I was always conscious of picking affordable cartridges for my hunting and shooting purpose. Being able to find ammo widely available and reasonably price was at the forefront of my mind when purchasing firearms.

It didn't make sense to me to buy some nifty firearm in cartridge/caliber that I couldn't afford to shoot and practice with. Thus my choice of 223rem and 308win rifles.

However, the cartridge that push me into finally into reloading my own ammo was the 44mag. It's a great cartridge but there'd be no way I could practice with it to become profecient with this handgun. It was simply too expensive.

So, I owe my jump into handload/reloading due to the 44mag.

I'm curious to hear what got you into reloading?

Same cartridge. Liked to shoot it more than I could afford. I have saved money reloading, but only with handguns and magnum rifles. With the 06 or other common guns it takes a fair bit of shooting to pay for a decent reloading outfit

I bought a 7mm08 and then found that I could only get 140gr bullets in loaded ammo. More choices now, but you are still better off loading for the 7mm08. miles

I started saving brass when I started shooting in the early 80's. By 2000, I had quite a collection. I started seriously thinking about reloading about 1998, and finally pulled the trigger on the project in December 2000, buying a RCBS Rockchucker Master Reloading Kit at the recommendation of folks on shooters.com.

What drove me to do it?

1) I read somewhere way way back that I could manage recoil. I was never a puss when it came to recoil, but if I could get nearly the same velocity with much less kick, I was in.
2) Cost. I could shoot more for less $.

My first attempt was some 44 MAG. It was a horrible failure. I sent the expander die about a quarter way down the case. I still have them somewhere.

My first 30-06 load was an off-max 165 grain Hornady SP over IMR4895 that shot better than any factory load I'd ever bought. It also did well in every 30-06 I owned at the time. I switched to H4895 at some point a few years later, and it still remains my favorite deer load. Funny, but the first time I tried to shoot a deer with it, all I got was a click. That's been the only bad primer in 14+ years. The next morning I shot a nice doe with the same batch of ammo.

Economics, Mine started with A 243 and ...........


avalanched into MORE cartridges & rifles.

Same principle as 'hoarding', an incurable disease.

So much for saving money.

44 Mag. Same reason as above, loved to shoot it but ammo, even back in the day, was pricey. Moved to 30-06 shortly after and never looked back.

Funny thing was, after loading up my first batch of 44 ammo, I loaded one round in the cylinder, cocked it, held it out with on arm, turned my head and pulled the trigger. Dud primer. I about jumped out of my skin when the hammer fell and it didnt go off. Every other round worked just fine.

My father bought, from a temporarily strapped-for-cash local gunsmith, a sweet little wildcat rifle, based on a Rem Mohawk-600 action, that the smith had built for himself.

Having already had said gunsmith previously make for him the exact same wildcat, though his based on a Rem 700 action, dad gave the rifle to me, along with a couple of boxes of hand loads. By that time, early 1980s, though, it was no longer a wildcat, officially, by then, the 7mm08 Remington.

That little rifle shot the hand loads amazingly well, but factory offerings not so much. So, I did the research, purchased the necessary equipment and supplies, and carefully reproduced the hand loaded ammunition that it shot so well.

Economics: I didn't really save any money; I actually spent more... but I shot more...which is like saving money over factory ammo.

Pick My bullets: I could load what I wanted and when I started hand loading the best game bullets available were not loaded by the factories.

Consistency: My hand loads, back when I started,were "better" than factory.

Convenience: When I bought a new rifle, I never worried whether the ammo I wanted was available from the factories. I bought dies and brass and was ready to go.

Confidence: I could trust my ammo on hunts. A few thousand rounds a year meant I knew the rifles,kept them zeroed,and knew them well from so much shooting. This paid off on hunts.

It was a simple choice.

Accuracy.

Whatever hobby I get into, I tend to go in whole hog. So it was inevitable that if I stuck with shooting I'd get into reloading. A store chain was going out of business and I picked up a press, scale and I don't recall what else. Then of course I needed dies, a primer seater and odds and ends. I believe the .308 was the first round I loaded for, followed by the .44 mag.

Of course the natural progression was a curiousity with various platforms and wildcats, i.e. a t/c contender and various barrels and chamberings, a 35 whelen ackley, 458 lott, 480 Ruger... Followed by getting into bullet casting...

I've pretty much moved away from the wildcats and obscure cartridges having scratched that itch on more than one occasion. Now I'm looking to make the most of what little free time I seem to have. Mrs. Claus got me a Dillon 550B for Christmas which has yet to be set up due to a recent move and no work bench, yet

Some of my earliest CF rifles were chambered for cartridges that were considered "obsolete" or "European" and ammo was generally expensive and frequently hard to find if you didn't load your own.

218 Bee, Winchester 43
219 Zipper, Marlin 336SC
25-20, Remington 25
25-35, Winchester 94
250-3000, Savage 99G
7x57, Sporterized FN 24/30

It was economics for me. I was shooting a Winchester 94 32 Special and buying ammo for it. I liked to shoot it but it hurt a little every time I bought a box of ammo on my very tight budget back then. I guess I knew I'd be reloading for it and had saved the brass from every box of ammo. I bought one of the Lee Loaders, some 3031, a couple of boxes of primers and a couple of boxes of bullets. I wasn't spending any less money but I was getting to shoot a whole lot more.

I started casting bullets for my dad in jr high, got my first rifle , a Mark X 257 Roberts, in 1976 with a box of shells which are still the only factory loads I've shot threw it. 117gr Sierras and H4831 still work great, 40 yrs later.

Was mostly shotgun guy at the beginning, this was the 70's. It was not uncommon to shoot up a case of shells at skeet on a good weekend, and reloading saved a ton of money that I didn't have in those days. Sometimes I would win a keg of REd Dot or 700x, and would be in the big time.
Somewhere in this mix I discovered copper shot was remarkably effective on pheasants, and darn near impossible to buy.
Moved into pistols, and the 357 & 44 magnums were prohibitively expensive to buy, and I liked to shoot, a lot, still do. Again, economics were the driver.
Then along came centerfire rifles, and it seemed a natural extension. It has been a rare occasion for me to hunt with factory loads.
Today the economics are probably reversed, especially for shotguns, but over the decades I learned to love the reloading process. Maybe it's my therapy.

Truth! I both shot a whole bunch more, and spent a whole bunch more. It's so easy to convince yourself you should try something new when you load your own ammo.

Wanting to shoot accurately at longer ranges.

Economics. Started with a Lee loader. It didn't cost much to start loading in the '60's.

When I was 12 my Dad bought me a Mod 70 .243. He set me up with dies and components and taught me how to load my own ammo. I am 59 now and still at it. I still have that .243 too.

I finished up several boxes of Remington Core lokt ammo for my .30/06 that I had been using to hunt deer. I bought a couple more boxes of the same load (150s) and I don't know what Remington had changed but instead of 1.25" they shot 3-4" groups. I bought some 165's and the groups shrunk back to 1.5" or so and I went hunting. I had bought a basic reloading press and kit a few years before but had never found the time to use it. Well, during the off season I took that stuff, bought some dies, bullets, primers and powder and went at it. I quickly discovered that my rifle that would shoot most factory loads (except that one batch of Remingtons) into 1.25" to 1.5" would actually do 0.5" to 0.75" with carefully loaded ammo.

I still shoot some factory ammo in that rifle and others, mostly because of time issues. However, I do enjoy loading my own. In addition to all the advantages you guys have mentioned like working up loads, economics, shooting more, etc. The thing I love most about it is that when I sit down at the loading bench and load ammo, I can't do anything else. I can't think about work, or bills, or responsibilities. You have to totally focus on what you are doing. I find that incredibly relaxing.

