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

After reading this thread, there are a lot of folks I've never met, whom I'd like to spend an afternoon or two at their local range with.. shooting, talking reload techniques and experiences with...

this has been a nice thread.. for once...

The one Reloader on my deer lease got off. This is the only place I get to hear about reloading

I posted this topic over on Rokslide, it's interesting to me that the percentage of responders is noticeably higher that use factory. Still more handload than use factory by a large margin but it's not the same.

All I hunt with is my reloads. 35 Rem/30-30/45-70/280/30-06/44 mag..........Haven't used a factory load in years.

100% my handloads

I only have 1 gun that's ever eaten a factory round...and it was my dad's '06.

I run smaller batch factory stuff in my 45-70. Buffalo Bore is my go to. Way hotter then core-lockts and way more consistent than hornady.

I can’t remember the last time I fired a factory centerfire round in anything other than 6.5 Grendel.

If I were starting over, and just hunting this area, whitetails < 300 yards…I think one would be just as well off by finding an accurate Factory load and stocking up.

Factory for me.

Same here. I can't remember the last time I bought factory ammo.

I just like reloading my own. Don’t know if I save much, but don’t care.

Roll my own. Much better accuracy than factory.

I was reloading, but with work I got to busy so I started using factory,. Things are slowing down so I am back.to reloading.

Doesn't take long to load 20 rounds. I've never seen a deer season where we needed 20. Maybe 10 between the wife. and I. Thats for 8/10 deer.

Been reloading for ever. Since 89? Any factory ammo around here is 22 LR or shotgun shells.

Been reloading since late 70's hence most of my deer have been taken with reloads think I can recall 2 deer I have taken with factory ammo. Either will get the job done in most cases. Been a problem for some folks to practice enough for a long time Expect non proficient hunters due to lack of trigger time is more common than ever with current ammo pricing.

Came back to this thread this morning and it got me thinking (!). Handloading, which is mostly what I do as opposed to reloading, has multiple benefits. Cost is what’s mentioned most I think, followed by better performance, but the recent troubles have highlighted that rolling your own lets you keep shooting (and hunting) through periodic shortages, provided you have seen to it that your supplies are adequate in advance. Hopefully as things continue to ease in the supply chain, those who were caught short can get what they need, and when prices bottom out, what they’ll need next time this happens. Hard to say where the bottom will be, except it’ll likely be higher than before.

Just checked prices on bullets suitable for my 5.7, and there’s not much out there in the weight range I’m looking at, and prices are mostly pretty sporty, with a few exceptions. Gotta check the stuff on hand before I buy..

Seafire’s right, good thread

it`s a pride thing for many of us to as said : we roll our own /handload our own ammo . been reloading since late 70`s its been wonderful to have learned what i have learned
and helped others . i have shot many critters , deer ,antelope ,elk ,caribou ,black bears ,pigs all with my handloads or my arrows i made . would i handload my own ammo again always yes as said before its a pride thing for many of us.

I started out with the one-at-time little Lee Loader for a Ruger 357 at 17 or 18 I guess. Then, at one time loaded for everything from the 17 Rem to the 458 Lott. No hunters/shooters in my family and I’m closer to 74 than 73 now, so I’ve slowly been divesting myself (and my wife) of gear and components. I only reloaded shot shells for a brief period in my financially challenged youth.

I’m still stuffing cases for a 284 Win and a 358 Win although I have a good lot of factory ammo for the latter. The 284 needs reloading to come into its own, and I’ve whittled down the possibilities to a single load at this point, so no more experimenting for me.

Both. Just last season I killed one with a 6.5 Creedmoor factory load and one with a .30-30 handload. I normally don't like to load for my .30-30's but since ammo has been hard to find the last couple years and I stocked up on components years ago, I've been loading my own recently. I also load for my .223, .22-250 and .243 because I can get better accuracy than with factory from my home brewed varmint loads but for my deer hunting, factory ammo is more than satisfactory so that's what I normally use. I started reloading in high school to save money but I've always found it tedious and boring as hell.