Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Do you reload or buy factory for your deer hunting??

I do both. I’ve got enough factory for a lifetime at the rate I shoot, but I still tinker as I like to kill game with what I made.

Reload 20 Ga and several center fire calibers. Hunt mostly with reloads.

I usually buy mine.

Handloads. Bought my first press, I think it was during the Bronze Age. I’ve upgraded since!

Handloads only……since the early ‘70’s! And……since 1990, I have no other option! 🙀🤔😉memtb

I need to load some more 32-40’s, going to lease soon, maybe catch more piggies

Used to handload (not reload, all new components) for hunting, don't have the time now, factory fodder these days. If I shot more, I'd start loading again but I don't go through much ammo in a season.

... both

I have never shot a deer with a factory load. I'm sure i never will.

Hand load for my 250 Savage

Can’t really beat, nor do I need to, the accuracy of factory in my 308s

Wish I had started sooner for 35 Remington.

I did, but no more. I only meat hunt anymore and factory ammo does all I need. A hazard of being an oldfart.

Deer aren't all that hard to kill, still-huntin'.

Whatever's handy and the rifles are sighted in for.




GR

I’m a member of that club.

Me too

No factory loads since around 1970‘ish! 😉 memtb

I use both but overwhelming I reload for my guns.

If its something I won’t shoot very much, it doesn’t make sense to me to buy dies, components, spend the time etc. when I could buy a couple boxes of factory stuff and be good.

It also depends on what time I have. To just grab a box of factory stuff, sight in and go hunting is often all the time I have these days. If I haven’t gotten my load development work done by July 4th, I normally will appeal to factory stuff if I must use that gun, that year.

Have been handloading since I was 12 years old. I love it.

Some of our guns have never had a factory load fired in them……and several of them have never had a jacketed bullet fired through them! memtb

When I get some time I'll count them up reloads vs factory. Thanks for the responses and apparently I'm in good company with what appears to be overwhelmingly more handloaders.

P.S.
I also haven't worked up a deer in the field with a factory knife in over a decade, been making my own for that long.

Rifle and most pistol cartridges I reload. Shot gun shells I buy.

I started reloading when I was 12 because my primary 'chuck gun was a Marlin 336 SC in 219 Zipper. REM/WIN factory ammo was hard to find, so it was a case of either start reloading or stop shooting that rifle. Plus, the factory ammo was loaded with a round nose bullet and if I used the rifle as a single shot, so I could load pointed bullets and get a little flatter trajectory.

My Father reloaded for his 'chuck rifles, so all I had to buy were components and dies. My first press was a Lyman Spar-T, a birthday gift that came from the original Gander Mountain catalog.

These days it really depends of the rifle and cartridge. Some, like the 256 Newton, 40-55, and 40-82 are reload only cartridges and some are reload for accuracy and/or economy cartridges. Only a few are factory ammo only rifles either because they shoot factory ammo MOA or better or they are shot at such a low volume that setting up to load for them doesn't interest me.