Economics when i start in 1971, first round i loaded was the 6 mm Remington, Sierra 100 gr with Hod 4831

Initially it was savings (like a Lee Loader). Now it's accuracy.

The Lee Loader was purchased from Clark Bros near Warrenton/Culpeper Va in 1964, and the owner said he'd give me a full refund toward better equipment when the time came. I asked him to write that down, and he made good on it when I came back in the 1980's to pick up a Rock Chucker.

I remember a hunting buddy at the time that tied his first round and rifle up in a tree and set things off with about 50 yds of kite string. He lived to tell about it.

Cost savings
Shooting metallic silhoutte matches
Loading 357 mag and 44 mag rounds

1970. Bought a NIB condition 3 screw RSB. It came with several sets of dies, a Lyman press, two holsters and some components. What was I supposed to do? $125.00 was a lot of money back then.

I am a third generation Rifle Looney/Handloader. My dad and grandfather got me started.

Heck, I was the only 8 year old in the neighborhood that knew what a .17 Remington and a .240 Gibbs were.

Saving money.. Plus I could load 100 rounds for the price of one new box.. I have a couple old primer boxes from the 60's, the price would make you cry..

When I was 12 years old, I walked into the toy store to buy some 22 ammo, but I ended up borrowing $50 from my best (older) friend and walked out with a rusty old mil-surp Mauser 98 with a rusty barrel. Probably circa 1908, and not a spec of bluing left on it, but to me, it was like finding a diamond.

Since it had likely fired a million rounds of corrosive ammo and still had battlefield mud inside the stock, possibly from the Russian front, there wasn't much could be done with the bore, but was rescued from the dead with a spare '06 barrel... but then reality hit me...

Now I had to make a choice. I could continue to shoot my 500 weekly rounds of 22 long and LR, or buy one box of '06.

All my friends shot mil-surp, but mil-surp 30-06 was not available, and you couldn't hunt with it, so with that, and my innate curiosity, I bought a press, dies, a scale, powder, primers, bullets and a bullet mold, all mail order from Herter's, shipped to my door for the price of a few boxes of Winchester Super-X...oh yeah, a Lyman manual too.

I think I was the only person within 1000 miles that re-loaded, and my friends, relatives kept telling me to be careful not to blow myself up...but they always said things like that about my projects.

Well, my ammo shot better than the factory stuff...it was a little hotter, but lessons learned, I never bought but those 2 boxes of '06 factory ammo my entire life.

Was 18 at the time. There were no re-loaders in the family and the word was said with disgust. Local shop owner helped me choose equipment and I read a lot. When the first 44 shell was loaded I went out back and tried it. Head turned, eyes closed, teeth clenched. It worked and did not explode. Breath now. COOL!!!

My Dad, when I was a little I would watch him reload. When it was time for me to start shooting/hunting I had to reload my own. Been at it ever since.

Have only bought a few boxes of factory shells as the loaded shells were cheaper than one could buy the brass.

- Curiosity.
- Learning process. Designing a bench, researching solid choices in equipment, learning how/why's of reloading, process improvements to discover, and the scientific evaluation of results.
- More financially sensible... in theory.
- Relaxing. Between "figuring," there're plenty of menial tasks to be done. I need some brain dead chit sprinkled in the day.

Fairly new at it still.

Love of the game.

Shooting IPSC on a college budget turned me into a reloader. With .45 ball running $13 per box at the time, the roughly $3.50 per 100 rounds I spent reloading made a ton of sense. I still have a deck of CCI 300s with a $.79 price tag on it for nostalgia. $11.25 for a pound of 231 was nice, too.

Simple economics.

I started loading on friends' equipment, so I could get more rounds for the buck with an '06, and then a 22-250.

Then my buddies and I each bought some of the needed tools. We would get together every other weekend for a Friday evening of reloading, followed by a Saturday of shooting.

Next came the discovery of the versatility offered by reloading. I found the 30 cal 110 gr Speer Varminter and started loading them in the '06 for extensive recreational shooting sprees.

It was better than ten years before I actually owned a decent powder measure and all of the tools to reload ammo without calling on my buddies.

When, at age 16, I bought a new M29 Smith and soon realized I could not afford to shoot it. That was 37 years ago. Still using most of the same equipment I bought then. Still own the gun too.

Economics and to be able to tailor loads for specific purposes.Don't think I'm saving money these days and I have stocked up on materials that will keep me fat in the event of long term shortages.

I bought a Model 700 ADL, .243 in '65 for $101.89 with money from cutting yards and at the time about the cheapest I could find ammo was $3.40/box. I can remember one time when I bought two boxes and I felt "rich"!

I was an avid reader of "Guns and Ammo" and "Shooting Times" along with some other lesser known periodicals and every issue always had articles about saving money by handloading, making more accurate ammo, shooting more, using better bullets, etc.

Well, I took the bait and asked for a reloading kit for Christmas. I got a kit with a Lyman Spartan press (which I still use) and dies and I was off to the races.

Now about fifty years later, it would take a while to count how many cartridges I load for but it's a bunch.

Am I making more accurate ammo? Yes, for the most part.

Am I shooting more? Definitely.

Do I use better bullets? Yes.

Saving money? NO WAY! I don't play golf. I don't fish, but handloading and shooting is just what I DO!

SAME here, 1976 I was 26 and a 243 Win, 100 gr load.


edited due to 'rusty memory'

It was 1975.

A Deputy Sheriff that also shot a 357 got me started. I worked part time when I was in high school and college with the local telephone co and had access to lead cable. He had a lead pot and a set of molds for the bullets. We would get together and cast up a bunch of bullets. My brother and I bought an RCBS Jr press in the late 60's and my son is still using it.

I don't particularly "enjoy" the actual act of handloading and I still shoot factory stuff in a good many of my rifles. However, trying buying 9x57R, .411 KDF, .401 SL, .375-06 JDJ, .256 Win, etc off the shelf...

More bang for my buck.

Started with a Lee Loader in 243Win. Didn't take long to really get high-speed with a priming tool and dipper kit.

When I was 15, a second cousin (who was older than my Dad) took me under his wing, taught me to reload and loaned me a scoped 243 to hunt with instead of the open sighted 94 and 99 I had hunted with the previous 3 years. Bagged my first buck and groundhog with that loaner.

I used his equipment until I bought my own at 18. I'm not sure what he saw in me way back when, but he did and turned me into the gun looney that I am now.

Dale

A curiosity and fascination with how it all works. Then experimenting with what could be done beyond commercial ammo on both the high and low ends of the spectrum. Then tuning for accuracy way beyond what I could use as a practical matter. And somewhere along the line economy.

I'm curious to hear what got you into reloading? [/quote]

The high cost of factory ammo and the relative rarity of some of chamberings even then. My first centerfire was a Model 92 .32-20, then I used my sisters .25-35 and at twelve dad bought me a .300 Savage for my own use.

The first cartridge I loaded for was the .300 Savage. I used
Ball C-2 for powder, 100 grain half jackets for varmints and 150 grain Hornady flat base spitzers for deer. I used the reloading gear at the old Foster Sporting Goods in Portland at first. I was under the watchful eyes of the guys who worked there and they tauhght me enough to get by.
The .300 Savage with its short neck and sharp shoulder was a good one to learn on.

Reading John Wooters and Jim Carmichel is what got me interested.

45-70, same reason more or less as some of the others here.....expensive to shoot with factory....reloaded cast bullets were alot cheaper even not casting myself

What Bob said, years ago.

