I just don’t get why you reload at all… If you shoot a handful anyway. Just buy a couple of boxes of cheap ammo and that’s it. Why bother.
@Oldbloke you would think that as JS is such a nice bloke he would reload your empties for you.
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In a word… Consistency.
More accurate, cheaper, interesting hobby, control, reliable.
But yes, most shooters like me r probably as well off just buying ammo.
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That’s always reliant on what accuracy OP wants. May already have found that the off the shelf stuff is not satisfactory, or, given that he has the ability to reload, may have a “recipe” that works.
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I think most commercially available hunting ammunition in Australia is just as good. And if someone shoots less than 20 rounds a year, there’s actually a lot more financial cost and time in reloading, for what is essentially the same outcome.
In fact I’d say, that if ammunition is just used for recreational hunting, it’s a lot cheaper to buy.
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Yes but reloading is fun.
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Not when it’s counter-productive.
Wash your mouth out, no such thing as counter-productive when it comes to reloading.
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You know what I mean. I’m all for reloading, as you may have guessed, but there’s certainly a clear line between worth it or not. Especially for bush short range hunting.
When I was an apprentice and a keen hunter, I very quickly found reloading to be a financially viable option even though I used little ammo. There was still target work to keep the eye in etc and at $3.50 a packet for 8mm vs $17.50 a week wages reloading for half that price was a good idea. The cost of reloading today is relatively similar, and despite what is written on forums and comments at the range a hunter can still reload for very little outlay, less than $60 to kit up to reload any hunting caliber and still make perfectly acceptable ammo. The other part of it is taking game with ammo you made is very satisfying, Cheers.
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I do sometimes wonder if in fact that the hand loaded ammo when you first start out with minimum and cheaper equipment is in fact better than factory and for some if not schooled and only minimal shooting is done whether it ever gets better than factory.
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Have to agree with @sungazer the ammo I produce would be nothing like the quality guys like You, @Gwion or @Brett would turn out.
I reload lots of cheap plinking ammo for the milsurp, for the cost benefit of it and smaller amounts of ammo to hunt with that I do take more care with but still I’m happy with a lot less than guys shooting comps would settle for.
If you just use basic gear even just shooting say 100 rounds a year you will soon recoup the cost of the gear. More so if you shop around for special deals it used gear. You don’t need much to start.
Making consistent ammo is no harder, it takes a bit longer and a bit more attention to detail.
I make consistent ammo, it’s just consistently average!
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I do it more for the satisfaction than anything else and like @no1mk3 said, when taking game with something that you have reloaded is very satisfying. I do save money through reloading but tend to spend it on more reloading stuff anyway.
Plus the price of living in the Never Never land is high cost for factory rounds.
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Yep, great to shoot a fox or deer with your own reloads.
I started off with a Lee loader like many to reduce cost. I then just slowely built up my equipment.
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Someone who shoots less than 20 rounds a year isn’t really trying… 
The only reason i get so pedantic about my ammo is because i need all the help i can get!
Versatility is also a point that you don’t get with factory ammo. Say you want a light round and a heavy round, a fast round and a slow round that you know will perform consistently in your rifle; good luck finding all that in factory ammo, even if you spend buckets on testing various offerings. Reloading costs me about 1/3-1/2 the price of factory rounds. It takes about 30-50 rounds (or less) to find a good load once you have a feel for what you are doing; after that it’s all just fine tuning if you want to squeeze a bit more “that was me, not my rig” out of it… I guess it all depends what you are shooting at and from how far.
You telling me, lol. Those are rookie numbers. Nevertheless…
I somewhat disagree.
I personally think all rifles should be sold with set of dies specific for the rifle and I sort of love reloading as people may have guessed, there have been a few hints lol. But! Let’s be realistic here. I shoot more than I hunt and I shoot a lot. However, there are people who are the exact opposite. They only shoot when they hunt and they only have guns to hunt. @Oldbloke said it himself in some other post that he is former.
Now, Classic Lee ‘smash shit with hammer’ Loader is nice to talk about, but nobody these days use it. I am sure there are exceptions, but vast majority will not. People use a press.
Press and auto primer or press with priming arm: $150
Dies: $60+
Brass trimmer: $50+
Scales: $100+
Powder: $60
Bullets: $50
Primers: $7
Cases: $49.95 (just to be different)
Chamfer and deburring tool: $50
Callipers: $50
Lube: $12
Then load development, more sighting in, etc.
So we are looking at like $640 roughly to start with. For a recreational hunter this is a fuck tone of premium common (308, 223, 30-I’m-old, etc.) ammo for a very long time. Including sighting shots.
So please! I completely agree with most of you, reloading is fun, it’s awesome, it’s a good skill to know, you can do cool stuff with it, I personally would not be able to afford to shoot if I didn’t reload or hand load, Depends how you look at it. But for recreational hunting, $600 worth of ammo is a life time supply or very close to it.