When do you stop reloading?

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rperyam

rperyam

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I was reloading a couple of hundred 45 ACP cases when my wife stopped and asked me "when do you stop reloading?" I just said "when I'm done."

I have been reloading since 1971 when a friend introduced me to the hobby. I only do handgun ammo as I finally don't hunt anymore. I have plenty of powder, bullets and empty cases. I'm down to about 13,000 small and large primers so I'm OK for a while. I am currently using a Dillon Square Deal and other than needing a set of dies for the 380, I'm happy with it.

Looking around I see 14 50 caliber ammo cans filled with reloads. I shoot about 200 rounds a week at a couple of firing ranges and find myself rushing home to reload my empties as well as any other empties I can find. I figure I reload about 300 rounds a week. I really don't get to the ammo cans and some have reloads from the eighties in them.

I reload because I enjoy it. I listen to my music or a good book on tape and no one bothers me. I don't set goals when I sit down and I stop when I feel like doing something else. My reloading trays are full, my range bag is packed and I'm content.

I'm I the only one that feels this way or do you see it as work?
 
9mm or .223 that I reload for matches = work

They're done on a progressive and are reloaded to support shooting a match. If I could I'd just as soon by cases of factory ammo, the benefit to reloading is savings as the accuracy requirements in IDPA or 3Gun aren't stringent enough to demand load development.

Everything else I find enjoyable.
 
I am not reloading anything right now, I have a fair supply.
But I am not idle, I have had some .45 ACP bullets to set back in the case against the feed ramp and I am running the rest of that series through my case cannelure tool to get the slick plated bullets some support. The next lot with that bullet will be on brass sized with an undersize carbide die, EGW-Lee "U" die for a Coke bottle effect..
 
I stop when I run out of primers. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I enjoy the reloading process, but typically don't load more rounds than I plan to used within a year. Things often change over a year's time, and what I load this year may not be what I want to shoot a couple of years down the road.
 
rperyam said:
I was reloading a couple of hundred 45 ACP cases when my wife stopped and asked me "when do you stop reloading?" I just said "when I'm done."

I have been reloading since 1971 when a friend introduced me to the hobby. I only do handgun ammo as I finally don't hunt anymore. I have plenty of powder, bullets and empty cases. I'm down to about 13,000 small and large primers so I'm OK for a while. I am currently using a Dillon Square Deal and other than needing a set of dies for the 380, I'm happy with it.

Looking around I see 14 50 caliber ammo cans filled with reloads. I shoot about 200 rounds a week at a couple of firing ranges and find myself rushing home to reload my empties as well as any other empties I can find. I figure I reload about 300 rounds a week. I really don't get to the ammo cans and some have reloads from the eighties in them.

I reload because I enjoy it. I listen to my music or a good book on tape and no one bothers me. I don't set goals when I sit down and I stop when I feel like doing something else. My reloading trays are full, my range bag is packed and I'm content.

I'm I the only one that feels this way or do you see it as work?
Click to expand...
I have hunting ammo I loaded five years ago and probably won't use for another two seasons, but I still load up hunting ammo and take it to the range or out to one of the pastures to try out. I tweak the recipes a little each time to see if its better or not so good or about the same... I just like loading, too.
 
I started reloading at the end of 2019 so I never really got a huge stock of anything made up. I’m in constant catch up mode. I plan to take care of that this winter and fill up several ammo cans with my known favorite recipes. Luckily I like reloading as much as shooting.

As for when I stop each day, I load pistol rounds in 150 round lots. If I’m feeling good I do another 150 rounds. So 150 to 300 per night and usually 450 on weekends.
 
I'm with @Chuck R. on this one. I enjoy sitting down with the single stage - or even the tong tool - to load a few dozen .44 Special or .45 Colt, with bullets I cast myself, and Unique or maybe even blackpowder. That's a hobby.

Pulling a lever to crank out five hundred or a thousand cartridges for a match or a class, on the other hand, is just kind of a chore that needs to be done.
 
When the screeching on the other side of the reloading room door gets my attention.

My gun room is combo reloading and gun cleaning and tinkering on reloading stuff room. So I load a while, then clean a gun maybe, then work in a reloading item I got to refurbish. Right now it's a Lyman 55.

I enjoy reloading. I enjoy shooting. I enjoy reading about guns. I enjoy the historical aspects. It's sorta balanced. Many folks only like shooting, for some reason.
 
rperyam said:
I reload because I enjoy it. I listen to my music or a good book on tape and no one bothers me. I don't set goals when I sit down and I stop when I feel like doing something else. My reloading trays are full, my range bag is packed and I'm content.

