Retired in November, 2015. Moved out of the 2400 sq. ft. 5 bedroom 3 bath house, and wife and I moved into a 1480 sq. ft. patio home (no yard work, no snow removal, no exterior maintenance, so it sounds like retirement for me!).

Since the move I have set up the reloading bench and worked on getting all of my stuff organized (not an easy chore after more than 40 years of reloading, and being a bit of a hoarder anyway). Among my finds:

6,000 large pistol primers
4,000 large rifle primers
5,000 small pistol primers
4,500 empty .38 Spl. cases
2,600 empty .45ACP cases
1,800 empty .357 cases
500 empty .30-30 cases
2,000 empty 9X19 cases
800 empty .40 S&W cases
1,200 empty .44 Spl. cases
1,100 caliber .30 bullets
2,200 caliber .357 bullets
1,900 caliber .45 bullets
600 caliber .44 bullets
1,100 caliber .40 bullets
19 lbs. various powders (rifle, handgun), some with price tags showing purchases at about $9 to $12 per pound.
Lots of other goodies too numerous to list.

Also found hundreds of rounds with loading notes dating back to the mid-80's, still in pristine condition after good storage conditions for 3 decades.

Started about 3 months ago, processing brass in lots of 500 to 1,000, sizing, priming, etc. So far I have produced 1,700 rounds .45ACP, 1,000 rounds .357, 1,000 rounds .38 Spl, 500 rounds .30-06, 1,000 rounds 9X19, 500 rounds .44 Spl., and now in the middle of the .40 S&W. Couple of hours each evening after supper and it keeps adding up.

Still have enough stock on hand to do another 3-4,000 without a trip to the store for new supplies. Haven't even thought about setting up the bullet casting equipment, and probably won't need to for another year or more.

Going to the range at least once each week, frequently 2 or 3 times as I tinker with loads prior to producing in volume.

So far retirement seems to agree with me, especially since my hobby has been so inexpensive!

and I thought I had stuff laying around the house I didn't know about.

Good to hear you are back at it and having success.

One thing, enjoy it now because when you use up what you have the sticker shock just might floor you. Prices have gone up quite bit since you bought that $9 powder. Unfortunately even the current election results won't turn that clock back.

Still, your ammo will be better than anything you can buy for sure. Speaking of buying components, I'm off to Cabela's right now lol.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Sort of like being a prospecter and finding a motherlode vein!!! Yeah!!

Randy

So what did you find...........
an old foot locker that was collecting dust ?

That is a great haul.
I am old enough to have some thing like that, maybe I
should start looking?

Have fun.

At 59 years old, I've been collecting as much supplies as I can now; so when I retire, I won't have to buy anything! LOL. Includes brand new bullet molds, for when I actually have time to do it. Powder and brass I've got covered; bullets and primers are a work in progress. Good on you for your "find" and enjoy your retirement-Im sure you earned it :-)

You did pay for it at 1 time, so should not be considered free. It probably means you won't have to pay high prices now. Probably won't have to buy much of anything ever.
You did plan it that way, right? Bob

Try as I might, I can't come up with a better retirement plan than yours Bob! Being that I'm maybe 10 years away, I'm still packin' it in.

As were cleaning out the farm house and my reloading barn....


We moved into a condo 2 1/2 years ago just before closing on selling the farm. During the pack-out, I found guns, ammo and components, all in astounding quantities. But my favorite find was a 12 pound cardboard keg of WW231, that I bought in the 80's for about $4 a pound. I kept the primers at hand, so I knew I had 65,000 of assorted sizes and brands.

The 400, ready to load 303 British cases are sitting there inviting me to take them out and play! Now where did I relocate the 500 bullets I have for them?

Ivan

You guy's are making me feel better, I rehabb'ed my shop / reloading room last fall and "discovered" items that I had completely forgotten I had, and found stuff that I had been looking for on and off for years. My rehab project entailed building more shelving along my walls and above my benches.
To facilitate doing this, I had to empty out the entire room( which was a huge undertaking)so that I could move my four loading benches. One thing led to another, now I am much more organized and have components to load with that I have accumulated during the past several decades.
I also did this while my wife was out of town for a week with the granddaughter. This eliminated any "over sight" issues.

