Some hobbies were not made for making money...

[brewer12345]

Just for me, casting isn't either.
It's a skill I wanted to acquire and simply use it over buying projectiles.

Similar to my cheese making, food preservation, mechanics, etc.

Pretty much the same for my hobbies. Where I fall off the wagon a bit is beekeeping. I sell enough honey to mostly cover my costs and along he way I get to tell a lot of people why bees are important.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Took me two weeks of "spare time" to make this triple bowl. What happened to it?

I gave it away to a deserving person on hard times

[Burnt Fingers]

Over the years I've turned two hobbies into businesses. I no longer participate in those hobbies or have those businesses. One of them was bringing in $3-4K a month, but it was taking 40-50 hours a week, along with my full time job.

I'll NEVER make that mistake again. Hobbies are for enjoyment, relaxation, and for killing time and money.

[RED BEAR]

I was a computer hobbyist for years till I did it for a living.

now you can't pay me to fix your pc.

I am happy to teach anyone about casting or reloading.

but if your not there to learn go away.




Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Yea i used to put together my own computers and work on them until friends and family found out. Now i just buy a $99 computer from walmart and wount even open one anymore.

[RED BEAR]

I'm on a fixed income. Every box of factory ammo I don't have to buy leaves a little money in my pocket that I can spend elsewhere. Admittedly, that's not the same as making money-- but it's close enough for me.

I do know what you mean if i didn't load and cast i couldn't afford to shoot.

[Wayne Smith]

On the other hand - a couple months ago LOML retired. She asked me when I wanted to retire and I told her "Lynne, I go to work to have fun!" If you can say that a the end of your career you have never worked a day in your life!

[LenH]

I met a guy that made some of the best wood crank baits. He needed some one to cast ballast weights. He asked me how much I wanted to do cast those.
I told him a half dozen of his baits. He agreed and I did that 3 other times for him and got 2 dozen of his baits for the effort. It wasn't for money but at the time
I figured I came out on the good end of things. Funny thing of it is I still have those baits nearly 30 years later. I've have jumped in a couple of times to save a couple.
But those things worked great.

[trapper9260]

I reload and cast because of limited income and for how it aways been for me on income.Make due with what I got. So it is a hobby for me ,I had some ask me to reload ammo for them. I told them they need to be there with me to do and they need to buy what they need to do it. One wanted me to buy all and then pay me for it all after I told him no you buy it all and be there to reload it with me. He did not like it ,But it is my hobby and terms. My close friend he did took me up on it and he had no problem with it .I had show him how to do the powder charge and then I finish off the rest at the same time. he help me with some of the rest also and I watch what he was doing and doing it the same way all the time. In the end he was happy with how it came out. But see the problem with the brass and I got you all in put on what it could be and I past it on to him. I have other hobbies and for the out come I mainly come out even that is fine with me .It is a hobby. Also they put food on the table. That helps alot.

[lightman]

I've always tried to keep my hobbies and work separate. I've heard too many stories about expanding a hobby into a business and growing to hate it. As far as reloading or casting to save money......... We all know how that works!

[6bg6ga]

Its amazing how we justify what we do. We reload because we save money or at least that is what we tell ourselves and our spouses. We have to justify the money spent on equipment by telling ourselves and others how much we have saved because we just made a box of ammo and the cost was 1/2 what is was on the store shelf. Unfortunately we need to factor in the cost of all that equipment, time, and energy in ther form of gas or electricity or both. Now, if we justify it in the name of a business well we just went into the black. Now we can justify the expenditure of yet more cash for more equipment because now its a business. We are a sick group of individuals that are hooked just the same as the junky is hooked on drugs he shoots into his veins.

[murf205]

For me, this didn't start out as a hobby. I had been handloading for a good while but being a notoriously cheap a**, I wanted to shoot more without the cost of J bullets. Soooo, I bought a pot and a Lyman 450 and a 2 cavity 429421 mold. Back then, tire stores would almost give wheel weights away and for a 12 pk of their favorite beer, they would save every one for you. Low, and behold, they shot pretty well and didn't lead the barrel of my 8 3/8" Model 29 (dumb luck). Then I took a deer with that gun and the rest is a bonafide addiction. I guess I stumbled into a life long hobby that I would never have the patience to turn into a business. I will leave the casting business to others. who I don't envy, because they work their tails off at it.

[Dieselhorses]

Yea i used to put together my own computers and work on them until friends and family found out. Now i just buy a $99 computer from walmart and wount even open one anymore.

I literally HATED computers until 1995, then.... Started working at local computer shop for 5.00 an hour. In 1998 I dug out and started making more money on my own and collaborated over 700 clients! It paid the bills plus some. BUT there was nothing like the feeling when I worked on an old 486sx and figured out how to make a changeover cable or write batch files. But I agree with most, hobbies are fun, rewarding, self-paced, relaxing, therapeutic and gratifying.

[Petander]

Music was my thing for decades. Classical background turned into pop/rock. Multi-instrumentalist. Hobby became a job I never planned. I became a songwriter. Toured with bands a couple of decades,then it (and I) got old. So I moved back to countryside where I'm from and worked mostly in a studio.

Right now I'm seriously considering turning my recording studio into a De Luxe Reloading Room with no TV or radio. Any music and my brain starts analyzing. I had tons of fun but I prefer normal life and schedules nowadays.

[ShooterAZ]

One of my hobbies is metal detecting. I'm not about to give up my day job yet, but I can say that I've paid for my equipment many times over with my finds. I hit the ski areas in the summertime and clean house with gold and silver rings, earrings, watches and all kinds of other stuff. Ya just never know what you're gonna find out there. People biff it the snow, tumble and go upside down, and lose all their stuff.

