Why I cast swage and reload

[Reload3006]

I for the first time heard words I never thought I would live to hear. We are down at my farm and I got out my M&P 45, GP100 357 and my 629 44 a few hundred rounds for each and my youngest son and I started hopping cans around a little paper but mostly just fun hopping cans..... before the ammo was all gone my son looked at me and uttered these words "Dad I think I'm done" I can tell you there is no way I could have ever afforded to shoot enough for my son to get his fill even reloading but with casting my own and loading them we got to shoot all we wanted. Its a great feeling. Kind of like getting to eat all the dessert you want with out feeling full LOL.

[Mk42gunner]

It is nice to go to the range and not have to think about how much money is being blown out the barrel.

I haven't figured the cost of my reloads since I bought new primers, but a few years ago I was loading plain based boolits for about $3 or $4/ box of 50. Gas checks add considerable expense for plinking ammo.

Robert

[Blammer]

I too have actually come home with ammo not shot up after a long range session. It's a weird feeling bringing home ammo instead of empty brass. :) A good one but strange.

[DLCTEX]

I was looking for some 30 cal. bullets to reload 30 carbine for a friend and the only ones compatible with 30 Carb. were Hornady 113 gr. XTP for $28 a box of 100. I said no, I'll cast some 120 gr. I get sticker shock every time I price loaded ammo or bullets. I've been bidding on dies on Ebay, but so far someone wants them more than I want to pay for used dies.

[FISH4BUGS]

A friend of mine helped me to get the snow blower from the store to house, then he helped me move the 1964 Hammond A105 organ with the Leslie 251 into the office. The organ weighs 400 lbs and the Leslie weighs 150lbs. We had to take the door frame off to get it in the office....I owed him big time.
After all that work, I paid him back by going to the range. 38, 357, 44 mag, 45 auto, 9mm and 380.....as much as he wanted to shoot. The supressed Uzi SBR was his favorite. He brough his own handguns and dug into the ammo cans for fresh rounds. Casting made it possible.
You are right. Load a bag full of ammo and I dare you to try to shoot it all. We finished the day with some 100 yard 22 shooting.
Payback can be fun sometimes.

[gandydancer]

shooting is never a waste of money.if its what you enjoy. you want waste? pay $6.00 a pack 4 them plant sticks. poke one in your mouth and set it on fire. now that's waste. watch what the 535 are doing in DC now that's waste. had to get that in there. GD

[colt 357]

I for the first time heard words I never thought I would live to hear. We are down at my farm and I got out my M&P 45, GP100 357 and my 629 44 a few hundred rounds for each and my youngest son and I started hopping cans around a little paper but mostly just fun hopping cans..... before the ammo was all gone my son looked at me and uttered these words "Dad I think I'm done" I can tell you there is no way I could have ever afforded to shoot enough for my son to get his fill even reloading but with casting my own and loading them we got to shoot all we wanted. Its a great feeling. Kind of like getting to eat all the dessert you want with out feeling full LOL.

I SECOND THAT. Love to go to the range with friends that dont cast and watch them shoot a half a box and their ready to go. Then ask You done so early. Yep cant afford to shoot anymore then that. Then of course I tell them if you cast your own boolits you could shoot more. Then I even get to hear the horror stories of shooting cast. I even took my gun apart at the range to show them that the horror stories just are not true. So I guess let them throw their money down range. I'll digg it out and make new boolits and hey did I mention they are a good source for once fired brass.

[Rangefinder]

Yup, you guys all hit the nail right on the head. A while back I wandered over to the sporting goods section out of curiosity and priced it out in my head what it would cost me to buy one box of ammo for everything I shoot. It would have cost me the same as what I originally paid for my RCBS Chucker Kit and all the dies that I started reloading with 20-something years ago. With what I have on the shelf right now I could produce about 15-20 boxes of everything I shoot and still have some left, and it costs me about 10% of factory to do it. there is just no way to justify NOT reloading, casting, etc when I look at it that way. In another thread I recently showed-off my new Black Hawk--the result of my tax return this year. If I didn't cast and reload, I'd probably have to wait till next year's tax return in order to afford the ammo for it! OR, I walk out to the shop for a couple hours and come out with a half a dozen boxes of my stuff anytime I want. ;)

[Kraschenbirn]

Thinking about it, the two main reasons that I cast and reload are (1) reduced cost and (2) the satisfaction of getting the best possible performance out of my guns. Don't take me wrong, I enjoy shooting as much as anyone but still get one of those warm, fuzzy feelings when I know I've really gotten something right.

Bill

[ElDorado]

I think a lot of why we cast is self-sufficiency, that do-it-yourself mentality that was part of our upbringing. Like the farmer who has to be a mechanic, carpenter, veterinarian, blacksmith, and more, many of us have been raised to take care of our own needs.

If shooting is your hobby, you soon realize that buying ammo will either break the bank or curtail your shooting. It starts with reloading (or handloading), and then it progresses to casting. But look where it goes from there. We mix our own lubes, we mix Ed’s Red, we make PIDs and melting pots and smelters and sizing dies and a host of other things. We like to do these things ourselves.

There are other aspects, too. Your grandmother, like mine, may have taught you to not be wasteful. I find it difficult to not pick up the brass that all the rich guys have left on the ground. And I have been known to pick lead out of a stump or hillside from time to time. All of that metal can be reused for more shooting or sold for scrap. They used to call that “thrifty”; now they call it “green” and they think it’s something new.

So while it’s easy to just say “Because it’s cheaper!”, I think the root of why we cast has more to do with who we are, how we were raised, and what kind of families we come from. I know there are exceptions, but I’ll bet if we all looked back a generation or two, we could see from where this self-sufficiency comes.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

when i look at a box of bulets at the store i immediately think i could get a lee 2 cavity mold for that cal instead for the price of the bullets

[WD2A7X3]

I pick up the used cardboard ammo boxes at the range to use for reloaded ammo. Some of the prices on the boxes make me almost angry :D.

One of the latest was some 'special' box of Hornady 30-06 that had a $48.99 sticker on it.

No way I could afford to shoot for that kind of price. I'm glad I can blow thru 100 rounds of 30-06 and not really think about the cost.

[SciFiJim]

I bought my first 22 rifle a couple of months ago. I went by Wallyworld and picked up a bulk box of ammo for it. It was $18.95 for 525 rounds. Doing the math, I can cast, reload and shoot 45acp for about the same price. Now, I just have to figure out how to reload 22lr!

[Fishman]

My ten year old son shot my S&W model 60 today so much it started to bind and had to be cleaned. Shot all the ammo I brought and wanted more so we went back up to the house and got twice as much. He shot all that up too. And some 9mm out of my Kahr. And some .22. Total cost was less than $10, and he shot for over an hour. All that fun plus the fun of casting and reloading. What's not to like?

[1Shirt]

Practice, practice,practice------ya never get enough! It is rare I have a round of loaded ammo when I leave the range.
1Shirt!