While reading some of the posts here the other day. I began reminiscing about past hunts. Hunting with my dad, mom, sister, grandpa and a couple of other older guys back in the late 50"s when I didn't even have a rifle, other than a 22 which I shared with my sister. Anyway, I cannot for the life of me, remember hunting with Factory Ammunition. My dad was a handloader, as I have been throughout my lifetime, so it's not impossible. Anybody else out there with a similar background?????

My Dad really didn’t hunt as I was growing up and certainly didn’t hand load. He did take me on several squirrel hunts and quite a few rabbit hunts with a “one eyed Beagle”! 😉 As a young kid all I could think about hunting and shooting. My Dad bought me a Benjamin Pump for my 7th. birthday and on my 8th gave me a Stevens 22/410 that he had won on a “punch board” game right after returning home after WWII.

One Sunday we were visiting his brother, who was an avid hunter. He was in the garage with some of their cousins that also were hunters. Every two years, they made a trip to Wyoming for deer and Antelope. They were reloading ammo for 30-06’s with milsurp bulk powder, exchanging the military full jacket bullets with soft points.

I had never heard of reloading, knew nothing about it……but my desire to hunt and shoot quickly became an obsession. Several years later, when I was 14, I bought my first centerfire rifle (A Winchester Model 88 in .308 Win.) and by 15 had a Lee Loader. I still remember loading for that rifle in the living room floor of our rental home. memtb

When I was a poor boy - reloaded rifle ammo w/ a Lee hammer reloader.

Now, if I find a factory ammo on clearance that I like, it gets added to the locker.

The Federal Trophy Copper is a good example.




GR

Growing up on the ranch it was either the white box (or was it silver?) or the green box; Winchester Silver Tips or Remington Core-Lokts. And in .30-06.

After the single shot .22 rimfire, I learned centerfire on a M1 Garand out to 400 yards. On a ranch, there's a shooting range just about anywhere you look. Just step it off. I think I was around 13 then. GI surplus ammo was on the back shelf next to the fishing gear in the grocery store. My brothers bought fishing gear when we started getting paid. Me, I bought a Lee Loader. In .30-06.

brothers and myself grew up shooting guns or rivcer fishing that we brought 22`s with all the time because family and friends worked at Federal Cartridge Ammo Manufacture so loaded ammo and even 22 LR ammo was so cheap and uncles just gave us ammo all the time too , we never knew any difference in those days from handloaded centerfire ammo to factory centerfire ammo. at around the age of 24 i started to learn how to reload center fire ammo and it really helped with getting components cheap , i also got free once fired brass from Federal Cartridge ,sometimes some second bullets too . having an uncle who was a engineer at Federal and a hunting -fishing partner who was the manager in the machine shop and ballistic ammo development testing helped me learn alot about handloading ammo. > all`s i can say is if you want to be a handloader and want to continue to handload your ammo stock pile components when you can , same goes for factory ammo stock pile your ammo the world is not friendly anymore. good luck ,Pete53

My father was a handloader so I grew up shooting handloads for centerfire rifles and pistols but he did not handĺoad shotgun.

The only rifle I dont handload for is a Rem 700 Classic in 6.5x55. The reason for this is I bought a bunch of Seller & Bellot with the 131 gr bullet on sale for less than $8 a box many years ago. That ammo is so accurate I havent bothered trying to beat it with a handload. But I have dies and keep the brass so when my supply of factory ammo runs out I can keep the rifle going bang

I shoot mostly factory

Load for my 375hh

I started handloading in the 90s, was up to 33 die sets, really enjoyed it a lot. Didn't much care for driving to the range with chrony and multiple loads to work up velocity but it kept me amused. Used only handloads for years then eventually moved and never unpacked loading gear. Use only factory fodder now but don't go through much ammo these days. I lived in GA when I loaded, had a big basement with temp always in the mid 60s, had a dedicated bench and could load whenever I found the time. Live in FL now and heat and humidity have discouraged me from setting up shop, maybe when I build a dedicated building on the property I'll try again but it would have to have AC 24/7 so there that!

