Are reloaders a cut above?

[aerod1]

This is not a slam on the rest of the shooting / hunting world but.....Do you consider most reloaders to be a cut above most shooters? Do you think that because they obviously study different manuals, loads, ballistics, velocities and etc. that maybe they know a little more and have more maturity in the sport than people who just buy off the shelf?
I find that if I have a question about a specific caliber, I always post it in the reloading section of a forum thinking that is where I will get my best answer.
I realize this isn't always true but most of the time I feel the answer is "yes" the average reloader is more knowledgeable.
I find that if I post a specific question in the "general forums" of a website, I will seek to see if the person who answered has any posts in the reloading section.
I don't mean to insinuate that reloaders are "better" than others in our sport. I don't mean that at all. My own brother is a shooter who doesn't reload.


Pro or con comments welcome.

[That'll Do]

I think that reloaders take a more sincere interest in what they do. I like to know that I control everything that goes through my guns, and that I can make ammo that suits me and my gun, not big manufacturer ammo that has to work in a million different guns.

In my eyes it's about quality control and pride.

[wncchester]

"Do you think that because they obviously study different manuals, loads, ballistics, velocities and etc. that maybe they know a little more and have more maturity in the sport than people who just buy off the shelf?"

That would be intutive thing to believe. Sadly, I don't find it to be so. I mean, I find about as many reloaders as ignorant, blindly opinionated and stubborn as any other shooters. Perhaps even MORE SO, because we/they do think we/they are "experts" due to reloading. Equal "experience" doesn't mean much; one guy can have ten years of good learning experience, another can easily have six months of little learning he has repeated twenty times.

Of course, when it comes to good guy or jerks, we shooters are on par with the rest of the world, no more, no less. It's people we are talking about and it seems we have the same fallicies and foibles across the board.

[grymster2007]

Depends. Lot's of people mindlessly cranking out 9mm to save a few bucks. Same powder, same charge, same bullet, month in, month out. I don't think this loader is a "cut above".

Cut above? I dunno...

[sserdlihc]

I am a reloader. I reload 45's, 9mm's,40's,308's,7mm mags'&30-06's. I wouldn't necessarily say we (reloaders) are any better or a cut above. We mostly do it to fine tune our weapon to the bullet & to shoot on the cheap. I know alot of people who shoot factory ammo that are are excellent shots. I like knowing any and all technical aspects of my hobby. It keeps my mind from getting old!!!

[ZeSpectre]

Do you consider most reloaders to be a cut above most shooters? Do you think that because they obviously study different manuals, loads, ballistics, velocities and etc. that maybe they know a little more and have more maturity in the sport than people who just buy off the shelf?

Nope.
I've met some real yahoo reloaders, you know the "hold my beer and watch this" or "Ah that primer didn't flow much let's push it a little harder" types.

I guess what I'm saying is that people are people and you get good and bad in all groups.

[aerod1]

Evidently some didn't read my ENTIRE post.

[abber]

I think maybe the most serious among us just tend to drift that way. We're not a "cut above" anybody, but we just maybe love the sport more than the factory ammo shooters. Just a guess......

[WESHOOT2]

No.

Wish it were so, but it isn't.

[The Terminator]

Lets compare good to good, and average or less to average or less. A good, knowledgeable reloader probably has more understanding of the shooting process than a good, knowledgeable shooter who does not reload. He may shoot better, as a private citizen, because he spends more time with his hobby.

Remember though, this is a hobby that is learned as you go, and I doubt that any of us went to reloading school. Every man should be smart enough to recognize that he has gaps in his knowledge that can cause him to reach the wrong conclusion at any time, and that experience and learning from good, experienced people can help to close these gaps. I feel that reloading is an area that a shooter-only misses out on, in the enjoyment of the shooting sports.

[kraigwy]

I dont believe any person or group of people are A CUT ABOVE any other person or group.

I think People and Persons are just differant, have differant likes, dislikes and opinions.

And my answer relates to everything, not just guns and reloading.

[Pathfinder45]

I don't think so. Does changing your own oil bake you a better person? However, I can't help but guess that the average reloader shoots more than the average non-reloader and thus is probably a better shot. But it will not have much if any effect to make you a better hunter. I'm sure there are quite a few hunters that get their deer every year and they are shooting out of the same box of shells they've had for years while the rest of us are fiddling with this powder and that bullet and the other primer, etc. At one shot per deer that box would last 20 years. I would guess that most of those are the Dick Proeneke type and have passed on long ago or are ekeing out their last days in assisted living. Core-lokts and Silver-tips worked fine for them. They hunted when it was time to hunt 'cuz they needed the meat and the rest of the time there was plenty else that needed doing and it wasn't going to get done by itself.

[Inspector3711]

As others have suggested, there are those who crank out ammo to save cash.. Since I'm not real wealthy I can relate because that's how it started for me. Then there are those who take time to handcraft precision ammunition that is custom tailored to each rifle they own. Some refer the former as a reloader and the latter as a handloader.

Is either person more dedicated or better in some way than the other? Just because a person knows how to handload doesn't mean they know anything else about weaponry or shooting.

That said, I think that someone who spends time working on really fine accurate ammunition is most probably more dedicated (obsessed?) than the guy that's saving a buck. He or she doesn't invest time and energy just to make pretty cartridges.

