stupid to get into reloading now?

[sigma6]

I know I know. Once this dies down I'll stock properly on components. I stocked up on factory ammo and its holding for now with rationing. I only started shooting in 2012.

However I am disappointed with the availability of factory ammo at the moment. I want to pick up a Hornady AP press but here is my thing. I don't have a bench and I have no access to components except my brass that I have been saving. I am at least a year off from getting my own home with the MRS.

I can hold out on factory for about 6-8 months longer. If I take a few training classes that means I'm done.

So my question is, do I try to piece meal components and before I can even set up? Or, do I hold off until I get a new place and by then things will hopefully get back to normal?

[NoNOS67]

For starters, get a couple of good manuals and start reading them. This will give you an excellent idea of what you will need to get started. From there, you can start picking up components when they become available. They're out there, but patience and a watchful eye are necessary if you want to find them.

[Trainman]

Shortage? What shortage?
You just have to be willing to do the leg work to find components. I've reloaded over 3k of .223 since the first of the year, and that's with components purchased as I load. I keep my brass and pick up what I can at the range when I go shoot. Get a used press, trimmer, powder dump and scale at a gun show. Two weeks ago I walked past a RCBS RockChucker II for $100 at the sac show. I picked up a RCBS powder trickler for $5. The stuff is out there, it just not next to your couch.

[glock7]

Buy things slowly. Everyone wants their piece of the pie now. Get the press first and pick up components when you can. If you can't do that, do as the above poster recommended and pick up some reloading manuals. Personally for cost savings I picked up a lee turret press and set it up for what I was shooting the most at the time 9mm. Now my press is also set up for .223. It took me 2 years to get to this point. Scrimping and saving and reading up. Then picking up component when I could. If I can do it then you can too. Components are out there, a little more pricy than when I started a few years back, but even now I still pick up what I can. I'm a shooter and I will always have ammo, despite any shortages. Good luck.

[jj805]

Your bench issue is easily fixed, and the components are out there. I think the previous posts cover the component issue. The bench issue is an easy fix. It is not the coolest or most convenient set up, but it works. You could either get a stand for your press, or you can get a good quality, sturdy folding table, purchase, or make a bracket setup that will allow you to remove your equipment when not in use, and attach it to the table.

[Divernhunter]

Yes.
If you think you are interested buy Lyman #49 Reloading manual and read it. It will help you out. It will answer most questions and has good reloading data also.
Wait until supplies catch up with the panic buying then you will be educated about it(by reading the manual) and ready to do it if you still want to.

[damndave]

Get what you can now IF you can find a decent deal on it. The LNL AP was going for roughly $400 before the madness and you get 500 free bullets. I've seen it as low as $360 with free shipping, but $400 was the going price.

Start off with a good manual.

[afrancke]

A great strategy for now is to get a Lee single stage kit (the one with the bushings, ideally - but NOT the hand press one) and some nice dies (Forster or Redding) and start piecing together components as you can. Ideally buy primers and powder locally if you can - and then start learning loading, and especially take the opportunity to load right at the range if you can. It may take you four to six months to pull all this together, but it will for the most part all carry over to your future loading activities even when you choose to buy more equipment later.

[gemoose23]

There's another thread on space conscious reloading:

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=727558

Go to the Library, borrow their ABC's of Reloading Book. Read determine if it's something for you. Remember a lot of the savings is "labor" which is free.

If you counted all the time you spend searching & shopping for components, reloading, brass processing (esp. rifle brass) you'd find it isn't a $$ savings. If you are interested in another hobby, which happens to feed your "safebabies". Reloading could be for you.

Since you have a 6 month factory ammo buffer, if you start acquiring your reloading press and accessories needs and components now, you'll be up and running before you run out of your factory ammo buffer.

Try local gun stores, leave your telephone numbers with them on what powder and primers you need. Bullets buy in bulk online, don't discount lead projectiles unless you are shooting a Glock with OEM barrel.

Good Luck and Have fun.

[jameshenry]

Go to the builders web sites for sug. retail prices, then get to know what a good/bad deal is. Ebay buyers are paying high just to get a item right now!