I've had such good luck with Hornady Spire Points, the same bullet I loaded, in factory ammo that I can't see any reason to load except for volume and that's not a concern at present.

Side note, watched a video from an Alaska Brown bear hunt, fellow used a 338 RUM with handloads, first shot at long distance, same for second, after that, blown primer got in receiver and jamed bolt lug, bolt would not close. Bear was coming out of hibernation so reaction was slow, came directly to hunter and hunter finished it with a 454 Casull at 15 yards! Thinking his hot loads almost got him killed, save the revolver!

I started handloading when I was 15 for my .222 and my 30-06. Been reloading ever since. I have used a few fatory loads just on a whim, also for my .32 spl. and 30-30s

That video is even better than you describe. Guy had dropped his handgun in the snow and he (and the camera chick) were unarmed for a time. Death was a legit possibility.

Get ya some, very accurate

My father didn't reload. As a kid, the only handloads I had were reloaded for me by another kid and his father and I gave them (IIRC) $1.50/box for .30-06's w/165 gr SP for deer hunting and 130 gr HP (over 49 grains of Hi-Vel #2) for woodchucks. I shredded a number of woodchucks with that load out of my sporterized 03-A3.

Then I got an M1 carbine. Another kid loaded those for me with H110, they worked but the carbine soon went down the road for a 788 in .222. Only had it a short time before going into the Navy, but shooting Norma factory ammo I killed a lot of woodchucks, a deer and some other stuff.

When I got out of the Navy, one of the first things I got was a 77V in .25-06 and immediately started loading for that and my .222. Since then, for the most part, all the factory ammo I've used was shotgun stuff for hunting, 9mm and .223 white box for blasting. For about the last 40 or 50 years I can only recall killing stuff with factory rifle ammo a couple of times. I killed one deer with a load from a box of Federal Blue Box .308 ammo and I killed one deer and one caribou with WW factory .303 Savage, 190 grain Silvertip loads. For me, a big part of the fun comes from killing stuff with ammo I've handloaded myself.

Dad was a re-loader. I started helping when I was strong enough to "double-thumb" primers into pistol cases w/a Lee Auto-Prime. During college I worked in a gun shop and didn't have a reloading setup so on a few occasions I did buy some factory ammo. Post college I was back into loading my own.

We loaded all our own shotgun ammo too. I've completed a double-lifetime penance on a couple of Lee Load-Alls. 2 friends and I would count 25 4-buck pellets into hulls that had powder and wads in them and pass them bak to one of the dad's for crimping.

That's very much like me. Dad hunted deer but did no other shooting. He didn't handload. I came along and got much more into it. I've hunted other game, have handloaded for 50 years now, and like to just go out and shoot.

Came from a non hunting family. Started reloading (Lee Loader) with acquistion of my first centerfire rifle (Rem 600 in 6mm) as a cost saver. Ocassionally shoot factory stuff with the purchase of a new rifle just to dial things in and as an intital source of brass.

I do have a couple 06's though that I've never fired and there's not a single cartridge in the house either.

I have never shot a critter with factory centerfire ammo. When I started reloading, just about any reloaded rifle ammo was more accurate than factory stuff. I could also reload shotgun shells for half the price of the factory loads. That is no longer the case and hasn't been for some time.

I still reload center fire rifle ammo but i would not if I didn't already have the dies, press and tools. I recently started reloading shot shells again because I still have the old MEC presses, I started shooting skeet again, and finding 20 gauge factory loads is hit or miss.

I can see no reason to get into handloading today if you can find your favorite factory loads. Factory ammo is better quality now than it used to be and the expense to purchase handloading tools and presses just doesn't make sense.

My only factory ammo available rifle is a Marlin 1894SS. Everything else is reloading required. Even for the 44 mag, I choose to reload so I can shoot a 200 grain bullet.
I could be wrong but I suspect that farctory only hunters don't gravitate to these sites.

