Will reloading disapear with the new too lazy to do it generation

D

dgr416

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I went back to Alaska last year for 5 months after being gone 16 years .I was shocked that reloading was disapearing in Alaska big time with people under 35 .I also went to several large gun shops and very few had reloading supplies .I dont know any kids down here that reload .I did see lots old reloading equipment left to their kids and it was being sold by their kids .I took lots of kids hunting but only got to teach one to reload .Its alot of work in Alaska my ammo for 338-378 weatherby and 416 rem mag was crazy high .I tried to find some shotgun reloading stuff up there this summer there was none .Sportsmans warehouse use to have tons of reloading stuff they didnt have much like they use to .We better start teaching kids this quick or poof its gone .
 
I'll supply an analogy. In the 60's, "hi-fi" became a thing. It nearly died out in the 70's due to disco and drugs. It slowly crept back into the enthusiast realm in the 80's and especially 90's when the push to make the new CD medium an audiophile medium took hold. Then Napster hit at the dawn of the millennium which ushered in the sharing/streaming age. Now physical medium was no longer necessary. Music became easy, a passive activity, something in an earbud rather than a room. There was no work, no effort, no fidelity. Once it requires no effort to consume music at a high level, it requires no effort to make music at any level, which is where we are now. I could go on and on...

Poof, it's already gone. Reloading is the ham radio, hi-fi hobby of the past. There will always be a handful of enthusiasts, but it will never be mainstream. Never has been.
 
Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'.
We, their sons, are more worthless than they;
so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.
Click to expand...
 
Reloading is economics.

As you and the comparison by @DaddyFlip pointed out it's supply and demand, and availability of reloading components.

Facts are Facts, and the facts are:

Reloaders are a niche and the sad fact we are that us older reloaders are disappearing faster and with fewer to replace us. Same as with hunters and yes even fishermen/women.

Even the niche of high accuracy target shooters are declining.

Once upon a time 1 inch and less accuracy was sought after shooting 3 rounds and now....well it's 6 inches or less of accuracy with factory ammo for hunting and an 8 inch pie plate accuracy, 5 of 30 fired rounds on target at the range is considered better than good shooting.

Forget the big bore 30 cal plus. It's 6.5 variants and below; mainly 223/5.56, 9mm, 22LR is the craze and ammo is relatively available and convenient. Key word being convenient. So why reload if the price of 20, 40, 60, rounds every 2 - 8 weeks is considered affordable for 1 or 2 days at the range.

Sadly reloading like many other "arts" and "traditional occupations" are becoming lost to the "gadget", and "fast money" generations.
 
As a 26 year old who is getting into reloading I think there’s a few things leading to this. 1) some things like reloading or hunting were done as a necessity by our grandparents, then they worked hard so it was no longer a necessity, so our parents never learned and it wasn’t passed on. 2) short attention spans. Enough said on that one. 3) the guns that kids gain interest in are based off of movies and video games, so they are getting ARs, SCARs and glocks and buying the cheapest ammo to run a lot of rounds fast.
 
BlueFlyer said:
We had a neighbour doing some bulldozer work and his 17yr old son was with the operator. Got talking to his son, and he is reloading his 222REM - happy days!
I just need to get him infected with the wildcat bug.
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Go figure, unless kept as a momento, as a legacy to pass down to future generations wildcat and obsolete calibers/ cartridges are forgotten and lost. Given way to the current popular trend/"flavor of the day" calibers/ cartridges.

Where the novelty to reload for that particular firearm is more of an inconvenience compared to today's readily available off the shelf ammo and calibers.
 
dgr416 said:
I went back to Alaska last year for 5 months after being gone 16 years .I was shocked that reloading was disapearing in Alaska big time with people under 35 .I also went to several large gun shops and very few had reloading supplies .I dont know any kids down here that reload .I did see lots old reloading equipment left to their kids and it was being sold by their kids .I took lots of kids hunting but only got to teach one to reload .Its alot of work in Alaska my ammo for 338-378 weatherby and 416 rem mag was crazy high .I tried to find some shotgun reloading stuff up there this summer there was none .Sportsmans warehouse use to have tons of reloading stuff they didnt have much like they use to .We better start teaching kids this quick or poof its gone .
Click to expand...
Speaking for the under 35 generation it isn't a matter of us being to lazy. Ammunition isn't what it was when my dad was younger and definitely isn't what it was when my grandfather was younger. I have 2 rifles that will shoot factory hornady eld-x loads into 3/4" groups religiously from field positions and ragged clover leaves from a bench. I have tried and can not cost effectively produce a hand load better than this.

