you ever take a "break" from reloading?

troy_mclure · May 11, 2009, 06:04 PM

i had just started reloading after getting out of the army, then i went to school.

about 3/4 thru school i was broke, and having tons of probs with my Dillon square deal b.

i finaly said screw it, and sold all my reloading equipment for rent money.

that was 4 years ago.

i still regret selling off all the stuff. and especialy THROWING AWAY 1k 44mag cases, and 3k 40s&w cases.

Doodlebugger45 · May 11, 2009, 06:16 PM

Not exactly the same thing with me. I only started reloading a few months ago. But I do know the frustration of throwing away a lot of saved brass over the years. I started shooting about 35 years ago. Way back then I would save all my brass, thinking that "some day" I would get into reloading. I would save brass for a few years and then I would move somewhere. I would typically get the notion "shoot, I'll never actually start reloading if I haven't done it already" so I would typically give away or in a couple instances just throw away whatever I had accumulated by then. For some cartridges, it wasn't all that many, but geeze I wish I now had all the 44 mag, 45-70, and 30-30 brass that I got rid of over the years.

D. Manley · May 11, 2009, 06:37 PM

Hiatus would be more like it. I started out in the late 60's and loaded both pistol and rifle for a long time. At some point, I guess life chores took over and I quit for a couple of decades but could never bring myself to part with the old equipment. Started back a few years ago, added some new stuff, dusted off some of the old and now marvel that I ever managed to stop. I just looked through some of the old manuals, late 60's Pacific, Speer & Hornady versions...my, how things have changed! New reloaders can only imagine how much easier, faster & better the process is now and not to mention, the plethoria of components & information available. I consider myself lucky to have all my digits as I look back at, "the way it was".

DiscoRacing · May 11, 2009, 06:50 PM

life without reloading would be no life at all

Nnobby45 · May 11, 2009, 06:52 PM

I can be streaky. I need to load pistol fairly regular like to keep shooting.

Where rifle is concerned, I can go a few years and then get the bug again, and load up a few hundred rounds of '06, .22-250 or 6mm.

My stuff is set up ready to go again when ever I feel like it.

Xwrench3 · May 11, 2009, 07:31 PM

Quote:

life without reloading would be no life at all

you have never been SERIOUSLY ILL !

yes, i did pretty much the same thing, for different reasons, and a longer time period. i ended up buying back most of what i had, and then going from there. sometimes, even when you know it isn't the smart thing to do, you have to just let go of stuff, and take a break. there is nothing wrong with that. if we live in the same 4 walls all of our life, how are we ever going to experience new things. sometimes, we return with a new outlook, sometimes, we completely let it go. change is what life is about.

czfonz · May 11, 2009, 08:00 PM

Quote:

change is what life is about.

Who are you Obama? Trying to take our guns away?!

CTpistol · May 11, 2009, 08:37 PM

I go in spurts...loaded a ton of pistol stuff for a few years, then took a break...simply covered up the 550B and didnt load for about a year...now the lack of ammo, supplies etc has got me started on rifle reloading.

Its just a hobby, I have others...the interest comes and goes.

Tex S · May 11, 2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

THROWING AWAY 1k 44mag cases, and 3k 40s&w cases.

I'm feeling light headed boys... wait... I'm not gonna throw up... light headed... feeling sick...:barf: Ahhhhh, there it is. I did throw up. Sorry

Maligator · May 11, 2009, 10:00 PM

Ohhhh...All the brass I had saved and then finally tossed into the recycle bin just before moving across country :barf:

I kept telling myself that I wanted to reload and kept putting it off. Well when your moving clear across the country in a moving truck some things just get left behind!:barf: :barf:

I dont even want to think of how much brass I tossed. In the order of 10k .40, 5 or 6k 9mm, and only 1k .357.

Of course, not more than 5 months here and I just bought everything I needed to reload!

:barf:

The horror.........the horror!

jdscholer · May 11, 2009, 11:46 PM

I've only taken a break from reloading when I've taken a break from shooting; and that hasn't been very often.

If I find myself purchasing factory ammo, I actually feel---dirty.

