Posted on 03/01/2015 6:59:49 PM PST by RC one
Over the past six years, concerns about the possibility of restrictive gun legislation have sparked unprecedented spikes in sales of firearms and ammunition. And state wildlife agencies, all benefiting from funding flowing from federal Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on those items, are still raking it in. But high demand for some popular ammunition caused huge manufacturer backlogs that led to sharp increases in wholesale and retail prices and left many store shelves empty of the most popular ammunition, particularly centerfire and rimfire rifle ammo.
Over the past few months, that crunch has begun to ease. But problems finding ammunition - especially ammunition for some centerfire loadings - remains. And even stores with supplies of popular cartridges often severely limit the amount customers can purchase.
Some shooters are solving the problem by making their own ammunition using home reloading equipment. Reloading long has been popular with shooters and hunters, but it has gotten a boost in recent years. In a recent poll of recreational shooters and hunters, 85 percent of those who reload said the primary reason is "to save money."
With shortages of some types of ammunition in recent years, as well as the corresponding higher costs that arise when demand increases, it is no surprise cost savings are the primary reason many shooters choose to reload," said Rob Southwick, president of Southwick Associates, a Florida-based polling firm that gathers data for the outdoor equipment industry, government agencies and conservation organizations. But there's more to the story than money.
Multiple rationales
"Marketing efforts by smart reloading companies will acknowledge the other reasons why people reload," said Southwick in a written statement.
The poll, which permitted multiple answers, found that 67 percent of reloaders said the main reason they pack their own shells is to improve accuracy. Forty-four percent said they reload to get calibers or loads that are hard to find in stores. Thirty percent do it to reduce waste, and 15 percent cited other unspecified reasons.
In Pennsylvania, which boasts a high population of recreational hunters and shooters, hand loaders generally conform to the national trend, said Bill Schiff, who services reloading customers at Braverman Arms in Wilkinsburg.
But despite the recent interest in the cost benefits of reloading, Schiff said overall participation is trending down and young shooters aren't taking up reloading as enthusiastically as older shooters.
"I don't think the interest is as high as it once was," said Schiff, who's been reloading for 40 years. "The core group of reloaders are mostly older guys who don't do it to save money. They do it to get more accuracy than they can get from a factory load. I do it because I want to put five rounds in a circle the size of a dime at 100 yards. It's about precision." Rifle deer hunters who might fire a few rounds a year at a sighting target - and might get a shot at a kill zone the size of a pie pan - are less likely to see cost benefits in reloading.
It makes more sense for rifle hunters who need better accuracy on extreme shots, perhaps at mountain goats, big horn sheep or other trophy game.
"Shotgun reloaders are doing it to save money, but now you can get 100-round boxes (of shotgun shells), and it doesn't really pay," Schiff said. "Unless your gun shoots ammunition that's still hard to find, it may not be worth it."
Weekend target shooters - Schiff calls them "plinkers" - generally don't reload, despite the quantity of shots and high cost or unavailability of rounds. The most common caliber, .22 Long Rifle, remains among the most difficult ammunition for retailers to keep in stock, but rimfire cartridges aren't reloadable. High-performance, military-style semi-automatics can be expensive to shoot - some calibers are priced from $1 to $6 per round or more, Schiff said - but most plinkers don't reload.
"It's more casual shooting," he said. "It's about getting out and shooting, not necessarily the quality of the shot."
Aiming for precision
But in a complex science of powder granule geometries, burn rates, seating depths and ballistic coefficients, assembly line mass production of ammunition is too imprecise for the needs of competitive shooters and bench-rest perfectionists.
"I enjoy going for accuracy," said 30-year veteran reloader Edward Olsakovsky of Pitcairn, Pa. "I prefer to strive for that tight grouping - to put 10 shots in the same hole. To do precision work with cases and bullets and powder charges and seating depths until you can hit a quarter at 200 yards."
High-end hand loading can be expensive, but Olsakovsky said a functional starter kit can be had for less than $400. Schiff said some powders are still hard to find.
Ultimately, despite the recent spike in interest, Schiff suggested that hand loading is not being passed on to the next generation.
"Truth is, what I see at the store every day, young people want to buy a new gun every year for hunting, they want a scope on it, and they want it to cost under $300," Schiff said.
"It's rare that I see a reloading customer in his twenties."
Being a plinker, I watch for 22lr buys. Picked up 4000 rounds of Federal lead heads, 40gr last fall for $.04 per round. It is out there but good buys are few and far between. I’m looking for Red Army 7.62x25 to arrive at Widener’s.
