Obama has done more for gun sales than any other president. Gun sales are up....but for the hell of it i looked around the internet to see if there was any new sites out there for reloading....I found nothing new!
I next checked out the NRA and canvassed the mid atlantic region states to see the schedules for reloading training workshops.....talked to a couple instructors and they told me the number of new folks in the reloading classes is typically the new retiree or the benchrest wannabees and not the general public....

I also see no new upstart hard cast bullet operations....You would think with all the pistol sales that people have to be out there shooting and cringing over the ammo costs....

I got into reloading years back because it was so easy and vastly less expensive to roll your own.....what is going on....Is reloading a dying art?

let's hope not!!!!!

I don't think so, I'm 17, been reloading for several years completely by myself thanks to the good people on this site, and I've started at least 5 people into reloading.

No, it's not a dying art. I'd say it's alive and well.

For me, it's not only practical but a necessity as several of the cartridges I've grown fond of over the years must be made from scratch.

+1
It's flourishing at my house.
Just looking at factory ammo prices last nite. For a box of 20 rounds of factory 7x57 ammo loaded up with 140 grain Nolser partitions, the price was $43.99.. That's near $2.50 for every shot. No way I'd pay that price, and will load that same ammo for a whole lot less.
The above load is what we all shoot in 7x57's in my family.

Heck no! Reloading in my family is alive and better than ever! Between my 2 brothers, brother in law, and my dad, we reload for 7 different calibres and counting. We recently had to resort to bulk orders of powder and I got sick of buying so many boxes of bullets in the 100 count range that I now purchase in lots of 500!

We only started reloading about 3 years ago, and we all plan on reloading for the duration!

you are kidding, right?
I bet there's never been a higher percentage of shooters, in the US, reloading than NOW ...
Why? no ammo available for about the first 7 months of the year

I have taught and/or encouraged to learn all 3 of my kids, and at least 1/2 a dozen shooters in the past 10 years

Just the opposite, the high cost of factory ammo is pushing more folks to load it themselves.

The shortage of components tells me someone is still at it.
I don`t think it is dying at all. I see too many people picking up their brass anymore to think they all just want to leave the range clean. The days of "free" brass might be gone though...

Handloading maybe but not reloading. Two different things IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:
Handloading maybe but not reloading. Two different things IMHO.

i reload but what is the difference in handloading and reloading

quote:

Originally posted by rick boggs:

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:
Handloading maybe but not reloading. Two different things IMHO.

i reload but what is the difference in handloading and reloading

Semantics to some--
Religion to others.

Loading for Bench rest vs 223 shell burning can involve remarkably different methods--
such as from- an automated machine
to a precision cut die from the same reamer as your chamber-
and everything in between.

At today's prices, I'd quit shooting before I'd rely on factory ammo from most manufacturers.

It isn't that I can't afford the ammo. I can. It is simply that I won't go through the same kind of crap with the ammo companies that we have recently gone through with the banks, the investment brokers, and the oil companies. Screw ALL the big international corporations.

I find it very offensive that corporate management thinks us all so stupid that we can't find any other way to feed our "pets".

Luckily I have salted away a several lifetimes supply of bullets, primers, powder, and brass over the years, not to mention about 100 bullet moulds and over 1/2 a ton of real linotype.

So, I'll continue to load my own, and give some components to "needy" friends once in a while.

quote:

i looked around the internet to see if there was any new sites out there for reloading....I found nothing new!

Goodness!

Don't know what you mean about finding "nothng new" but I know of about 20 or so sites, and I found most of them without looking, as such. Quite a few sites are really too small in membership to justify their existance. Perhaps a better indicator is how much the membership of the existing sites is growing.

I strongly suspect a LOT of new loaders aren't much interested in computers or the web either. How many new sites do we need and what would be the advangtage of splitting us up into smaller groups?

quote:

Originally posted by rick boggs:

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:
Handloading maybe but not reloading. Two different things IMHO.

i reload but what is the difference in handloading and reloading

the only difference is if it new unfired, and fired .. meaningles distiction in the realm of the questions

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Just the opposite, the high cost of factory ammo is pushing more folks to load it themselves.

This is very true. I have seen countlesss posts on other sites about "starting to reload". I have helped 3-4 guys get going since PBO took office. Many shooters are now wishing they were reloaders too. Driving by Wallyworld every day for ammo must just suck!

