I don't care about "handgun hunting", and don't like rounds that have a LOT of recoil, . . . so for me, I would much prefer a .44 special revolver to a .44mag revolver. Will I buy one? Doubtful. The cost of factory rounds is too great. The cost of starting up a reloading press [with all the accessories and components, then a supply of powder, primers, casings, bullets, etc.] is too great. So, I will just admire them as people shoot them on youtube.
Orion, yes the initial startup CAN be high if you go with top end stuff right off the bat. But with a bit of care shopping for used stuff you can put together a modest equipment setup for $150 or so.
Powder, bullets, brass and primers will certainly come as a shock the first time around. But look at the long term picture. Up here in Canada where primers are around $30/K and powder is typically around $30 a pound and cast bullets for .45 are $140/K. On top of that brass for .45Colt is $125/500. Add it up and it's a rather princely looking sum.
But let's break it down to a per shot basis. The brass for lower pressure loads that you say you like will easily last for 25 to 30 loadings before you see the first sign of issues. So let's say 2 cents for brass cost. Add to this 3 cents for the primer, 3 cents for powder and 14 cents for the bullet. That's 22 cents per round or $11/50. If you want to shoot guns that have bores that start with a "4" that's pretty darn good up here. Down in the US you can likely keep this under $10 from what the folks here have told me.
Simply put although the initial cost is high to get set up it's truly the only sensible way to go for any of the larger calibers.
And even if you "only" shoot revolvers in .38Spl you can save money. I'm currently reloading a big batch of .38Spl in jacketed and cast and they are falling into the catch box with a price of about 13 cents per round or $6.50/50. Again in the US you can likely cut two or three cents off that. How does this compare with what you're paying currently?
Do you shoot any rifle other than .22 or perhaps .223? If you do then that's another prime reason to make the jump into reloading. I like to plink with .30-30 from my lever rifle. As rifle ammo goes I gather there are not many cartridges that are cheaper than .30-30 other than .223. Yet it's still almost a buck a shot when I buy in boxes of 20 up this way. But I can reload these for around 35 cents. And I recently got and fell in love with an old .38-55 rolling block rifle. I do not want to even THINK about how much that ammo would cost for me to buy factory. So I didn't even try. I'm reloading and shooting this ammo for around 40 cents a shot.
Simply said it cost me about as much as a good handgun or rifle to set up two presses and buy the dies and an ultrasonic cleaner, instead of a vibrator type, to use for my reloading. I've only been in the shooting sports for a bit less than 4 years now. But when I look at the amount I've reloaded and what I've saved I can safely say that if the equipment isn't already paid off then it soon will be. And in fact I'd say it's highly likely that it was paid off some time back simply based on the roughly 4000 rounds of 9mm and about 5000 of .38Spl that I've reloaded in that time.
OK, enough preaching......