[ExtremeX]

Or, do I hold off until I get a new place and by then things will hopefully get back to normal?

[sigma6]

Not really, its all about flexibility and availability of ammo. We know there is going to be another shortage. keeping components on hand helps stretch your ammo farther. You can bring your stored factory ammo for classes and keep the reloads for plinking. Instead of being dependent on walmart and online for .20 a round for 9mm, you have a guarantee stored in your garage no matter the political climate.

[2nd Shot]

I'm going to shoot straight with you here and tell you that, IMO, right now is not a good time to begin reloading if you're not already geared up enough to produce ammo. I know everybody says "time to start reloading", and then BAM! All of the sudden you have this endless supply of cheap ammo and can win at everything, forever. It doesn't work like that.

Everybody always tells you that it'll save you on ammo. It will, but not until you've made hundreds, if not thousands of rounds of ammo. Your initial investment will absolutely destroy any hopes of economy until you've made and fired a ton of ammo at significant savings. That initial investment is going to hurt like never before at the panic pricing it's selling for now.

Nobody ever seems to mention that even if you get the press for free (like I did when I started), you still need dies, a scale that you can trust, a priming tool if your press doesn't include one or it's unreliable, a caliper to measure OAL, some way to clean your brass, brass trimming and prep tools if you're loading for a rifle, etc... It adds up fast.

Ok, so you work a good job and money isn't the problem - that's great, except you still have to find all of your reloading tooling which in itself is somewhat difficult right now. In these times, some critical gear may not be available, or you may be forced to make sub optimal choices.

Then once you have all your gear, you need to find the actual components you intend to load! Make no mistake about it - finding components is getting to be as hard as finding loaded ammo. If you can't find any one of the 4 major components (Bullet, Brass, Primer, Powder) for your cartridge, you're SOL.

Furthermore, since component availability is so low, you can't just select a load in the books that looks like what you want and try it out. Also, you can't just snatch any random components in your caliber off the shelf and try to make it work - there may be no load data, or in the worst case, that combination may be blatantly unsafe. Most experienced reloaders will have a good idea of what can be made to work with careful load development, but especially when starting out, you should stick to book loads, cross checked against 2 other published sources to rule out misprints or typos. If you're new and don't already have your favorite loads (and backups) already worked up after countless hours of loading and testing, you'll have to burn valuable resources carefully building and testing your loads to make sure they're safe and that they actually work. Then you can move on to tweaking for accuracy/power/economy or whatever it is you intend to do. This requires a lot of loading and shooting to do, burning up your resources at the worst possible time, and possibly before you even finalize your load.

I don't mean to be a Nancy Negative, but this is the reality of reloading - it's not a magic source of cheap ammo. You'll have enough on your plate getting started as is, and the current conditions make it that much more difficult. That said, if you read this, and are undeterred, you probably have the right mindset and the determination to make it happen... Best of luck either way and report back if/when you do load your first test batch!

[klewan]

OP, I see you've decided to unload the dillion. You'll probably need the money if you're going to be a new homeowner. And this is a good market to be selling into. See what happens in the next 18 months, the house will really be a time suck....

[TahoeTim]

do not listen to Nancy Negative. He has it backwards. Simply go to one of the free online calculators and figure out the cost per round of the caliber you are planning to reload. I just started reloading 45 and bought a hornady LNL press and all the stuff to reload. I can reload for 20cents and factory ammo is 50 cents. At current panic prices, I will make my investment back FASTER!

30 cents saving x 1000 rounds = $300 savings. I have 2000 rounds of factory 45. So I reload it as I shoot it. I know that once I reload it ONCE, I've broken even. After that, I save $300 per thousand. I go to the range every week and shoot at least 100 rounds so I will shoot 2000 rounds in 6 months. If I enter a steel challenge match, it will go even faster. I didn't buy brass. I am using the brass from my factory rounds.

I am having fun reloading. I reloaded three recipes, 8 rounds each. I shot those and really liked two of them. So I loaded 100 rounds of a recipe between the two loads. After I shoot that, I will probably just go into factory mode and stick with the recipe.

BTW - with a hornady press and a set of dies, you get 600 free bullets! That's a $180 discount...