Killed more deer than I can remember with Factory Ammo, specifically .30-06 Winchester Super X Power Points 180 gr. quite a few moose as well.

$28.00 a box and lethal!

They work on elk & antelope also.

My dad bought me a mec 650 to reload 20ga shells when I was 15 years old. I use to shoot a lot of skeet when I was a kid. A year later I got a Texan Progressive 12ga loader. A few years after that I started loading for a 240 Weatherby that I bought from a friend. Over the years I would load for what ever I was shooting at the time.

Fast forward about 50 years. I haven't loaded any ammo in almost 10 years. I do not shoot anywhere near as much as I used to. There is good accurate factory ammo available today. I know what each one of my rifles shoots best. So that's what I buy. It's just the easy button for me now. My rifles will shoot sub moa if I feed them what they like.

Factory ammo has come a long ways since since the early 60's...most of it was pathetic back then. When I was 17, I chipped the mortar off of about 20,000 used bricks, to give me enough to buy a pushfeed Model 70 .308 and a 4X Weaver. Deeply disappointed with accuracy, I was on the high school ROTC rifle team and had some idea of what to expect, I then bought a Lee Loader...the difference in accuracy was astounding. 3 1/2 moa to 1 moa. Only factory I buy now is for the brass, even though the accuracy of some modern ammo is good enough.

I started handloading at age 14. It was the only way I could afford to shoot much. I had a RCBS Jr press and a Redding scale. However the dies were from Herters and therefore the ammo was really crooked.

My rifle was second hand M70. I didn’t know a thing about the value of rifles. I bought it from a neighbor for $35. It was a transition model Super Grade 257 which I had rechambered to 25-06. I had 100 military cases. I loaded 100 grain Sierra bullets with IMR 4350. I lived in Southeast Idaho and there were more jackrabbits than you can imagine. In the morning I would go out and shoot until I ran out of ammo. Then I would get a ride home, load all the cases, and go out again for an evening shoot.

There wasn’t much rifling in the 12” in front of the chamber but I could still get many rabbits.

Been hunting all my adult life. 62 this September. Never got the bug to reload. Probably sitting on lifetime supplies of factory ammo for all my
Hunting rifles. I doubt I will take up the skill at this point. I don't really consider myself a recreational shooter.

Dad reloaded shot shells for skeet and trap but saved all his brass. I started loading metallics after learning to reload shot shells. I have take about half my deer with reloads.

Very similar. My dad was a machinist in the Navy and an industrial arts teacher who taught drafting and machining. I don’t ever remember him hunting with factory ammunition as he loved to load his own ammunition. I have only done so on rare occasions. I recall hunting with some 180 core lokt stuff out of a 300 win mag back in the early 90’s and the only other factory ammunition I shot was 200 grain 35 Whelen a couple years ago. Shot one deer with it and just wanted the brass.

I shoot factory ammo when it makes sense to do so. For example 12 and 20 ga. promo loads cost about the same as the components. Same with 9mm pistol range ammo. I still pick up factory centerfire rifle ammo, both to shoot and to obtain the cases to load.

When I began handloading 60 years (!!!) ago, I could easily beat the quality of available factory ammo. As another poster in this thread said, factory ammo 30-06 groups were maybe 3.5" but I could get groups to an inch or so by neck sizing with a Lee Loader, carefully metering/weighing powder charges and seating bullets with the in-line seater (again with the Lee Loader, using the same principles as an arbor press) to insure straight bullet seating. Premium bullets, such as Nosler Partitions, were only available as components. Back then, pretty much all factory rifle ammo had swaged cup and core bullets.

Factory ammo is much better today with cup/core bullets and also a wide variety of premium bullets are available in factory loads. Handloading is a separate, but related, hobby to shooting. Sometimes it comes down to how I want to spend my time. Beautiful weather? Let's go somewhere! Miserable outside? Maybe I'd rather spend time at the loading bench.