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:

quote:

Originally posted by rick boggs:

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:
Handloading maybe but not reloading. Two different things IMHO.

i reload but what is the difference in handloading and reloading

the only difference is if it new unfired, and fired .. meaningles distiction in the realm of the questions

My take on it is that there is a difference. The "reloader" is loading his own to save money. The "handloader" is loading to achieve maximum performance.

A "reloader" would shoot factory ammo if it was cheaper than reloading. A "handloader" would load his own even if it cost more to do so.

Hey rje, I've seen a few Loads on this Board given to others that have nearly "resulted" in reloading being a dying art.

I'll stick with my original position .. and a certainly get a chuckle that "handloaders are performance mind while reloaders are just cheap"

quote:

Originally posted by rje:
Obama has done more for gun sales than any other president. Gun sales are up....but for the hell of it i looked around the internet to see if there was any new sites out there for reloading....I found nothing new!
I next checked out the NRA and canvassed the mid atlantic region states to see the schedules for reloading training workshops.....talked to a couple instructors and they told me the number of new folks in the reloading classes is typically the new retiree or the benchrest wannabees and not the general public....

I also see no new upstart hard cast bullet operations....You would think with all the pistol sales that people have to be out there shooting and cringing over the ammo costs....

I got into reloading years back because it was so easy and vastly less expensive to roll your own.....what is going on....Is reloading a dying art?

let's hope not!!!!!

New sites?

Google yields this
Results 1 - 10 of about 4,540,000 for reloading with Safesearch on. (0.31 seconds)

Courses?
I dont know of a single reloader that started by taking a 'course' Most buy a kit, and book and have at it. If they have a question, they google the answer.

Dying? Have you ordered powder, primers or bullets in the past 10 months? Or should I say, tried to order?

y're kidding, right? This motivated me to check my shop and casting shed. I have forty-seven sets of dies, plus what's in my SDB's. Sixty-two bullet moulds out in the shed. I can't afford factory ammunition, and some of my big bores are wildcats, so it's reload or not shoot.

Rich

Agree on the "courses"statement.....I was shepered in by individuals already reloading.....and I am intent on passing it on. Everyone that I have EVER talked to has been ANXIOUS to help ANYTIME I have a queastion, and I am doing to same to anyone that I can. Taught my daughter to reload shotgon shells before she was 10. My grandaughter is 3 at the end of this month, and I started her on the internet last night reading her stuff.....did she understand it???? don't know don't care, I know that I got started.

So with that said.....even though it is going good......start and mentor someone.......it is an investment we all need to make.....

OK....(klunk).....off my soapbox now.

All the points that have been made are great....And I would expect that there are many reloaders on this site..,...
The poitn I am trying to make is that there are very few internet sites that reinforce learning the art of reloading....I have been unable to find any site that helps you learn the trade...and beyond that I even went to the library and was told by the librarian that those TYPE of books on ammunition are no longer encouraged to be on the shelves as it encourages youths to make explosive devices....

My other point about no proliferation of NRA reloading class attendees is also very real....It is just not being taught publically as much....even though may of us expose dozens of friends to the reloading arts.

I may just go out on a limb and create a web site to encourage basic relaoding skills adoption.....that might be my way to spread info about how great a sport reloading is.....

thanks you all for your comments and enlightenment. I really appreciate it!!!!

I'm breeding as many new reloaders as I can.

Gotta agree on the courses though. I cringe nearly every time I hear a gun store salesman speak. I'd never want to learn to shoot or reload from 95% of the guys behind the counter in most sporting goods stores. Exceptions exist of course, but I'm consistently amazed at how little most of them know, and I've sure overheard advise given that could be dangerous.

Learn from someone who has been reloading for years and still has both eyes and all their fingers. If they call themselves a handloader, run. They'll be an anal PITA.

I started reloading in the early 70's, there weren't any "reloading sites", or any internet for that matter..... The information came from reloading manuals (in my case Hornaday #2 and Nosler #1). I found that I could not only make ammo cheaper but better, something that's been left out of the discussion. I've loaded now for more than a dozen different cartridge, pistol and rifle. All of them have different little idiosyncrasies, very few of which can be "looked" up on the internet.... Articles in shooting magazines, reloading manuals, friends that reload have all contributed more than the net... Sometimes it can be to easy to "head to the keyboard".
After all the years, I can't think of a better hobby. My oldest son, reloads, even makes some of his brass for his very old cartridges.... His son although only 12 is sitting with his dad at the bench, learning... My youngest son will probable get all my equipment, he doesn't have as much time right now, but loves to reload.

