.308
.223
30/30
9mm
.38spl
.44spl
.44 mag
.357 mag

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SWHF #595

45 Colt, 8mm Mauser, and .308.

Shoot but never purchase:
22 Jet
32-20 (32WCF)
38 Special
357 Mag (can't remember for sure, maybe bought a box 40+ years ago)
44 Special
44-40 (44WCF)
45 Colt (can't remember for sure, maybe bought a box 40+ years ago)
45-70

Purchase only:
22 LR
22 Magnum
9mm
222
223/5.56 (will start to reload at some point)
30 Carbine (maybe start to reload at some point)
12 ga.

Reload and purchase:
45 ACP
30-06

Best regards,

Very thought provoking thread. Trimming a bit - I bought a box of 38 Special lead round nose when Wally World went lefty because I was going to pull the bullets for 38 S&W loads - seems like a box was $6 or so. I may have bought 38 Special factory reloaded SWC's back when I used to shoot with the local S.O. at pistol shoots, but that's been 25 or 30 years. Never have bought 44 Magnum ammo, and very little 44 Special as one feller said to go bang and get the brass. For sure no 38S&W store bought.

Since I've been a handloader for over a half century....
I've only purchased a very small amount of factory ammunition. (not excluding rimfire)

Back before the turn of the last century, I purchased 10 of thousands of
new primed cartridge cases in just about all the pistol calibers.

As a matter of fact, I just finished loading the last of the 45 acp brass.

The cartridges I have never bought commercially,
in the last two decades, that I shoot regularly,

22 Remington Jet / Super Jet
38 Special / 357 Magnum
44 Special / 44 Magnum
45 ACP / 45 Long Colt

Handload all my center-fire rifle rounds,

45-70 Gov't
340 Wby / 338 Win.
300 Win. / 300 Wby. / 300 WSM / 308 Win.
270 Win. /264 Win.
257 Roberts
22-250 Remington

.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

After staying up all night thinking about this,
It’s got to be 218 Bee and 22 Jet.
Have reloaded a bunch of 38, 357, 44, 270, 30-06, 7 Mag, 338 Mag, etc.
But I have also bought them.
When I had my 218 I don’t think I ever bought any cause for one thing, it’s always been hard to find,
With the 2 Jets I had, they came with ammo and brass so I just reloaded and pressed on in brass setback frustration!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I used to own an 7mm Ackley Improved and I used to fire a 105mm howitzer. Some might say that the 105 used commercial ammo, but you loaded the powder, projectile and fuse for each shot so it was ALMOST like reloading.

A while back I saw some SASS folks shooting a cannon.
The Announcer said their Ammo was home loaded.
Hard to get obsolete cannon shells,
Especially when you are shooting blanks!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I'm easy: I load for everything I own (+ a couple calibers for friends) with the exceptions of 22lr & 22wmr, but never have I purchased any 44 Special, 44 Magnum or 45 Colt factory ammunition. I did buy 2 boxes (100 rounds) of 357 SIG, but only for SD and comparative purposes.

I have purchased factory ammunition for rifle calibers because the incremental cost for loaded ammo vs. reloadable brass was virtually negligible!

.454 Casull. I also have yet to put a commercial round through my 1076 but I bought two boxes of range ammo when I picked up the gun.

.44 Magnum, .357 Magnum, .38 Special, .30-06, .308 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6 Creedmoor, .243 Winchester, .300 Winchester Magnum, .340 Weatherby Magnum, .270 Winchester, .458 SOCOM, .50 BMG, .300 Whisper are some calibers that come to mind that I have reloaded and shot but never purchased ammunition for.

Some of them are self explanatory as to why ...

After I graduated college, I became mostly interested in wildcat rifle cartridges. The following is a list of wildcats that I never purchased any retail ammo for because there wasn't any:30 Newton Walt Iler Improved, 338-06, 6.5-06, 416 Taylor, 240 Page Super Pooper, 250 Sav. Ackley Improved, 22 K. Hornet, 6x45mm, 6 PPC, 22 Waldog.

I am not including the several Ackley Improved cartridges that could be made by just firing the base OEM cartridge in an improved chamber.