I'm I the only one that feels this way or do you see it as work?
Click to expand...
Nope, you're not the only one. Back in the '80s, my wife and I were both heavily into IHMSA competitions - my wife more so than I. That was long before I retired, so my wife's and my weeks went like this: I'd work all day (Monday thru Friday), and when I got home from work, after supper my wife and I would go down in the basement and load ammunition for her two .44 Mag revolvers. The next day while I was at work, my wife would go down to the local gravel pit and "practice" - shooting up the ammo we'd loaded the night before. Then, come Saturday morning, we'd head for a silhouette shoot somewhere - the closest one was nearly a hundred miles away.
We followed that routine for 2 years, right up until we figured out that we'd allowed silhouette shooting (which included handloading) to become more like work than fun. So we quit silhouette shooting, and handloading became relaxing and fun again.:thumbup:
 
I stop reloading when I have to go and make more primers (LRP).
I stop making primers when my primer trays are full.
I have 10 old primer trays that I try to keep full.
I shoot about 250-350 rounds each shooting session (.308)
I shoot at least once a week, often twice.
I just ordered 1000 bullets.
I just ordered 8#'s of powder.
I just broke my rifle last night (broke roll punch in bolt head trying to remove the ejection spring).
I guess it's time to stop?
I've got another rifle.
I'll be shooting this weekend!:)
 
I dunno. There have been times in my life when I've slowed down because of wife and kids and job, etc., but for the past 20 years since the kids got out of college (well, the three girls) I've consistently been steadily reloading. Even on the rare occasion when I temporarily ran out of powders and primers ... I was still collecting brass and lead ... I was sorting and prepping brass, and casting boolits.

I doubt I'll run out of powders and primers again in what is remaining of my life ... question for me now is whether or not the mission is contunued by my Son or grandkids or even one of rhe SiLs. Hopefully that is down the road and I don't make any mistakes as I continue to age.

I guess I'll stop if/when I realize I am not mentally capable of doing it safely anylonger.
 
rperyam said:
I was reloading a couple of hundred 45 ACP cases when my wife stopped and asked me "when do you stop reloading?" I just said "when I'm done."

Done . . done? :scrutiny:

My wife is always sticking her head in my reloading room. Whatcha doing? Reloading. Why don't you join me out here. Can't, I'm reloading but if you find a good, old western on the boob tube I'll join you.

An hour later . . . whatcha doing. :)

Reloading is the best, mental therapy I've ever found. But drift fishing under a big umbrella, with beer, sprawled out in a rowboat and not caring if I catch anything or not comes in at a close second.
Click to expand...
 
Well my pop started me out sitting on his knee when I was about 3 or 4, setting cases into the shell holder of his press. That was back in the late 60's. Around 72 or so, pop sat patiently watching me as I loaded my first rounds start to finish.

I've been at it ever since, sometimes thinking of pop makes it all worthwhile. He was a straightforward, no BS sort of fellow who grew up with 9 other siblings and lost his pop when he was around 9. Being the oldest and living through the end of the depression and WW2 knowing the value of doing for yourself.

Myself, I have taught my daughter, and now working with my three grandsons 12, 14, and 19. We hunt, fish, and target shoot when time from our farm chores allow. Last weekend we went through about 50 or so rounds of 308 practicing and this weekend hopefully will put that to good use during youth weekend.

As mentioned earlier above my loving wife and I did a ton of shooting back in the early to mid 80s running 3-500 rounds of 357, 41, and 44 magnum a week. Load, shoot, and reload. She actually got me a gun safe and a 4X4 press to speed things up.

I find handloading relaxing and fulfilling. It not only helps to keep fond memories alive, but we are making new ones all the time. Guess I'll finally quit once I can no longer manage to find something to load.
 
I get the feeling the OP meant at what stage of life do you stop reloading…but I could be wrong.

Assuming I’m correct, OP, here is the thing as I see it. What is going to happen to all your reloads when you’re no longer are able to shoot? Do you have family that will shoot them up? Close friends who trust your reloads? Because if no one is gonna shoot them, that is a lot of weight to deal with.

Components can be sold easily. Home-loaded ammo, not so much.

If I’m off base, I’m sorry.
 
Stop forever?
Dunno/hadn't thought about it much other than my never-ending quest to add another hobby could change things.

Right now I'm in a self-imposed reloading hiatus that began even before my automobile mishap. =(
I've got a couple years worth of pistol. Our 223's are not in need of sustenance and I've already loaded several different ladders for my latest caliber addition, 6.5CM
I need to GO SHOOT, and this weekend is looking like a good one! :thumbup:
 
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I guess I'll quit when they throw dirt on my face. That is unless I develop a disease that affects my memory or vision and causes me to become unsafe.

I like to reload and I like having ammo ready to go, anytime that I want to shoot. I even enjoy case prep! There were times before I retired that I was so busy that I had to sit up late the night before a match or opening day of hunting season to load ammo.

I can relate to the 14 loaded 50 cal cans of ammo on the shelf!
 
I enjoy it all the way up till the back of my neck starts tightening up. I enjoy the separate tasks as long as I don't try to get too much done at one time. The worst is trimming rifle cases. I thought it was inexpensive to start reloading but the case prep tool became mandatory, the trimmer became mandatory, the wet tumbler with the magnet became mandatory, the Chargemaster Lite became mandatory. There was a lot of equipment not on my initial list to get started that should have been on the list. I have to have electric everything now. lol I'll be getting one of those Annealz thingamajigs soon.

I don't get the sitting in silence people. Reloading is not like learning Tiger style at the Shaolin Temple. I hear people talk about going into seclusion and turn their phones off and order their dogs not to bark. lol I have to have a movie or good tv show on in the background. My tinnitus is so bad it is literally like sirens so I need a distraction from that distraction before I even start anything. I've made some mistakes, but not because the tv was on.

I started for my own professional development before the pandemic. I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I'm glad I made the leap. But when my neck tightens up, I'm done for the day.
 
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