Just curious-Why don't more folks reload?

H

Hal

New member
HankL posted a question in the reloading forum about why he reloads. I kind of curious why more people don't reload? Is it a matter of "Some mysterious black art" or lack of a good place to start? The bennies of reloading go far beyond cost, and I think a lot of folks are missing out on a real good time by not getting into it.

Ammunition, like beer and/or bread is better home baked ;)
 
Too much work for most people. I am still amazed at the number of "shooters" that can afford to buy ammo at commercial prices. As for mil-surp. Gotta be careful with it. 'Specially the foreign stuff. As far as I'm concerned, reloading part of shooting. I realized early on that I couldn't afford to buy commercial ammo.
 
RAE,

I frequently consider this issue. Inadequate room in my home prevents me from reloading. However, I have a friend who has an extensive -- three presses in a separate, full barn size firearms shop -- so I have done a little reloading. When I build the retirement house, it will have plenty of space for reloading equipment and supplies. I figure it will payback in less then a year (easily). Until then, I am studying a few manuals and avidly reading Dillon's monthly catalog.

[This message has been edited by RWK (edited September 02, 2000).]
 
then there are those who are not tempremntaly suited to reloading,
i am easily distracted, i just barely meet my personal standards for gun ownership<only through rigorous self examination). i do NOT meet my standards for reloading... not organised,and a lack of attention to detail.
i ask myself "would i be willing to use ammo made by a guy like me?" and the answer is a resounding NO.

rms/pa
but i do have an analretentive brother who does reload..he makes fine ammo.he is a better shot too.
 
Well, frankly, the amount I shoot, it would take me decades to make back the cost of the equipment. We're not all high volume ammo users, you know!

However, I've just gotten one of Bob Stewart's Maadi-Griffin plan books, and if I build THAT monster, I probably will start reloading; .50 BMG is a bit pricy, isn't it?

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Sic semper tyrannis!
 
For the same reason I have more or less given up woodworking. Advancing age seems to have given me the attention span of a six year old and I know full well that I am going to run my hand into a saw blade or drop a cigarette into gunpowder.
 
Right now I have more important things to do. We have a 19 month old son and the way my days are, I spend all of "my" time with him. Also, I don't have much time to shoot, so I don't worry about cost too much, and I don't have room for a workbench.

Just found out that we have an opportunity to move to the mountains of Oklahoma next year. Things will be a little different then, hopefully.
 
to many other things to do
& some of those things pay enough to afford ammo

My dad reloads thou

dZ
 
The only range in Richmond, VA began requiring that you buy and shoot their ammo after a guy blew the welded bottom off a mag and into his hand with a reload. John
 
My father hasn't bought a centerfire round in over 25 years and I decided to follow in his footsteps at age 12. It is an issue of precision and if you don't have the mental focus or you can't multitask, its just not for you. I think most people just don't want to spend the time or make the initial investment.

As a poor college student, without reloading, I would never be able to afford to shoot as much as I do. ;)

Accuracy and experimentation are also some positive externalities that some people are not concerned with.

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"The great German poet, Goethe, who also lived through a crisis of freedom, said to his generation: 'What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves or it will not be yours'. We inherited freedom. We seem unaware that freedom has to be remade and re-earned in each generation of man."

--Adlai Stevenson, "Politics and Morality", Saturday Review, February 7, 1959.
 
Originally posted by Brett Bellmore:
Well, frankly, the amount I shoot, it would take me decades to make back the cost of the equipment. We're not all high volume ammo users, you know!

However, I've just gotten one of Bob Stewart's Maadi-Griffin plan books, and if I build THAT monster, I probably will start reloading; .50 BMG is a bit pricy, isn't it?

Brett, you can do what I did. If you have the capability to make the rifle, then you should be able to make the press (350-500$) and the dies (200-300$)and the priming machine (125-150$)and save yourself some money that you can spend on primers ,brass and bullets. Start out with surplus military rounds and use them .That way you'll have plenty of brass.
Click to expand...
 
Initial investment is the biggest thing holding me back. Plus my home is rather small. I really don't have much room for a reloader. I haven't been saving much brass either. I would hate to buy some when I have been leaving it in the desert for years.
 
My drawbacks are time and space... Apartments aren't too easy to work in... The storage space is too small.

NO WAY I will let it interfere with my love life... (grin)

Cheaper to buy in bulk and save the brass for retirement... (grin)

Next?!?
 
Good question. I wonder if it is about time and exposure + personality mostly. It would be cool if Dillon had demos in the mall like Shopsmith. Too unPC I suppose.
My brother-in-law makes his own CNC scope mounts and other parts. Very quality stuff. He likes my hand rolls as gifts as long as I refrain from requesting he police some cherry brass. It just ain't worth his time. He would rather spend months perfecting a chunk of alloy. He is capable of building a motor from scratch yet won't change his own oil by choice. Personality thing.
I do realize this..His metal inventory and personal machines + my component and rudimentary loading aptitude = a quick arsenal if TEOTWAWKI ever occurs. There are a bunch of us boys out there in the "mountains" of Oklahoma.
And it is ok if everybody else just shoots factory. I hope they shoot as much as possible. Good shots make good neighbors :) .
 
It's been a year since I began shooting guns again. Period. It's also been a year since I've started shooting handguns, seriously, for the first time in my short life. Looking back over the course of the year, yep, I'd have to say that buying commericially lightens my pockets a bit. Fortunately, the colleague who turned me on to handguns has offered to get me started with a reloading setup. My first lesson is set for next week. Our plans are to get me to reload a few 9mm rounds, then go to his range and let me get instant feedback. I'm looking forward to broadening my knowledge of firearms. Next week, I'm also hoping for a few gunsmithing lessons.

Gotta love the gun culture.
 
Some books on reloading have too little information for me to reload with confidence. Other books are so technical and comprehensive that I'm left too intimidated to try reloading.

And all the time, in the background, is the constant fear of a "Ka-BOOM"!

One of my (many) failings is the need to study under a mentor's tutelage. Then I can concentrate on the basics while the master copes with the "sophisticated" and "unexpected". As my knowledge and expertise increase, then I can learn the more sophisticated signs of problems (and their solutions) and little tricks that make reloading both safe and fun.

Meanwhile, I bite the bullet of high price and save my brass. My time will come....
 
I am slowly but surely working up to rolling my own. I've been saving brass, I have a borrowed press, and won some .45acp dies as a door prize at EOSM. I don't have a recent manual, though, and since I also have 9mm, .38spcl, .223 Rem, and some shotshell hulls, I'm seriously lacking in other needed equipment that I can't afford just yet. That, and I need someone with the time to sit down and show me how... :o

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Pray as though it's all up to God, act as though it's all up to you.

Aim small- miss small...

If it isna Scottish, it's CRAP! RKBA!
 
A lot of people also don't reload because it costs more than just buying ammo. That's completely stupid and illogical, but that's how it is. On the REALLY rare ammo sizes, like that Kurz(sp?) ammo they use in the MP-44, some guys will reload it and even make their own slugs to save money because the ammo is expensive.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
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