Is handloading being rendered obsolete?

To add in labor is dopey - when I reload, I am on my time and my employer isn't paying me. The ONLY time that makes any kind of sense is when you work at home with no set hours or schedule, and time you spend in the reloading room MIGHT be taking you away from a lucrative deal. In that case I hope you get some order in your life before that schedule kills you!
Other than that, the mere idea is ludicrous - I am at home and not going in for overtime, so there are ZERO labor costs.
 
I agree with those who decline to consider the cost of labor in handloading. It is YOUR labor and you can assign to it any cost you please, so that is not a viable factor.

I recall a time when I mentioned to a dental surgeon how long it took me to landscape my home. He asked why I do this myself, referring to his philosophy that if he works at his office he makes more than enough to pay the landscaper while he, himself, sits on the porch, watching and having an adult beverage or two. I offered my opinion that while he was sitting on the porch he was not making ANY money that might pay the landscaper, and absent the exercise, he would be underground long before the landscaper. The conversation ended.
 
44MAGNUM 78 DOLLARS A BOX OF 50 WHAT THE

Like many others it is my get away and sometimes the only time I can get away. If I am in work mode or chore mode my mind is always go go go what's next, pick up the pace, do it right etc. When I am reloading I know I have to slow down and focus solely on the loading practice. It's peace and FUN especially finding the right load for your firearm.
 
You also have to note that at $0.26 for brass, Nathan is talking about loading new brass to compare with the price of a similar commercial new round. Most of us use the brass probably at least six times before the mouth starts splitting from the heavy roll crimps needed for shooting them in the less massive revolvers, so for REloads, the price for brass drops to about $0.04 per round. Less if you have a gun that doesn't require such a stiff crimp or allows a taper crimp or if you anneal case mouths. The $0.17 bullet price is reduced if you cast your own from scrap alloy. So I would say, using Nathan's sales tax number for the components, about $21/50 rds with commercial cast bullets and about $14/50 rds if I allow three or four cents for powder coat or lube plus a homemade gas check on bullets cast from free scrap.

I can't bring myself to count the labor for the same reason as Cdoc42's point to his dentist. I compare it to the entertainment proposition of watching TV. At $80/hour, it would be nowhere near worth bothering with except maybe for the Superbowl or a concert or other special show for which the tickets and travel time and ticket cost to see it live would make it more expensive than the TV time. Plus, with commercial TV being about 1/3 commercials now, the actual program content viewing time for someone earning $80/hr would come up to $120/hr. This makes movie tickets look cheap in comparison to watching commercial TV live. Especially when you consider that news or other informational viewing can be handled by listening to the radio while you reload. Doing that, if you pay for the listening time, the reloading is free.
 
Sorry, I pulled $80/hr from my butt. It is a real number, but not for production wages…..like mechanics hourly rate at a shop selling you 1 hr of mechanic time.

Think of it not as how much do you get paid, but as the selling price of your labor. That said, it could drop to $35 and be quite reasonable as a labor cost. What is your free time worth?
 
My free time is worth 0$ as it is my 'free'/'off' time. Reloading is a hobby, never a 'chore'/'job'. Enjoyable when I need to crank out more rounds of already proven load/bullet formulas. You have control of what you shoot, not up to what's on the self. Wonderful. Only thing 'worth' buying is 22LR. Never understood those that put $$ on 'time' for your own reloading. Oh, and it's not something I do everyday. Just when I feel like it, or need something. So obsolete? <shakes head> No way...
 
From a cost priority rather than a function priority standpoint, cost consideration depends on what you need your time for and what income or monetary savings doing something else with that same time will bring. It's the same with reading a non-work-related book or watching TV or any other hobby. Do you count as a cost what paying someone else to do these things for you would be? Usually not, because you enjoy doing them. But if you think of reloading as a chore rather than part of the shooting hobby you enjoy, and you have the cash resources necessary to pay someone else to do it for you, then, by all means, go that route. Lots of folks do. There are competitors who pay boutique reloading houses to roll the ammunition recipe their rifle builder recommended rather than trying to do it themselves. Gary Anderson told my CMP GSM Master Instructor's class that he never reloaded anything. All the ammunition he used to train for and compete for his Olympic gold medals was supplied by sponsors. Jeff Cooper told me he always had someone else do his loading for him. That element just wasn't part of his focus in shooting activities.

As always, different strokes for different folks.
 
As always, different strokes for different folks.
Click to expand...
Exactly. We all have different shooting needs. Ie. I shoot maybe a couple thousand a year (revolver rounds). But a competitor may shoot that in a week (or more). Volume would make a difference. However for me, even if I was a zillionaire , I'd still find time to sit and crank out a few rounds :) . It's a fine hobby!
 
Handloading will never be rendered obsolete as long as someone needs a load that isn't commercially available. I think that's really separate from whether it will rendered economically uncompetitive for rounds that duplicate commercial loads.
 
Hand loading never be rendered obsolete as long as someone needs a load that isn't commercially available
Click to expand...
Very true... To expand on that, I load what 'I' want to shoot. In .44 Mag, I load down to a 240gr SWC at 1100fps. In the past, I've also loaded down to 750fps in .44 Mag. In .357, I load down to a 158gr SWC at ~1100 fps as well. No need for screamers. .45 Colt I load 'up' 250gr RNFP a bit to 900fps. Or 255gr SWC at 1100fps for a decent woods load. Or throw some blackpowder in there as well for historical shooting. Reloading offers one the ability to tailor any load to one's purpose/desire. It is a win-win. I don't see what's not to like :D .
I'd still be reloading if we were back with just the Lyman 310 Tong tool (yes, I have one for .45 Colt). I like the freedom reloading gives me.