[truckjohn]

Jobifying your passion is a good way to hate it.

The reason is simple - when you do it for you - you only have to please yourself with the costs and the results.

When you do it for others - you have to do what THEY want when THEY want it and for what THEY agree to pay.

So for example - commercial casting.... You can't really do a lot of experimenting. You have to figure out what sells and make THAT. You have to stick with popular, proven designs. You have to make stuff efficiently with very low rejects to be competitive.

Make a bunch of oddball stuff or high reject stuff and now you have investment in money, time, and materials tied up in stuff nobody buys or you can't sell.

For example - make up a bunch of 577 Snider bullets or 45 Webley bullets... You may sell 100 or 200 a year but you have to buy the molds....

Or say you contract mold for somebody else so they can get custom weird stuff for their oddball gun... What happens if their mold runs super high rejects or is very slow to operate or sticks bullets or casts undersize/way oversize/egg shaped? Who pays for the work to get the customer's mold sorted out? What if the customer's mold shows up missing parts or doesn't work right? What if they want to fool with different lubes or different sizes that you don't stock - what then? What if their dream bullets made to their specs don't fit their gun or don't shoot right? What if you send them a bunch of test samples and they don't like anything and want you to refund their money and send their stuff back then complain that you modified/damaged their stuff...

So for example - say they get some custom oddball flintlock reproduction that shoots triangle or square bullets and they want you to cast them with their mold.....

Then - you have to deal with the customers.....

[RED BEAR]

+1 for the above i do things because i like to the minute i have to its not fun anymore.

[charlie b]

I am another one who turned a hobby into a business. Radio control model airplane kits. I was in the hobby and decided if I wanted to keep doing it after retirement I would need a way to pay for it. So, bought a laser cutter and off I went. I did have a full time job working with large lasers so it seemed a decent fit.

Long story short was we did really well with it. The only downside to it was the few customers who were ..... well, not nice. Sold the business to another couple and they are still doing well.

One thing to note...

My entire hobby was not turned into a business. I liked flying and building. Making the kits was not the same thing. If anything it was a bonus. If I wanted to build something I just grabbed one off the shelf instead of having to order it from somewhere.

It has a relation to shooting. If you decide to cast bullets for sale, your hobby of reloading and shooting is not affected. But, it does mean that if you want some bullets they are sitting there on the shelf, or, you make a run for someone and then a few more for you.

The other nice thing is you can set your own hours to a certain extent. Want to take a vacation? Post up on the web site that you will not be filling orders for a week or two. Want to work nights instead of day?

Having said all that, trying to make a living from a hobby business is tough. Every time the economy rattles guess what people stop spending money on? Their hobbies. OTOH, times of a pandemic people are bored and want to do more of their hobby. Gun related stuff spikes when the dems are in power.

Carefully evaluate the market. Make a business plan. Yes, sounds boring and tough. It isn't. Figure out who else is in the business and if you can compete with them, especially in lean times. Is there really a 'window of opportunity' to make money. Be honest about profits and production ability. Be aware that you will spend a lot on things like shipping, buying supplies, and web site development. I did my own web site and it took quite a bit of my time to keep it up to date (and to correct errors).

[Land Owner]

I retired from engineering. Math and science have always been easy for me. That "skill set" remains in me. I have done many cost estimates related to reloading and casting. I started with a single caliber, added up all of the Sunk Costs (gun, brass, mold, pot, lube-sizer, press, dies, untested estimate for number of reuses of brass, etc.), then added in the consumables (boolit, lube, powder and primer), EVERYTHING, including the kitchen sink, and ran a trial and error (convergent) analysis of how many rounds I would have to make to EQUAL the cost of the same number of Factory jacketed bullet ammunition. It is a pretty big number.

Then increase the number of calibers (guns and equipment) to the number of calibers you shoot. That effectively reduces the Sunk Cost of presses, lube-sizer, some equipment, etc., across all of the calibers, which tends to bring the "equal to" numbers down and JUSTIFIES (to myself anyway) the purchase of MORE STUFF.

Reloading is a hobby, not unlike home carpentry or automotive repair, that assists in the justification for MORE STUFF, like HAND TOOLS, big air compressor (IDK what use that has in reloading), multiple melting pots, ingot molds out the wazoo, GALLONS of lube. I just NEED another gun/caliber/mold/press/holster/[fill in the blank].

It is wonder I am not BROKE, though I can RESELL guns and equipment after a lifetime of service, for what I paid for it - or MORE. Most of it is built TOUGH to last three lifetimes and the sellers are GREAT about servicing its customers...like drug dealers hooking their clientele.

[clintsfolly]

I have fell down the hobby to job hole to many times! Learned to make hand made chairs. People want then But “ I can buy one at Cracker Barrel for $119.00! “. Cast bullets for a local gun shop and worked the counter got to the point I was just shooting a few times of the year! Bought, cleaned and sold Lead. Got to the point that I wasn’t casting and shooting. Now the kids are moved out and I have retired I still make a chair if I want too! Cast and trade or give away a few bullets if I want and feel like it! Clean and sell a little lead to cover costs of my stash if I find a good deal and want too! Never going down that hole again!

[dtknowles]

If your hobby is making money for you, then it is no longer a hobby, it is a business, and then has to be done even when you don't want to work at it.

This is not quite true. If I make a little money trading Guns and Ammo that does not turn it into a business. What turns it into a business is when you need to income. I am retired and working. If my job stopped paying me, I don't need to make any money from Guns and Ammo and if I don't want to sell any Guns or Ammo, I don't have too. What turns a hobby into a business and often ruins the fun is when you need to money or you over commit to customers.

Tim