Why Did I Start Reloading? $$$

[andy52]

I started reloading in 77-78 but it was more for increased accuracy in my model 70 .243. I expanded into handgun rounds shortly thereafter.
If you can get your hands on used brass there is most defiantly some cost savings. Now I have know idea how much I have invested in reloading equipment.

 

[IAM Rand]

I started reloading because of my father. He was a reloader for hunting. I think it was all part of the process of hunting for him. Making a better load from scratch and use it successfully on a hunting trip. I never really started reloading in greater quantity until I got a 357 that I was using for target competition. Since then it has become a Zen thing for me. I too have been trying to build a better cartridge. Something about buying an "average" over the counter rifle and trying to make it better through customizing the round to the rifle. It is like making a wooden table from scratch. There is a pride and sense of accomplishment when you find the right combination and use it successfully. Never about money for me, just carrying on my father's tradition.

 

[brucev]

Why did I start reloading? It was part of my master plan for becoming a pistolero par excellent!!! First, I got my hands on a S&W Model 19. Nickel. Four inch barrel. Pachmayr grips (they were cheap). Next the critical part. I had a little talk with my wife. We'd only been married less than a year. And to quote her own statement, "I was gullible!!!" I told her that if I bought a good reloading outfit, I could save a lot of money on my shooting. Why ... I could make a couple of boxes of shells for not much more than the price of half a box of factory loads. With that out of the way ... I took my next step. I hoarded .38 Special casings. I fiendishly searched for Zero brand bullets ... lead and jacketed. And, I got myself a Lee Loader!!! Happy!!! With my carpenters hammer and using the kitchen table for a bench, I whomped up experimental .38 Special super duper louden boomers. These were experimental b/c I didn't take time back then to read a reloading book and only slightly paid attention to how to use the little yellow cup thing to scoop powder for my reloads. The results were impressive. I couldn't buy anything in .38 Special that was as impressive. Then on a day when I was dreaming of bigger, louder .38 Special ammo, I chanced to buy a Lyman cast lead bullet manual. Therein I discovered such things as pressure, starting loads and ... ah ... maximum loads. Therein I discovered that while a .38 Special could be heated up to semi-magnum power, it was better to just use the magnum casings. Then I discovered that if I reloaded normal loads, my revolver was a bit more fun to shoot, less expensive too!!! Now 40 years later ... I'm still loading. I can make anything I want for my revolvers or rifles from mild to wild. And, other than one revolver and one rifle, I haven't boogered up any other firearms since about 1982. Sincerely. bruce.

 

[minconrevo]

The year was about 1973. I was a college undergraduate with a tuition scholarship but had to work to pay all my other expenses. I had scraped pennies together to buy a S&W 28. I could afford the occasional box of ammo but wanted to shoot more. First came the Lee basic (pound with hammer) tool followed a couple years later by a RCBS single stage press.

Occasionally I could find a 50 count box of .357 Winchester Luballoy for about $7. Sometimes I'd find some Federal .38's for a couple buck less. I could reload the fired cases for about 5 cents each with bought cast bullets, Alcan primers and Bullseye powder.

Fast forward a bunch of years and reloading is still cost effective in a number of cartridges, especially .357 mag.

 

[Mule Packer]

After you get into reloading for a while it is addicting....

Boy!! Ain't that the truth!! Most people reload so they can shoot. There was a time when I was shooting so I could reload! It's that addicting!

 

[bigggbbruce]

After you get into reloading for a while it is addicting and very enjoyable.

Actually I find it very tedious. I wish I had elves show up and do the chore...

 

[RobertJ.]

1979, I was 19. I asked my dad to buy me a Virginian Dragoon in .44 Magnum, which he did. Since I was under 21, I couldn't just walk into a store and buy handgun ammo, and while I had a decent job at the time, that ammo was expensive anyway. I started watching my dad reload when I was nine, but by the time I turned 19, he had downsized all his stuff and didn't have his equipment anymore. So I bought everything I needed to get started, and started cranking out my own. I used to laugh at the fact that I couldn't buy ammo for my revolver, but I could buy all the components I needed to make my own.

 

[NJM15]

originaly to save money

It was all about money!

The time was 1983. I had recently bought a new S&W 586. I just had to have that revolver. As a kid, I didn't really consider the cost of feeding it. I scrimped and saved and bought the 586. Then, after the shock of buying a few boxes of factory ammo, I got smart and started reloading.

Fast forward to 2020. I found this old box while rutting through some long forgotten stuff. This is an example of what I fed my 586 in 1983. Check the price! $17.24 for a box of 50 rounds! Perhaps that sounds decent for factory ammo in today's climate. However, that equates to $45.39 in 2020 dollars! Wholly shmoely! That would be about 91 cents a round in today's dollars. Expensive ammo on a kid's income sure didn't make for much shooting.

So THAT'S why I started reloading. Money, plain and simple.

What made you start reloading?

I have been reloading for 10 years when some rounds were expensive i.e. 45 colt sig 357 win.308 then the prices came down some, now with the availability or lack of im glad I still reload. my list .223, .308, .38 spec, .357,.9mm .357 sig,.10mm

 

[Engineer1911]

You can't shoot out the barrels in 3 firearms buying factory ammo. Shooting prairie dogs is an addiction that really drives reloading.

