Is Reloading "Worth It"?

[jaybet]

I like reloading for several reasons:
1. My actual outlay for ammo is less (not counting my time of course).
2. Where I live I used to spend MORE time driving around looking for ammo than I do making ammo.
3. I have the ammo I want when I want it.
4. I enjoy the process and take pleasure in making rounds that don't screw up. (99.99%)
5. It gives me a "gun" thing to do when I just can do real gun stuff.

To me it's part of enjoying shooting and I think overall I'm ahead cost-wise.

[JC5123]

This relates to what a co worker was telling me last week. He was complaining that his pool service raised his monthly maintenance fee $30.00 a month. I asked him why he didn't maintain his pool himself. His reason was that he simply did not "have the time". This guy plays a minimum of 36 holes of golf a week, and watches every Arizona Diamondbacks game broadcast. That is what he enjoys doing. I maintain my own pool and I can all but guarantee I don't spend an half an hour a week doing it. What is that, 3 innings of a single baseball game? Everything has to be looked at in perspective.   Bill T.

Brings up something I was just talking about with my neighbor (and fellow shooter/ reloader) When he asked me about something that I had said that I wanted to get done before winter. I was going to say that I hadn't had time, but thought about it for a second and caught myself. Instead I said that I hadn't MADE time. Which was the truth. Got me thinking about the phrase to always hear about not having time.

We make time for what is important to us. But always say we don't have the time for the things that aren't. It's all about priorities.

[Solus]

Good thought, JCS.

Everyone has the same amount of time:  24 hours per day.

But not all of it is "discretionary".  Job and other non-optional time requirements vary for each of us.

Of what is left, we allocate where we feel we will gain the most. 

[mortdooley]

 Reloading to me is a relaxing gun related activity, the time I spend doing it is a break from what I need to get done. Since I sometimes scrounge brass at the club I shoot at cost goes up rather then down because of all the once fired brass that follows me home. Just looking at all those empty cases waiting for primers, powder and bullets compel me to fill them.

[mortdooley]

 The above reply refers to .380, 9mm, 40 and 45acp, I save a ton on reloading .44s 45colt 38super and 30mauser.

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Time - Virtually a non-issue.  Unless you are giving up  a money making opportunity or sloughing in your job to do this, your time is worth what you make of it.  So, unless you are passing on a task that will put cash or tangible item in your pocket your time is worth nothing in dollars and cents.

Quality - If you do your homework, and follow the instructions you will get equal to better quality.  However, there will be a quality upgrade that factory can never produce, and that is matching your gun, shooting style, and shooting sport to the ammunition you produce.  Light bullets, heavy bullets, fast burning powder, slow burning powder, hot primer, cold primer, case length, over all length, bullet style, etc. are all things that can be tweaked in hand loading that you will not see from a factory.

Increased Knowledge - The more steps a shooter takes on themselves, the more they know and understand themselves, their guns and their sport.  The process of reloading, from research to the actual act, makes for a better hunter, competitor and sportsman.

Money Savings - I have never met a person that saved money by reloading.  If they were able to produce the ammunition at a cost savings all they did was shoot more.  So, for every percent they saved in cost they increased their volume ... Not a bad problem in my mind.

Enjoyment Factor - In the region where I live we have three seasons - Good outdoor time, cold, cold and wet, and damn cold and nasty.  Reloading extends the shooting seasons by allowing me to do something to do with my sport at any time of year.  For every shot I shoot I get to spend time sorting and inspecting cases and hulls, I get to reload the ammunition, and I get to package the ammunition.  Then there is the journaling of what I have done for future reference.  In these times of increased costs this is a way to get more enjoyment for the dollar out of the same dollars - A hundred dollars of factory ammunition provides a weekend of fun, and it is over.  However, a hundred dollars of reloaded ammunition provides a weekend of shooting, and a couple weekends or several days of spare time in the evenings reloading and remembering what I did, and thinking about what I will be doing.

In my world reloading is an important part of my sport and my participation in it.

[bjtraz]

I like reloading for several reasons:
1. My actual outlay for ammo is less (not counting my time of course).
2. Where I live I used to spend MORE time driving around looking for ammo than I do making ammo.
3. I have the ammo I want when I want it.
4. I enjoy the process and take pleasure in making rounds that don't screw up. (99.99%)
5. It gives me a "gun" thing to do when I just can do real gun stuff.

To me it's part of enjoying shooting and I think overall I'm ahead cost-wise.

+1

[Solus]

I can think of four reasons to reload your own ammunition

First:  To improve accuracy

Second:  To save money

Third:  They don't make it any more.

Fourth:  The satisfaction of a job well done.


And that's the way it is.

 

[SpottHogg]

As have been outlined here there are many reasons to reload. But you must understand depending on what reason your doing it for will dictate whether some of the other reasons apply. If you choose to save money, you may not neccesarily be utilizing the performance. If you buy the cheapest bullets you are getting inconsistancy!! You wont spend much time to throw any ol' load together if your not looking for precision. If you choose precision and performance its going to be more expensive than the bargain box of ammo. It also requires additional steps in the proccess and more equipment. Reloading, no matter how you look at it is a beneficial thing. You just have to accept that most of the time you cant get the best of all worlds. As my Dad always says when you gain in one area you have to loss in another.

[Solus]

Another reason for reloading is that you might wish to duplicate a factory load.

For instance, if you have priced DPX ammo for your Self Defense pistol, you might be thinking it would be cheaper to let the robber take what he wants than to feed the stuff to your guns for function testing and practice.  Hornaday Critical Defense ammo is a bit less expensive.

If you can obtain the bullets from Barnes or Hornaday that are used in these rounds, you can attempt to duplicate the factory load in your handgun. 

Since you most likely cannot manage to conduct the testing the factory has done with their loads to get the desired terminal performance, you might want to duplicate the factory load because the terminal performance might be affected by significant velocity changes.

To do this, you will need a chronograph to clock the factory loads in your handgun.  Once you know the velocity of the load, you can work to duplicate it in your handgun.

I disassemble a batch of the factory loads to examine and weigh the powder charge.  While the powders that are use in factory loads are seldom, if ever, offered in the canister powders we can buy, it will let you know what the shape of the powder is, which might allow you to closer duplicate the burning characteristics of the powder used in the factory load.  If a spherical powder is used in the factory load, you might get closer performance by using an appropriate spherical powder in your loads.

In any case, once you know the weight and shape of the powder, you will need to search all the loading data you can find for your caliber and bullet weight that use that shape and charge of powder to achieve a velocity close to what you measured in your handgun and/or the velocity published by the factory for the load.

Once you find some load data that falls in the range you need, you can begin loading to test the combinations in your handgun.  If any of the loads you are considering are near Max, back off on the powder charge and work back up to it, checking for sings of over pressure.

When you have come up with loads that will match the velocity of the factory loads in your weapon, you are good to go.

Another offshoot of this is that now that you know the velocity of the load you duplicated in your handgun, you can now duplicate the "feel" of that load with cheaper components for practice.

For instance, you can use ball or maybe plated bullets of the same weight as the factory bullets and loaded to the same velocity in your handgun for cheaper practice ammo which will produce the same muzzle energy and thus recoil characteristics very close to the duplicated factory loads you will be using for self defense.

Remember that visual examination of the powder used in factory loads will not allow you to be able to determine what powder was used in the factory load just by visual comparison.  This will only help you find a canister powder that is likely to have burn characteristics similar to the factory powder.  You will need to research the available load data to determine which canister powders can be used safely to reproduce the measured velocity of the factory rounds in your handgun.