Ammo

4 Reasons to Get Into Reloading

Published

6 years ago

July 6, 2018

It’s also known as “handloading,” and it might just be your new favorite hobby.

Simply put, reloading is the process of taking your expended brass and recycling it with a new primer, charge and bullet. Sounds boring, right? So why would you bother doing it when there’s perfectly good factory ammo for sale? Here are four reasons why reloading might just turn out to be your new favorite hobby.

1) It’s a Hedge Against Ammo Shortages

Image courtesy of Vista Outdoor

Grandpa Simpson time! “Back in the ‘oughts, you couldn’t find .223 ammunition anywhere. Folks would stalk the shipments at their local sporting-goods stores so they could swoop in and buy up all the inventory the moment it arrived. Also I was wearing an apple on my belt because it was the style of the time, only it was an onion. Because of the war. Anyway…”

Anyway, there are lots of reasons why you might find it tough to get your favorite ammo from time to time…but if you reload, you’ll always have a supply.

2) It’s Relaxing…Yes, Really

There’s something very Zen about the process of reloading. It’s all repetition and sequence, and at some point it becomes muscle memory. That’s when you’ll find yourself spontaneously realizing how to fix that pesky problem at work…remembering where you put the wrench you’ve been looking for…realizing that you haven’t even looked at your TV today and you don’t miss it a bit.

3) It Saves You Money

This probably should be higher up the list, because it’s one of the prime reasons people get into reloading. Although there is definitely an initial startup cost—reloading equipment is fairly specialized for obvious reasons—the overwhelming majority of reloaders see their equipment paying for itself in as little as a few weeks (depending, of course, on how much you shoot).

4) Chicks Dig Reloading Skills

When you handload your ammo, you can tailor it to your own unique needs. If you’re recoil-sensitive, for example, you can tone down the powder a bit for your target-practice ammo. It’s important to ensure that your handloads still stay within SAAMI standards for safety reasons, but there’s an incredible amount of extra performance you can get out of your handloads.

Oh, and chicks dig it, too. Not as much as bow hunting skills, though…