Can't get friends into reloading no matter what I do.....

[charlie b]

I'd be curious if those of you who reload, also do your own home improvement? I think that could be a litmus test of if someone is viable candidate to be a reloader, or caster. I've laid my own tile, installed wood flooring, rebuilt an entire kitchen, replaced wire, sweat copper pipe, put in fencing and installed a shower and more.

Yes. Rebuilt a kitchen and two bathrooms (including wall work, cabinetry, plumbing and some electrical). Put a new floor in two houses. Also did my own car maintenance, rebuilt an engine on both truck and motorcycle. Made my own gokart when I was still in grade school. Army time I was part of a tank crew so did my part of the maintenance.

So, yeah, reloading was kind of a given when I started shooting a lot. I remember shooting my 1911 for less cost than a .22. Primer and powder, wheel weights were free, cases were 'free' from the military ranges I was assigned to. Even got a batch of 1911 magazines one time when the armory was replenishing old stuff.

I had to teach myself the majority of the time. Books from the library and an quest for knowledge about how things work, eg, in 8th grade I read a book on the efficiency of exhaust systems on engines. Formal education went on to an MS deg in mech eng and then learning a lot more on the job, especially the high power laser stuff.

[Soundguy]

Anyone ever run into this? For the past 8 years I've probably tried getting my friends into reloading. Back at the beginning I just collected 9mm brass because "Some day..." but back then it was literally cheaper to buy and shoot 9mm rather than reload..

Wait.. what? cheaper to buy than reload 9mm 8ys ago? uh... nope.. I'm calling this one out.

8ys ago it was easy to get 2.5c primers..28$ a pound powder and 1$ /# range lead.

Lets break that down:

using a 115gr cast projectile.. you run about 1.6c per bullet out of that 1$ range lead. ( 60.86 bullets per pound.. round to 60 )

using 28$ a pound powder ( titegroup ) you use 4.1gr charge ( yeilds 1707.3 charges rounded to 1700 ).. thus 1.6c powder

Primers are 2.5c

lube? .5c easily

brass? free.. you were picking it up..

(math) = 6.2c per round

Where were you buying a 50round box of 9mm for 3.10$ 8 ys ago?.. that's 62$ per thousand.

I just researched 9mm ammo on TFB from 2015 ( 8 ys ago.. right? ) they have kept price lists per manufacturer on line as searchable data. The very best price around for bulk 9mm in 1000rnd lots was centerfire systems for 199$.. so.. 20c a round.

Cheapest i ever remember was a pawn shop near me back in 96 that would sell lead reloads.. and the 9mm ammo was 8$ per 50.. but if you brought the box and tray back they were 6$ per 50... Back then I could shoot more than I made on a single stage press so sometimes bought those 6$ boxes..

Either you lived in an area where ammo prices were 75% cheaper than the rest of the country.. or your reloading resources cost 75% more than most other places????

In any event.. yeah.. I can't imagine why some shooters won't reload. I have a friend who works in the tech sector and likes to shoot.. He noticed I have never had problems with ammo over the years with all the weapon bans.. sandy hooks.. etc.. So he one day just ordered himself up a full dillon setup with all the bells and whistles and caliber conversion kits in the 3 rifle and 4 pistol calibers he shoots. Everything at once... 20# powder.. about 10K primers.. about 5K assorted bullets... all the goodies.. prep kits.. powder droppers.. hand tools.. trimers.. etc.. whole deal...he makes good money.. so he got it all in 1 lick... a manual for each powder maker and projectile maker.. plus the hornady online subscription and app.. etc... setup his air conditioned garage.. with a nice hardwood bench.. shelves.. got the aftermarket light kit and all the trays and feeders for his dillon... and yet... I think he has made about 10 rounds in .223 so far...and the gear just has been setting there for the last 4 years.

It kills me to go to his place and see a reloaders dream setting out there doing nothing.. and yet when he is not working from home and actually goes to his office.. he passes a bass pro and will buy pre made ammo???? ***?

It took me decades to piece together my mixed bag of gear.. lee pacific..lyman.. rcbs.. C&C ideal.. etc... I have a good setup for me.. but it was a work in progress for the last few decades... I can't imagine what it would have been like starting out with everything all at once...

[Ed K]

I'd be curious if those of you who reload, also do your own home improvement? I think that could be a litmus test of if someone is viable candidate to be a reloader, or caster. I've laid my own tile, installed wood flooring, rebuilt an entire kitchen, replaced wire, sweat copper pipe, put in fencing and installed a shower and more.