Another driving factor is wildcat cartridges becoming less common and necessary. There are so many commercially available cartridges on the market now that people don't really feel the need to mess with stuff. There is a commercially avaliable cartridge now for nearly every wildcat I can think of and it is just less of a headache. As a few examples, my grandfather on my dad's side hunted for many years with a custom mauser in 338-06. That rifle requires resizing 30-06 brass and fire forming to get 1.5" groups from. Now I can go to Weatherby and purchase a 338 RPM that will do everything the 338-06 can and then some for a tenth the headache. My other grandfather loved the 22-6mm CJ for varmit hunting, you want to talk about a headache this cartridge is it. It is a 2 day project to build enough ammo to go shoot for an afternoon! The 22cm now does everything that rifle has ever been capable of doing with factory brass or even factory ammo!

Now for the last big factor, COST! Reloading is not a cheap endeavor anymore. Most of you guys saying that it is have been stockpiling components for longer than I have been alive. The last pack of magnum rifle primers I bought ran me $150! Decent bullets are $50 a box currently and brass can run around $50-150 for 50 depending on cartridge! Don't even get me started on powder because if and when you can find it now it is north of $50 a pound! To load a hornady eld-x for my 7prc I am north of $2 per round without powder or primer! Couple that in with $1500 worth of misc reloading equipment and it makes 95% of guys shy away from it all together! Sure it all gets cheaper with time but the initial cost of entry is ridiculous!
 
realsamthompson said:
I think the consistency of factory ammunition has improved so much that it’s less relevant now.
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I for one disagree. I'll agree factory quality ammunition has improved over the years, but not enough to rival quality hand loaded ammunition. Plus available factory ammunition isn't produced in the variety of bullets weights available to hand loaders. ie factory loaded 110 grain and 200 grain 30-06 bullets/cartridges, or 300 grain 458 Win Mag bullets/ cartridges.


realsamthompson said:
More/better technology in terms of chronographs etc also means a lot of people have realised their reloads are actually not as good as the factory alternative.
Click to expand...

Not sure on what your intent is but; Chronograph technology has no bearing on hand load vs factory ammunition.

As for experienced hand loaders vs factory ammunition. Hand loads will out perform factory ammunition because hand loads are designed for the best accuracy out of a specific firearm, not a general accuracy out of multiple firearms.

Best example:

M1 Garand.

I can shoot military ammo through all my 30-06's. But I can't shoot all factory 30-06 ammunition out of my M1 Garand without risking damage to my M1 gas tube using the mil spec gas screw. Using an aftermarket gas screw I have to readjust the screw to shoot each variant of factory ammunition.

Another Best example:

Double rifles that are regulated for a specific bullet weight with a specific velocity, at a specific range.
 
Wyit76 said:
Speaking for the under 35 generation it isn't a matter of us being to lazy. Ammunition isn't what it was when my dad was younger and definitely isn't what it was when my grandfather was younger. I have 2 rifles that will shoot factory hornady eld-x loads into 3/4" groups religiously from field positions and ragged clover leaves from a bench. I have tried and can not cost effectively produce a hand load better than this.

Another driving factor is wildcat cartridges becoming less common and necessary. There are so many commercially available cartridges on the market now that people don't really feel the need to mess with stuff. There is a commercially avaliable cartridge now for nearly every wildcat I can think of and it is just less of a headache. As a few examples, my grandfather on my dad's side hunted for many years with a custom mauser in 338-06. That rifle requires resizing 30-06 brass and fire forming to get 1.5" groups from. Now I can go to Weatherby and purchase a 338 RPM that will do everything the 338-06 can and then some for a tenth the headache. My other grandfather loved the 22-6mm CJ for varmit hunting, you want to talk about a headache this cartridge is it. It is a 2 day project to build enough ammo to go shoot for an afternoon! The 22cm now does everything that rifle has ever been capable of doing with factory brass or even factory ammo!