The bonus is, by the time my kids were of an age to start centerfire, I was plenty experienced enough to get some good starting point information from a couple of the guys here and develop ideal reduced recoil loads for them. The equipment has more than paid for itself in quality time dividends and economy.

Curiosity and a .257 Weatherby Mag.

Started with a Lee Loader and a .410 single shot back in 1976 at the age of 12. Made a whole lot of racket on moms kitchen table trying to crimp W-W hulls. Later progressed to handguns and rifles. Still have both the shotgun which was a Christmas present and the tools.

P.S. No one posting here truly understands terror until they have spilled a bag of number 8 shot on a green shag carpet in the AM and then trying to get it up before the parents got up!

It really had nothing to do with economics for me. Realistally speaking if I wanted to be economical I would have purchased a 308 of some sort and put food on the table for a life time shooting factory fodder for less money.

The truth is for me its a hobbie along with shooting that I really enjoy. It was worth every penny.

Shod

Bob's always right . However, the reason I started reloading a long time ago is because I bought a 300 wby magnum. I couldn't afford to shoot factory ammo. I bought a complete reloading kit for what a few boxes of ammo would have cost me!!! Been reloading and making good ammo for quite some time now. Oh I like accurate ammo too, so this is why I reload:



My handloads are still better than factory Bob. Probably better than other guy's handloads too. The proof is generally on the target, whether it's critter or paper...

leomort, I was in love with guns, shooting, and hunting since probably before 5 years old. Somewhere around that time we were visiting my uncle, and I watched him do some handloading. Bought my first centerfire ( Win. Model 88 in .308 Win.)at 14. Within months I bought the old Lee Loader($9.95 I think) and started loading.First centerfire handgun(S&W Model 28) at 16. At around age 20 started casting bullets for the Model 28.I'scrounged" wheel weights, a friend gave me a bunch of 38 Special brass,and I was shooting light-load 38's cheaper than I could get 22 LR's.Then started casting bullets for the Model 88 soon after. I shot turtles,snakes and armodillos during the summer, then on to squirrels and rabbits in fall, transitioned to jacketed bullets for winter deer hunting. I don't load,shoot,or hunt as much as I'd like, but still do some as time permits. memtb

P.O. Ackley

I grew up along the edge of the Blue Ridge mountains in Northern Va sandwiched between dairy farms (Catlett Va). In 1976 (16yrs old) I bought a Rem 788 in a 6mm Rem from Rankins Hardware $129 to deer hunt with. That spring and summer (77) I discovered the enormous population of groundhogs on the 20 plus farms within a few miles of our property. I enlisted a buddy of mine (Win 88 .243). We would take a card table two lawn chairs and a backback to rest the rifles on and set up on a field (both rifles wore 3X9X40 Bushnell Banners). We learned how to hit "hogs" out to 400 yds. The local farmers referred to us as the "groundhog boys" and would call our Dads and ask if we would come to their farm to help in the eradication of the varmits on their property. This required a lot of ammo. The summer of 77 I went to Clark Brothers Gun shop, Opal Va and bought a Rock Chucker kit and IMR 4350 and Sierra 85 gr HPBT (Dies for a 6mm and .243). Gained access to a lot of deer land. Hunting, reloading, and people seemed less complicated in 1977. I still have that Sierra manual with all my notes/loads.

I'm cheap

I didn't ever know anything different. Dad started letting me "help" when I was strong enough to run a Lee Auto Prime with two thumbs and a grunt.

Because I wanted to roll my own.

Getting a load specific for a certain rifle is fun and a little bit of pride.

I bought a Kimber 257 Roberts & at the time there wasn't much ammo to choose from.

To get the most out of what I've got.

About 1988 and me bitching at the range about the cost of Freedom Arms 454 Casull ammo, an older man that built all the locks and dams on the Arkansas river invited me to his place and showed me the ropes on handloading.

Bought an RCBS Master Reloading kit and got busy, had a 7 mag, 378 WBY and 458 Win Mag at the time too.

That day was the first of many trips and a friendship that lasted a couple decades till he passed away in 2009, helluva good man he was.

Economics initially, started with a Lee Loader for my 30-06 when I was 15 or 16. I'm 52 now.

375 H&H, I bought one, rounds were $30 for 20. At the time (early 80's) '06 and 7 mag was about $8 a box!! My simple math told me it was $1.50 every time I pulled the trigger, so I started reloading!

My Dad; He was a machinist in the Navy back in 56' and a damn fine one. From there he got his Masters and became a teacher and taught precision machining/drafting back in the day when that chit mattered in this country. So naturally he wasn't tolerant of sloppy factory loads of the day (60's, 70's and 80's) and he loaded his own ammo. Being a machinist he had to have his ammo just perfect. I started sitting at the bench with him when I was about 5, or younger, just watching and mesmerized from then on. So I have always had hand loads and have rarely shot factory ammo out of any gun I ever owned. I have also worked as a machinist for a few years until moving on to other careers and have always found reloading relaxing and worth the time invested to get my ammo perfectly matched to my firearm for optimum performance. So for me it's a more of a pride in workmanship thing and something to do to remember time well spent with my dad.

I got started in reloading in the early 70's when a co-worker was selling all his equipment due to divorce. I bought his entire set-up which was mostly RCBS for a song. Back then .308 ammo was $5.00 a box and powder was $7.00 a pound. I have done a lot of relaoding in the years since the 70's, upgraded from a RCBS Junior to a Rockchucker. I had a Bonanza press for a while, when Ponsness Warren unveiled their metallic presses at the SHOT show I decided I wanted a PW. It took a few years till I lucked onto a deal to purchase both the PW presses in a package deal, have used PW presses exclusively since then. I was loading handgun ammmo in 500 round lots and got tired of doing it on a manual press. So I found a design for a motorized press and I built it, I use it primarily to size and de-prime and do the other ops on the PW.
I have also designed and built several versions of pistol powder measures. Being a Toolmaker, I like to apply the thought process to take some of the effort out of the repetitive steps of the reloading process. Reloading has become a hobby for me, not just a way to cut cost of ammo and fine tune loads for your guns.

leomort, Originally I started loading out of curiosity and cost.
A neighbor got me started and enjoyed our reloading sessions. He was retired and I was his pastime. He was a great guy.

Bought my own equipment 26 years ago and started reloading again, being frugal I still have the same RCBS equipment I purchased back then.
Used to reload many calibers now just six various round mainly with ball type powders.

That got me into handloading? A Mosin-Nagant mil-surp rifle I bought for $10, and inheriting my grandfather's Steven 12-gauge side-by side. Both occurred at age 13, and to shoot as much as I wanted handloading was necessary, especially when my income was a paper route, plus whatever supplementary jobs I could find during summer. So I bought a couple of Lee Loaders, which 50 years later have expanded into a garage full of stuff.

Family tradition. Granddad loaded his Win 94 38-55 with a Ideal tool, Dad reloaded his Savage 99 250-3000 with a Herter's C press and dies.

I got started with a Lee Loader in 20 gauge when I was in high school just because the whole idea intrigued me. The support for my endeavor was non-existent on the home front. When I got out on my own, I found a person who was willing to help me get started in metallic reloading.

