To Reload or not Reload?

The question every person that enjoys shooting faces is it worth reloading my own ammo? What will I save? How much does it cost to get started? Besides saving money how much effort and time will I have to put in? Are there other benefits besides saving money?

A couple years ago Suthenboy did some good articles on the mechanics of reloading so I won’t spend a lot of time there. As with any hobby the more you learn and the time invested are part of the enjoyment. It is not a dangerous program if one practices a few safety rules. For the curious, a good friend that reloads can save you a lot on the learning curve. Most Glibs probably wouldn’t have any friends anyway so we can skip that part. Next best is to see if the local library has any reloading manuals, though that would get you on a list of some sort, in all likelihood. Last resort is to buy or borrow a good manual published by a bullet or powder manufacturer. If you decide you want to go ahead you’ll soon have several more anyway.

How much will you save? The initial outlay will depend on your intended rate of production. All reloaders do the same thing. The simpler models are slower, the automated variety are considerably more expensive and faster. I started reloading shotgun ammo because I was learning to shoot skeet and trap. A Lyman Easy Loader was about $25 in 1968, I could load a couple boxes of shells in an evening. At the time I was shooting about six rounds (150 shells) a week. I reloaded many thousands of shells with that rig, I gave it away a couple years ago and it had a lot of life left in it.

 

 

After you have the reloader you’ll need powder, primers and hulls or cases and projectiles, whether shot or bullets if it’s metallics. As time passed and I had access to places to shoot rifle/pistol I decided I wanted to reload metallics, I had several guns that hadn’t yet been lost to careless boating accidents. The first box of ammo I bought for a particular rifle cost $14 for twenty rounds in 1975. That same ammo now costs about $70.

I bought an RCBS (Rock Chucker) brand, a very well made and reputable piece of equipment. There are packages available that have the reloader and ancillary equipment that will get one started. This starter kit is about $500.

 

 

As with any hobby you’ll see the need for more add ons that do a particular operation only. Again, every reloader does the same job, the big difference is speed. A lot of pistol shooters use full automatic reloaders, where you put all the components in the bins and push the ‘Start’ button and get out of the way.

 

 

I was very meticulous in reloading rifle ammo, weighing about every second or third powder charge. Since I mostly was hunting deer I tended to load on the low end of the cook book recommendations. A couple reasons, deer are shot at close range here and are thin skinned. Secondly I didn’t need to put the rifle or me through more recoil than was necessary. I didn’t ‘experiment’ since the reloading manuals, and I, are geared towards safety.

As time went by somehow different caliber equipment found their way home with me. A couple I had to modify existing brass to accommodate the caliber of the gun, it was part of the learning process and enjoyable. Each caliber required a different set of dies which added to the cost.

 

 

Rifle/pistol reloading was much slower than shotgun, I wanted uniformity, I would spend a couple hours and more setting up and reloading twenty rounds of rifle ammo.

I reloaded for a few calibers that commercial ammunition was either very hard to find or non-existent. By a great stroke of luck I got my Dad’s 30 caliber Remington 141, an obsolete caliber. RCBS could make the dies for $100 but they only geared up once a year and orders had to be in and paid for several months in advance. Then I needed the brass. I was fortunate to have a friend in Oklahoma that found new brass at $80 for twenty pieces, I had him buy forty pieces and I was able to shoot a deer with my Dad’s old gun.

Recently ammunition of every kind has become scarce. My hunting partner had bought a Benelli .30-06 but couldn’t find any ammo. Fortunately I had had a .30-06 earlier and still had a couple boxes of reloads on the shelf. He zeroed his new rifle, a couple months later he shot his first Benelli deer. I can’t remember taking a deer over the last thirty years with anything other than my own handloads.

I always tried to work safely and avoided making super-duper ammo that would shoot over to the next county. Since I didn’t smoke there was not a fire danger around my reloading table. I would add never, never decide that a beer wouldn’t hurt on a hot day. A single small mistake could be expensive to your gun and harmful to one’s health.

Oh yeah, can you save money? I’ll let this guy answer that question. Spending money to save money (or not)? Your shooting club may have a bulletin board where some used equipment may be bought/sold. Read every auction notice you can find, auctions may not have many interested parties and you can make a good buy on reloading stuff. Always buy everything, you can trade, sell or keep the equipment you aren’t using. Besides, who knows? You may find a handgun or our Dad’s old rifle that supports your new dies. Can’t have too many.

When I was just starting out, a gun store nearby was going out of business and I’d just gotten my first credit card. Lots of things marked way, way down. Bullets, brass, powder, primers. The store was crowded and the line snaked through the narrow aisles. I was picking up anything I could use, my wife would hold something up and ask if I could use it. I went back two more times that day and loaded up for the future.

One time I stopped at Cabela’s in Owatonna, mostly window shopping. I found two-hundred pieces of .45 Winchester Mag brass at $7 a hundred, usually about $25 a hundred. Needless to say I bought both bags, it not only is expensive but very hard to find.

Put on some good music, get your equipment ready and settle in for an afternoon. By the end of the day you’ll be ready to clean up your work area and have some homemade ammo that isn’t registered.

Good Luck and Happy Shooting