Life is good gents.....

for a well organized retired reloader, it's even better!!!

Nicely done one and all!
oh....I just completed a little inventory control of my own....

pleasantly surprised myself as well....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

NICE! Sounds like a lightly larger and more varied version of my accumulation. It also sounds like you are making good use of both your supplies and your free time as a retiree.

I probably ought to take stock of my inventory, just to know what I have on hand. I lost track some time ago. I definitely look forward to my days of leisure and the opportunity to pursue my hobby in earnest, just as you are...

If any of those are magnum (357 or 44) rounds loaded with ball powder you might want to dismantle one or 2 and check on the powder.
I have found that some 44 magnum rounds I made in the 80's and 90's have W296 that congealed into a solid mass.
Stuck a bullet shooting one of these.
I am in the process of pulling all these old magnum rounds down currently.
I have to pry the powder out with a crochet hook.
Some were loaded as "cold weather Bear" rounds and are slightly compressed.
They are the ones most likely to have gone bad.
One of several reasons I have soured on ball powder in general.

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NEMO
"Everything 44"

Yep you should be set for a long time. Moving from a big house to a smaller house really lets you know how much stuff you collected all those years.

Bullets and golf balls... Squirreled away for the fixed income days.

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Join the NRA today

I got excited last week when I found one bag of goodies that I forgot I had.

1 lb. of powder
500 bullets
1 case of primers

Not anywhere near your haul, but I was still pretty excited.



The primers were really exiting because I thought I was down to my last case. I'm still gonna go get more though.

Sigh. That's the downside to keeping meticulous records; I never find components that I didn't know I had because everything is somewhere in one of my notebooks.

A few years ago I retired. I moved from a house I had been in 48 years. There was a gun shop and reloading bench that I used for 40 years there. I used movers. Well, you may understand that I had problems thinking that any one of the movers would know the new location of this stash. So before the move, friends helped move the shop. I am indebted to those friends that moved the poundage. No small task. A couple of times that day that day someone asked "what's in the box, lead?"

old 1911 fan

If you ever get "tired" of retirement, I bet the folks at Federal would have an interest in you...

Bless you for sharing.

I stumbled into an estate sale a few years back that had a similar cache of ammo, reloading components, and rifle scopes.

Of course none of the women shoppers had any idea what any of this stuff was, and a few of the men that were there, seemed uninterested. I made an offer on the entire lot, and couldn't wipe the grin off my face, all the way home!

Last year, I bought a big plastic tool box of bullets and brass at a flea market. It was heavy. Gave $30 for it. Sold the .223 projectiles, and 50 cal. lead balls. Got my money back. Ended up keeping around $200- $300 worth, in 9mm, and .45 plated bullets. Kept the brass too. It does not happen often enough. Bob

I've got enough hoarded away for probably 8- 9 thousand rounds but when that's gone as Arch Angel said, get braced! Here in Abilene primers are $40 per 1000, powder is $30 per lb. On a bright note, I got to looking around and in a drawer at the bottom of a gun cabinet I found 25 boxes of 9mm I had loaded back in time, not even sure when.

retired several years ago. just want to do a few calibers. have a single arm press from 50 yrs. ago. still have a scale. but powder/ brass/ primers, are a hefty start up price. even the dies cost more than last year. remember when i loaded the 7 mm mag., still have the shell holder. if a ground hog was near it's hole, a hit, usually put it back deep into the hole. then had a Remington bdl/ stainless barrel. sold it because the blueing kept getting lighter . wonder what the worth of the rifle would be today.

Last time I moved I herd one of the movers mention to another, Don't stack up very many of these green metal boxes, they are really heavy. I'm guessing if I had to move now it might be a similar find. But more loaded.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Purchased another 257 Roberts for the grand kids and realized I was running short on brass. Couldn't find any a year ago (and it's the same today) but, when searching for something else in my loading room I found a box I didn't recognize. Opening the box I discovered a purchase made through Midway in 2005 of 500 brand new Remington 257 Roberts brass. We do forget stuff with time. hehe

Wow!!! that is a find. I knew a guy with a very old 257, Serial #5 or 7 and a load proof target for that gun signed "Ned"

Ivan

LoboGunLeather - That was a Roth IRA you didn't even know you had. Enjoy it and your retirement!