32acp
.357Mag
9mm
41 Mag
.45 Co;t
.223 Rem
22-250
30-30Win
.308Win
32-40
38-55
45-70
Add 30-06 if you don't take into account the single box of Remington 55gr with sabot bullet I bought to see if I could make a duplicate.
And please don't you never ever torture my mind with such tough question.At my age it can be deadlier than that Covwhatever 19!

6mm TCU
7mm TCU
6mm BR
357 Max

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Where we go one, we go all

25-06 and 44 sp. Literally wore out a hundred pound keg of 4831 Surplus loading for 7 different 25-06s...44 special and Russian have never shot a round of factory..Shot them all in my Old Ruger 1st year Flattop and 3 screw SBH...Oh also the 357 Rem Max...never shot a factory round of it either...But a fellow gave me 21 rounds a few months back

I can't say never, however I can say almost never. Any time I have bought a new caliber handgun I have bought some ammo to get it home. I have a few boxes of factory with 0, 6 or 15 rounds missing. I bought a box of 20 WW Silver Tips when I got my 25-5. They are all still left.

After almost 60 years of shooting, i think I've bought at least one box of ammo for all the calibers I have reloaded for....except one. I can honestly say I've only shot hand loaded ammo in my Sako L461 221 FireBall. I had the burnt out 223 barrel replaced in '88 with a 22" Shilen stainless barrel. Have used up a bunch of RL7 and AA1680.

I can't remember ever buying a box of 44 magnum ammo as I took up
handloading before I got my first handgun (a Ruger redhawk).
I know I have never shot any commercial 445 supermag.
Not sure I have ever even seen any.

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NEMO
"Everything 44"

.44 Special & .45 Colt.

Never bought 6mmAR factory ammo because it's not made.

Only the first box shot from my 223 Sako (FGMM), 308 (FGMM) and 338LM (Lapua) were factory match ammo to test functionality and set a base for precision.

Of course I have several 9mm pistols that have never seen factory ammo, but sure have bought factory ammo in that caliber for earlier pistols.

I built a 44 Auto Mag revolver many years ago. As far as I know, it's the only one. The Ammo was over $1 a round if you could even find any. No brass available. I made the brass by cutting off and reaming out .308 rifle brass. I used 45 ACP moon clips, but they were just a bit too small for the .308 to clip into, so I slit 100 of them 6 places between where the case fit to make them springy enough to work.

Shot a lot of bowling pin matches with that one! With 300 gr. bullets, it clears the table with authority. It will take off 2 laying down together in one shot. Still have it, don't shoot it much now.

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protocalldesign.com

32.20
.380 auto
.38 spl
9mm
.357 magnum
.223 rem
.308 win
12 ga shotshells (trap loads)

My guns don't know what a factory round is....

I bought a box of 25-06 to try out a borrowed rifle. Also buy rimfire. That's it for ammo. Buying components is a whole nother question....

Calibers I've loaded for:

222 Rem
22-250
224 Durham Jet
6 BR
243
260
270
30 BR
30-06
338-06
45-70
32 H&R
38 special
357 magnum
44 mag
45 colt

357 mag, I usually shoot 38 specials in my model 27 but I have picked up enough 357 brass so I have never needed to buy the ammo.

.308
.50AE
.375 H&H

Aye Caramba!
At $2 and $4 a round, I can see why one would want to reload these calibers (besides all the other benefits).
I won't even mention the .50BMG or the 600NE

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NEMO
"Everything 44"

That would be .45 Colt for me too.

Next close thing would be .44-40. But I bought 2 boxes of it in the very begining.

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Expect the unexpected

.454 Casull

Hmmmm, I have very seldom ever bought factory ammo for anything I shoot other than .22RF. I do buy occasionally .25acp and .32 acp, but the only factory handgun ammo I have shot otherwise I got free. I load for .32 Long, 32 H&R Mag, 9mm, .380, 38 Special, .357 Mag, 44 Special, 44 Mag, 45 acp, .222 Rem, 22-250, .308, 30-06, 7x30 Waters, 7 TCU. I do reload for .223, but have bought 500 rounds factory for it as it is a SHTF rifle just sitting there with a stack of loaded mags for someday "if needed". I don't particularly like "tactical" rifles.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Every gun I own with the exception of rim fires, I've been reloading for almost 50 years.

