Is reloading worth it threads....

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It's one hobby that supports another. To me reloading and shooting are 2 separate things.
I used to build fishing rods because I fished.
Built guitar amplifiers and effects pedals because of playing guitars.
Did some blacksmithing because I carved stone.
...... and on and on because I like to build stuff. Economics have never had much to do with my hobbies.
 
Its a hobby that I enjoy. Even if factory 9mm and 223 gets down close to the price of my handloads mine is more accurate.

I bought my BIL 2 boxes of 270's right before Deer Season. He couldn't find any and I knew where some was. I didn't get very much change back from a $100 bill.
 
Yeah I can buy nato ammo like 5.56 for around 60 cents a shot. But the cheap stuff shoots around 3moa.
My 223 and 5.56 hand loads do more like 1.5moa and are around 30 to 40 cents each.
The only ammo that shot equal to or better than my hand loads was $1 a shot match ammo and that was pre-pandemic prices.
There's nothing like my 9mm ammo on the market. Very quiet silencer ammo that uses about 3gr of nitro100nf to spit out a 124gr bullet at 1,000fps from a 5 inch barrel.
My clandestine 9mm load poached from this post. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/clandestine-9mm-loads.887637/
 
A lot of people took up reloading during the pandemic because of the lack of ammo availability, then those components went way up and dried up. I started reloading maybe 5 years ago. I did it because of the cost of specialty ammo and ammo the needs to be modified for odd calibers you can't buy. Until the day i run out of the common calibers I wont reload those, its not much cheaper to reload 556, 9mm ect ect. This wont be the last ammo shortage, Its like Oil going up and down in price. A worker has a fart fire in a restroom in TX, they shut down the refinery and they use it to raise prices. Greedy Bastards. I also enjoy black powder.
 
Not if you hate it. I'm probably one of the few guys, or a guy that will admit it, that hated reloading. Not sure why but I always found my mind wandering when I was reloading and after my first squib I knew it wasn't going to be for me. As stated many times. A man has got to know his limitations. Yeah, I buy everything now. Yes it's expensive. But I don't worry about squibs or blowing my gun up either. Guess it's a good trade off.
 
AJC1 said:
There is definitely cheap ammo out there over the years, and I kinda expected a more mixed response. Nato ammo makes up a very large portion of that which goes on sale. I've never encountered 45c or 357 on sale at a cheap rate, so my choice of caliber locks me into loading. If 30-30 was still 15 or 16 bucks I'd sure stock up.
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My post was not to say that reloading cannot help reduce costs. It most certainly can, especially with non-current military cartridges (if that description makes sense). Rather it's kind of silly for someone to claim big savings by comparing components acquired when prices were lower. Chances are darned good factory ammo could have been purchased cheap at some point, too. My observation has been most reloading components are purchased in larger lots so we tend to have supplies on hand when shortages or price hikes come around as the cycle inevitably does. Of course this can turn some people away from the hobby, too. There's plenty of folks who would never envision needing 1000 rounds of anything which I think is pretty well recognized by the standard box sizes seen on store shelves of 5, 20 or 50.
 
Rockrivr1 said:
Not if you hate it. I'm probably one of the few guys, or a guy that will admit it, that hated reloading. Not sure why but I always found my mind wandering when I was reloading and after my first squib I knew it wasn't going to be for me. As stated many times. A man has got to know his limitations. Yeah, I buy everything now. Yes it's expensive. But I don't worry about squibs or blowing my gun up either. Guess it's a good trade off.
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I never worry either and everything I shoot I reloaded.

But it is fascinating to me that you hate reloading yet still follow discussions on this forum. I’ll ask my therapist about it and let you know what he says.
 
If it's a choice between spending some time/money reloading 9mm, or shooting Winchester White Box or some similar trash, I'll opt to reload. Every. Single. Time. On any other of the many calibers that I shoot/reload it's not even a valid question. (Besides, I like reloading!)
 
I simply handload because I enjoy it. Other than rimfire and shot shells, I don't recall the last decade I bought factory ammo. Yep, I enjoy it.
Never approached it as saving $$$, I simply made better ammo. Think I'll finish off my .45 Colt loads. That actually might be saving!:thumbup:
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Well slap me silly and call me irresponsible because I have made some really bad choices. But those were also the ones that got me into the most interesting adventures. I even remember the ones that left scars. Mostly.
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Well if you can remember them they couldn’t have been THAT bad. I saw a college roommate not too long ago and we looked at each other like we’d never seen each other before.
 
dannyd said:
I like handloading and bullet casting it's my only hobby and I have definitely NOT saved any money in 35 years.

If I wanted to save money I would quit my hobby. :)
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Very true:)

Hobbies can’t save you anything because a hobby by definition isn’t necessary so everything you spend is a loss. Maybe fun or worth it to you, but still a loss. (Start arguments here.)

Because living life through the lens of zero-based budgeting sucks, we do the opposite. Instead, we presume/pretend whatever we are already doing is justified so we can continue doing it. (Governments do this too.)

Now, from time to time we may try to be more cost efficient about it and score points that way, but we’re still presuming the activity is necessary. Look Honey what a great deal I got on this new press. We saved this much $$! It’s an investment in modern infrastructure for the future!