Wow, looks like you are really well stocked and getting organized let you know what you had.

And that's quite a story!

I retired in Dec 2015.I got thousands brass cases of every caliber I shoot.I also got (had then)close to 75# of powder and aprox 20K primers.I cast my own bullets and get my lead for free from the shooting berm.I figured I had plenty to last me years.Only I had not taken into account that with more free time,I'd shoot more.My logbook says for 2016 I shot 15,050rounds.

Guess I'll have to plan a larger chunk of my now fixed income to buy primers on the short run and some powder in a few years!
Qc

I don't have a logbook, but I've loaded about 20,000 rounds in 2016. The shooting part is pitiful, though, only shot about 1,000 rounds. Plague got the prairie dogs in Colorado, and hot weather got me in Georgia. EDIT: Drove 3,500 miles, shot 150 rounds of ammo, killed ~20 prairie dogs. Shooting conditions: 20 to 20 MPH wind gusts, targets at 250 to 500+ yards, target size 20 ounce pop bottle.

2017 will be a better year for shooting and fishing.

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S&WHF 366

There's a country and western song if I ever heard one. You better copywrite that.

3 years ago I sold a small business I had started about 6 years before that. I made enough money to take a year off and decide what to do with the rest of my days. I didn't figure it out but I did learn that I will have no problem retiring to my press and shop. I never did get bored.

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Trucks and guns.

Well,I wish you a good fishing and hunting 2017.For my part,since I lost my fishing and shooting partner a couple months ago,I'll probably take it easy for now(these hard facts of life kinda get you thinkin')and start looking around for another fishing/hunting pardner.
Tell me,how far from Quebec is Georgia?
Qc

You make me tired, just reading your post!

Moving stuff around trying to get all my bullets under my bench. My friend & I have recently started casting and powder coating & we have about 400# of clean ingots ready to go...

I was cleaning out a bedroom closet recently & found 1000 rds. of 8mm Mauser ammo. I have never owned an 8mm Mauser. Have no idea where it came from.

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I'm 67. I don't do timeouts.

Guess y'all need to get down to Big 5 & pick ya up one of those 8mm Mausers!

I have no idea how I'll have the time to reload much. Wife keeps me too busy with make work things. I'm too old to dig a hole or to move it over there. I'm like an old mule, and I've discovered how to dig my heels in.

A rule: No one has ever saved a dollar reloading. They always spend more. Its like a woman at a sale. They don't save money either. With the reloading, we just shoot more. Or sock away more for a rainy day.

Well, we moved 7 years ago. I'd just had heart surgery and was living with a 15# limit. My sons actually were a big help. Before they let me drive, we went to a gun show. I bought 20 more .50 cal cans. Oldest son carted them out to the parking lot. The seller was a sport about it. He wanted my son's drivers license. Said no one ever leaves it behind and any one who pays cash for that many cans is probably honest. So we fill all those plus a bunch more I had lying around. Took a couple of days to haul them all out to the van and then to my son's house. I have no clue as to how much I have in supplies.

I went to a flea market a while back and bought a big box of .224 bullets. Ended up giving them to my oldest son. The I found a box of 500 more. He's pretty well set.

A big problem I have is my lack of memory. I've now sworn off 41 mag bullets. I went for about 10 years thinking I needed bullets and cases. Since I don't shoot it, I guess I've got enough. Only have 2 guns, an engraved 57 and a 357 light weight.

I've got so many Jet supplies they'll still be around when I croak. I still have the 10 full boxes I got with the gun about 20 years ago. Plus a bunch more that I see from time to time, and prices cheap. Along with a stack of 500 .222 Hornady bullets, plus other partial boxes. And maybe a thousand reloads, just for fun.

Its kind of depressing to go to the dungeon and look at all the things I should be doing. I'm just too lazy to get started. And I've lost stuff, too. Its kind of scary to go digging and find junk I didn't know I had. Fodder for the next gun show. Scope rings and other stuff that was expensive.

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Dick Burg