Now for the last big factor, COST! Reloading is not a cheap endeavor anymore. Most of you guys saying that it is have been stockpiling components for longer than I have been alive. The last pack of magnum rifle primers I bought ran me $150! Decent bullets are $50 a box currently and brass can run around $50-150 for 50 depending on cartridge! Don't even get me started on powder because if and when you can find it now it is north of $50 a pound! To load a hornady eld-x for my 7prc I am north of $2 per round without powder or primer! Couple that in with $1500 worth of misc reloading equipment and it makes 95% of guys shy away from it all together! Sure it all gets cheaper with time but the initial cost of entry is ridiculous!
Click to expand...

I was in full agreement with you till you got to the $1500.00 cost of reloading equipment.

Depending on RCBS turret kit that contains everything to get started is less than $500.00. Depending on die set at most $50.00. Same Lee reloading kit and die set is about 1/3 or less the cost of RCBS.

I reload 10 different rifle calibers and 2 different gauges of shotguns my total investment so far is less than $800.00 in reloading equipment.


Is it economical to reload .223 or 5.56 ammo? No.

Is it economical to reload 375, 458WM, 38-55, 32-20, 22 Hornet, and other calibers at 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of factory? Yes.

If a person only shoots 60 rounds a year the savings of reloading vs factory ammunition; it's by far cheaper to by factory ammunition.

For those like me that shoot 500 + rounds per range session, 1 - 4 range sessions per month, plus 20 to 50 rounds during hunting season, it's far more economical to reload. Even at today's costs for reloading components.
 
BlueFlyer said:
Back in 2020 that was not the case, very quickly the supply of ammunition was not secure!
Click to expand...

Yes, I should have but didn't include pre and post COVID. Back then and for future reference reloading will become the only option for those wanting to maintain a supply of ammunition.
 
Though I’m just older than 35, I can say it won’t be gone in this household at least. My boys will be taught how to reload before we buy factory ammo for the fact i became OBSESSED with it in my early 20’s.
It added another aspect to self sustainability and also the control and confirmation of what my ammo is. The customization of ammo is still a huge factor.
I will say this, I very rarely meet anyone who reloads anymore and when I do it’s someone older than me by 15-20 years
 
I have loaded my own ammo for over 50 years. Loading or reloading of fired brass was NOT very popular when I started. The popularity of reloading perhaps reached its peak 10 or 20 years ago and now may be waining. That’s the nature of hobbies.

Hunting in the USA is less available than 50 years ago due less land access because of our litigious society, subdivisions everywhere, and the commercialization of hunting.

It seems competitive shooting is much more popular which if one is serious, seemingly would require loading one’s own ammo.

I don’t think hand loading is going to die anytime soon.
 
Another behavior I see developing in youth and young adults that affects activities like reloading is the bucket list, one and done, instant gratification culture that seems to be growing.
 
Started reloading shotgun in the early '60s, centerfire in the mid '60s with a 22-250. Back then and over the years, factory ammo was hit or miss and for that cartridge, reloading was the route to extreme accuracy. With a lot of experimentation, 1/4" groups were common. This was the story for decades, inconsistent ammo , and having to reload for accuracy and mainly consistency. Fast forward to today, better bullets, better barrels, better manufacturing methods have given us the easy button. Except for a shrinking number who require better accuracy or are tinkerers, reloading isn't required. Buy a rifle and a half dozen different boxes of ammo and shoot one MOA of your particular game. Those boxes will have a pic or photo of what game is suitable for that ammo.
Anecdotal evidence for why reloading is fading, took a nephew and his son with their new Ruger Precision rifle to our gun club. Cartridge was 300 PRC and two boxes of factory ammo. Took the MV speeds off the box, ran the numbers in the ballistic calculator and within ten rounds both were hitting a six inch gong at 500 meters. This was without any barrel break in.
 
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