I think that's really separate from whether it will rendered economically uncompetitive for rounds that duplicate commercial loads.
Click to expand...
Won't argue with that for the 9mm, .45 ACP, and .223 shooters. Your limited anyway with what power levels you can play with due to the semi-auto weapon itself. Need to be able to cycle the slide for example.
 
What is your free time worth?
Click to expand...

It's worth exactly whatever it is I want to do in my free time. Usually spending time with the kids. BUT... I do like to shoot and I actually often pay money to do it. While I wouldn't pay rent on a reloading press purely for the sake of reloading like I do range fees purely for the sake of shooting, reloading is still something I mostly "want" to do as I get to see the outcome when I shoot. It can be a chore sometimes, but I still enjoy it. I like to tinker. I like to work up good loads. I like to work on and make the cheap Lee classic turret crank out rounds beyond what it's life expectancy probably should be.
 
Does anyone participating in this thread realize that Freedom Munitions and LAX ammo are quite possibly two of the worst known re-man ammo sources of the known free world?

This stuff makes the very idea of "remanufactured ammo" seem like a horrendous idea.

And that's a shame because quality re-man is decent ammo. Black Hills began life as a quality re-man ammo company.

Freedom Munitions is hot garbage. LAX is basically the same junk from the same folks.
 
Does anyone participating in this thread realize that Freedom Munitions and LAX ammo are quite possibly two of the worst known re-man ammo sources of the known free world?
Click to expand...

and your point is???

I see them mentioned in the OP, but only about their advertised prices, not the quality, I've never used any, nor do I plan to.

"Remanufactured" is just a fancy term for "reloaded" commercially, and guarantees nothing specific.

I KNOW the quality of my reloads and handloads, and if it doesn't meet my minimum standards, I know who is to blame for that.

At last count (and it was some while ago) I was set up to reload for about 30 different rifle and handgun rounds. Been reloading since the early 1970s, don't do a lot of volume shooting anymore, so not really concerned with factory ammo prices much.

We're all in different spots, but for me, reloading isn't obsolete, its my primary ammo source.
 
If you don’t feel like reloading because ammo is low priced enough, I get it. However, I would recommend having a good sized stash of reloading supplies on hand. Inevitably there will be another shortage and prices will go up. The other fear for me is at some point you want be able to get ammo or reloading supplies.
 
Hmmm. Other than Shotgun ammo and .22lr, I haven't shot any CF rifle or CF handgun ammo in, well, I don't recall what decade. As someone already mentioned, have never shot a deer, elk, hog, pronghorn with anything other than a handload. Is it becoming obsolete? No. I have components enough that I do not worry about shortages and most importantly, availabilty.
 
There are a few things that keep me going long after I made myself "enough" ammunition. For one, I've learned more about handguns and ammunition from reloading than I have any other way. For another - factory ammo is often QR tested with batch samples - every round I produce goes through 5 to 7 checks depending upon what it is. Most of the best firearm experts I've come across are reloaders. I'm a recycler by nature, so making my own from scrap just seems right to me. I like having the knowledge & supplies to make what I may need should I not be able to buy it. When I hear anti-gun advocates wail on about how someone had 200 rounds of ammo - and how could ANYONE need THAT much - etc. - that's a warning sign to me... and makes me happy I know what I know and have what I have under lock & key. I learned and tooled up to making my own JHP projectiles from scrap which I find superior to most factory JHPs. I can produce a box of pistol ammunition for $4 to $7 in supplies depending upon the round as I watched the same box of factory ammo retail for as much as $52 during Covid - and that gives me some comfort in hard times. Did I ever do it for a cost savings? Not really... I have some $3000 in reloading equipment, but that investment has paid for itself in cost savings in the past decade. And peace of mind - that's priceless.
 
There are certain calibers that are not worth reloading either in the time and care they require (like .25) or the cost of factory ammo is so cheap it's not worth doing, like 9mm.

I've said before, but with 9mm it's not cost effective to reload for myself, but I'm not flush with thousands of pounds of free lead like some have built up for decades, nor do I have 20k primers from when they were 3 cents a primer. Those that have those things, yeah, 9mm is economical to load for, but they're the exception, not the norm.

Other calibers it only makes sense to reload them.
 
I'll chime in on Why reloading may still be worth it.
Lots of this depends on the reason someone shoots. If you just want to hear a bang or plinking, not shooting much factory ammo may be the way to go.
However, Reloading is a skill and knowledge you can pass on to your kids, something that you can leave with them forever.
Another reason to reload is the ammo you can make is the BEST ammo available. Meaning the most accurate, cleanest consistent. Most factory ammo is just made to go bang with the most profit margin. It is garbage in comparison to what you can load yourself
Again if you don't shoot frequently or at a level where these things matter, then they don't matter.
It's just something people who don't reload don't know.
I hope these thoughts are helpful and just one man's humble option.
 
Asides from the previous, reloading adds some certainty in maintaining the ability to keep shooting. So long as you think ahead and stock up on supplies. At any time, we are only an election away from the possibility of severe limits on ammunition supplies.

And certainly agree with 3Gwarrior on passing down the skill set.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top