Mid-Life Reloading vs. Buying Ammo Crisis

Pointman said:

California is on the road to "banning" ammo purchases. Now you're required to go through a "background check". They actually charge for this "privilege. "Since I'm feeding several long guns, reloading is a must for me. I'm retired and have the time and the equipment that I have accumulated over the decades. Can I make better loads that I can buy? I believe so. Do I save money? Definitely considering one of my ammo "eaters" is a 338 LM. ZI cast the bullets for my hand guns. Besides, I enjoy the precision, retired engineer speaking here. Am I a bit "anal"? dam straight.

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Hah, I need to show this to my wife. Being a retired engineer and owner of 338LM, also she seems to think I am anal. Over the years I think she might be right.

Shoot safe and have fun.

Tarheelpwr said:

Agree with the above. I slowly bought everything to reload. Then life happened. Day job, side businesses, and now 3 kids.

I never even opened most of loading things. I have lived just fine shooting factory. I can't say it has held me back.

I still have everything NIB for when I move and life slows down at some point. Until then, I expense as much ammo as I can with work and buy the rest.

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The future holds wonders for you. The rabbit trail is a great one to follow, more addicting than coke I would believe.

Do you enjoy reloading?
Do you get satisfaction of tuning ammunition to your rifle and your purpose?
Do you place other things above your enjoyment?
These are the questions.
Look inward for the answers, but it's good to ask others what and why they do their pursuits.
Do for you, hope you [all of you] find joy shooting.

I reload because I enjoy it. I also don't mind saving a little money, AND knowing exactly what It is I am shooting. Being retired doesn't hurt either!

I enjoy reloading and have done so since April 1963.

I have some rifles that factory ammo costs in the neighborhood of $120/box of 20. How many of those boxes of ammo do you want to buy? That should answer the question.

Braunschweiger said:

So... here I am... busy as heck like the rest of the world. I've spent thousands upon thousands on all my reloading equipment and consumables. Literally have spared no expense. You know what I'm talking about... Autotrickler v3 with all Area 419 upgrades, AMP Mk II Annealer, Giraud Trimmer, Forster Co-AX, Dillon XL 650, wet and dry tumbler... about 10 calibers I reload for.

At what point in your all's experience has it dawned that maybe the TIME investment (including the monetary investment) isn't worth it over buying ammo? Seems to be ALOT of great custom ammo shops out there. Even factory loads these days are great. All of my rifles are either custom or high end factory (AI, DT, LMT).

It's a snowball effect, I barely have any time to shoot as it is, and when I do have time, I am always reminded that, "Oh... I have to reload first" (I refuse to buy ammo since I have everything I need to reload)

I buy and sell all the time and about 90% of the time I'm taking a loss. So... as invested as I am I don't really want to sell it all piece by piece (headache) and still take a loss. Help. Anyone in the same boat?

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Ya, well not really. First off I have always reloaded ( and alway will) but when time is an issue I can and will buy ammo.
There are extensive periods of time when I dont step foot in the reloading room, no worries it will be there when I do. Had an afternoon last weekend and decided to reload some blasting 223 fmj. This served 3 purposes, it used up the last of a jug of 2230-c, a bunch of oddball brass and give me a couple years supply of blasting ammo. Now I'm set up to reload longrange 75 grain 223 ammo when time presents itself.
Time/money mangement is always the devil! Conditions change, if you dont NEED the money just sit on the reloading equipment and buy ammo (you can be a reloader and buy ammo)

I too reload because I like doing it, but now with the Internet, some times I cam buy some ammo for about the same price that I can reload it. So for those guns, I'll buy as long as it performs well. And I'm building up my brass supply. I have a friend that says he will only buy firearms the use military ammo because that brass will always be available. Maybe not. Now they are developing ammunition with synthetic cases that are not reloadable. If so, military brass supply will disappear. The way things are going ammunition may be hard to get. Look at The Republic of Kalyfornia and their ammo purchase laws. We don't have any lead foundries left in the country. Stock up! I reload many calibers. In fact we had a thread on this forem a while back about reloading and I reloaded more calibers than almost every one else. There are some calibers that I reload for buy nessesity. I own many wildcat and obsolete cartridges and I gave to cast bullets for them. Some day, we might have to reload to have ammunition. Brass has a finite life span so stock up on componentents. Lead and brass may be in short supply in the future. IMO

I enjoy reloading, been reading here, let my wife know I 'need' to go shooting as I haven't reloaded in months. Getting fat during the winter and I have a few ideas I want to pursue.
Need to go shooting, walking to targets, thinking and enjoying what the Good Lord gave us.