I forgot to mention that my oldest son is manufacturing not only cast but now 17 and 20cal bullets. I had to laugh. I think there were nearly 40 different steps in the manufacture of the bullets, talk about labor intensive....

I hope it's not dead.....

Reloading is seeing possibly it's greatest surge in both interest and numbers. I'm one of quite a few people who've been curious about it for years and went from more than curious to an avid reloader because of the ammo shortages and prices. The only factory rounds I've shot in the last year were purely because I coveted the brass to reload it

Been loading 25yrs,son started at age 5(someone has to put bullets on casemouth)Have even thought about starting shop and reloading classesbut those damn lawyers.Checked out price on .45acp hollowpoints,they wanted 19.99 a box of 20-ridiculous..

quote:

Originally posted by Jim C. <><:

quote:

i looked around the internet to see if there was any new sites out there for reloading....I found nothing new!

Goodness!

Don't know what you mean about finding "nothng new" but I know of about 20 or so sites, and I found most of them without looking, as such. Quite a few sites are really too small in membership to justify their existance. Perhaps a better indicator is how much the membership of the existing sites is growing.

I strongly suspect a LOT of new loaders aren't much interested in computers or the web either. How many new sites do we need and what would be the advangtage of splitting us up into smaller groups?

Sorry Jeff you are showing your exposed rear end on this one---obviously you are a reloader.

Sorry but this is common knowledge on the more precision side of the sport.

quote:

A "reloader" would shoot factory ammo if it was cheaper than reloading. A "handloader" would load his own even if it cost more to do so.

You must be talkin' about me. I have lots of commercial ammo. I care not to shoot it, preferring my reloads. I have to reload for my target gun, as all of us do who have them...

From where I sit, the shortage of primers and bullets was much more severe than the shortage of loaded ammo. You could still find factory ammo for most calibers somewhere, though it might have been expensive. For much of the summer there were no rifle or pistol primers to be had anywhere.

The price of used brass has skyrocketed and the amount of brass left on the ground at public ranges is way down. Somebody is using all of that brass. At the skeet, trap and sporting clays ranges, a lot more guys are picking up their reloadable hulls than in much of recent history.

If you look at eBay, Gunbroker and other such sites, the prices paid for reloading presses, powder measures and other reloading equipment are nearly that of new. A lot of folks are looking for equipment. The auctions of decent reloading equipment are always popular and the bids are numerous.

Given all of the above I would say that there is no shortage of new reloaders to replace us old crusty old farts.

Well if reloaders are cheap, then call me CHEAP.

Just this week I purchased about 8000 cast pistol bullets from an old source.

His problem is still finding enough lead. He has enough orders to keep him busy till December.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Just the opposite, the high cost of factory ammo is pushing more folks to load it themselves.

Exactly why I started again. For a while I just factory when it was around $20 a box. Now its over $40 and a lot higher for all I shoot. I can load a lot of bullets for what they want for one box. I think it is probably stronger than it has ever been.

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:

quote:

Originally posted by Jim C. <><:

quote:

i looked around the internet to see if there was any new sites out there for reloading....I found nothing new!

Goodness!

Don't know what you mean about finding "nothng new" but I know of about 20 or so sites, and I found most of them without looking, as such. Quite a few sites are really too small in membership to justify their existance. Perhaps a better indicator is how much the membership of the existing sites is growing.

I strongly suspect a LOT of new loaders aren't much interested in computers or the web either. How many new sites do we need and what would be the advangtage of splitting us up into smaller groups?

Sorry Jeff you are showing your exposed rear end on this one---obviously you are a reloader.

Sorry but this is common knowledge on the more precision side of the sport.

You mean Jim, there, precision guy?

At 3000 plus rounds per year, I have to reload to feed my addiction. I have a 39 year old son that has never fired a factory round and he started at 9 years old. There is also six grandsons of which two are seasoned hunters, (4 still to young to decide) a grandaughter who will beat them all, and a great grandson that will follow his dad who is a seasoned hunter. I have enough bullets powder-primers-brass to never buy another item, if necessary. YES BY GOLLY, I am a reloader-handloader, proud of it, and always will be. Good shooting.