You might be a hardcore reloader if...

[griz]

There is a great thread in general
http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...threadid=55078
and I thought this might turn out well here too. Some of the ones posted there would also fit in here.

You might be a hard core reloader if:
You by the dies before you buy the gun.
The disclaimers on bullets in catalogs that say, "This is not loaded ammunition" seem obvious to you.
You have guns that have never fired a factory round.
You were a little disappointed that the first load you tried was so accurate because you had some different bullets you wanted to try.
The packaging on some of your powder is two generations old.
Your bookshelf has more reloading manuals than cookbooks, dictionaries, and bibles combined.
You were happy about saving a dollar on the price of bullets at the gun show but you didn’t count the price of admission because you knew you would be there anyway.
The popularity of the 22 WMR baffles you because you know a downloaded centerfire is better and cheaper.
You have deprimed Berdan cases just to see if you could.
When you moved, your friends wanted to carry the big boxes once they figured out you filled the all little ones with bullets.
You believe the television was invented so you would have something to do while you sorted or primed cases.

[KP95DAO]

Griz,
Do you know me?
However, I don't go to gunshows.
Here are some more.

You scrounge all those ammo boxes others throw away.
You would walk fifty yards to see what's shining.
You don't mind asking others if they want their brass.
Your living room often has piles of brass on the floor.
Your wife doesn't have to wonder where you are.
Instead of sex, it's rounds to load and fire you ponder.
You consider those who buy factory ammo lesser mortals.
The BATF would go ape if they saw your supplies.
And you think you don't have nearly enough.

[LIProgun]

Geez, and I thought I was the only one. Many of those really hit close to home.

Now I won't feel so weird fishing out empty cartridge boxes from the trash cans at the range.

[Coolray]

As A New Reloader I fit most every catagory

Espically walking to look at shiny stuff

I have a few supplies that rivals most retail stores inventories,and yes I need more

I have all my friends policeing up thier brass,boxes and anybody elses they can get.

I got 1/2 of a 5 gal bucket of .45 ACP once fired (free) by asking a Sheriff's deputy what he shoots (1911A1) and does he reload? He was at a pawn shop on business

I get a little anxious if somebody throws away a box of brass and someone else heads toward the trash can before me good thing he was only tossing a candy bar wrapper,could have been ugly.

I vaccum in front of my load bench daily to get the media,spent primers and on occasion powder, I had to buy my own,the wife put the kabosh on using her new one

[WIL TERRY]

I DO HEREBY AND FORTHWITH ADAPT ALL OF YOU AS MY BROTHERS.

The ceremony is over. Get your butts in the there and start crankin' on that press.

[Mal H]

Guilty as charged your honor on almost every single item!

More:
Your UPS guy is going in for that back surgery he's been putting off because his boss says he has to remain on your route.

The same UPS guy signs your hazmat stickers for you if you're not home - he doesn't want to carry the boxes around with him.

When you go looking at houses, your main goal is to be sure there are good reloading room possibilities. (Just happened to me late last year.)

You had to join the Price Club so you could get the piles of plastic boxes you need for all the different shells all in the same color.

RCBS has put you in their Depriming Pin of the Month club.

When you have collected enough brass for a caliber gun you don't even own, you go buy a gun in that caliber so you can reload the brass.

[PKN]

If you've ever made up your range/match fee in brass

If your local reloading shop knows you on sight.

If you've ever had a shop include something of yours in a stock order

I've done all three of these. I simply can't imagine shooting factory ammo anymore unless I'm waiting for a shipment of bullets, or defense loads. Now, if only West Coast and RCBS would hurry up...

[buzz_knox]

How about, you know how to reload 7.62mm Nagant by making your own brass?

Or, every so often, you try to figure out how to reload a rimfire?

[RiverRider]

Sometimes I buy the dies for a rifle I want first. It forces me to save up the bread for the rifle. I still haven't figured out a way to force myself to save up for my beloved Leupold scopes.

[sundog]

It's comforting to know that there's a name for this afflication, and that I am not alone....

I feel much better now. sundog

The hours that you spend prepping brass does not figure into the equation as having any value.

[Art Eatman]

Well, those lists add up to a good start!

You know you've been at it a while if you can recall the Pacific scale, with its set of weights to let you adjust the screw-weight to the powder charge you want. And, you regard the magnet and copper dealie as a "new-fangled invention".

Some of your current-use reloading dies were not new, fifty years ago.

You remember when folks argued the relative merits of HiVel vs IMR. IMR came in a can with a real small cap, and cost $1.25 a pound.

You "cookie-cut" a thin layer of graphite before seating the bullet, to "lubricate the barrel".

The only boat-tailed bullets were WW I vintage military.

Surplus GI plinking ammo was corrosive, of recent manufacture.

Nuff...

, Art

[Paul B.]