Yup! I've been saving money! Twenty-Four die sets, bullet moulds. sizer dies, 4 presses (Dillon 450 & 550), 2 Lyman cast bullet sizers, case trimmer, and accessories. After 35 years of reloading, casting bullets, and saving money, my savings account finally got a balance over $1,200.

But for the last 25 years, all my center fire handgun ammo (except for 357 mag & 44 mag) has consistently cost me less than 22 LR from the store. The most expensive 22 LR I bought was $215 for a 5K case 2 years ago. Center fire rifle ammo has increased from $10 - $17 per hundred to $22 to $35 per hundred.

Reloading does produce cheaper ammo, but most reloaders shoot up the savings in ammo costs.

 

[otisrush]

I started 6 years ago with the goals (in priority order) of a) Better accuracy; b) Sounded fun; c) Have ammo for one obscure caliber I had and; d) Save some dough. My intent was to go with and stay with 4 calibers: .223, 9mm, .38 Spcl, .270 and .32 Rem.

Since that time I've deeply internalized:
* The savings are in Cost / Round......not total $ spent.
* Adding calibers is easier and more fun than I thought it would be.
* Saving total $ spent is less important than having fun.

I've since added .38 S&W, .380, .30-06, and .284 Win to the mix.

 

[max503]

I bought a 22 Hornet around 1978. Rounds were through the roof - when you could find them. Got me started with this:

 

[max503]

Now my bench looks like this:

 

[shocker]

$. That is all.

 

[duman444]

Shotgun to centerfire

My Dad was not a "gun" guy, but he loved waterfowling. I am the second of 4 brothers roughly spaced out 3 years apart. Dad moved to Houston in 1955 and was able to use factory ammo until he kids hit the field. Grew up on a MEC single stage in Dads garage. When I got into guns seriously, realized would have to reload to shoot. Worked out a deal with my youngest brother (other gun guy in family) that he buys components and I reload.

Funny thing is, recently reloading heavy dove (don't hunt waterfowl anymore) was not worth the effort. You could buy factory loads for less than a dollar more per box. Lead shot has increased a bunch more than lead bullets. Now with the shortage, may have to load some shotgun shells for dove season as the factory loads have increased by a buck or more per box over last year.

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

It was all about money!

The time was 1973. I had recently bought a new Colt Trooper and Remington 700BDL in 243 Win. I just had to have those guns. As a kid, I didn't really consider the cost of feeding it. I scrimped and saved and bought the guns. Then, after the shock of buying a few boxes of factory ammo, I got smart and started reloading.

I actually made a good enough case for reloading to save money that my parents bought me the press and all the accessories for Christmas that year. Then I learned there was a world of bullets available the you couldn't buy in factory ammo. Then I learned that my 243 shot better with my handloads than it ever did with factory loads.AND I could brew up loads for my 357 in between the wrist benders that factory 357 magnum ammo was in those days and the soft ball 38 Special. AND at HALF the price or less. AND I enjoyed reloading and couldn't read and absorb enough about reloading. From there thing just got totally out of hand....

 

[jcelect]

In the mid 70s I had a family to raise, a new business to run, a used mod 19, and not much money! I bought an RCBS press with 38 dies and the minimum necessary items to reload! I could make 50 rds for $2.58 and shoot every week end in the back yard with my boys and a couple hundred rounds! And now;

along with a couple old Herters presses that can be mounted on the steel plate inletted into the bench top with 4 bolts! The old, well used, mod 19 has been traded off to make room for a few more Smiths to replace it!
jcelect

 

[BRL40]

In 1980 I walked into a Mom & Pop gun shop in Mississippi to purchase my first handgun ever, without knowing what kind of handgun I even wanted.

They must have saw me coming because I walked out with a
Ruger Blackhawk chambered in .41 Magnum and a bunch of reloading stuff.

Fortunately that also included a Lee reloading manual and instructions to carefully read the how-to reload section.

40 years later and I still have and use that reloading stuff they sold me about once a week.

That'll show 'em!

...oops!

They sold me a Lyman 45th edition reloading manual, not a Lee...great reloading instruction section in that one!

 

[oddshooter]

in the 60's my brother and I were shooting up hundreds of rounds of shotgun ammo continually. My step dad started locking up all his factory stuff and told us if we wanted to shot, we had to handload. It was a no choice kind of thing.

Then 50 years later, I discovered the auditory feedback of Silhouette steel and I was hooked like I was a kid again. I also discovered a new caliber for me, the 357 Maximum. When you could find it, it was $2.25 plus per round.
Handloading became a necessity again and turned into a great hobby all by itself.

 

[dwh]

I started in 80's. I was 15 and in a non shooting family, so go bless my parents for indulging me in my adventures. I had purchased a model 70 in 30/06 with 2 box's of coreloc's. I had a misfire from each box. I told my dad I'm loading my own ammo from now on. This way I'll know who to blame for the mistakes. I got a reloading kit for Christmas that year. I now cast and load for 16 different cartridges. It also helps keep old guns shooting.

 

[LostintheOzone]

At the range yesterday a guy ask me if I reloaded. I said it was the only way I could afford to shoot as much as I did. There were at least 100 empty 5.56 cases laying around my table. What's that, about $60 worth of factory ammo today? I don't know because I've never bought a single round of 5.56. I shoot every week.