Can load of Herters 45ACP 600 rounds for $137. Had to buy the dies for that, I have since added a RCBS Master Realoaders kit, 2 30-06s and a .270win to the collection. I have not bought any Factory ammo since the Herters. I have 4K of 40S&W 4K 45ACP, 2500 rounds of 30-06 and since it is the gun to the club only 400 rounds for the 270 All of the 40S&W and the rifle ammo re reloads or hand loads with new brass. I have 2500 more emptied for the 30-06 and 1000 each for the pistols. I have 5K each SPP LPP LRP. for the 4 calibers I have a grand total of 24 pounds of powder. What I do lack is bullets, But payday is tomorrow. Until then I figure I can hold my own.
 
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ohihunter2014 said:
Hard to read if everything is jumbled I'm on my phone and fat fingering everything. If your last paragraph pertains to me, yes, I was stupid in what I did but glad I did it. I've now slowed down so I don't have $5 in stuff sitting around. If I need powder cabelas is 15 min away I'll grab a pound at a time.

I agree do not do what i did. I let things consume me too much. Always see something bigger and better and it eats at me and I crack! Lol
Click to expand...

I would never say someone was stupid.
If you got enjoyment at the time then it wasn’t stupid IMHO. I’d say it wasn’t wise economically and probably from a logical perspective. But we all do things that aren’t logical or in our best interest at times.

Now if someone did so something wreckless and hurt themself or others because of it I might call that stupid depending g on the account.

To me safety first, after that we all make decisions based on what’s important to us at the time. We all learn and some make changes. Others don’t, but at the end of the day our opinions are based on our values and experiences.

So be safe, and keep learning I know I try on the former and have a lot to learn on the latter
 
I started hunting in 2012 and quickly realized I needed to become a better shot so I started shooting a lot into the teeth of the '13 panic. I scraped together enough stuff to get by, but I learned some hard lessons. Never again. I picked up reloading as things leveled off and this year started casting bullets. A big part of this is I like learning how to do as much as possible myself (black powder is next), but an equally important part is insulating myself to the extent possible from the periodic panics and shortages that keep cropping up. I think that in the next year I need to make sure I am topped up on powder and primers. All the rest I am either learning what to do or can get by without.
 
I started reloading over 35 years ago and bought my first progressive about 30 years ago. Had a good shooting buddy and we scrounged brass and cast lead and shot and shopped on a budget. Over the years bought quantity when I found a real bargain, never felt pressure to spend.
Fast forward to now? I might have more stockpiled than I can shoot in the next 10 years and I'm almost 60 years old! I will buy some primers at some point and probably some .22 but I have close to 75 pounds of powder, buckets boxes and ammo cans full of bullets and I have 5 gal buckets full of brass. I sold a 55gal barrel of 12g AA hulls but I still have one left. I'm still using primers that I paid $11/k.
You guys are just getting started.
 
I've been buying reloading components in bulk for decades, but it used to be I'd replace the components as my ammunition inventory approached "zero" and I needed to reload more.

In 2008, I began considering keeping a supply on hand to keep me shooting for a certain amount of time and replacing components as I reloaded, not after I shot the reloaded ammunition. This got me through the shortage periods and allowed me to wait and shop for better prices.

For some reason, I have not been shooting as much over the past year, so my reloading component inventories remain high and I have not needed to buy anything new for a while. Of course, the current retail environment has helped with that as well.
 
I find it to be a stress reliever to do endless load development. Same rifle many combinations, find a good one, verify it, then move on to the next rifle for awhile. Rotate accordingly.

I just got into pistol reloading, naturally, I needed a used Dillon 550 to do it with. Then I needed some tool head holders, and some bits and pieces that weren't with the press, and some bullet catching trays, and, ........

Good thing I don't smoke and seldom drink. Money'd really be tight then.
 
All true, but as one gets older I think you need to look at the other side of the story

My obsession used to be boats and all the things associated with it. Got out of that, as to much work and money.

Now over the years collecting guns, ammo, reloading supplies, tools etc, that too has become overwhelming to a degree.

When facing ones own mortality (not being morbid) but practical, I have stuff, and more stuff! So I am concerned with what happens if I go and leave my Wife with all this STUFF? It is not easy to sell or dispose of, it is much easier to acquire it over time. So to me there comes a time when enough is enough.

Buy High and Sell Low!:):)

Google George Carlin and STUFF!:rofl:
 
Kingcreek said:
I started reloading over 35 years ago and bought my first progressive about 30 years ago. Had a good shooting buddy and we scrounged brass and cast lead and shot and shopped on a budget. Over the years bought quantity when I found a real bargain, never felt pressure to spend.
Fast forward to now? I might have more stockpiled than I can shoot in the next 10 years and I'm almost 60 years old! I will buy some primers at some point and probably some .22 but I have close to 75 pounds of powder, buckets boxes and ammo cans full of bullets and I have 5 gal buckets full of brass. I sold a 55gal barrel of 12g AA hulls but I still have one left. I'm still using primers that I paid $11/k.
You guys are just getting started.
Click to expand...
See the smart thing would be to sell those primers for a small profit, say $15/k. Ill be over later, ill take 10k. HAHAHA. just joking.
 
DRYHUMOR said:
I find it to be a stress reliever to do endless load development. Same rifle many combinations, find a good one, verify it, then move on to the next rifle for awhile. Rotate accordingly.

I just got into pistol reloading, naturally, I needed a used Dillon 550 to do it with. Then I needed some tool head holders, and some bits and pieces that weren't with the press, and some bullet catching trays, and, ........

Good thing I don't smoke and seldom drink. Money'd really be tight then.
Click to expand...

I did the same exact thing! I bet i have tried 6 different bullets, primers, powders just in two 223rem rifles and I already had a good load. At first the reason behind doing it was incase i couldn't find a v max bullet i could use a nosler. Incase i couldn't find benchmark i could use h322, etc. I then began messing with seating depths, mag vs non mag primers, bench primers. I had a lot of fun doing it and couldn't wait to get off work and rush home and then to the range. I was shooting 3 days a week in the beginning and kept getting the same results as the first combo and then it hit me. Buy a lot of everything that works well and be done with it.

When i decided to do pistol is when i purchased the turret press, auto drum, dies, etc but could have been just fine with the old c press for rifle but i wanted to explore.

I sometimes get pissed at hobbies, projects, etc but reloading and shooting i don't think ive ever had an upsetting moment and that right there is stress relief.
 
I'm just glad to stop wasting money on components I didn't really want because the powder I actually wanted wasn't available. I have a whole drawer full of half pounds of powder that I tried to make work in something that just wouldn't have it. Is it sad that I now consider my firearm choices based on the powders and bullets I have on hand that I would like to use up?
 
Consumer. Stockpiler. Hoarder.

That's just a matter of perspective.

I am wrapping up my last cases and expect them to be decided/settled by March. At that time, I will go to living on my savings, Social Security and an annuity, so my income will drop by about half. Knowing this was coming, I wanted to remove the $100 or more a month I spend on components and equipment, so I made a concerted effort to determine what I needed for the rest of my life and buy it before I hung up the "Closed" sign. So, if buying for a known future need is hoarding, I will accept that label.

Otherwise, I'm like anothernewb, in that I can comfortably walk past a shelf of components. Good feeling.
 
I started hand loading when Clinton won the Whitehouse the first term. I seem to remember a severe shortage of primers was just beginning. I bought a rick, and then when I found on a sleeve of both large and small pistol primers.
Buying a 44SPL got my reloader on and hasn't faltered since.
 
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