Art. You,ve found me out. I even have Lyman tong tools and still use them on occasion. It's very relaxing to load 30-30 cast bullets in a tong tool. Kind of takes one back to the way it was.
Paul B.

[Mal H]

"You remember when folks argued the relative merits of HiVel vs IMR. IMR came in a can with a real small cap, and cost $1.25 a pound."

And you are still using powder from those old DuPont IMR cans. (Hmm, I wonder if this old 4064 is still any good? I'll load some up and give it a 35 year, long term storage test - in the interest of science, yeah that's it! BTDT)

[Steve Smith]

I can't think of anything snazzy to say, but all this stuff fits me to a tee. We're a weird group, but if being a reloading nut is weird, then I'm guilty as charged!

[Gewehr98]

You buy a bunch of Egyptian 8mm Mauser 198gr FMJBT ball ammo, and pull the bullets, then weight sort them, tumble them, moly-coat them, and load them into new Remington brass atop a goodly amount of IMR4895 and a Federal Match primer, just so you can use your FN-49 in the informal highpower matches against all those darned Garands.

Or, because for some silly reason you absolutely love that Czech VZ-52, you buy a bunch of Norma 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schonauer brass, and resize and trim it to 7.62x45 dimensions, then work up your own loads starting from published 7.62x39 data.

Then there's always the fun of having the guy at Huntington's dig through his drum of once-fired 7x64 Brenneke brass for just the RWS headstamps, because your 6.5-06 likes that the best!

How about buying a Corbin bullet swaging die so you can continue to feed your Remington Model 8 in .32 Remington, using 170gr 8mm Mauser bullets that you swage down from .323 to .321 (The Hornady and Speer .321 bullets aren't always that easy to find sometimes)

[C.R.Sam]

Your Pacific press had several rams cause you were set up before they started makin detachable shell holders for em.

A friend looks in the refrigerator and exclains "my God, the only food in here is potatoe salad!" Actually, it was a 4 lb container of .44spec.

Some think you collect reefers and freezers.

You test the shotgun you just worked on with paper hulled reloads that you can't remember what they were loaded with.

You can use the oldest rug for rocket fuel.

Sam

[Master Blaster]

you take an hour and a half to reload 50 rounds of .45 ACP
on your progressive press, so it takes you 2 weeks to reload 500. That way you can reload every night after the kids are in bed.

[Sisco]

Whenever the wife or kids ask for money, you relate the ammount requested to how much powder or bullets that would buy.
Bathroom reading material is mostly reloading supply catalogs.
You've got several hundred pounds of wheel weights in buckets in the garage just in case you ever decide to start casting.
You feel like a kid at an Easter egg hunt when you find a hundred rounds of 10mm brass lying around at the range and you don't even own a 10mm.
You look at all the empty CCI Blazer cases at the range and think "What a waste".
I've posted this before but this is a good time to post it again;
Reloading is a vicious circle: Reload, shoot clean guns. Reload, shoot, clean guns. Wait for payday to buy more supplies. Reload, shoot, clean guns.

[Hal]

WOW! Spooky how many of those fit me!

Only one I can add is you've bought powder,but have no idea what it's for. Somewhere I have a can of IMR 4076, I just saw it the other week. I'll be darned if I can remember what I bought it for,or even if I ever used any of it.

[taco]

Where do you know me from?

[Steve Smith]

Ok, I was wrong...this stuff fits me except Art's and CR Sam's stuff. All I've ever known was magneticly dampened scales.

[Archie]

Let's see:

You realise loaded ammo has to be shot; otherwise you can't reload it.

You have "experimental" ammo you haven't shot yet. Nor can you remember exactly what it was supposed to test. (Okay, my personal problem.)

You have to build storage units to keep track of brass, bullets and loaded ammo.

You have more reloading data stored on your computer than games.

[Poodleshooter]

The thought of "lost brass" IDPA matches when you can't get your own brass back makes you cringe...

[sw627pc]

You have ammo cans of old green brass, for just in case. (hey, it was free!)

Guys from CAS ask you if you have any reloading manuals listing .44 Colt (happened - and I did!).

Half your reloading manuals are unsafe to use, too OLD.

You still bitch about powders that aren't made anymore (I still want some more Alcan AL-7!)

As for the other comments, what's wrong with IMR powders in the old can??? Am I doing something wrong? I did finally use up my cardboard drum of Unique and had to get one of the newfangled plastic bottles (three pounds).

You find a guy at a gun show that has a box of one pound cans of powder all in the same lot, and buy the whole case. (I'll finish it up one of these years!)

The last time you moved you had to rent a U-Haul for your supplies, the movers wouldn't take that much HazMat.

[Abe Normal]

The UPS man has killed one of your dogs when he tripped and dropped a package on the mutt. And your only concern was if any of the Sierra BlitzKing's were deformed when they bounced off the dog and hit the sidewalk.