Do you reload?

[LostintheOzone]

None of the options fit me. I reload everything I shoot. Never had a problem finding components except during the 08 shortage and now this one. A span of about 10 years where there were no shortages.

Seems we have an huge increase in reloading threads during shortages. If you weren't already reloading before the shortage it won't be a short term solution. It might however become a long term solution for the next shortage if this one ever ends.

I see the rail workers are about to strike. Might prolong the shortages at the retailer awhile longer.

 

[murf205]

Do I ever reload!

 

[Sevens]

Started in the fall of 1988 with a MEC-650 for 20 gauge skeet. Started metallic in the spring or early summer 1989 with a Lee Challenger "2001" O-frame press and .38 Special.

By the fall of 1990 I was done shooting skeet and done loading shotshell. I continued to load metallic and still do now 33+ years in. Only one wildcat (.357-44 B&D) and the rest are all very mainstream but a couple dozen different. I load somewhere between 8,000-12,000 rounds annually.

 

[fordson]

You should have added a category for “Always”……..

 

[LoboGunLeather]

As a young police officer raising two kids and making mortgage payments with my skinny paychecks reloading was the only way I could afford to do any shooting. I soon started casting my own bullets for most of the calibers I was using.

50 years later I'm still at the game. When I add a firearm in a new caliber I always order dies and bullet molds. Marathon bullet casting sessions using two bottom-pour pots and 3 or 4 molds, turning out a couple thousand bullets in a few hours. Most pistol ammo is loaded in batches of 500 or 1000 rounds at a time, most rifle ammo at 100 rounds per session (and I load for over a dozen calibers).

I have come to view reloading as both essential as well as an enjoyable and interesting activity in itself. While others follow inane TV series or college sports regularly I spend my evenings and free time cranking out ammo.

Some signs indicate that we are coming out of the severe shortages of the past couple of years, but this is the third time some of us have been through the same thing. Between these crisis events I try to restock powders and primers when available at non-scalper prices.

None of us will ever be totally independent of the supply chain issues, but some of us will get through with sufficient supplies to meet our needs, and do so without busting the family budget.

 

[Puller]

I started reloading 20 years ago because I had a couple of dozen 5 gallon buckets full of once fired brass in 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .38 Special. I still get quite a bit from the local PD range where they have the jail inmates police up the brass and put it in 55 gallon drums. Anyone who reloads can come get a 5 gallon bucket full and I go by there once a month or so.

Never having to buy brass certainly helps keep the per round costs down.

 

[ggibson511960]

I started reloading 50 years ago for the sheer knuckleheaded joy of another gearhead hobby, plus the cost savings. Now I reload because I occasionally want to shoot something besides 5.56 mm, 9 mm and .380 ACP the only calibers that manufacturers seem interested in today.

 

[BabaBlueJay]

I shoot 357 magnum exclusively and it's almost a buck a round for target ammo... Worse yet, it is often low supply. I see that getting worse, not better sadly so I am absolutely looking to buy a Dillon soon after I finish learning from some books.

 

[FWP]

I've been reloading since 1962, started in Lybia where there were no retail gunshops. I've got my original Rock Chucker. Been thru a star progressive, moved to Dillions. I have 3 Square Deals bought and sold a 550 and a 650. Reload rifle ammo on the Rock Chucker and pistol on the Square Deals. Only commercial I buy is .22, .22 mag and .17.
SWCA 892

Wow! My experience is similar. I started in 1963. I had a Pacific C Press and then a Rock Chucker. I also had a Star progressive which I sold to buy a 550B. Now I have 3 Square Deal B's, the Rock Chucker, and the 550 B. All get used frequently.

 

[ShootMeStraight]

I enjoy reloading just as much as I enjoy shooting. I've reloaded many calibers but my favorites are 357, 44 and 500; I shoot them almost exclusively now. It's also nice not having to go searching the ground for brass.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I started reloading because my 270 Winchester rifle did not do well with factory ammo, in my bolt action.

I knew what a M1 30-06 and a M14 308 could do from being in the Navy
and was sure that my rifle was capable of better accuracy at 200 yards.

For some odd reason, reloading a 150 gr SP did not do well in my rifle in 1984
but the 130 gr bullets were Tac drivers that hammered deer, in their tracks.

 

[johnjohn]

I started reloading sometime in the Clinton administration ,around the '90s.I had just gotten my press all set up and was turning out .38 specials and ran out of primers. I went to where I had bought them and was told "we don't have any and have no idea when we'll get any". Welcome to the cruel real world.

 

[growr]

The REAL question on reloading is....Do you shoot so that you can reload or reload so that you can shoot?

Randy

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

The REAL question on reloading is....Do you shoot so that you can reload or reload so that you can shoot?

Randy

Yes

 

[__steve__]

Bought a revolver in 1/2” caliber that I love to shoot. Had no choice other than to reload. Glad I did

 

[Nevada Ed]

The REAL question on reloading is....Do you shoot so that you can reload or reload so that you can shoot?

Randy

It all depends at which end of the tunnel , you are standing at.

"Beep Beep "