Started loading shotshells in 1967 as a 12 year old. In 1969 I bought a M93 7x57 and other than 2 boxes of 175 gr RN Remington factories nothing was available locally but mil surplus fmj from Century Arms. Sporterized the rifle and started with a RCBS Jr. and RCBS dies. collected everything I needed piece by piece. Read my Pacific loading manual more than my school books. Shot my first 3x3 whtl buck on my 1st license in 72 at 17. RP brass , WLR's ,48.5 grs IMR 4350 and 140 gr NPT's. One shot. by mid 70's I had 6-7 sets of dies and using all of them, Bought a used Ruger 357 Blackhawk one day and dies to learn why I needed to cast bullets to boot, 3 weeks ago I shot a 1000lb cow buffalo with my 50-140 Shiloh Sharps loaded with a 500 gr Paper patched bullet cast with 1 to 30 alloy over 143 grs of Fg. Reloading has taken me to places ordinary factory ammo buyers never get too or experience. Nothing else to say about it, reloading your own is operating on a higher level at it's finest. Magnum man

1. Simple economics
2. High school shooting sports program. Read... economics.
3. Then on to full blown looneyism.

When I started, it was a chore assigned by the old man...

I had a 30-06 and could not afford to shoot it much. Went to GrandPa Pidgeon's in Manchester , MO and got a Lee Loader, pound of powder, a hundred primers, and some bullets. I already had a wooden hammer.

A friend won a reloading outfit in a drawing at a sportsman show so we used his scale and a empty 30-06 case to make a powder scoop. I wrapped some copper wire around it and made a handle for the scoop soldering the wire to the case.

So with no book, only the instructions in the kit and my trusty wooden hammer I went to work on the floor in a corner of our basement. My non outdoors parents had no clue what their crazy outdoorsman fourteen year old was up to and had the common sense not to investigate. Dad was to drunk to care even if he were to catch me and mom wouldn’t have had a clue. That would have been 1963.

For what its worth, I still have both eyes and all ten fingers.

My Father who let me watch as he loaded 06 ammo for himself and 30-30 for Mother. When I went big game hunting for the first time I wanted to use my "own" ammo & so loaded a box of cartridges for Mom's 30-30 and off we went. It has been a life long hobby since the early 60's starting w/ a Lyman 310 tool and now as MD said a garage full of stuff.....

oh and the basement also!

For me, it is like putting petrol in a car.....simply part of rifle ownership. Aussies hardly ever use factory fodder which is ridiculously expensive there so you wouldn't be taken very seriously if you wasted money on it and also wouldn't be equipped to do much shooting in a country where you can shoot hundreds of animals a year.

I had an uncle who got me started when I was eight. Part of it was doing something good for me, part was free labor doing all the menial work of reloading.

Turned out to be an excellent trade for me.

Seemed natural. Started shooting trap when I was 10 or so. Dad scored an old MEC somewhere and we reloaded 12 ga so we could keep shooting trap/sporting clays. Had summers where between the 3 of us, we were over 30,000 rounds in a summer.

Rifle seemed to be an extension of that - course of nature. I enjoy it and find it to be a hobby in and of itself.

Don't reload pistol because it's a little tedious and 9mm is cheap enough to buy.

When I bought my CZ 550 Amercian 6.5x55. American made ammo was anemic and the good European stuff was too expensive.

Graeme,

Yeah, my loading gear has kinda oozed into places other than the garage too....

I was always a "gun nut".....even from the age of 8-10. At the time (late 1960's) when most everyone in my area considered gun to be a "tool" to do a job.....I considered them to be fascinating forms of art. I would tear them down to the smallest parts and put them back together.....just to see how they worked.

Reloading was a natural extension of my interest in guns. I was just as fascinated by the process of loading ammo as I was by the inner working of guns.

I was already involved in muzzleloading and black powder so reloading ammo was a natural extension of what I was doing with loose powder.

As far as reloading was concerned, I started with a Lee Load-All to load shotgun shells (which was the "main" gun used at that time). Shortly after I moved on to rifle and handgun ammo with a Lee press.

I never even considered the cost savings of reloading ....although it did become apparent that I could shoot a lot more with reloads than I could with factory loaded ammo. I also quickly discovered that I could load more accurate ammo than factory and choose the bullets I used rather than just take what was loaded by the factory.

The real appeal to me was being able to "custom" load my ammo for a particular purpose. I could load heavier than factory level loads for guns like the 7x57mm (which at the time was loaded VERY weak by the factories) or load light for use on small game.

Later I began to trade guns and try new things and reloading allowed me to never worry about the chambering of a particular rifle. You've never lived until you load for something like a 7.5x55mm MAS. I never even knew there were such things as a Berdan primers.....or the "tricks" needed to load one. Just try to find ammo for a .22 Savage High Power or .303 Savage (and be prepared to pay dearly).....or simply pull the lever and have ammo as quick as for a common .30-30.

Another real advantage of reloading appeared in the 1980's when "steel" shot was required for waterfowl. I've HEARD (but will never admit to taking part) that some reloaders used to load lead shot in hulls marked "steel"....until the Game Wardens began to carry magnets with them. The appearance of Bismuth made this unnessisary for older guns (except for the cost). SOME loaders might still be loading lead....so I've heard.

Reloading has become a lifetime hobby (although I do still use some factory ammo from time to time). I like the process of loading ammo as I like and experimenting with different loads cost is a factor, but not nearly the first consideration for me.

We did a lot of shotshell reloading from about the time I was 10 years old, so that's when it started. What really brought it about, in the mid 80's, was my father getting tired of me bumming money off him for ammo. When I was 14 he brought home a RCBS "Reloader Special" kit..you could say it took off from there, especially when started shooting centerfire pistols heavily a year or two later.

I could offer all the same reasons ....economics; better ammo; ammo you couldn't buy.... the real reason was that, since I was a kid in the sixties, reading Guns and Ammo behind thetextbook propped up on my desk in school, I realized that the "real experts" loaded their own. I wanted to be a "real expert." One of the first things I got when I got back from SEA and got a job (after wheels) was a reloading set up. Started with .222, then .25-06....never looked back. I probably load for 25 or 30 cartridges now.

As an aside, my son who has finally settled down and lives in Missouri wants to set up a Skype date with me so I can look over his shoulder and help him get started. He's got his stuff together for .223 and 7mm RM. He used to watch me when he was a kid, and help out with one step or another, still wants Dad's help to do it all himself though. Kinda makes me feel important.

In 1999, I had two deer rifles and bought two boxes of ammo for each for the upcoming season. 4 boxes of ammo was, to me, too damned expensive. I had a couple of buddies who handloaded and I had dabbled in it myself, so I got into it to save money. Since then, I think I've only shot two animals with factory ammo.

Along the way I've found that 1) I can get good to excellent accuracy with my handloads,
2) I can use whatever bullet my heart desires, 3) I can download velocity for reduced meat damage or for youngsters, and 4) I get a GREAT deal of enjoyment and satisfaction from it.

GMAFB.

Started in 1974, I wanted to shoot better bullets, (I thought) Really, like other have said. I wanted to load my cartridges to the proper level of horse power, to gain better marksmanship.

Owning a .270 Weatherby Magnum

For me it's responsibility and ownership, being responsible for the loads, where they go, and knowing they'll get there, like the shot, knowing you can make it. It just follows with practice of making meat. As stated above by others, it's all part of the process, it might have started partly for saving money, but in the end it's more than that.

Started loading 20 gauge shot shells with a Lee Hand Tool when I was 12 due to the cost. Metallic rifle when I was 16, handgun when I was 20, then started casting bullets. It's been a slippery slope of addiction since. I now load for 25 different cartridges. And I saved money ??? Yeah Right.

Hand Tools and Single Stage Presses are "gateway" tools to the real addiction.

Think of all the money I'd have saved if I'd spent it on whiskey and women.

Flyer

I would say economics and a fascination with the reloading process.

I started out loading shot shells with a Lee handloader kit when I was a dirt-poor private marching in the legions. My only entertainment at my first duty station was whacking jack-rabbits andI couldn't afford to buy the quantity of shells that was needed for my endeavor.