Or this…if I didn’t mow the lawn, I’d have to pay someone at least $50/week to do it so that’s $200/month I’m saving and can spend on reloading. Right, sweetie? Right?
 
When you have a 100 year old rifle and cartridges cannot be had, yes reloading is the best option.
I started with a 11MM Mauser 71/84 repeater a lot of years ago. My best option was to start reloading
that rifle shot a 385 grain lead bullet pushed by 77 Fg blackpowder.
A great shooting load was 5grains IMR 4759 powder and 70 grains FG.
Yes, it is a duplex load and many do not have any idea what that is, but the load shot great and it kept
the barrel cleaner.
And of course "everything" had a soap and water bath!
 
I got started reloading 3 years ago mainly because I had time on my hands and was looking for a new hobby. The first caliber I did was 9mm which at the time I could buy factory Blazer Brass for 12 cents a round, so a lot of reloaders said it wasn't worth reloading. I wasn't doing it to save money, I was doing it because I enjoyed it. And since I'd made the investment in equipment I was for sure going to use it. At that time components were cheap. $30/brick for primers, with bullets and powder also cheap compared to today. So I stocked up well with components and started cranking out rounds on my single stage press.

Before long I had loaded 10k rounds of 9mm and moved onto .223 and .45 as those were the only other caliber guns I had. I was still really into it so I did 5k rounds of .223 and 3k rounds of .45 ACP. I still had a good supply of components on hand but figured that was enough ammo for a while. Then I got interested in black powder shooting and that gave me something else to keep busy.

The end result was that when ammo became almost impossible to find, I kept shooting just as much as ever using my stockpile. I don't think I'll ever worry about whether it's cheaper to reload or buy factory ammo, I'll just keep reloading for all my guns except the rimfires.
 
Reloading is not fore everyone. Some will want to and some won't think its worth it. Me? I have been reloading for since 1976 or 77. It started out about not being able to afford ammo. Now at 61 its more about I can always have the ammo I want, I just need to put it together.

Trick is to keep a small supply of components to do what you need. For years the first accessory I get for a new gun is the reloading dies (If I don't already have them).

Right now would I bother to load 9mm? Nope. Did I load some of it during covid when no one had or could get 9mm? You bet I did and I never had to slow down my shooting schedules. I can't see using SPP on 9mm when I can buy it at the store. But 38Spl or 357Mag? You be I would reload them up as needed.

So for me reloading is about the ability to not have to say I want to go shooting but I don't have ammo.

WB
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if owning a car and house is worth it. Is it worth it to live an hour (+ sometimes) from work? Is it worth living in the styx and shopping at hole in the wall mom and pop stores just to hear crickets and see stars? We could save a bundle living in a two room condo a bicycle ride from work and take the bus to shop for groceries. So is it worth the hassles to eat farm fresh food and live far from the city?

Yup.
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Don't worry our .gov is already coming for that farm fresh food as well.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-fda-made-a-felon-out-of-this-amish-farmer
 
I haven't purchased but one box of factory centerfire ammo in 35 years. The only one was a box of 45-70 300 grain Fusion. I fired one round from that box and put it away. My ammo has been spot on for decades and I make it cheaper than the factory. Clearly this will not work for everyone, but after dollar cost averaging and having all my costs covered for many years outside of recent component purchases, I reload inexpensively. I also enjoy it with a passion.
 
For people coming in new I think there are a few things that hit first. One is over all costs. Costs of equipment, costs of components, then cost per round you "made". It is only natural to want to know what the road ahead has on it. Like so many said if you shoot common flavors cost per round you make vs cost per round store bought can be roughly equal. I think I am safe in saying the majority of shooters are not needing or really wanting F-class ammo. Most people it will be a long range hole punch and that is it. I have come across articles that in even a SD type deal having your own home made ammo is just another arrow in the quiver of the lawyers on the other side....just like having "make my day" on the side of your firearm....it does not look good in court.

This has really picked up steam IMHO because of the shortages, and people thinking about doing this for costs likely peek in at costs of powder, primers and the like, and where before they don't exist, now if your timing is good people have stock....so the discussion has started again.

There really is no good or bad answer, and I really understand the threads potential new loaders start, and detest those that say "use search". The reason this place exists is to help fellow shooters, use the search is not help.

It really is up to the specific person if they "want" to start on this end of the hobby. It is not hard, and the basic equipment to make very good rounds is not that expensive. It is all what your mindset is when it comes to "common calibers".

Now if you shoot long out of date cartridges and are calling RCC for your brass, then yes reloading is really the only road you have available.

I know people that started reloading "common" calibers then to buy that old gun they always wanted because now they can reload for it.
 
No one has mentioned this but I'll bring it up now. One reason to reload is to learn how. Many people like to learn a new skill and have it in their repertoire. If I could shoot factory 9mm and get the same accuracy I get from my target reloads for a comparable price, I would. If I find some factory ammo at comparable price that does shoot as well, I'd probably stop for that one caliber. If that source changed or went back up, I am comfortable enough now that I can pick up where I left off and be back making my loads as soon as I can get to the shop. The other calibers I reload will have to get a lot cheaper before I quit. Even if I do stop reloading them, I've done it long enough that I can pick back up if needed. I would be comfortable making new loads if the components I currently use aren't available. I have 6 loads for 9mm as it is, just based on the scavenger hunt we've all been on for components for 2 years anyway.
 
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