Or at least guilty, stupid, and wasteful. I don't want to slam folks who buy factory, but I just don't need to; and can't really afford to.

I can buy a set of dies for about the same price as a box of pistol cartridges. I've pretty much got a lifetime supply of powders for most anything I want to load, and I'm getting back into bullet casting for at least my favorite plinking calibers. On top of everything, I enjoy loading, so nah, I won't be taking a break from it. jd

Randy 1911 · May 12, 2009, 12:16 AM

I stopped for a year or so after my divorce, but didn't like not doing it.

Magnum Wheel Man · May 12, 2009, 07:52 AM

I reloaded for about 3 years with my father in law as a mentor, then for a year or so after he died... then I had to take down my bench for a room remodel...

... time went by...

... & about 12 years later I pulled all the stuff back out... I've been at it hot & heavy for a little over a year now ( I had to... all my cartridges were shot up

)

ZeSpectre · May 12, 2009, 08:22 AM

I tend to cycle through my hobbies.
-Fine scale model building
-Reloading
-Shooting (beyond maintaining proficiency)
-Photography
-Calligraphy

So yeah, at certain points I take a break from just about anything, but usually it's only to pursue another hobby for a while.

Russ5924 · May 12, 2009, 08:25 AM

I have for the last thee months been trying to buy .44 Mag cases,and he threw away 1000

I finally found some, must of hit it just right with them being in stock. I never thought .44mag would be hard to get

Dragon55 · May 12, 2009, 09:12 AM

Sometimes I walk upstairs and look outside to see if it's day or night

Sevens · May 12, 2009, 10:02 AM

Started when I was in high school, '88 or '89. One caliber, and 20 gauge.
Packed the stuff up in the fall of '90 when I moved to school.

In the rented house with a bunch of buddies, put together a "good enough" area and used my gear to produce some ammo on a limited basis, this was in the spring of '92. Wasn't shooting a heap, so I wasn't reloading a heap. Now up to four calibers, adding one, then a dropping a different one shortly thereafter. No shotshells.

From '92 through '97, I was reloading on an occasional basis. Same four calibers.

Not much between '97 and '99 in the apartment before we bought the house.

From '99 to about '03, a decent amount in the "man area" of the basement, still not shooting near as much as I did in high school.

'03 to '05 or '06, having children and not really doing any reloading whatsoever.

Buddy bought a 13-acre piece of land and a house and we built a REAL shooting range on it in '06 and I went back in to it whole hog. Reloading took off exponentially as I added calibers and added many new powders to my cache. These days, I picked up the dropped caliber once again (.30 Carb) and am now up to a dozen calibers, I think. Still no shotshells! My Mec-650 is in it's box and hasn't seen the light of day since 1990.

Still not shooting as much as I did in high school (5 days a week back then) but reloading is a much bigger hobby for me now than it was. I would say that it's quite unlikely I put it "in the shelf" again. I have no doubt that this discussion forum and other assorted web-accessible reloading information has broadened my reloading hobby exponentially.

onthejon55 · May 12, 2009, 12:57 PM

Im taking a break right now because the Dalibama has made it impossible to buy primers locally.

rjrivero · May 12, 2009, 01:55 PM

I took a break from reloading. It lasted about 8 years while I was in the Navy. I just shot what the Navy let me during that time. I kept all my stuff in boxes from Move to Move, and just recently unpacked it all and set it back up when the election was coming. I forgot how much "fun" it is to trim rifle cases.....

I never sold any of my gear, and I doubt I ever would. I still have coffe barrels filled with 45 and 9mm brass that are all once fired. I still reload the same 2,000 cases of brass on a rotation.

Dr. Strangelove · May 12, 2009, 03:34 PM

I was introduced to loading by my grandfather with a Lee Loader when I was about seven. When my family moved to middle Georgia in high school, he was kind enough to lend me his luger and the loader. In 1987 or so I got interested in hunting and shooting, soon had an orange crusher, and was loading for 9mm, .270win, .308win, and 8mm Mauser. My friends and I shot every weekend, sometimes every day. I did a lot of loading.

