If you were to start reloading today?

[270-300]

Ive been a longtime reader. Decided to join to offer you some encouragement. Handloading is an excellent past time. After i fill all of my tags, get my waterfowl, turkey, and pheasant hunting seasons finished out, often times handloading is the way to enjoy shooting sports when its too windy or snowy to be out predator hunting.

For handloading, its important to understand your end goal.

1 what do you use firearms for?
For me this is hunting

2 what kind of firearms do you use?
Rifles, pistols, shotguns

3 what kind of shooting do you enjoy?
This last year, the highlight of my shooting sports was shooting pheasants, ducks, and geese with my over under. My rifles provided over 200 lbs of meat for the freezer, with 3 shots total. I spent one hour shooting steel with pistols in the last 3 years.

4 what are you looking to achieve with hand loading?
For me, it is all about precision rifle ammunition.

5 how much do you want to spend?
A simple single stage press is the most inexpensive option. This is also the most precise for rifle loading. For components, powder brands and bullet selection vary greatly. Pick the cheapest option that performs in your gun to your standards. Ex, my friend shoots nothing but hornady eldx bullets in his hunting rifle. For me, a speer hotcor shoots clover leafs all day long, as good as i need in a hunting rifle.

6 dont get caught up in the lie more money means gear is better.

7 understand your investing a lot of time and money into making ammunition. You will not make ammunition cheaper than you can buy it. You will enjoy the process and can create precise or commercially unavailable ammunition. A 9mm load of A7 powder with a 147 hardcast bullet in the western powders manual, that makes 410 ft lbs of energy is a great example of this.


8 not everything you touch has to be a handload if your a handloader.

Last year, the larger 2 of my 3 animals were shot with a rifle using inexpensive factory ammunition. Im not sure if i ever will get around to hand loading for that rifle. Currently, i cannot handload that caliber for what inexpensive hunting ammunition costs. I dont need 2 inch groups at 600 yards from a rifle i only use places where i plan 200 yard max shots. Ive never bothered to handload shotgun shells. I cant buy shot for the price of loaded shells. Only exception to this is the guys who were making tss loads years before they hit the market. I really dont care to put the time into imprecise shotgun shells. I buy a case of shells and go shoot pheasants.

I hope this helps you realize your goal before you dive into another expensive hobby.

I forgot to add, for what i have in loading equipment i could buy enough ammunition for any 3 elk calibers to last 4 lifetimes of hunting. If i factored in my time in the last 10 years, and instead spent that time working for $15 an hour, I could buy a really nice rifle from a custom builder. Dont think handloading is a money saver.

 

[tstowater]

Reloading/hand loading is done for several reasons: 1. The satisfaction of doing it yourself. 2. Fine tuning a load for your rifle. 3. Volume loading for a target or varmint shooting rifle(s). 4 loading for cartridges that are not commercially available except for specialty or custom loading places.

I'm going to load probably close to 1000 220 Swift, a 1000 20VT, 600-800 20 Practical and maybe 500-1000 assorted other cartridges in the next 60 days. The cost savings alone on the 220 Swifts would pay for a decent setup let alone being able to use the 20 Practical and 20 Vartarg as neither is factory available.

If I was just going to bang a bunch of low cost 223/5.56 and 9mm or a cartridge that is not high volume and don't want load, then factory may be a suitable option. YMMV.

 

[Batsonbe]

You can produce high quality rounds with the cheapest equipment. The trade off is setup, the rate at which you can make the rounds, and some would argue consistency. I’ve upgraded stuff over the years that have made reloading more enjoyable. I enjoy tuning loads and guns and being a part of my friend’s successes.