Of course, when I load pistol ammo I won't spend the time on it that I spend on my rifle cartridges. With the rifles I machine the primer pockets and measure the freebore so i can set the bullet right where the rifle likes it within a few thousandths of an inch.

[cgaengineer]

I crank out 9mm and .223's for my Glock and my AR's to save money and dont think much about the process and am not very concerned with accuracy. On the other hand I reload for my precision rifles one case at a time, trim, debur, primer pocket clean, resize (Not in this order) so I take my time. I measure every powder charge to the grain with my Lyman Digital Scale and check tolerances with nearly every round.

I have fun reloading and what reloading gives me is time spent on the hobby of shooting during times when I cannot shoot. For the 9mm and AR's I just happen to save a little money in the process.

[GARANDSLAM]

Probably not at 1st because most people that I know including myself got into reloading to cut down on ammo cost and allow us to shoot more. Then after awhile a strange pride sets in when you have developed a load that works perfectly, accurately and safe. Now I reload not to save money but because it is more like therapy for me. I worked for years as a diesel technician but for the last 7 I have been a foreman. I still have this pent up need for my hands to be doing something useful and productive. Maybe reloaders can be considered a cut above because most take pride in their loading bench, their unique technique and overall understanding on ballistics. I know I try to anyway. Above all by nature most reloaders are safety minded due to the shear potential for disaster. I know this always keeps my on my toes. Anyway to answer your question,,,, Maybe. Depends on the person.

[HoraceHogsnort]

Yes, we reloaders are superior in EVERY way!!

[hoytinak]

So those of us that change our own oil in our trucks are better drivers than those that get it changed elsewhere?

[cgaengineer]

Hoy, yes...that is correct!

Why is there no reply in quote on this forum?

[joe4711]

i defnitly is , cos i gots tree hammers for reloadin.
1 is for hitting the nail to gets the primer out, 1 is forhitting the new primer in and one is for hitting the boolit in after i's meserud the power with the wif's
sowing timble.

[hoytinak]

Originally Posted by joe4711

i defnitly is , cos i gots tree hammers for reloadin.
1 is for hitting the nail to gets the primer out, 1 is forhitting the new primer in and one is for hitting the boolit in after i's meserud the power with the wif's
sowing timble.

huh?

[45Marlin carbine]

I don't know - some of these 'range rats' and 'brass scroungers' I've seen may have a short in some of their circuitry!

[Sevens]

I've always thought that learning to reload or becoming interested in reloading was a natural progression of a shooting enthusiast. Obviously, it's not a cut and dried kind of thing.

If I see a shooter and I have zero idea of what he's like, and I see that he's a reloader also, certainly I get the idea on a first impression that he's a little more serious than the guy who is opening factory ammo.

Is there any truth to that idea? I don't really know. It seems like there's a lot more folks getting in to reloading these days than a few years ago when I got started... I think the economics are a much bigger component than they used to be.

When I got in to this reloading gig, there was simply NO WAY IN HELL I could afford to shoot without reloading. I was a high school kid, then a kid in college, money was simply something I didn't have much of. Reloading allowed me not only to produce my own ammo for less cash outlay, but it also slowed me down at the range and made me enjoy what I was doing with my ammo.

A post above mine mentioned the folks that set up a Dillon to crank out 10,000 rounds of all the same caliber, bullet, charge, etc, for competition. I have NO problem with that for sure, in fact, if you are any kind of action pistol shooter, you'd be a nutbar to NOT do that.

But it's my opinion that folks who do that and only that aren't really in to the hobby side of reloading. That's okay, but I don't feel a kinship with them that I do with many of the folks in here that I look up to. I feel like I know what I'm talking about-- I started reloading on a Mec-650, making 20 ga skeets loads and shooting 8 rounds of skeet a week. I never at ANY point became a real shotgun or shotshell reloading "enthusiast", I was simply making ammo so that I could break clays without going on to welfare.

But shortly after getting in to shotshell "production" is when I started loading .38 Special single stage and became a real metallic reloading enthusiast. Even to this day, I don't know much at all about loading shotshell. I know with the right powder, a bag of 9s and my AA and Rem Premier hulls, I can crank out great skeet loads if I need them, but I don't know squat about making anything else. And I literally haven't made any shotshells since the 80s.

If some sort of physical disability overcame me and I couldn't ever pull a trigger again but I could reload, I know for a fact that I would do exactly that. I'd send all my ammo to my buddy and I'd make sure he was supplied with all the ammo, all the time. And I'd have him footing the bill for components, no doubt!

That doesn't make me a better shooter or a more serious shooter, but that does qualify me as a die-hard reloading enthusiast.

[Koveras]

When I started reloading, it was purely to support my shooting hobby. But as the years progressed, the reloading became another hobby, separate from shooting. I think Sevens hit the nail on the head when he said he would continue reloading even if he couldn't shoot -- I feel the same way.

But back to the original post: For me, reloading doesn't make me a more knowledgeable or mature shooter because (again, for me) it is a totally different activity. Reloading makes me a better reloader, not a better shooter.

[marsofold]

Yes, reloaders are superior humans!

[Shooter 973]

I have some fuzzy recollections about the statistics about reloaders so feel free to correct me if I'm off.
Only about 10% of shooters reload...... probably higher now!
Of reloaders only 2% are bullet casters....Again probably higher now that ammo has gone thru the roof.
So put in the context of the original question Bullet casters are the Highest cut above!!!