College came in 1991, while still had my press set up at my parent's house, "other things" had captivated my interest, and loading took a backseat. I did still load a few now and then with my Lee Loader for a 9mm I had purchased. Oddly enough, my roommate had a Dillon progressive set up in his bedroom, I had introduced him to shooting a year or so before.

After that, "life" just kinda happened. Work, marriage, all those things that just happen to us all. I slowly got out of hunting and shooting as I didn't live in an area where I could really, and slowly lost touch with all my buds that hunted. My reloading stuff was in a box and would whimper hopefully every time I moved, hoping that, finally, it would be time to be set up again.

So from 1995 to 2008, I loaded 500 or so 9mm rounds with my faithful Lee Loader, but no rifle.

In March 2008, I got my priorities straight, moved back to Georgia, started hunting and shooting again, and have been loading like a badger ever since. My loading stuff was happy!

bgdv1 · May 12, 2009, 05:14 PM

never took 'time off" just slowed down abit. little longer stretches of time between sessions.i started on my own at 16 using dads stuff. at 24 got married and own place. 1st loading set up was a microwave cart in our appartment. next we bought our 1st house and was able to set up shop in the basement.at that time i was shooting with a buddy shooting 100-200 rounds every weekend of 9mm and 45acp regardless of weather.then 13 yrs ago we built a new house and i have my own reloading room in our finished basement. my wife knew she was marrying a hunter and shooter and has never said a word to slow me down or stop me. stop hunting not till they throw dirt in my face. my pistol shooting has slowed quite a bit but every now and then the urge strikes to empty out some brass then got to load 'r up agaian for the next urge.

May 11, 2009, 06:04 PM	#1
troy_mclure Senior Member Join Date: November 17, 2008 Location: gulf of mexico Posts: 2,716	you ever take a "break" from reloading? i had just started reloading after getting out of the army, then i went to school. about 3/4 thru school i was broke, and having tons of probs with my Dillon square deal b. i finaly said screw it, and sold all my reloading equipment for rent money. that was 4 years ago. i still regret selling off all the stuff. and especialy THROWING AWAY 1k 44mag cases, and 3k 40s&w cases. __________________ There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."

May 11, 2009, 06:37 PM	#3
D. Manley Senior Member Join Date: July 13, 2008 Posts: 299	Hiatus would be more like it. I started out in the late 60's and loaded both pistol and rifle for a long time. At some point, I guess life chores took over and I quit for a couple of decades but could never bring myself to part with the old equipment. Started back a few years ago, added some new stuff, dusted off some of the old and now marvel that I ever managed to stop. I just looked through some of the old manuals, late 60's Pacific, Speer & Hornady versions...my, how things have changed! New reloaders can only imagine how much easier, faster & better the process is now and not to mention, the plethoria of components & information available. I consider myself lucky to have all my digits as I look back at, "the way it was". __________________ *"Old School" ain't all bad...*

May 11, 2009, 10:00 PM	#10
Maligator Senior Member Join Date: March 30, 2009 Location: Michigan Posts: 124	Ohhhh...All the brass I had saved and then finally tossed into the recycle bin just before moving across country :barf: I kept telling myself that I wanted to reload and kept putting it off. Well when your moving clear across the country in a moving truck some things just get left behind!:barf: :barf: I dont even want to think of how much brass I tossed. In the order of 10k .40, 5 or 6k 9mm, and only 1k .357. Of course, not more than 5 months here and I just bought everything I needed to reload! :barf: The horror.........the horror! Last edited by Maligator; May 11, 2009 at 10:18 PM.

May 11, 2009, 11:46 PM	#11
jdscholer Senior Member Join Date: March 23, 2008 Location: Jefferson State Posts: 1,197	I've only taken a break from reloading when I've taken a break from shooting; and that hasn't been very often. If I find myself purchasing factory ammo, I actually feel---dirty. Or at least guilty, stupid, and wasteful. I don't want to slam folks who buy factory, but I just don't need to; and can't really afford to. I can buy a set of dies for about the same price as a box of pistol cartridges. I've pretty much got a lifetime supply of powders for most anything I want to load, and I'm getting back into bullet casting for at least my favorite plinking calibers. On top of everything, I enjoy loading, so nah, I won't be taking a break from it. jd __________________ "We're all dummies, just in different ways." Old Okie Philosopher