There is so much to do that reloading is a real pain! I would rather Fish..Hunt..Even walk my dogs in the woods for a few mushrooms. So if I have a couple extra hours I'm gone
Out in the sunshine not in the basement. Call Copper Creek and Josh will hook you up
and it will shoot just fine! and takes 10 minuets.

Free your self up a bit and try to compress your shooting sports...

Pick 1 or 2 of your favorite cartridges and get at life by freeing up more of your time...

Your most likely bogged down with to much,,, once you find the freedom don't attempt to take on more...

If you like all your irons keep them,,, the easiest way to do this is shelf The ones you use the least... If you don't use it for 1 or more years then give them to your friends or family so they can join in on the good times... Its called gifting out that """could""" improve your all out quality of life...

Going frugal budget and simple will put your funds into the path you want to be on,,, take the time to plan out your path in life,,, and allow for change-ups along the way...

Just imagine your self with 1 rifle,,, what would you feel like,,, what would you do with the unlimited freedom of being able to shoot it at any distance with out looking a a chart since you know everything about its trajectory and it's ballistic path from point blank to distance...

Oh Yha,,, what a feeling when you can look at a target at XXX distance as you naturally draw a shoot...

One more thing to this freedom of fear,,, its wize to have a backup plan,,, just incase things go South,,, that way your not behind the game plan... Ha...

The old saying might be true,,, if you fail to plan your plan could fail...

The first thing you'll notices is the weigth off your shoulders,,, you'll enjoy the """Less is More.""" if you do it right...

There's nothing wrong with missing out on this or that,,, but you can always Grin from ear to ear looking back by saying to your self,,, been there done that...

Don't kid your self,,, I miss my 300's and 338'zzzs,,, but I make up for it by being happy with my limited medium size rifles that I have left...

I had 200+++ in my hay day,,, at least 50 of them on the go,,, now I'm middle aged and down to 3 when I found freedom,,, hopefully I'll make it 1 of 1 with a spare barrel on hand as a back-up... Ha...

The above is only a thought,,, freeing up your life,,, time,,, and funds is part of the Grand plan,,, finding what works for you is part of this plan...

Shelf some of your irons since it cost you nothing,,, don't over think it and keep it simple... Slow things down,,, take in the good stuff...

1 step at a time...

Cheers from the North

How long does it take you to reload 100 rounds? What's your time worth? When you do go shoot, how many rounds do you put down range? I usually shoot 50-100 rounds each outing and had a little time over the last couple weeks so ended up shooting ~400 rounds. That adds up quick if you're buying pre rolled stogies, especially custom loaded ones.

Life is full of many journey's,,, either I "have" to, or I "get" to? Which one is reloading for you?

Life is funny I loaded with my dad and we hunted woodchuck and deer. CT developed to the point woodchuck hunting doesn't exist.Federal premium loaded excellent bullets never commercially available and for the few deer I kill every year loading didn't make sense. Then I started IDPA and the ammo shortage hit the importance of being able to load became readily apparent. I just bought Cooper in 6.5 Creedmoor I am planning to do some long range shooting and gearing up to start loading again to keep busy on winter evenings when the days are short

My first reloader was a Mec 400 I got for Christmas to load shotguns shells followed by a RCBS jr. and Ohaus scales for loading rifle and pistol bullets. This was in the early 60's. Progressed to a 600 jr. Mec and a RCBS Rock Chucker, case trimmer, powder measure then on to progressive reloading with the XL650 fully automated as well as everything else under automation. My last reloaded was a Forrester. Time crunches and kids games interrupting both reloading and shooting until I got them intrested in hunting and reloading in between archery and fishing but the time spent with them at my bench brings me many fond memories.
Time interruption is a negative thing for reloading as certain procedures are remembered after powder lies all over the top of your bench if you're away from reloading very long. It is another annoying remembering curve to fix you must get the vacuum out before you proceed as necessary.
But, if you get to a point where you don't derive enjoyment from doing it anymore and don't need the benefits of saving money and accuracy by doing it, quit. Your time on this earth is getting shorter to enable you physically to do things as well as giving you less time to enjoy the things you do. So eliminate the stuff you don't need or want and use the things you do. In the interim, I'll move the tomatoes my wife canned off my bench and go load a few hundred rounds.