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
Most Glibs probably wouldn’t have any friends anyway…
That’s hurtful.
Accurate, but hurtful.
Great stuff, sir.
ISTR that Suthen recommended an isolated area for reloading – i.e., not in your basement.
Is that your recommendation as well?
Too crowded in your basement? Bruh, I feel you…
I lived in an apartment for a couple years, I used the second bedroom. When I moved here I had all my equipment in the garage and on cooler days start a fire in the wood stove and hide from Mrs Fourscore for an afternoon. If your basement is dry and not too humid you’ll be OK. I have ammo in the garage but also in the dry basement. A big closet works well too.
If you have little kids they are always curious and may want to help when you’re not around. Keep your primers and powder safely out of little hands. As a teenager I collected assorted brass as kids collect matchbox toys or baseball cards. A Gun Digest will keep a kid busy for hours, if they are interested in shooting/hunting.
Something to consider if you are pressed for space and have kids around, look at an old roll top desk. They can easily be closed off and locked, look decent when they are shut, and have ample room for storage.
Lol.
I resemble that remark.
When I was just starting out, a gun store nearby was going out of business and I’d just gotten my first credit card.
This is a dangerous situation.
So is working for a gun store and knowing when you quit you lose your employee discount.
I had my brother as a buffer, working in a gun store.
I had just got a credit card for he first time as well…
I save my brass. One day I’ll pick up reloading…
Excellent article. As most of my shooting is .22LR, I don’t have much need of reloading, and I wouldn’t reload anything for home defense (lawyer bait), I don’t have much need for it, with the exception of older, weird calibers. I have a .303 Improved single shot that I might put 20 rounds through in a year, but that is not a commercial cartridge so I have to fire form .303Brit and then I could reload it. Also, 12 gauge 2-1/2 black powder is on the list. Again, I don’t put many rounds through, but I certainly don’t want to stress the old girl with modern stuff. So, between the two, I am looking to see if I can use a Lee Loader for the first, and I have an antique roll-crimper for the second.
I really like simple, especially around gunpowder.
I wouldn’t reload anything for home defense (lawyer bait)
Can you expand on that? Why would reloading home defense rounds be an issue?
Opens you up to inquiry as to your motivation, skill, and purpose.
I can see arguments that the invader would have suffered less
damage but for your misloading, overloading, or deliberately
constructing the ammunition to cause unnecessary injury.
Effectively it could end up putting your reloading on trial,
and anything at all that could be found wrong could end
up costing you.
If it comes down to a court case, I want everything in my situation to be backed up by a verifiable specification. Whether that be my training history, my compliance with applicable self-defense laws, or the ammunition I use.
I was not good about record keeping. I labelled my reloads with the date, powder and bullet weight but never kept a log. I have reloads close to 40 years old, they shoot fine and are safe. Some Army surplus ammo is WW2 vintage.
They will make the claim that, due to your hobbies, you were looking to kill someone. My opinion stems from a gun writer, Massad Ayoob, who talked at length about how you should have a custom gun: trigger, mag capacity, sights, etc. And all I could think was that if opposing council got ahold of that, it would be brought up in front of a jury at length, and it would be used against you. Hair trigger, extra bullets, and so on. Same with ammo: hot loaded, faster, goes through walls, etc.
No, keep everything off the shelf, don’t look like someone who was looking for trouble. Remember, the jury will not share your hobbies, and they will be made to look weird to the average person.
Agreed.
The prosecutor wants to paint you has a hot-headed asshole that was looking for an opportunity to shoot someone. Every choice you make will be cast in that light.
Using the same guns and an ammo as law enforcement will get you painted as a wanna-be cop who looked for someone to shoot.
Loading your own ammo will get you painted as the hot-head that wanted to cause as much damage as possible.
You want to use off the shelf defensive ammo.
If I ever can get to a place where I can shoot more I plan to reload. More for the fun than anything else.
OT from one of my Japanese food channels. A legit flat top American style burger with homemade bacon.
https://youtu.be/4yTpLEeDXS4
Subtitles available if you turn them on.
“Subtitles available if you turn them on.”
Wow, those Japanese nightclubs can be pretty fancy.
That was in my feed too! Bunch of the comments from people that have eaten there. Sounds like a really nice guy. ‘My wife said she was homesick so I sold everything and moved us even though I didn’t really speak the language.’
Great article!
I recall as a teenager watching Dad at the press, cranking out bullets for his 7×57. Many years later he gave me his setup.
I really got in to it for a while, striving for accuracy and consistency. I’d load up a new recipe and then go over to the nearby meadow to check it out.
Over time things changed. For one thing, my hunting buddy died. Next, the Forest Service closed off the road to the meadow. And I discovered that the rounds that I could buy were as good or better than anything that I could come up with.
Since I’ve given up hunting my supply of hunting ammo is enough to allow me to go shooting every once in a while. I’m giving my setup to SIL-3; hopefully he can find an interest.