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SWHF #595

8x50R Lebel. When I first started shooting it there was basically only surplus, (not easy to find, not necessarily cheap and duds and or hangfires were pretty much a given) and reloading. It’s available now as new production but I’ll just stick to reloading my own.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

.32 H&R Magnum
.45 Colt
.45 Cowboy
.45 AR

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Now go make God proud...

Only thing I shoot store bought is .22 rimfire .

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Grumpy Old Man With a Gun

40 Smith and Wesson
270 Winchester

I thought I was going to add a couple calibers to this thread, but they have been amply covered. The accumulated knowledge of handloading on this forum is nothing short of amazing! My hat is off to you fella's. If you want to learn something about loading virtually anything that goes bang, this is the first place to look. The knowledge especially of off-the-wall. obsolete, or wild cat stuff is there for the asking.

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

I load about 25 metallic cartridges and four gauges of shotgun. I bought several cases of 16 ga shot shells about five years ago, to get the empty hulls. And I’ve bought a couple cases of 410 shells. Other than that, I’ve bought no loaded ammo for any of these cartridges.

Well I have never bought .38 special, .357 magnum, .44 magnum, and .223 rem. I have always used reloads for those calibers.

I once owned a 7mm Ackley Improved for which I never bought factory ammo. I have also successfully reloaded 32 Rim Fire Long, though I used factory ammo as a brass supply. 8mm Lebel Revolver and 50 US Carbine. Technically I was never supplied LOADED factory ammo for 105mm or 155mm, but I doubt that counts. One of the first calibers I formed was 8x56 Rimmed. At the time even surplus ammo was a collectors item and we made cases and loaded our own, treasuring the one clip I managed to find because those straight pulls are clumsy single shots without the clip.

45 Auto Rim for my 625. Never saw a box of that ammo on the shelf. Hand loaded to make some hunting loads with 200-250 grain bullets

.45 Colt, .41 mag, .357 sig, 10mm, immediately come to mind.

Just RECENTLY I bought my first .45 acp, .44 mag, 9mm factory ammo, only because it was a bargain , on closeout at Wally world.

After my current batch of 10 yr old MT Gold 9mm bullets are exhausted I'm dome loading nines. Quicker, and about as cheap to buy in bulk than reload anymore. Especially with where component prices are now.

.41spl.....................

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

50-90 Sharps Black Powder
40-65 BlackPowder
45-70 Black Powder

My wife’s .243 long range rifle, the one she uses for 1000yards.
Never had a factory round even close to it.

Wish I could say the same for my 700 PSS, even with Gold Medal match, it’s still not nearly as accurate as with custom loads.

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Hold my beer and watch this!

.357 magnum is the only one I still have, never bought 257 Roberts but don't have it any more.

After giving it some thought I can list these :
44-40 , aka 44 WCF
38-55
44 special
357 sig
44 magnum
303 British
40-60 (1876 Winchester rifle )

Never bought factory 7.62x51, 300BLK, 6.5 Grendel, or .41 Rem. Magnum

I started shooting probably 12 years ago when I bought my first handgun ever, a Glock 19. I got hooked and soon had a 1911 in 45 ACP, then 260 Rem, .223, 6.5 Creedmore, 32-20, all of which I initially bought commercial rounds for.

Finally this year got a couple 357 Magnum guns which is a caliber I've never owned. Since I had all the re-loading gear, I just got the dies and some brass and started loading rounds. I doubt I'll ever buy a factory 357 bullet. In fact, the only factory rounds I'll probably ever buy again are .22 rimfire and my self-defense ammo for my carry guns.

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What could possibly go wrong?

6mm TCU, 7mm TCU, 357 Maximum, 6mm benchrest to name a few.

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Where we go one, we go all

The only commercial I buy is American eagle 125gr 9MM. . Works great in the Luger.. The only commercial ammo I have purchased in 50 years.