I think the loader kit was about $20.00 or less, a pound of Unique maybe $10 if that, a 25# sack of #5 shot $10, and a bag of wads were too cheap to factor in. Factory shells at that time were $5 or so. So with that initial outlay for equipment and components, I shot very cheaply for a long time.

Things just kinda took off from there.

Nowadays, I often stock up on components and dies in preparation of buying a new gun.

When I was stationed in the Aleutian Islands on Adak, (think deadliest catch islands)little to no ammo was available. However powder and bullets could be ordered in, loaded ammo was "hazardous" . I had a 6.5X55 and it at the time was not something that was easily found. Never turned back and now reload for all pistols and rifles except the now hard to find 22LR.. I will admit that I do not reload for shotguns, I don't shot enough to beat the prices I can buy it for.

I was fortunate to meet people in my life who reloaded. Thirty years ago my neighbor gave me his old Lee 20 gauge reloader. He explained the different powders, primers, wads, and cases that go into the recipes and I never looked back. For a long time the only shells I bought were steel shot.

So, I had to buy a reloader for my 12 gauge, then 30-06, then even a different press and die set for my 7mm-08. But, all along I had people who I could talk to about different reloading companies and all the individual components.

Then the Campfire entered my life and all hope that I might purchase over the counter ammunition was lost from there on out. I don't have the vast backgrounds that most people do here with a whole range of calibers, but I understand what is being talked about. I think I love reloading because it is something I 'create' and tweak to fit what the gun likes within the parameters of safety. Big Fun Always!!!

When I turned 8 my grandpa gave me a 12 gauge. I shot so much that when I turned 9 he gave me a reloading set for shotgun. We lived 30 miles from town and I shot so much it made it nice to keep me stocked in shotgun shells. I started reloading for rifle when I was 12. My parents don't own guns (but always supported my hobbies)so I'm not sure why they thought letting a 12 year old reload on his own was a good idea but I turned out fine. I figured I would save money loading my own boy was I sure wrong hah. You end up just shooting more which isn't a bad deal. Been reloading for 16 years now.

I bought a 300 win mag once, ammo was expensive so I started reloading about 7 years ago. I no longer have the rifle, but I own dies for every gun I own now, and dies for stuff I don't even have, just in case.

I was brought up with guns and hunting being brought up in Utah.
In the mid 80s my soon to be wife told me that guns kill people and I started the lesson on her.

I bought her a little 22mag derringer and in a dumb move looking back at it. I loaded it up cocked the hammer back set it in the middle of our living room and told her to leave it alone for a week. After the week was over I told her did it shoot us, did it aim it self at us. Guns don't shoot people. People shoot people.

Then I took her to a range and she was having a lot of fun with it. A competition shooter wanted to know what kind of a toy we were shooting and we let him shoot it. Then he took my soon to be wife over and let her shoot his 7mm comp. rifle.

We were young and just starting out. She got the fever and my first hand gun was an S & W model 57 41mag. ammo was expensive and hard to find. So I bought an RCBS Rock Chucker and started reloading. We shot up a 1000 rounds almost every week end and I reloaded every night so that we could.

We were robbed and lost all of our firearms. I sold all of my equipment and moved to Cali. for work. I lost the wife (no great loss).

I now reload 16 different calibers and have a lot more advanced equipment to reload. Started casting about a year and a half ago. when I could not get slugs.

It is one of my hobby's.

Helped a carpenter buddy out one summer, and he insisted on paying me with my first handgun, a S&W 66. I loved the blast and accuracy and started shooting a lot. To meet the NEED for ammo, I bought one of the Lee handloader and dipper kits and started picking up wheel weights. Next came a powder measure, then a bench mounted press, then a turret press....

Ella

I got into reloading at about age 7 as my grandfather's reloading monkey making .38 Special target rounds for his league shooting. On my own I wanted to shoot 165 gr bullets in my .30-'06 when the only factory choices were 150 gr, 180 gr and 220 gr. Today it is 200 gr...

jim

Started in 1969 at age 15, had just bought a custom Springfield '06 (having saved my lunch, small chore, snow scooping etc., money for almost a year). Economics and accuracy were the drivers; Mom took pity on my, bought me a couple boxes of Remington ammo to have some empties, a Lee loader and components.

Became something of a compulsion, sort of most over-the-edge fly fishers who won't consider buying a fly.

It started out so I could shoot more for less. Now 30+ years later, I still enjoy rolling my own.

FWIW: You really aren’t loading your own unless you are swedging you own bullets. Before anyone asks, yes I have.

I also have made several sets of hand dies for myself and given a few away to friends. If you have a lathe and know how to use it hand dies are only a couple of bucks.

Also to add I cannot remember buying a box of factory ammunition in the last forty years.

Before anyone asks what?

I started reloading in the early 50's (last century,) because I couldn't afford a box of cartridges for the O3-A3 Springfield I got from the DCM for hunting. The first reloading setup I bought from RG Wells, which was identical to the Herter's, and I paid $26 for the whole setup, dies, primer swage, scale, powder measure and press. Still have that first bill and if I dug it out I'd know the exact beginning date. I was then able to shoot more for less $$ than a box of shells. Economics. Learned totally from experience as there wasn't much available in books or magazines, and there weren't many reloaders around.

I also joined a DCM club for benefit of the surplus ammo they provided, which gave me brass to reload. Surplus powder was cheap and primers and bullets were readily available. Factory ammo was awful then and even a novice reloader could do much better than the factory stuff. The handloaders were always at the top in friendly competitions.

Still have some of those Wells dies. MM

I was nuts. I bought a Winchester 1886 in .33WCF and another in .38/56. First reloads I made were actually not reloads, as I started with new Remington .45/70 brass that I resized to .33 and .38/56. The .38/56 worked out OK, but I had nothing but trouble with the .33's. Because the .38/56 was so easy, I didn't realize that I needed to neck ream the .33's.

I still load a bunch of calibers, and a ton of trap loads, but no more cartridge conversions for me!

Getting the bullet I wanted in the round I wanted... was not made at the time, only way to get it was to reload.

Of course it came in really handy later on when the wife and I started competition. I can only wonder what 20K of commercial 223 rounds would have cost us a year...components were high enough as it was...

During my early days reloading I cast a lot of bullets, always looking for wheelweights and linotype. During my gunsmithing school days we would go out to the range on the days the Law Enforcement students practiced. We "mined" the berm for the recently shot lead bullets, took our booty home and set the LEE production pot up outside and cleaned up the lead and cast it into ingots. It was recycling in the truest sense, our bullet cost amounted to the cost of the lube. Almost like getting bullets for free.

I bought my 1st rifle after I came back from college and went to work full time, a $100 worth of fajen stocked step barreled sporterized 03A3 '06 and was learning to shoot using milsurp stuff bought at 10 for a dollar prices in a paper sandwich bag at a time. Cheap scope, cheap ammo and a steel butt plate were not making me a happy newby and would barely hold a pie plate group at 100 yards. Told my Grand Pop, a horse/ or anything else trader what I was shooting when I turned him down on a 1st time invite to go deer hunting with him about the time I told him I was getting married that weekend instead. 2 weeks later he called and offered me a huge discount as a wedding present on a funny sounding furrin' rifle he'd taken as collateral for a personal loan for a guy and foreclosed on...that came with 5 box's of reloads.

That Redfield 3x9 & SAKO 243'd shoot those 75grHP's and 87gr SP's dang near in one hole...and the '06 went down the road traded on a new shotgun.

I could not find the same quality of ammo in a 243 factory load, and while it wasn't as bad accuracy wise as the '06's milsurp stuff had been it was very easy to build something better even on the cigar box & dipper Lee setup.

