Something to perk you up (and has nothing to do w/ Christmas)

[Walter Laich]

I am helping a fellow learn to reload and he was having a hard time with one part of it.

Starting feeling like it wasn't really worth it to reload

Told him to go to Academy or another sporting goods store and price commerical ammo

Came back in a few days with a much better attitude about the process--well worth his time to develop the skill needed.

[Soundguy]

Price aside, you can tell him he can custom tailor ammo to his gun. Once he is hooked, get him into loading cast as a price saver.. once that sets, then get him casting.

[dverna]

OK...I must be dense.

What could possibly be difficult about reloading? Yes, some procedures are a pain in the butt but none of it is difficult. I can understand not wanting to cast but not reloading makes no sense to me at all unless someone is a very low volume shooter.

[mdi]

I can understand someone reloading for financial/cost reasons, but I think they will be missing a big part of a great hobby. I started reloading out of curiosity in '69; as I emptied a cylinder of cases from my 38 Special I thought "I wonder if I could reuse these?". That started it all and I didn't then nor do I today count how much my reloads cost. I know they are less expensive, just counting a box of my reloads vs. a box of factory stuff, but all the other stuff? I wonder how many fishermen count the costs of the fish they catch vs. buying fish in a market (bait, rods, reels, license, etc.)?

Because of my love for reloading I've purchased guns just because I'd want to reload for them, and I've learned a lot more about my guns than if I just fed them factory ammo...

[Jack Stanley]

Some fellas are like that Walt Probably different reasons why they don't grasp the benefits right away . Some are lazy , some afraid of "blowing themselves up" or some just "I'm to busy" . I've stopped talking to people about reloading if they don't shoot more than several hundred rounds a year .


Jack

[marek313]

As many others here as soon as I started shooting I got into reloading and casting right off the bat. Granted I'm an Engineer by profession so my first instinct always is "lets take it apart and see how it works" but I enjoy casting and reloading as much as I do shooting. Saving money is just a bonus to me.

[Biggin]

I have been a life long shooter and have handloaded off and on for over 20 years. I love casting my own boolits wish I would have started sooner.

[john.k]

In Oz,reloading a rifle case with a jacket bullet actually costs about 10c per round more than store bought ammo.The savings come from casting,jacket slugs being near 50c each........here another strange fact.............PPU 308/150sp @$1.00 /rd..........PPU 308 unprimed cases ...$1.00/ea.........yeah ,not much makes sense here...........but the Trump look alike cats......I love em.

[Hardcast416taylor]

A friend of mine has a .300 Weatherby Mk 5 and feeds it a diet of factory ammo only since he doesn`t want to reload and since he doesn`t trust reloads. So I came into a good amount of 1X fired brass and some of the old tiger boxes.Robert

[GhostHawk]

I got started a long long time ago.

Friend of mine ran a shoe repair shop with some sporting goods, fishing tackle, guns and ammo on the side.

He sold me a dandy Rem 788 in .243 win. But all you could find for ammo was 80 or 100 grain soft points. I wanted some flat shooting varmint loads. Well we talked, he let me use his die, press. He walked me through the process, sold me a can of Dupont 3031 and a box of 100 Hornady 60 grain boat tailed hollow points. Then we did some load development.

First batch was a bit warm. About 1 in 5 rounds was not making it to target. Gray puff in the air and that was it, that bullet just evaporated. But eventually we found the load.

I still have that can of dupont 3031, half full.

Took me years of growing and maturing to get serious about it.

4 years ago I had just bought a pair of Mosin Nagants, walked through walmart looking at centerfire rifle ammo. I got serious. Now I seldom buy loaded ammo, and I enjoy every hour spent in the process. Casting, cleaning brass, priming, its all golden time.

My ammo table groans from the load. And I am a happy camper and sleep well at night.
Tommorow I have the last 100 new starline .45 colt cases to fill. Bullets are cast and lubed. Brass is primed, and ready.

Next week I am off on a new adventure with .32sw long and a H&R revolver. Yea! Life is good

[LenH]

I also started a long time ago.

A friends dad was a reloader and a caster of his own bullets. I had an opportunity to go with these guys one Sunday afternoon. Mr. Sonny
handed me a box of .45 Colt and a Ruger Blackhawk and told me to put the brass back in the box. His son and I proceeded to shoot that 50 rounds
and then I was hooked. I was 15 at the time and thus started the lessons.

A year or so later he taught me about the virtues of #2 alloy and the art of casting. I have never been the same.

[Walter Laich]

more info on my buddy:

this is the guy that keeps his .45 ACP and .45 Colt reloads in those plastic ammo cans.

Wife knocked them over and got rounds mixed up

she and he separate them back into cans but not perfectly

at cowboy match he takes out 10 rounds for his rifle speed loader (I made him one based on this: http://www.woodenworkswest.com/speedloader.html )

rifle jams

He had put in 9 .45 Colts and 1 ACP rounds in the loader

how does someone confuse a .45 Colt round with a .45 ACP round???

I live in interesting times

[pls1911]

30 years ago I started reloading to defray some of the cost of shooting IHSMA steel silhouette to the tune of few hundred 30/30 rounds a month.
About the second week I started casting with an RCBS 165-SIL and wheel weights and never bought another factory round... ever.

.223, .270, 30-30, 308 win, .32 win, .35 Rem, 45/70, .416 Remington, .38/.357, 45 Colt, .45 ACP, 20 and 12 gauge.

Save money? Oh yes, and never had an ammo shortage either.