Regards to the article, I reloaded to try to find a better load. Saving money was never the intention.
That’s part of the fun. If you are a long range target-er or shoot in the wide open spaces accuracy becomes more important. I told a Glib visitor today that my youngest grand daughter shot her first moose last fall, with a 30-30 that I had given her and with my reloads. The rifle is on a stump behind her in the picture.
I couldn’t have been more proud.
“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.”
This is me. And let’s be fair, it’s more like ‘put all the components into the bins, spend half an hour verifying your charge weight, primer seating depth, case bell diameter, bullet seating depth, and crimp pressure, then hit the start button and hover over your press, waiting for something to hang up…’
9mm Luger ammo at under $200/case is worth it though…
I ‘member when that was every weekend.
*pours one out for $130/case Tula*
BTW, love the ammo chart. Is there a link to a larger image?
I can’t find a high res image but you can buy a 24″x36″ poster of it here.
This Ebay listing has about the clearest/largest image I’ve found, you can almost read the smallest text.
Thanks!
.45 Winchester Mag
Now yer talkin’.
Agree 100% on safety. There is plenty of space to fit a double charge in most handgun cases, and that will ruin your day, hand and/or face. Avoid distractions, keep organized, don’t stop in the middle of a batch and come back to it.
My .45 Winc Mag is a Thompson Contender, there is a fellow Glib that has a revolver that he had retrofitted to shoot 45 Wincs. The Contender barks pretty loud and is a little uncomfortable to shoot. I’m left handed and have left hand grips on it.
I had an AMT Automag IV for a while. It was fun, but not what you would call accurate. Ended up selling it.
Had an Automag II, also. Trigger on that gun was like a long walk through a cold swamp. Jammed a lot, too, hard to get those long 22 Mags to feed reliably out of a magazine.
I love 22mag, and have had a Marlin 783 for years now. Never a problem to find ammo when there is a shortage, still relatively cheap, and you can reach out just far enough with it.
I had an Automag II 30ish years ago. It was fine with fmj, semi jacketed hp it jammed constantly.
It is newly diagnosed breast cancer day in the general surgery clinic. 😢
What!!?? You?
NO! NOT ME! No, I’m transcribing a bunch of general surgery clinic notes and they’re just one after another, boom boom boom, like 6 women in a row.
Thanks for clarifying. I thought the same thing.
Oh. Well, I’m sad for them but glad , you know…
Naw, if I popped up with breast cancer, I’d just say, “Chop ’em off. Ain’t nobody got time fer dis.”
My dad used to pick up reloaders and dies at estate sales. He gave me a bunch of those so my area startup costs were low. Now that he has passed away I’ve got dies of various calibers that I have no use for if anyone is interested. For that matter, I have a bunch of rifles of various calibers I have no room for, and I’m worried they’ll sink to the bottom of a lake.
So, it turns out Matt Gaetz and I do agree about something.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/15/exclusive-gaetz-defund-npr-louis-farrakhan-final-call/
I like Farrakhan. Don’t agree with him on a damn thing I don’t think but at least I know where he stands.
“Celebrating the 90th birth anniversary of the Honorable Minister” L.F.? Who in hell writes this crap? What happened to “birthday”? And “Honorable” is not a title in the U.S. except for judges.
When I worked in Cincinnati, I used to listen to FInal Call on my way home from work on Friday.
It was entertaining.
Get out of bed, ya sleepyheads!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdyuKaGQd4
🎶🎶
No.
💤💤
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/woke-race-swapping-netflix-cleopatra-series-gets-worst-audience-score-in-tv-history/
lulz
What? Cleopatra wasn’t a strong black woman who alternated between doing awesome Hollywood looking warrior shit and twizzerking all over powerful Roman dizzick? Say it ain’t so…because it ain’t…chick was Greek.
NPR had a “race in antiquity scholar” doing her level best not to admit Cleo wasn’t Black.
How long before the Gerry Connolly office attack falls out of the news cycle now that it appears it isn’t Republican inspired?
Wait, it wasn’t a white supremacist? They’re the biggest danger ever!
Clearly the Asian face of white supremacy.
49-year-old Xuan Kha TranPham of Fairfax.
Definitely will be silenced in 3,2,1….
If it was a scum Republican they would’ve shot and killed people instead of just beating them so suck on that.
See also: Heads we win, tails you lose.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey, Stinky, Sean, and Roat!
Gotta call the vet back to schedule a tooth extraction for Little Black Cat. Several hundred bucks, which I’ll pay because I’m a crazy cat lady. 🙄🐱👤
Aww, poor kitty. LBC has you wrapped around its’ little finger.
***SIGH!!!*** Yes. Yes, he does.
Naw, good hooman. He (she?) would do it for you.
Mornin’, reprobates!
Good morning, ‘patzie!
Is my clock off? Did we change time already?