In "The Foxfire Book," woodsman Marvin Watts told of hunting bear the hard way."An he waited 'til this big bear got betwixt him an' a tree t'shoot it wi'his hog rifle so he could save his bullet - go cut it out of th'tree," Watts said back in 1969. "(He) took a axe an' cut th' bullet out. He'd take it back an' remold it. Lead was hard t'get, so that's th' way they'd try t'save their bullets."
Few hunters these days take the trouble to recycle their copper-jacketed, core-locked, boat-tailed bullets. But more and more are building their own cartridges before they head out.
"Other guys are packing mules up the Bob," Vivas said. "They want ammo that does as much damage as possible if they get suckered by a mountain lion. If you reload, you can tailor the ammunition for things you want to do."
But what about the gun lover with a fresh-out-of-the-box Beretta M9 9 mm pistol or Ruger M77 .270-caliber rifle? Sporting goods stores have shelves of factory-made ammo in different configurations. Isn't making your own bullets like making your own sausage when there's a butcher just down the block?
If you buy one box of shells a year and shoot half at the range and half in the woods, maybe yes. If you're an occasional pistol-plinker who likes playing kick-the-can with the nephews when it's too hot to fish, why not buy the Wal-Mart special?
If you care about accuracy, if you see shooting as more of a passion than a pastime or if you're strapped for cash, reloading might be a better way.
"If you shoot a lot, a thousand rounds isn't that much ammo," said Bruce Nelson of Montana Ordnance and Supply. "Reloading would cost half to two-thirds what store-bought ammo would cost you. You're getting that savings if you buy in bulk."
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark packed their gunpowder in lead casks that they could later melt down for bullets on their Voyage of Discovery. The process is much more involved 200 years later, with choices of primer and powder, bullet type and weight. Then there's all the record-keeping involved in choosing powder loads, how deep to seat the bullet into the case, and comparing ballistics results from the firing range. It makes fly-tying sound simple.
Until about a decade ago, reloading also was a time-intensive, multi-step process. There were separate tools to trim the cartridge neck, seat a primer, load the powder and finally plug in the bullet.
In the mid-1990s, reloading equipment makers such as Hornady and Dillon started releasing single-pull machines that crank out 50 to 100 rounds an hour. Shop-quality machines like those Vivas uses produce 1,000 rounds an hour, although he rarely works that fast.
A basic home reloading set starts at about $125, with a more robust outfit costing around $300. Like any serious hobby, the accessories and dollar counts climb steeply from there.
"If you're shooting big boomers," Vivas said, "for the price of six boxes of ammo, I could sell you everything you need."
Nelson said his best customers are pistol shooters who compete in practical shooting matches. They can go through several hundred rounds per practice session, which the best shooters do several times a week. Most thousand-yard shooters load their own as well, as they factor everything from wind speed to barometric pressure into their ballistic calculations.
Even those who only pick up a rifle in hunting season can expect some benefit from hand-loading their own shells. Two copies of the same rifle model can produce different shot patterns, which may be improved by tinkering with the makeup of the cartridges used. And simply eliminating the variations of powder weight and bullet seating that factory ammo is prone to can do wonders on the target paper.
"Right out of the box, I should be able to shoot a 1.5-inch group standard with a factory rifle and factory ammo," Nelson said. "With my own loads and a good match-grade bullet, I can usually cut that in half."
Hunters who alternate between the wide-open spaces of the Missouri Breaks and the doghair timber of the Swan Range can design bullets for long, flat flights or brush-punching determination. They can also dial back loads to preserve the life of an antique or obscure barrel.
"A lot of our grandfathers might have loaded with the old single-stage equipment, but then it died out," Nelson said. "Then practical shooting came around, and you started seeing people loading a thousand rounds a week. If you shoot a lot, a thousand rounds isn't that much ammo."
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