I came in the house for a cool drink and find myself reading Cast Boolits after doing the brakes all around on my Ford explorer. Do I do my own home improvement? Everything! From recently fixing my plumbing that was unproperly pitched by a licensed plumber to single-handedly stripping and reroofing 54 squares last fall.

Handloading, heating exclusively with wood, coping base molding one day and working with my milling machine the next. Not blowing my horn here as I really believe a lot of you guys are like me. Glad to be here.

Oh, and I don't load "blasting ammo" so I don't compare my cost with 9mm FMJ. For example magnum revolver loads with quality cast WFNs & LFNs costs a lot even in the best of times. So either those or similarly interesting rifle ammo is what I cast & load. Hate to say it but the economics of handloading that stuff still works with $75 primers.

[35 Rem]

I certainly fit the bill for a do-it-yourselfer. I shy back from finished house work. That's not really an issue because I'm easy to please and once a house is built I have no desire to change anything. Now I do plumbing repairs, change light switches. Did all the wiring for my detached garage including digging the ditch to run the power out there and install the breaker box. I used to be a real hotrod nut and have rebuilt over a dozen engines. Did an engine swap in one of my cars that required drilling new holes for the engine and transmission mounts to locate the drivetrain from scratch. Have kept all sorts of old farm machinery running for years - mostly 1940's Farmall tractors but also various hay equipment, plows, etc. Mess around with machining using a cheapo lathe/mill combo machine but have been limited there. Weld whatever breaks around the farm also. Work on wells, barn tops, built a large pole barn shop with concrete floor with my Father 30+ years ago. He taught me to be self-sufficient and it stuck I suppose. It was just natural that I would want to make my own ammo when I got into guns at an early age.

[Kraschenbirn]

I gotta agree with Soundguy...(discounting time spent) it's always been cheaper to reload. At one time, I was shooting a lot of revolver competition...like PPC, Pin games, etc...I ran the numbers for my .38 Spls and .45 ACPs and, at that time, those agreed within a penny or so with his for 9mms. Of course, I can also remember getting pull-down 147 gr FMJs (from M80 ball) from Pat Bartlett for $60/1000 (+shipping), too.

Bill

[Soundguy]

Yup.. No doubt..time is spent! No argument there...

[mike_kaleigh]

I am an electrician of 25 years, but can do most stuff for my cars, (but new stuff is getting real hard with out 2000 dollar computer) i have a 300 dollar one, do everything around my house, heat with wood, weld. I got all my skills from my dad, and i am trying to make sure my kids get it from me, my daughter is 17 and I made her pack her own wheel bearings when she smoked the brakes off her car, my son 14 is really getting interested in all the cars, tools ect. he is actually paying attention when I make my kids help me around the house work on things.

MY wife shoots with me occasionally and even has her conceal carry license. That is a lot, when I first meet her she was anti gun 100 percent. She told me she did not want guns in the house before we got married, told her that was not up for discussion, but she realized it isn't a big deal and supports my hobbies and even helps clean brass, she told me to get the dillion rl1100 I had my eye on for years. Both of my kids shoot because with guns in the house they need to know about all of them, the safety involved ect. My son is definitely more into shooting, and we do it all the time together, he is more of a blaster shooter, but we always make bets on who has to buy the other a slushee at the end of the range session by who get closer to the 10 ring with the 308 bolt gun. When he gets a little older I will get him more involved in reloading than just helping.

Very few people at my sportsman club reload, but the few that do pick up every piece of brass before I can get it, and I have to go to state ranges to get brass. I dont have any friends that reload, had a bunch ask me to make them ammo. told them they can come over and make it with my help, no takers. I think reloading is dieing out and especially casting with all the awareness of lead and health.

[kevin c]

In all my years in the action pistol games, there was only one regular who used factory ammo, and he had money. Everyone else reloads because the round can be tailored to the gun and specific use, and it saves a pile of bucks when you go through 30 thousand or more rounds per year.

Casting, though is a different matter. The time commitments are more than most folks are willing to deal with for the amount of bullets needed for the action shooting sports, especially pistol. By way of example, I just finished casting 17 - 18 K 9mm slugs, which represents 24 hours of nonstop casting. Making the alloy was about 3 hours work, and coating, baking and sizing the bullets will take about 10 1/2 hours (I didn’t include set up and breakdown, since I can’t leave my gear set up where I currently do it; that adds a lot more time). So that’s over two hours of work per thousand just to get to having a reloadable bullet. My friends’ eyes light up when I tell them my production cost is under 1.5¢ per bullet, but balk when I describe the time commitment.

