Thread: To reload or not reload?

@nonvegan - you're already asking yourself the right questions. The answer to the reloading question is always completely down to what you want out of your shooting i.e. it depends...

In your situation joining the Handloaders club is going to help you answer a lot of the questions for a relatively small outlay. The newly set up reloading room has everything you need in it to reload and the use of it is included in your annual membership fee. Aside from the use of all that equipment you get 24/7 access to the 100m range so you can go reload and shoot when it suits you (other than public night hours on Tuesday). My only suggestion would be to consider buying your own set of dies to take along and use as some strange things happen to the club ones.... There are several heavy duty presses there now and even an auto-trickler to take the tedium out of weighing out powder charges.

If you've kept your brass from your factory loads and you buy sensibly priced components like Speer Hotcor140 grain projectiles and ADI2209 powder you can make top notch ammo. For the price of the components alone it is cheaper than even affordable factory ammo these days.

The tricky bit is if you get a hankering to use super expensive projectiles or powders that are really hard to get and expensive. And there's the judgement call that only you can make around the time required to load that ammo. If you feel your time has monetary value then very likely reloading isn't for you. On the other hand if you take pride in making things yourself and taking your mind off all the other stuff going on in your life then reloading your own ammunition is really rewarding.

As others have said it can end up being quite a rabbit hole and an end in itself. I've been there and find the process as enjoyable as getting the result. A day spent tinkering on the range is a good day in my world. You'll get plenty of opinions on here from people who consider bullets shot through paper as wasted. To hell with them - it's your money and time, go do what you enjoy!

There are courses on reloading held at the Handloaders as well to get you started so certainly worth joining for a year to make the decision before having to start spending money on gear.