My 2nd married Christmas present from the Better Half in 1968 was a cigar box Lee setup (I still have it) and all the supplies...and the Austin TX made rubbery tupperware 20 round slip top box's the original reloads came in...with the little no rattle bullet guides in the bottom of each segament, are full of 270 ammo right now. In the pusing 50 years I've been around, or sold at wholesale reloading stuff, I've never seen any of these 20Round flip tops like those I got as used in 1967....wish't I kept that SAKO & scope I paid $160 for in '67 too...
Ron

What got me started was simply interested in the whole process of shooting.

Ammunition is a part of that, and how it goes together was something I was curious about.

I found it to be very therapeutic. The hours spent at the bench are very relaxing, unlike some of the hours spent working on a rifle...That can get frustrating.

I'm glad someone gets therapy out of reloading.

I do it to get what I want. Other than that its a total waste of time and about like going to work for me.

But I feel the same about cleaning guns too. Probably due to too many years of competitive shooting. There were years where the wife and I would shoot close to 40K rounds between the 2 of us, thankfully some was rimfire.

Not counting hunting, shotguns and plinking.... loading gets really old if yhou have to produce lots of quality ammo and are shooting 2-3 times a week, cleaning and reloading for all of that...

I'm not loading that quantity, but I load a bunch. Beats TV or mowing the lawn.

I just do it when I want to. If it backs up, no problem.

I'm sure that if I competed and it became a "must-do", I would share your feelings...

I do load between 3 and 4K rounds a year, though. About as much as I like to do.

I was a looney at an early age. At 14, with about 40 .308 brass to my name, I bought a Lee Loader ($9.99), a lb of 4064 ($4.99), a box of 150 grain Hornady sprire points ($4.99), and a box of CCI 200s ($0.69), all at the local Buttrey grocery store that had a sporting goods counter. I remember the counter man opening the box on the loader so we could check what powders were suitable for the .308 with the powder dipper that came with the kit. That was in 1974.

A few years back, I looked at the equipment I now have, and realized that economy is no longer a major reason for reloading for me . That said, I have purchased over the years good stuff, and other than replacing the Lee Loader with a good press in 1978, have mostly added on, not replaced. And for me, it is therapy.

My Dad started me when I was 5-6 years old. That was before plastic shotgun wads appeared, and he shot a lot of skeet. He made up a multi-wad stack of cardboard wads as an example, and asked me to make up 100 just like it. I watched him load those up and he then took me along the next time he shot. That's all it took. I can count on one hand, with a couple of fingers left over, the number of times I have shot rifle, shotgun or pistol factory ammunition (other than 22 RF)in my life.

When I left for college I bought a used RCBS reloading outfit which contained a RCBS "JR" press a Ohaus 10-10 scale, a RCBS powder dropper along with various powders and bullets. All for $35.00 and I am still using it, saw no reason to change.

My first caliber to reload was .243 but traded it in for a Ruger #1-B in 22/250. I still have the 22/250.

Doc

Wow, guys! Thank you for all your feedback. It's great to hear stories such as these!

Like I mentioned before it was the 44mag that finally pushed me into reload although I have the dies for my other cartridges: 45acp, 223rem and 308win.

I'm still trying to gather my reloading components in these difficult times.

Not sure why I have the 223rem other than perhaps as an understudy rifle for my 308win. It's defintely a cheaper cartridge to shoot with hardly any recoil.

Living in Indiana not alot of varmints to hunt, for predators perhaps coyote hunting?

Ironically I bought the 44mag Redhawk in anticipation of my move to Indiana from Pennsylvania as Indiana did not allow high power rifle cartridges at that time.


Leo

Dad started about the time I was born. We never had factory ammo when I was growing up so I fell right in with it.

Yep, loading 50 for the deer rifle, not a big deal. I"m still burned out of it a bit though. At least I don't shoot hardly at all anymore so I don't burn through that much. Found out once I learned the skills of shooting, at normal distances it just doens't take much practice, its like auto pilot generally.

When I was in my early 20's, I really wanted a .357. One day I walked into the my regular gun shop and started chatting with the owner. He reached into the case and pulled out a new, 7 1/2" blued Redhawk with scope rings. He offered it to me for $340. Totally not the gun I wanted, but I knew it was a damn good price and I bit. I picked it up a couple days later after getting a purchase permit from the cop shop.

Was I ever in for a shock when I went to buy ammo. This was the early 90's and even then Winchester's USA brand ran $30+ for a box of 50.

At the same time I had a brother in law who owned a 629 and also some reloading equipment that he'd never taken the time to learn to use. I called him up and set the wheels in motion. Our first loads were with some old Red Dot and probably pushed the 245 gr SWC's only about 6-700Fps, but they all worked and we were both hooked. Being the self-sufficient type, I bought my own reloading kit shortly after that.

Dad couldn't afford to keep me and my little brother in shotgun shells, so he bought a used mec 600jr with a box of components at an auction sale for $11. He didn't reload, and neither did anyone else we knew, but I figured it out from the old manual that came in the box. Still have all my fingers and that old mec still works just as good as it did when he brought it home. Dad still has never pulled the lever on a press, but he hasn't had to buy any shotgun shells (or rifle ammo) for many years so I think he got his $11 out of that first loader. It's the one in the middle. The only thing I've ever bought for it is wad guides and the steel shot conversion. (It has friends now.)



I'm not sure I've invested as wisely as he did.

I received my first true varmint rifle, my Dad`s Mod.20 in 250-300, with a Weaver K 2.5 on top, post and crosshair,
a hand-me-down when he went to the 06 for deer. Killed many woodchucks on the local farms here. But, ammo was expensive....87 grn Western load cost $2.89 a box. I bought a Lee loader, and commenced pounding the cases in and out. 1956 I think. Load for over ten different cals. now, and one shotgun.
Still because I love to shoot, and this is the cheepest way to do it.

When we moved here back in the 70's,my wife's Uncle shot a 270,both him and a friend reloaded their own.

I didn't own a rifle until then only shotguns.

Loaded on a lee hammer set then got a RCBS rockchucker set and a few Lee shotgun loaders.
Now i load for a slew of rifle/pistol and all of my shotguns 12 and 16.

You guys who are loadng mutiple chambering/cartridges got to let me in on your secret! How do you handle the logistcs with components?

I mean I have 223rem and 308Win, so I try to fid common poweders to use in both,ie Varget, H-4895, IMR-4064, Blc-2. I can also buy once fired lak city brass for both cartridges which helps save some $$$. The 308win's modest velocity performs nicel with cup-n-core bulets which are aslo cheap.


A fringe benefit in picking 45acp and 44mag as my handgun rounds is that I can use the same large pistol primers for both, WLP. Pluse both calibers can handl lead bullets fairly well which als help keep cost down vs jacket bulets. I may even expand into casting my own lea bullets once I get more involved into reloading.


Haven't had chance to replace my shotgun since my divorce, but may get there eventually.


Leo

22 Hornet got me started.

I reload but not to the extent of some.

I shoot but not to the extent of some.

I hunt but not to the extent of some.

But.....what else I do is....

Camp, Fish, Hike, Travel, Snowmobile, Off road, Wilderness explorer,Mountain Climber, Horse back ride, Mule ride, Train Horses @ Mules,Lake weekender, Down hill ski, Cross country ski, Sit around Campfires. And I do it all with Family, Friends, And most importantly an 8 year old little Girl.

A few years ago when the Campfire addiction hit me I reloaded and shot rifles and hunted. Then after about a year I remembered all the other things I was missing out on.