So some reload as a matter of have to, some for fun, but if it’s viewed as a time consuming chore that money will make go away, most will opt to buy rather than make their ammo. And that goes double for casting.

[Soundguy]

Imagine if you lube-sized vs powder coated..how much that 10hr coating and sizing would drop.

[jdgabbard]

I am an electrician of 25 years, but can do most stuff for my cars, (but new stuff is getting real hard with out 2000 dollar computer) i have a 300 dollar one

I know that feeling in my bones. A friend of mine is an Electrical Engineer who does maintenance on navigation systems in the Aviation field. One of the protocols used in Avionics is the ARINC 429, which costs a good bit of change to acquire. This protocol is used in a variety of applications, it's mandatory that you have a way to read the data from it in order to diagnose and test aircraft. However, getting a portable solution for test flights of repaired systems is astronomical in cost. This prompted us to begin development of a home rolled solution. Currently we have a working prototype, and he's working on software development. Right now the the idea is be able to log the data and verify it with another portable unit. But eventually this will be a stand alone system capable of receiving or transferring packages of data on the fly for testing and debugging. Our goal is to offer an affordable solution to the industry...something nobody does for Aviation....

[phantom22]

Part of my desire to learn reloading was my own life philosophy of being as self-reliant as possible. This was years ago before Covid and since then it has only cemented the philosophy of self-reliance. It's not even anything major. Simple things like changing my own oil, reloading, casting, cooking, lawn care, home repair, computers etc...

Since adopting that philosophy I have learned to do a great deal of things. I've learned what's beyond my capabilities (usually physically at this point). Saved a boat load of money. The sense of accomplishment from having no knowledge about a subject to being able to make it work yourself gives plenty of confidence to try and tackle the next challenge.

One of the main takeaways from this way of life is that I 100% should have went to a trade or vocational school. Most of what you pay out the nose for as far as routine maintenance and basic repairs are incredibly easy once you put the effort in to learn and try.

My latest huge savings was fixing a cracked and leaking pipe in my crawlspace. I have a bad back and being 6'4" is not a good start for crawlspace work, but the $15 dollars in parts and the 90 minutes of time (most of which was trying to crawl in the small space) was a good result. I never got any estimates, but I figured it would probably be at least $200-300 for a plumber to come do it for me.

I also call reloading and the like, Practicing the Manly Arts. So if all else fails, mock them for being soft. It doesn't work for everyone, but a well deserved mocking will motivate me to do things I would have never thought I could do.

[Budzilla 19]

For the past 30+ years, I have tried to get my friends to get into reloading their own ammo! ONE, ONE guy took it up. Still does it and when found out about casting lead boolits, and the cost savings associated with it, he went HOG WILD!! Powder coat, sizers, the whole 9 yards! ......................... the rest of those knuckleheads? “ Hey, bruh, you still reload, I can’t find any shells for my whatever caliber” sorry, dude, told ya to get on board. I know where you at.

[JoeJames]

There are some folks who do not read or know much at all about firearms, much less reloading or casting. My cousin had a gun shop/pawn shop. He was talking with one of his older customers. The feller said he liked to shoot his 44 Magnum revolver, but it was just too stout for him. He said he bought special reduced power 44 Magnum reloads from a feller who would custom reload them for him, and they were kind of expensive. My cousin asked him why he didn't shoot 44 Specials in his 44 Magunm revolver? The feller had never heard of such. My cousin explained about 44 Specials and how they would certainly shoot just fine in his revolver. Finally the light bulb went on, and the feller bought some boxes of factory 44 Specials from him. This was before factory ammo prices went crazy.

[rbuck351]

I'm a DIY guy. I have worked as a motorcycle mechanic, auto mechanic, auto engine rebuild ( I assembled over 500 at one shop ) and do all my own work at home from raising a house and finishing the basement to doing all my auto repair. It's very seldom I pay to have anything done. I do all my own gun repair including an occasional rebarrel.

