How Did You Get Started Become Interested In Reloading

[Jimnwise]

I started reloading because I bought a Ruger No.1, .257 Roberts and could NOT find any ammo other than the box I bought with the rifle. Don't think that I'm saving a whole lot of money as expensive as the equipment, brass and bullets are. But the consistency and accuracy is the best selling point for me.

 

[gizmo]

Chalk up another for the shoot more and spend less category at first but..... Then it became really really fun. After that it became an accuracy thing as I really liked the better groupings with my own stuff. Now it's really an obsession and I just flat enjoy doing it. What's cooler is taking game with ammo I made myself. I'm a bit OCD how I load and do it one round at a time weighing every powder charge by hand to make sure it's perfect. Weighing each case and making sure they are all uniform etc... Honestly it's a bit theropudic and I really have fun doing it. Now I'm starting to teach my 14 Y/o son how to do it which adds more fun to the mix.

 

[Jimnwise]

You and me both Giz. The elk in my avatar was harvested with my personal load 300 WSM, Norma Brass, 190gr Berger VLD Hunting Bullet, 61.2 gr W760 with Winchester WLRM primers. Like you I weigh every round to the tenth of a grain.

 

[gizmo]

You and me both Giz. The elk in my avatar was harvested with my personal load 300 WSM, Norma Brass, 190gr Berger VLD Hunting Bullet, 61.2 gr W760 with Winchester WLRM primers. Like you I weigh every round to the tenth of a grain.

It's just awesome to see the whole thing come together and take an animal with a pet load. I'll never forget the first animal I took with a 300 mag load I put together. I dusted a 200lb boar hog with a 165 spire point boat tail hand load from about 300 yards. That was 13 or so years ago and the first animal I killed with a reload as I had just started loading my own ammo. One shot kill and the pig dropped in its tracks, I was super happy with myself. Just a really neat feeling. I've killed countless animals with my own loads since then but still get super excited every time. I also shoot better with them not just because they are more accurate but because I have loads of confidence in them. Now that I have rebuilt that particular rifle and bullet technology has advanced so much since then I'm about to start working up a new load for it with two different bullet weights and powders. I'll stick with a light bullet for deer in the 165 grain weight using H4831 sc then go up to a 180 grain load for elk using IMR 4350. I haven't quite decided which bullets I want to use yet. ActionBob uses the Barnes bullets and I was very impressed with the terminal performance of the bullets when he hunted with me. I'm still a huge Hornady fan though in their medium game bullets, despite their DGX and DGS series big game bullets being absolute garbage, and really like some of their newer flex tip boat tail bullet varieties. I guess I'll end up using several different bullets until I get to where I'm happy with one I like.

 

[Jimnwise]

That elk was my first animal with my own handload. The outfitter told me to show up with 180 grain bullets, but I like the bullets on the heavy side so I went with the Berger 190's. Thinking I may work up a load with their 210 gr VLD Hunting when I go to Wyoming this year. I got an Elk tag again this year. I'm kind of a numbers freak and the BC on the Berger's are awesome. It did a number of the elk as well. 235yd one shot to the vital kill. I like the heavier bullets for less windage. Wyoming definitely has some wind! The Hornady reloading manual recommended the W760 or I would have went with IMR 4350. Love the smell of it after you fire a round of it. " I love the smell of IMR 4350 burning in the morning!"

 

[gizmo]

I'm going elk hunting in Wyo in Nov 2017. I've hunted elk in Colorado and helped guide a few here in Texas but it will be my first hunt in Wyo. I have plenty of time to get everything worked up and shooting perfect between now and then so I'm pretty stoked.

 

[Spooksar]

One of the people I worked with when I first stated shooting talked me into it, I haven't looked back. I now load 250+ calibers. Lots of obsolete and wildcats.

 

[buffybr]

Like others have posted, I started reloading to save money. That was almost 50 years ago, and I'd hate to see the total of what I've spent on reloading since then.

I bought my first centerfire rifle, a .30-06 from Herter's when I was in college in 1967. Along with the rifle, I bought enough basic reloading equipment to get me started. When I got out of the Army in 1971 I had acquired my first centerfire pistols, a Ruger .357 and a 1911 .45 acp, and my first shotgun, a Miroku 12 gauge O/U, and I then began reloading them. Again to save money, I began casting lead bullets for my pistols.

After I graduated from college, I joined the local Trap club so I could learn how to shoot my new shotgun. My trapshooting progressed into shooting trap leagues, and then into shooting registered trap competitions. By then I was shooting about 10,000 shotshells per year so I upgraded my shotshell reloader from a single stage Honey Bair to a Pacific (now Hornady) 366 progressive and I bought a shotmaker to make my own lead shot.

In the mid 1980s I was introduced to Skeet shooting, which led to Briley barrel insert tubes so I could shoot all 4 gauges in the same shotgun, and 3 more Hornady 366 shotshell loaders.

Somewhere in the early 80s I also acquired some more pistols, and was shooting them more, so I bought a Dillon progressive reloader to speed up my pistol reloading.

So now I won't say that I have all of the reloading equipment that I need, but my reloading bench is pretty well set up with 4 Hornady 366 progressive shotshell reloaders (one in each gauge), a single stage 12 gauge reloader for hunting shells, a Dillon 450 progressive loader, and a RCBS Rockchucker loader, plus case trimmers, a RCBS powder measurer and scale, and a vibratory and a rotary case tumblers. I'm now reloading 4 pistol cartridges, 9 rifle cartridges, and 4 shotgun gauges. I still make 2-300 pounds of shot per year, I am casting bullets for all of my pistols and most of my rifles, several different muzzleloaders, and 12 gauge shotgun slugs. I also buy all of my rifle and pistol primers in boxes of 1,000 and my shotshell primers and wads in cases of 5,000.