I will always be a rifle loony....I have just learned to balance my loonyism.

Shod

I started casting a year or two ago. So far it's been an expensive habit.





As far as logistics I buy a pound or two of powder, a thousand primers, or a few boxes of bullets whenever I get to town (not often.) In my ~23 years of reloading I've built up a pretty good supply/variety of most everything.





I'm too much of a tinkerer to stick with one load for long. Always trying to improve.

This ^^^^^^

I tried the common powders thing.

It didn't work so great.

I buy enough powder to last, IE an 8 pounder of the best powder for each round/load choice.

I still buy 8 pounders of common powders to cover a range of issues, simply as a backup. Like Unique, H110,4350 and 4831. They may only get used in a pinch.

But the years I tried to get to the fewest powders I ended up sacracifing in some places but ok in others. In the end it wasn't worth the hassle vs just buying what works.

I started with shotgun shells as a kid to duplicate Winchester upland loads for quail cheaper than I could buy them. I used green dot powder that was very dirty. For rifles it was to load 6.5 swed with hornady 160 RN.

I'm hijacking this thread. Been reloading for a year and a half and all the brass I've used was from factory ammo I fired and saved. I just bought 100 pieces of PPU 6.5x55 new brass and wonder if I need to size it first? The rifle I load this cartridge for is a CZ 550 American.

I bought a 338-06. Not many other options.

Absolutely! I tried the narrow the powder down thing but came back to the reason I reload, to get top accuracy and flexibility with my guns. I've been able to narrow my powders down to:

Bullseye, Unique, H-110, RL7, H-335, RL-15 and H-4350.

I hope handgun powder becomes available again when I get my RL550 set up in the next couple months. I'm out of Bullseye and H-110 and don't have enough Unique to make enough rounds to justify a progressive

For my rifles, 223rem and 308win, I got H-4895, Varget and some Blc-2. Looking for IMR-4064

For my 45acp and 44mag, I got unique and 2400.

I first started reloading to ring more accuracy out of my hunting rifles. And I also like to shoot big heavy LBT Cast Bullets out of my .44 mags and .45 colts.

I started in 1952 when in gunsmith school. It was more or less expected. In fact when you bought a reamer set back then a sizer was pretty much automatically included for you to make your own dies. One of my first rifles was a 6.5x54MS which was not loaded in the US. The reamer set from Raton Reamers had a sizer I used to make a set of dies for it. I have been loading ever since. I looked in my reloading area and I have 20 sets of dies for everything from 257 Roberts to 416 Rigby, 450-400 3 1/4 though I no longer shoot very much.

Yes by all means! And be sure & check the case length on every one of them! Just an easy way to avoid hard to explain problems!
Ask me how I know:)

cdb

It can be a little bit of a shock going from once fired to new brass. Ulvjaeger is right; check length, and size. You may also have to chamfer the case mouths. The condition of new brass is variable. I have had more work to do with the bulk pack brass; it seems as though there is a little less QC.

Be sure any used brass is clean. Often it is thrown into a box or bag, and it can get contaminated with primer residue. If the cases are not clean, you will score the brass, and possibly the sizing die.

All of the used brass I use is cleaned in my Thumler's so it is squeaky clean.

Guess I'll size the new brass and trim if needed.

1. Dad's example. His rifles all shot better with homegrown.
2. Economics. I wince looking at factory prices, even the good-shooting stuff we have today.
3. Performance. The more you know, the better it gets. With two exceptions, I've been able to get happiness on the target inside of 100 rounds from the first shot fired in any shooting iron.

Living later on in the brooks range here I had a 760 .30-06 that was a shooter with them 220 grn round nose. Action began to get abit sloppy and problematic years later so I began to carry more often and shot what limited boxes of shells for my Finnbear .338 my father gave to for my 16th birthday back in 72'. Flying in to Fairbanks for just a couple of boxes of 210 Partitions was spendy to say the least. Christmas coming on my young wife asked me what I wanted.........without beating around the bush I told her that Forester Bonanza dbl ram single stage press.
Had no clue how to reload although it shined come Christmas day I took it out into my cache and left it there. Come spring I rummage thru my cache and took a look at it and noted abit of rusting on one of the rams. Pissed me off pretty bad and built my first reloading table that day. Rubbing that rust off became an affair that has lasted to this day.
Nothing was cheap or economical as this passion has allowed a door that opened and can't be shut to this day. I can honestly say that factory fodder does not go down the tubes of themany rifles and handguns I now own.
I could have saved many thousands of dollars by not getting that press years ago but I would have missed out on one of the greatest joys of shooting and reloading and harvesting proudly the many animals I have taken because of Sako rifle.

Poverty..

In 1976 I took up deer hunting with a couple of 2LT buddies while stationed at APG MD - I used a 12 gauge shotgun and slugs. I also bought two books written by Jack O'Connor (The Rifle Book & The Shotgun Book); under Jack's guidance I bought a Ruger M77 in .270 WIN and borrowed some used reloading gear. I was self taught using a Speer #8 (later a Speer #9). Wish I'd had a mentor back then, but I slowly learned to be a competent handloader by continuing to read books and magazine articles.

What got me into reloading?

5 or 6 old men that use to hang around East Park Hardware in Memphis TN. There was a table/social club in the back of that store in the early 1980's and these guy's hung out there all day drinking the owners coffee, talking guns and hunting. The owners were a pretty smart old couple. They served up coffee and old hunting/shooting magazines for free and in return had some of the most knowledgeable salesman to ever work in a gunstore and they did it for free.

I went in one day complaining about the groups I was getting out of a M70 7Mag. After a sit down with the counsel of resident experts I was sent out the door with a some sort of 2 part epoxy for bedding, a set of dies, Speer reloading manual, Lee Anniversary Kit, bullets, powder and primers.

I was told to read the "how to" section in the manual twice and come back and tell one of them exactly what I was going to do before I did it. They were all eager to pass on the knowledge they had and I was grateful for it.

After that my groups went from about 2 inches to some as small as a dime after a lot of experimentation. Back then I only had one centerfire rifle and life was a little simpler.

Now the store is gone and sadly all the old guy's that hung around it. I'm grateful to them and have taught several others to reload since then.

You will get varying replys.....I personally check overall length and lightly chamfer the neck but don't resize new brass.

I've tried about every way imaginable for standard hunting rifles with factory barrels including a CZ 550 7X57 that shot 1/2" groups at 100 yds. I've never quantified any difference in accuracy.

Shod

I neck size new brass just to get the necks rounded (some are pretty beat up from traveling in a bag).

Thanks for the replies. More opinions are appreciated.

With new brass, I check the length, bump the out-of-round ones over the depriming rod, , look to be sure the flash hole has been punched, and chamfer the inside of the neck.

Dale

The only PPU brass i have reloaded was 6.5x55. The primer pockets were real "square", causing the primer to hang up, I used my chamfering tool to break the edge. Never had to do that before but it seems like decent brass. YMMV

Bought a 358 BLR.No ammo available where I live.
Morphed into rolling my own for every CF I own.

The price of new ammo got us into reloading. Thought we could save money by reloading. Didn't really shoot enough back then to offset the costs of the equipment purchases.

a long time ago, i was able to get 38special wadcutters through the sheriff's department for about 1.50 a box. And about that time i bought a super redhawk and found out what 44 ammo cost.

then i didn't have acess to that cheap ammo. I found out casting and reloading solved the issue.
Then i got into a lot of old mill/surp calibers, and it was just easier to insure you had a supply by doing your own.
The costs are only one time for the equipment, and after 40 years of reloading it's nothing compared to the cost of factory ammo. I snicker walking into cabella's and seeing the price of ammunition.

