Purpose for Reloading

I started reloading to save money, I loaded 30/06, 45 ACP and 38. After a few years I started collecting milsurps and as soon as I had the gun, I bought the dies for it. I can shoot anything I own without worrying about not being able to find more ammo, and it is nice to be able to go to the range with 100 rnds of 45/70, Krag, 7.5 Swiss, 7.7 Jap and not worry about the price.
 
I started to reload to lower the cost per round. The worst I do is load at 75% of retail no matter what caliber I am loading and when I hit a deal, especially on bullets, that number is as low as 40% of retail. I started to save brass way before I started to reload thinking I would go that direction, so I don't really include brass costs. I get plenty for free from buddies I shoot with that don't reload or score range pick up brass. With the latest deals I found I can load .45 ACP for $0.1077/round ( that is almost .22LR costs) and .223 for $0.1467/round. The best thing now is I found reloading to be a great hobby. I get to tailor my loads and I don't have to worry about not being able to find ammo. I have really loaded up on components so I have over a years supply at the rate I currently shoot at. Have I saved money, probably not, but I get to shoot any time I want and more rounds per session than I did buying factory ammo and it is better ammo. Last reward is the satisfaction of shooting something you hand made and tailored to you gun!
 
I know cost was our biggest reason so we started loading for larger calibers for hunting and bench shooting. I've thought a lot like some of the other posts that I couldn't ever save money on 9 mm and 243/5.56. Bought both sets of dies a few weeks back and thanks to Rocky Mountain Reloadings prices we have stockpiled enough bullets in 2 weeks to last a year or better of plinking and some better grade for accuracy. Both AR and Beretta are way more accurate with our reloads than before with factory. Slower on a single stage press but it's relaxing and eases a lot of stress. So as a prior post I read I guess I'm knitting bullets and having a great time doing it. Loading for 9 mm. 223. 243. 7-08. 7 mm mag. 357 mag. 260. 300 win short mag 25-06. 300 win mag and 45-70. Next to start on 380 as they are pricey and not a whole lot available when you can find them.
 
I'm reevaluating my procedures now that I had a case rupture in my glock nine. I think it might have been a hard crimp. Back to revolvers for a while.
 
There are really three approaches to reloading:

1: Make something that goes bang as cheaply as possible, but functions.
2: Wring the last possible bit of accuracy out of your rifle.
3: Make quality ammunition that has acceptable accuracy for your application.

For some people, reloading is as much or more of the hobby than actual shooting, and there is nothing better than tinkering with different powders, and charge weights, and seating depths to try and eek out the best possible performance from your load and rifle. I am not that person.

For pistol ammo I am in the first camp. At handgun ranges I am not a good enough shot to tell the difference in the potential accuracy improvements.

For rifle ammo, I fall in the third camp. Do minimal load development to work up a load that has consistent acceptable level of accuracy. What that level is tends to vary with the rifle in question, I expect more out of a modern custom rifle than a ~75 year old wood stocked military rifle.

I used to do all the fine tuning, playing with every variable, chasing the last tenth, but after I figured out how many rounds I fired and range trips I made trying to make already good groups smaller, I stopped.
 
I go along exactly with emcon5, especially in the third approach to developing suitable rifle loads. With center fire rifles numbering just short of 100, it's more of a lost cause to attempt approach number two; but did that for a while only to ruin several 700 Remington barrels with no justification for attempting better results. Handgun ammunition falls nicely into approach number one. Again too many to try to optimize every one.
 
1: Make something that goes bang as cheaply as possible, but functions.
2: Wring the last possible bit of accuracy out of your rifle.
3: Make quality ammunition that has acceptable accuracy for your application.
Click to expand...

I disagree that its a 3 way choice, and will content that it is possible to obtain all 3 of those goals in one load.
 
I started about 45 years ago, with the intent of saving money...Over the years it has evolved into a hobby. I have more fun going to gun shows looking for reloading dies, brass, bullets, almost any equipment related to the hobby.

I enjoy prepping brass, then bagging it, and stuffing it into 50 cal. ammo cans...just to know that I have it ready whenever I need it. when I`m dead and gone, my kids will laugh about all the brass in the garage, wondering what dad was going to do with it.
 
I reloading for a number of... less common... cartridges...

.32 S&W Long
.32-20
.41 Magnum
.44 S&W Special
.45 Auto Rim
.45 Colt

Finding ammunition for any of those has been quite the chore over the last few years.

Actually affording it? That's another story entirely.

My local gunshop finally had some .45 Colt ammo in stock a few weeks ago... Cowboy level stuff...

$58 a box of 50.