May 12, 2009, 12:16 AM	#12
Randy 1911 Senior Member Join Date: May 7, 2009 Location: Western Arkansas Posts: 273	I stopped for a year or so after my divorce, but didn't like not doing it. __________________ Been Reloading 27 Years NRA Member Member Old Fort Gun Club www.ofgc.org

May 11, 2009, 06:16 PM	#2
Doodlebugger45 Senior Member Join Date: April 15, 2009 Location: Wyoming Posts: 1,717	Not exactly the same thing with me. I only started reloading a few months ago. But I do know the frustration of throwing away a lot of saved brass over the years. I started shooting about 35 years ago. Way back then I would save all my brass, thinking that "some day" I would get into reloading. I would save brass for a few years and then I would move somewhere. I would typically get the notion "shoot, I'll never actually start reloading if I haven't done it already" so I would typically give away or in a couple instances just throw away whatever I had accumulated by then. For some cartridges, it wasn't all that many, but geeze I wish I now had all the 44 mag, 45-70, and 30-30 brass that I got rid of over the years.

May 11, 2009, 06:50 PM	#4
DiscoRacing Senior Member Join Date: December 19, 2008 Location: milton, wv Posts: 3,640	life without reloading would be no life at all

May 11, 2009, 06:52 PM	#5
Nnobby45 Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2004 Posts: 3,150	I can be streaky. I need to load pistol fairly regular like to keep shooting. Where rifle is concerned, I can go a few years and then get the bug again, and load up a few hundred rounds of '06, .22-250 or 6mm. My stuff is set up ready to go again when ever I feel like it.

May 11, 2009, 08:37 PM	#8
CTpistol Member Join Date: April 21, 2009 Posts: 23	I go in spurts...loaded a ton of pistol stuff for a few years, then took a break...simply covered up the 550B and didnt load for about a year...now the lack of ammo, supplies etc has got me started on rifle reloading. Its just a hobby, I have others...the interest comes and goes.

May 12, 2009, 07:52 AM	#13
Magnum Wheel Man Senior Member Join Date: July 26, 2006 Location: Southern Minnesota Posts: 9,333	I reloaded for about 3 years with my father in law as a mentor, then for a year or so after he died... then I had to take down my bench for a room remodel... ... time went by... ... & about 12 years later I pulled all the stuff back out... I've been at it hot & heavy for a little over a year now ( I had to... all my cartridges were shot up ) __________________ In life you either make dust or eat dust...

May 12, 2009, 08:22 AM	#14
ZeSpectre Senior Member Join Date: June 4, 2007 Location: Shenandoah Valley Posts: 3,276	I tend to cycle through my hobbies. -Fine scale model building -Reloading -Shooting (beyond maintaining proficiency) -Photography -Calligraphy So yeah, at certain points I take a break from just about anything, but usually it's only to pursue another hobby for a while.

May 12, 2009, 08:25 AM	#15
Russ5924 Senior Member Join Date: February 18, 2005 Posts: 1,874	I have for the last thee months been trying to buy .44 Mag cases,and he threw away 1000 I finally found some, must of hit it just right with them being in stock. I never thought .44mag would be hard to get __________________ Russ5924

May 12, 2009, 09:12 AM	#16
Dragon55 Senior Member Join Date: March 15, 2009 Location: East Tennessee Posts: 811	Sometimes I walk upstairs and look outside to see if it's day or night __________________ sailing ... A way to spend lots of money and go real S L O W

