What Got Everbody Started Reloading ?

[aushunter1]

Cost saving primarily although that's a bit of a myth really, cost of all the gear to do it right, shooting more as well .
Back in about 2008 when I got back into shooting after a long spell the factory ammo my new .22-250 liked was $2.50 a round so that's what prompted turning to the dark arts.
Then I bought a 260Rem, next to no factory ammo here in Aus, what was here was $3+ per round. That rifle has never seen a single factory round in it.
Then just turned into more of a hobby within a hobby, enjoying the challenge of squeezing all the accuracy out of a round that you can.
Now reload for.222, .22-250, 260Rem, 270W, 300Wsm.
I was lucky to get a lot of my gear from the USA when the $AU was on parity with the $US, saved me heaps which helps to break even in the long run.
Everything is so much more here in Australia as its got to come so far.

 

[RT2506]

I got into hand loading 40 years ago mainly for two reasons. So I could feed me and my wife and for cost savings. I was newly married and it took everything we could scrape together just to live. If I did not shoot, catch, grow it or someone give it to us we did not eat it. We were living in north east NC where there was plenty of game and fish. Trouble was paying for ammo. I had a 12 ga shotgun and you could use buck shot to deer hunt with but it cost about $3 for five rounds. I had done some work for an old fellow and part of the pay was an old ruff shape Colt 1911A1 WWII bring back pistol. He said that he took it off a dead Jap who had taken it off a dead
American. He did this on Okinawa. In the tropics things rust quickly especially if they have blood on them. Most of the finish was gone and it had rust pits that you could tell that blood had been on it at these spots. The barrel was toast because of shooting corrosive primed ammo and not cleaning it. I had a friend that was in the National Guard and he "acquired" me a new barrel, bushing and springs, Another friend had loading equipment and a RCBS 200 gr SWC bullet mold. I was given wheel weights from a local tire store and cast my own bullets. I found that with this bullet and 7 grs of Unique it was pretty accurate and probably ran close to 1000 fps. I got brass for free picked up from the local shooting spot people used at an old sand pit. At this time it was not legal to hunt deer with a pistol in NC but a man has to do what a man has to do to feed his family. I would hide the pistol on me and take my shotgun and go into the swamp after deer. I limited my shots to 50 yards or less. With that 45 ACP that 200 SWC would put a 45 hole clean through the rib cage of a deer and if they did not drop on the spot they did not go very far before they bled out. I could kill a deer for less than five cents. After a couple years our situation got better and I saved up and bought a Mauser Mark X rifle in 30-06 and got one of the Lee hammer style loading sets. That is how and why I started out hand loading.

 

[swe123]

Having more than one Weatherby.

 

[Deleted member 107796]

Wildcats. I wanted more than was offered when I was gifted with my .257Roberts.

 

[birdiemc]

I obviously didnt do my homework ahead of time...I thought it would provide cheaper ammo, yet 2 years later I'm still buying new tools to try and make it better, I figure I have probably spent $3 per round I've loaded at this point...boy I sure saved a lot of money...lol
One of these days I might even find a load I like.

 

[sturner]

I started in 85 just wanted to control the ammo I was shooting from there it went to custom rifles

 

[idcwby]

My dad was a reloader. So when I started hunting and shooting I just did the same. Definitely allowed me to shoot more when I was a kid.

idcwby

 

[MOJO67]

Weatherby's!

 

[newmexkid]

With all due respect....How old are you????

Wouldn't that be something to see.......Reloading taught in school.

Yes, how old are and where did you go to school??

 

[newmexkid]

I got into "it" around 1972 because my buddy got into "it". I remember my RCBS JR cost me $19. My wife about had a nervous breakdown!! Yep, 4831 was $2 a lb.

 

[RetiredSniper]

There are a number of reasons! The economy of not having to buy loaded ammo. The advantage of producing your own ammo in case it is not available. The capability to load your own ammo just the way your firearm likes it and change that load for different capabilities. If away from civilization, to be able to produce more ammo when needed. The reasons could go on much further than that depending on situations.

 

[milo-2]

I obviously didnt do my homework ahead of time...I thought it would provide cheaper ammo, yet 2 years later I'm still buying new tools to try and make it better, I figure I have probably spent $3 per round I've loaded at this point...boy I sure saved a lot of money...lol
One of these days I might even find a load I like.

Sorry, I chuckled a little bit. Prices have gone up, for components and equipment. My first Rockchucker cost 59 bucks and came with a set of RCBS dies of your choosing.
A Chargemaster is 300 bucks today and the company marketing it considers it a disposable item, as does the people upgrading from it. As in anything, there is smart money spent, and stupid money out the door. You'll plateau on the costs vs production at some point, but buying new toys is part of the game. Even when you get the costs down where there is a savings, now you are going to shoot more just from the pure enjoyment of more accurate ammo.
You'll get this.
Today, for me, reloading just fits into the aging process, we like better, more high quality stuff as we age. I don't know a single person my age who walks in a liquor store and grabs a bottle of Jack Daniels when 30 yrs ago it was consumed like water, their grabbing the GOOD stuff, lol

 

[Ernie1519]

I started back in the early 60's and I guess that it was to save money as I was doing a lot of varmint hunting at the time. For a number of years I only loaded for my 243 Sako. After I retired I began to do more target shooting and had the time to play with different loads and it became a challenge to match my rifles with the best that I could load...besides it is a great hobby.

 

[DT400]

My dad got me into reloading when I was 16. I didn't do it for any other reason than I wanted to learn and help dad. I am not sure exactly why dad started. Of course it has evolved into a hobby all it's own.

Darrell