When I started reloading it was all about economy. I started with a Lee whack a mole 12ga at 14 yrs old and learned from a friend how to save even more. I bought reclaimed shot and picked up used wads at the trap club then washed them in the washing machine. IIRC it cost me about $1.25 per box to reload 12 ga. A few years later I was casting and loading 38Spl for about a penny a round. I still, at 74, do every thing my self so I can have more money for toys.

Yesterday UPS dropped off the new front springs for my Chevy Cavalier and I need to install those then rototill the garden to get it ready for planting the potatoes and corn. I don't think I'll ever get caught up.

[lightman]

I have to admit that I haven't tried very hard to get new people involved in reloading. I'll go to a lot of effort to help new reloaders but I just haven't tried to promote it.

We all have "that friend" that just doesn't need to be reloading. I guess another thing is that all of my close friends already reload. One of my Sons reloads and the other never has any interest. I guess it helps that Dad keeps him in ammo!

[kerplode]

Reloading isn't for everyone, and frankly, lots of people don't have any business doing it.

It's a distinct hobby from shooting that requires significant investment of space, time, capital, and attention. Many shooters don't want to deal with that...They just want to buy a cheap box of 9 and blast it into the dirt.

I think it's pretty clear at this point they're not interested in taking it up. Accept that and leave them alone. How'd you feel if someone was pestering the hell out of you all the time to take up golf or some other such hobby you had no interest in?

[elmacgyver0]

The only thing I really disliked about reloading was the messy lubes and handling the cartridges when loading magazines later.
Did not like the lube and lead on my fingers.
With powder coating that all went away.

[35 Rem]

There are some folks who do not read or know much at all about firearms, much less reloading or casting. My cousin had a gun shop/pawn shop. He was talking with one of his older customers. The feller said he liked to shoot his 44 Magnum revolver, but it was just too stout for him. He said he bought special reduced power 44 Magnum reloads from a feller who would custom reload them for him, and they were kind of expensive. My cousin asked him why he didn't shoot 44 Specials in his 44 Magunm revolver? The feller had never heard of such. My cousin explained about 44 Specials and how they would certainly shoot just fine in his revolver. Finally the light bulb went on, and the feller bought some boxes of factory 44 Specials from him. This was before factory ammo prices went crazy.

This is one of those prime examples of how reloading adds so much flexibility. For a magnum revlover shooter to be paying extra for reduced loads sounds so strange to those of us who load our own and especially if we cast our own bullets. Those are the very loads we shoot for practically nothing. I benefit from that in a big way with my 460 Weatherby rifle. Sure it was fun to bust up firewood, blocks of concrete, stacks of rough lumber, etc. when I 1st got it using full power loads with the Hornady 500 grain steel jacketed bullets BUT eventually you tire of that and want something a bit more tame to shoot. Being able to load I can use all the 300 - 350 grain bullets and make it a lot more versatile and easy on the shoulder.

But as has been said already, if somebody only has few guns I common chamberings and mainly wants to blast they don't stand to gain much if anything by loading their own.

[WRideout]

Part of my desire to learn reloading was my own life philosophy of being as self-reliant as possible. This was years ago before Covid and since then it has only cemented the philosophy of self-reliance. It's not even anything major. Simple things like changing my own oil, reloading, casting, cooking, lawn care, home repair, computers etc...

Since adopting that philosophy I have learned to do a great deal of things. I've learned what's beyond my capabilities (usually physically at this point). Saved a boat load of money. The sense of accomplishment from having no knowledge about a subject to being able to make it work yourself gives plenty of confidence to try and tackle the next challenge.

One of the main takeaways from this way of life is that I 100% should have went to a trade or vocational school. Most of what you pay out the nose for as far as routine maintenance and basic repairs are incredibly easy once you put the effort in to learn and try.

My latest huge savings was fixing a cracked and leaking pipe in my crawlspace. I have a bad back and being 6'4" is not a good start for crawlspace work, but the $15 dollars in parts and the 90 minutes of time (most of which was trying to crawl in the small space) was a good result. I never got any estimates, but I figured it would probably be at least $200-300 for a plumber to come do it for me.

I also call reloading and the like, Practicing the Manly Arts. So if all else fails, mock them for being soft. It doesn't work for everyone, but a well deserved mocking will motivate me to do things I would have never thought I could do.

You know you are in trouble when the plumber shows up at your house in a Mercedes, and he asks You for references.

Wayne

[WRideout]

I don't know why it is, but people I have met who don't yet reload all seem to believe that they should buy a Dillon progressive to start with.

Wayne