Most of my reloading equipment was bought and paid for many years ago, so even reloading my magnum rifle cartridges only cost me a fraction of factory ammo prices.

The other big value that I have found to reloading is that I can tailor my reloads to my guns for best accuracy and to fit the shooting that I do.

 

[Jimnwise]

A lot of guys are complaining about lead availabity around here.

 

[gizmo]

A lot of guys are complaining about lead availabity around here.

It's funny how the shortage cycles have gone. Used to you couldn't find primers now I can find them everywhere. Now certain powders are extremely difficult to find as well as brass (locally). Bullets seem to be relatively easy to come by. It has certainly improved since 7 1/2 years ago when the shortages started. I just hope everything goes well this November, we get piece of mind back, and supply starts to come back all around.

 

[MS Hitman]

My college roommate's dad, "Pop", got me started in reloading. I can also blame him for getting into bullet casting as well. I sure did love that man, and miss him! For a while, I was making cases, such as using .303 British to make .445 Supermag.

I have flirted some with shotshell reloading, but plan to start reloading for my 28 gauge as shells for that one are still relatively expensive and sometimes difficult to find.

I have taught all my children how to reload, my 17 year old having killed two deer with ammo he loaded himself. It is a worthwhile hobby to say the least.

 

[JimP]

I have found that there are a couple of problems with reloading.

One is that you think that you'll save money by reloading. I have found that I usually spend more since I started shooting more when I started to reload 50 years ago. But now days when you start purchasing premium ammo for $100+ for a box of 20 rounds you can save money by reloading. I have cut my cost of that ammo down to about $25.00 for a box of 20.

Another one and I may get some arguments here is that reloaded ammo is more accurate. That statement may of been true 40 or so years ago but now days the factory ammo is fantastic, it just takes a while to find the ammo that your rifle likes. But it also takes time to figure out what hand loads that your rifle likes and in doing so you usually accumulate a number of cans of powder that are only slightly used. I usually pawn this powder off on friends that happen to like that type of powder.

 

[Jimnwise]

Maybe Jim, but one thing factory ammo will never have is the sweat from your own palms and the satisfaction of having something you created work for you. That's what I like about it more than anything. It's a labor of love.

 

[JimP]

I was just playing the devils advocate.

The last factory round, rifle, pistol, or shotgun that I shot was over 25 years ago when a friend wanted me to shoot his rifle to see if I could hit anything. The rifle was fine, but he was having problems hitting the animals.

 

[Rob404]

I got started kind of by accident, I wanted to do a re-barrel on my savage 110 from 243 to 223, I got a good deal on a match barrel and asked for help on a Minnesota gun Forum of which I was a member, Don T voluntered and I spent an afternoon at his work shop learning the art of re-barrel, He is an avid shooter so the talk of re-loading was discussed. He mentioned he was interested in selling of some his older gear since he had recently moved to a multi stage, He showed me the basics and safety and gave me a minor want list So a few weeks later I owned a RCBS rock crusher a Sinclair scale and a powder trickler, and that was my start. Since then I have expanded the number of rifles I re-load for and I have to admit to a few errors that thank god I discovered before something stupid happened usually over fill, . I keep a detailed notebook with the loads I experiment with include Muzzle Velocity and bullet setback. I experiment with various types of powder and bullet weight until I get the result I'm looking for, the two rifles I took to Africa with me had my custom loads and performed Flawlessly . I believe that the best groups I ever shot were a result of the expermenting until I

find the sweet spot, a Pic of my first load a 308 loaded with Win 748 and a 168Gr Sierra Game King
44mag
38spcl
357 mag
9mm
223x2
308 x3
30-06x2
6.5 swede
7mm rem
8Mauser
7mm-08
338-06
257 Weatherby
375HH
404 Jeff (soon)

 

[Jimbob]

Tried buying 45-120 factory ammo.....in the UK?

That's why I started!

 

[nztimb]

I atarted handloading for my first rifle and believe I have only ever bought three or four boxes of factiory amunition
20 VarTarg
22 Hornet x3
22-250
25-06
6.5 Grendel-Max
7x57 x4
7x61 S&H
303 Lee Speed
303 Martini Enfield
400 Lee Speed
44Spcl x 3
44Mag x2
404 Jeffery
458Lott
577-450

It was the convenience of being able to have ammon on hand that suited my needs at first but then accuracy became a factor and of course I like to be in contoll of as much of my obsession as possible so I dont have a single rifle in my cabinet that I havent restocked and altered in some way although to be honest I have ofetn looked at parts as the basis for a rifle and have very rarely bought on in good to excellent going condition.

 

[Marcos Rodriguez]

Well... well... why I start handloading?... hahaha... good question!
In fact, I build my own rifle years ago using an "old warrior" in 7,65x53 caliber (MAUSER) but... BUT... the quality and quantity of shots to this caliber are very few Sincerely... the quality are pooorles than the quantity! The factory ammunition in my country, historic cradle of the glorious "argentine mauser 1909" are sadless... A CRAP...
So... after shot two boxes of factory ammunition and can´t shot down anything, by the sugestion of several friends of an argentinian forum I start to handoading for this cartridge!
So, after thath I dive in the amazing world of the handloading, star to cast my own bullets (.312, .308 and .45) shot with subsonic charges, and hunt ALL withmy handload ammo! NEVER AGAIN HUNT ANYTHING WITH A FACTORY....

 

[caddman]

Pretty much the same as most, I started out wanting to produce the most accurate load for my rifle (270 win back then) as economically as I could.
Again, like most I really wonder if I saved much considering all the equipment I purchased. I do enjoy it though and the savings have become secondary over the years. I find it gratifying using my own loads for hunting.

 

[Rob404]