BTW, I reload 12 and 20 gauge shells. I pick up all the spent rounds I can handle at the skeet ranges, locally. I don’t bother with bird shot, usually slugs I cast ot buckshot.
I have been focused on 10mm auto, .357 mag, .460 rowland and .300 win mag this winter. I am well provisioned in these calibers. I need to get going on some .308 and 5.56 too. Just ordered 250 168 grain hornady Amax bullets this weekend from midway for a really good price.
I’m getting molds for my .22 & .25 air rifles, them I can make all the pellets I want for next to nothing
4 cents a round is only $2 a box. You should have borrowed, begged or stole enough money to but all they had. You could have easily sold it for twice what you paid and probably could have sold it for $5 a box or more.
I had hoped I would win the last East Tn Friends of the NRA drawing. One of the items was 11,100 rounds (50 boxes at 222 rounds per box) of 22LR. If I had won, I was going to take some of it to the next Appleseed shoot in Sevierville and give it to anyone who was in need.
I started out loading for shotgun 25 years ago but rifles are my real passion. I have a Remington Sendero in .300 Win mag with a Vortex viper on it. I could spend all day every day loading up ammo and shooting it through that thing.
Specifically, 15% are planning for Obama's alphabet soup of executive agencies to take away the manufacured ammo supply.
sounds like an great idea. What do you primarily do with your pellet rifles? hunt? targets? prep?
Yep. If we ever experience another ammo shortage, I’m not even going to notice.
I have maybe 15 or 20 pellet guns. Most of them inexpensive but a few nice ones including a Diana model 48 side lever.
Most of mine are .177 and a few .22. The pellets are cheap enough that I have accumulated more than I will ever use.
The ones I have are fine for small game. Although some models will kill a buffalo, I see no real reason to own one. I will use powder burners for anything above squirrels and rabbits.
I don’t reload but I’d love to find a reloader who could load some .54 cal muzzle loader round ball into 28 ga shotgun shells. For some reason 28ga slug loads nearly don’t exist.
All the above. I have a Hatsan AT44-10QE Long in .25 [p recharged pneumatic] shoots at 3500PSI & can drop a deer at 150 yards [if I need to], Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston [gas spring] in .22, Benjamin Model 392 [multi pump] in .22 with a Williams 64 rear peep sight & is my main small game rifle, a Crosman 1322C in .22 a smaller multi pump based on a pistol with a carbine stock [this one is gonna get a major rebuild in the near future with a steel breech, with a 18 inch barrel & an air stripper & new grips & stock], a Crosman 800X [Quest] in .22 an old fashioned spring piston, a Hatsan Alpha Striker Youth in .177 also an old fashioned springer. And when the spring finally gets here I’ll get to build my range in distances from 10 yards to 90 yards with an uphill grade from the 50 yard mark & back.
I was also on the 2013 Season of American Airgunner tv series [seen on the Pursuit tv channel & youtube] I lost to folks who get to shoot a year long.
Just remember Lewis & Clark used an air rifle in their journey & the first repeater rifle used in battle was an air rifle, used by the Belgium against Naploian & he declared that anyone caught with one was to be immediately killed on sight. there is a copy of it in the NRA mueasem. And when all your powder ammo is gone, us air gunners will still be going strong. And yes there are air guns that can be used on bison,bear,moose,elk,deer & any other game you can think of.
Air Guns?
Just wait till bo declares air to be restricted to “Americans in Waiting”
Sorry.
I have a couple of Crosman 1377s. One dates back to the early 80s. The other one I bought recently when Wal-Mart closed them out for $25 each. I actually bought two of the newer ones but gave one to my 10 year old grand son.
I still have one of the old carbine stocks for the early one but haven’t seen it in years. The new ones are basically the same as the early ones except the old one has a cover over the breech while the new one has just a brass bolt with open breech area.
I did notice the new one said: “made in USA with some foreign parts. It seems just as good as the old one.
Your conversion of the .22 model is very common. I have never done one but it seems everyone on a forum I post on have done one.
The reason being is that the breech used has a bed tendency to not seat well over time, the barrel is too short of any real distance shooting & the air stripper acts like a brake & a bit of a suppressor, & able to mount some sort of optic on it, I still planning to keep some sort of peep sight on mine though.
I haven't seen cheap commie spam cans of Tok for years. That PRVI for $16.95 isn't bad, though.
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