50+ years ago when I was just a little fellow, Dad & Grandpa and my uncle taught me to reload. For the longest time I thought all shooters and hunters loaded their own ammo.

I've never stopped loading my own ammo, except when I was deployed overseas.

Mostly I load target shooting ammo for real basic cartridges: .308 Win, 5.56, and .45 ACP. The .308 stuff shoots very well, and I'm very pleased with it. The others do just fine for my purposes.

Also load my own hunting ammo.

Regards, Guy

The purchase of a 338-06 rifle was the major reason I started reloading, that and the fact I was at a point in my life where I had a little more disposable income and wanted to purchase more rifles and handguns.

I had wanted to reload for many years but I took the 338-06 to make me jump in.

I already owned a remington 722 in 300sav. At a gunshow my dad found 99 300sav in good used condition with a set of dies and 100+ rounds. $450 for all of it got me into reloading.

I had a misguided youth apparently compared to most of you guys I guess! I had no family that hunted or fished and all of my family were city folks! Once we moved to the country, I was exposed to REAL PEOPLE that realized all meat isn't grown in the back of a grocery store! lol

I quickly got a single shot shotgun and a 22 rimfire for all my fun and hunting! Never had a need for a centerfire. deer hunting was shotgun only at that time in my neck of the woods.

Then once I graduated high school I kinda quit hunting and fishing for many decades and replaced it with chasing women and parties! I wish I could remember most of those days!

A few decades went by and I've always heard that "When wine, women and song get to be too much, quit singing!" SO I quit singing! It didn't help me much but all my friends appreciated it! AND women! Well ya can't live with em and ya can't kill em! SO I finally gave up chasing all of it and wouldn't ya know my interest in hunting and fishing returned big time!

I bought my first centerfire rifle in the early 90's and quickly realized that all ammo shot to a different POI! Then I ran into a benchrest guy who told me that with little effort I could produce better ammo than factory and could tune the loads for each rifle! I was hooked! I have to admit, I love loading every bit as much as shooting!

I started loading at around 12 YO just because I wanted to. Got me a Lee Loader. That thing was a major contributor to the carpal tunnel syndrome I had to deal with surgically in following years. Then I got a really simple Lee press (no automatic anything) and thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. It wasn't until I got my first centerfire handgun at age 18 that the real savings started to be realized. Actually, I got the RCBS JR3 press and 45 Colt dies so I could load "Ruger & TC ONLY" loads in that Blackhawk 45. The next major step was casting my own slugs from scrounged wheelweights. At that point I was loading my 45 ammo for about $2 per box of 50 rds. I hunted deer for 40 years and never killed one with a factory load. I don't load shotshells any more. They are cheap enough at Wally World. Still load everything else though, except rimfires.

I started reloading in 1978, I wanted my ammo to be better then the factory stuff, after the learning curve and the investment in all the reloading equipment, I finally got the accuracy I wanted.
I remembered that back then there was always plenty of components, the shelves were full, you could get what you wanted.I don't think I would make that investment these days.

I borrowed Dads 30-06 to deer hunt with. Went to the store and got a box of ammo and left thinking never again will I pay $8.00 for a box of ammo.

And.....it is very likely that you kept your word.

^^These^^

Except I don't know that my dad ever bought a metallic cartridge that I can recall other than rimfire. We had loads of mil surp '06 brass and powder, and would make most of our cases from LC Match brass, including .243 Win., all on a Herter's turret press. We also had a Lyman TruLine Jr. for neck sizing.

My first job was to iron shotgun shells, which led to my first reloading injury about the age of 5 when I grabbed the shotgun shell iron to see if it was hot. It was.

I think the first box of factory ammo I bought was .44 Mag after I got my M29 in the late '70's, and that was to get the brass. Well, also so I could shoot the thing as soon as possible. Same goes for a few other calibers, although I've resorted to a box or two of factory ammo recently for various reasons.

Dad gave up on shotgun shells when shells got cheap enough, we were shooting a lot, and the old Texan couldn't keep up. I've given up shotgun shells for the same reason, that and I don't shoot shotguns all that much now.

Casting became necessary given the amount of shooting I was doing when I started.

I've ended up with more reloading stuff than necessary as I can't pass up good deals whether I need them or not.

Started with shotgun shells because I was shooting (or trying to) competitively (Those $6.95 16 gauge shells were EXPENSIVE!) Bought Mec 600 after I won an 8 lb keg of Unique. Then expanded to 12 gauge because I could get the hulls for free just by picking them up. Winchester AA's and Remington Blue Magics were the bomb back then.
Turned 21 and bought a S&W 19-6 and to shoot more (that $5.95 box of 357's was EXPENSIVE!) I borrowed a friends Rockchucker press. Bought the dies and went after it.
Expanded to my 25-06's then my Dad's 30-06, then the 30-40 Krag, then ...
I now reload for every firearm I own save the rimfires.

You guys are making me feel better regarding buying components, etc just because I could get a deal on them, lol!

I bought my 44mag dies the same time I bought my 44mag Redhawk not knowing if I'd even keep the Redhawk. Afterall, we heard stories of how terrible the recoil of the 44mag. Took it to an indoor pistol range to shoot. The clerk said he'd never buy a 44mag as they're too expensive to shot. I thought to myself, why don't you reload???

So now instead of buying more firerams that I'd probably don't need or use, I've decided to focus on buying reloading components. My timing is definitely bad for that, lol!

yep,44 magnum got me into it ,too.

When my Dad started shooting High Power matches, you could not buy accurate enough ammo for any price, especially for 600 and 1000 yard matches. When I started shooting in the matches, it was only natural that I handloaded. Except for milsurp, I never fired a factory round.

Later he hunted in Africa and loaded .300 Wby because you could not get them with Nosler Partitions.

Later, I hunted in Africa. I loaded .375 and .458. You could not get North Fork solids in .375 (or any other flat points) and .458 factory loads were loaded to 2040 fps by the factory. I could get 2200 easily with handloads.

At one point I had a 6.5x54mm M1903 Mannlicher Shoenaur. You simply can't buy ammo. Further, this rifle had excess headspace and I had to fire form cases.

Finally, I shot matches with a 6XC. I had to fire form cases from 22-250s.

After all this stuff, I can say that no factory round has ever polluted most of my barrels!

Now I shoot mostly shotgun. I only reload 28 gauge because you can buy 12 and 20 cheaper than I can reload them.

Accuracy and a friend who reloaded.

In 1975 I moved to BC big game country and bought a 30-06 to improve on my 30-30. A new friend there is a superb hunter who reloaded to gain accuracy and better bullets than he could get in factory at the time. I was impressed and followed his lead exactly.

At first I did my reloading with his tools, a Lee loader combined with a powder scale to make each charge precisely the same. I bought a Lee Loader kit, added my own Ohaus powder scale and used those tools for the next 10 years.

I was a high school kid, liked to shoot and had very little money. I scrounged wheel weights, cast my pistol bullets. My first handgun was a K-38, 6" and I still have it. That S&W cost me $80 of hard earned pecan picking money. I added a 340 Savage .222 and it went from there. I finally sold the Savage, replaced it with a M-700 ADL, .222. Shot the barrel out over the years. It now wears a .204 PacNor and still shoots lights out.

DF

Another reason I wanted to get into reloading was to try different bullet weigts in my 308win, particular 165gr.


Plus 5.56/223rem ammo was only cheap if loaded with 55gr fmj (and sometimes in steel cases).

So wider avaiable bullet options was another consideration for me.

Was impossible to buy loaded 223 ammo with 90 jlks seated the correct length from any factory