.41 Magnum I've not seen on shelves (other than a few boxes of hunting style ammo) since probably 2009.

Last box of .32-20 I saw was around the same time, and back then was $75.

I might not shoot the guns chambering those rounds all that often, but when I do I like not having to take out a second mortgage on my house.
 
I started out with the idea of saving money on standard calibers, but being a milsurp collector, just try and find ammo for 7.5 French, 7.5 Swiss, .577-450 Martini, .416 Rigby, .455 Webley, or just 8mm Mauser or .303 British that won't make you cry when you see the price tag on the retail shelf.

Latest one is .310 Cadet. Commercial rounds are imported, at $2 each. I reload it for $0.60. .44 Special is my favorite pistol round, I reload mine for less than half of retail.

Another advantage is you can tailor your loads to the firearm. I load a bit light for the old stuff, even a No. 4 Lee-Enfield is approaching 75 years of age. Parts are expensive and getting hard to find for many older milsurps. I'm not about to run high-pressure ammo through a $3,000 Mauser Broomhandle.
 
I started out reloading 308 with the intent of saving money and achieving better accuracy. I accomplished both of those goals pretty easily.

Lately I have been stocking up on 9mm and 223 components in preparation for the next panic.

I can load caliber I shoot for half the cost of brass cased factory ammo. That means I get to shoot twice as much for the same dime which means a lot to me since cost is the factor that determines how much I shoot.

And I change my own oil.
 
purpose for reloading

What a way to relax. It is fun to do and nothing beats the feeling of taking game with your reloads or shooting a good group on paper.
 
me said:
1: Make something that goes bang as cheaply as possible, but functions.
2: Wring the last possible bit of accuracy out of your rifle.
3: Make quality ammunition that has acceptable accuracy for your application.
Click to expand...
TimSr said:
I disagree that its a 3 way choice, and will content that it is possible to obtain all 3 of those goals in one load.
Click to expand...

The load itself may meet all three, but how you get the load, 1 and 2 are diametrically opposed.

Option 1 is basically throwing powder and a bullet in a case and making sure it goes bang, in the case of a self-loading firearm, goes bang and cycles the action.

Option 2 requires a lot of development, powder charges, seating depths, case prep, etc.

The whole point of option 1 is not to do any load development. You really can't meet option 2 without load development.
 
The price of ammo, or saving money was never on my list of why I reload. And I didn't start reloading for greater accuracy, or to be able to shoot more or any of the common reasons.

I have a reason that looking back on it is kind of silly.

When I was a kid of about 12 years old, I became interested in guns and shooting. My dad wasn't into any of this, but he owned a few guns and he let me shoot them: .22s and shotguns. At the time and for years to come, I bought and read every gun magazine I could lay my hands on. By the time I was old enough to buy guns and get into shooting at the level I wanted, I had been reading gun magazines and gun books from cover to cover for years. And of course they all talked about reloading. I can remember specifically reading an article by Skeeter Skelton where he said something to the effect that if he had the choice of buying a new gun or getting into reloading, he would get into reloading.

So, when I started buying my own guns and ammo, I just considered reloading as something that any serious shooter did. Even then, I was never a settler :D. When I get into something, I either go all out or I don't do it at all. I started reloading before I ever moved out of my parent's house and have reloaded ever since. And even today, other than when I read stuff like this thread on the internet, I never even consider what it costs to reload vs. commercial ammo. It's just something I have done my entire adult life. For my entire adult life, to me, ammo comes from my reloading press and I never really considered any other option. To this day, when I am at a shooting range and see that someone is shooting factory ammo, I find that weird. Not because there is anything wrong with it, but I am conditioned.

FWIW: I started off with the original Lee Loader in .38 Special. I had 100 .38 Special cases and a S&W Model 14 revolver. Pretty much every day I would shoot 100 rounds of .38 Special and then spend the evening reloading the cases. I was using S&W nylon coated bullets that I bought in quart paint cans and my uncle gave me a keg of Unique powder. Very soon thereafter, I got a Lyman turret press that someone gave me free and I started using that. However, I didn't have a powder scale, so I still charged the cases with the dipper from the Lee Loader. In my early 20s I moved across the country and didn't take any of that stuff with me. But not long after moving I bought an RCBS Rockchucker press which I loaded on for probably 35 years.
 
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Started over 30 years ago to shoot more for the same money spent. Over the years, I have done it to have something to do, make things I could not buy and to create things that didn't exist.
 
I'm not sure if I'm going back to casting. It's a lot of work, but otoh, 5-10 a round for plAin cast bullets isn't cheap, when they could be free.
 
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