May 12, 2009, 10:02 AM	#17
Sevens Senior Member Join Date: July 28, 2007 Location: Ohio Posts: 11,756	Started when I was in high school, '88 or '89. One caliber, and 20 gauge. Packed the stuff up in the fall of '90 when I moved to school. In the rented house with a bunch of buddies, put together a "good enough" area and used my gear to produce some ammo on a limited basis, this was in the spring of '92. Wasn't shooting a heap, so I wasn't reloading a heap. Now up to four calibers, adding one, then a dropping a different one shortly thereafter. No shotshells. From '92 through '97, I was reloading on an occasional basis. Same four calibers. Not much between '97 and '99 in the apartment before we bought the house. From '99 to about '03, a decent amount in the "man area" of the basement, still not shooting near as much as I did in high school. '03 to '05 or '06, having children and not really doing any reloading whatsoever. Buddy bought a 13-acre piece of land and a house and we built a REAL shooting range on it in '06 and I went back in to it whole hog. Reloading took off exponentially as I added calibers and added many new powders to my cache. These days, I picked up the dropped caliber once again (.30 Carb) and am now up to a dozen calibers, I think. Still no shotshells! My Mec-650 is in it's box and hasn't seen the light of day since 1990. Still not shooting as much as I did in high school (5 days a week back then) but reloading is a much bigger hobby for me now than it was. I would say that it's quite unlikely I put it "in the shelf" again. I have no doubt that this discussion forum and other assorted web-accessible reloading information has broadened my reloading hobby exponentially. __________________ *Attention Brass rats and other reloaders:* I really need .327 Federal Magnum brass, no lot size too small. Tell me what caliber you need and I'll see what I have to swap. PM me and we'll discuss.

May 12, 2009, 12:57 PM	#18
onthejon55 Junior member Join Date: October 23, 2008 Location: Evansville, IN Posts: 411	Im taking a break right now because the Dalibama has made it impossible to buy primers locally.

May 12, 2009, 01:55 PM	#19
rjrivero Senior Member Join Date: November 17, 2008 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 1,399	I took a break from reloading. It lasted about 8 years while I was in the Navy. I just shot what the Navy let me during that time. I kept all my stuff in boxes from Move to Move, and just recently unpacked it all and set it back up when the election was coming. I forgot how much "fun" it is to trim rifle cases..... I never sold any of my gear, and I doubt I ever would. I still have coffe barrels filled with 45 and 9mm brass that are all once fired. I still reload the same 2,000 cases of brass on a rotation.

May 12, 2009, 03:34 PM	#20
Dr. Strangelove Senior Member Join Date: August 1, 2008 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 1,436	I was introduced to loading by my grandfather with a Lee Loader when I was about seven. When my family moved to middle Georgia in high school, he was kind enough to lend me his luger and the loader. In 1987 or so I got interested in hunting and shooting, soon had an orange crusher, and was loading for 9mm, .270win, .308win, and 8mm Mauser. My friends and I shot every weekend, sometimes every day. I did a lot of loading. College came in 1991, while still had my press set up at my parent's house, "other things" had captivated my interest, and loading took a backseat. I did still load a few now and then with my Lee Loader for a 9mm I had purchased. Oddly enough, my roommate had a Dillon progressive set up in his bedroom, I had introduced him to shooting a year or so before. After that, "life" just kinda happened. Work, marriage, all those things that just happen to us all. I slowly got out of hunting and shooting as I didn't live in an area where I could really, and slowly lost touch with all my buds that hunted. My reloading stuff was in a box and would whimper hopefully every time I moved, hoping that, finally, it would be time to be set up again. So from 1995 to 2008, I loaded 500 or so 9mm rounds with my faithful Lee Loader, but no rifle. In March 2008, I got my priorities straight, moved back to Georgia, started hunting and shooting again, and have been loading like a badger ever since. My loading stuff was happy!

May 12, 2009, 05:14 PM	#21
bgdv1 Senior Member Join Date: February 12, 2009 Location: butler,pa Posts: 146	never took 'time off" just slowed down abit. little longer stretches of time between sessions.i started on my own at 16 using dads stuff. at 24 got married and own place. 1st loading set up was a microwave cart in our appartment. next we bought our 1st house and was able to set up shop in the basement.at that time i was shooting with a buddy shooting 100-200 rounds every weekend of 9mm and 45acp regardless of weather.then 13 yrs ago we built a new house and i have my own reloading room in our finished basement. my wife knew she was marrying a hunter and shooter and has never said a word to slow me down or stop me. stop hunting not till they throw dirt in my face. my pistol shooting has slowed quite a bit but every now and then the urge strikes to empty out some brass then got to load 'r up agaian for the next urge.