The firearm thread

[jono035]

Food, firearms, ammo and maybe a few items to shoot at.

Clays sound like a heap of fun. Might grab a box of shells and some clays myself if I can get my hands on a loaner shotgun.

I've got a nice big cache of ammo built up as well and will be careful not to succumb to some of the problems of the last outing... (i.e. I'll re-attach the front sight this time...)

[Wolf]

Very true, but that gets to be a fuzzy area.

I enjoy my time spent reloading, which is probably why I've done so much of it so far. For me I am also in a situation where I have very limited income currently (studentness) with no hope of being able to earn any extra (student allowance) and more spare time than I would while working.

It is good to make sure that you get good 'value' out of your time, but bear in mind that spending less money is effectively untaxed income. You also have to be realistic about how much extra money you could actually earn in your spare time. Second job gets taxed quite a lot and may require a big block of extra time, rather than an hour per weekend. Longer hours at your current job may not be possible or may get to be frustrating/tedious which will not represent good value to you or your employer. All of these things will also be a fixed time commitment and will most likely be completely inflexible.

Reloading is good for me because I can do it whenever I want, I can listen to music or have the TV on in the background while reloading, it is effectively untaxed income and chiefly because I enjoy the process of it and look at it more as an extension of my primary passtime, rather than a way to simply save money.

You have to realistically ask what you would be doing with that time otherwise. I don't watch TV at all and I feel my life has improved dramatically because of it. I also rarely watch movies without doing something else at the same time and there are reloading processes that would fit that perfectly.

Rant over.

Edit: To be honest I think that if I had kept my shooting at the same levels as before I was reloading, it would probably work out to be a good value use of my time, anyway.

Also, if you derive enjoyment from it in some way then you're effectively doing something that you'd consider doing with your spare time anyway - it all boils down to whether your attitude is "fuck, what a cunt of a week, I'm gonna do some reloading to unwind" or "oh, fuck, I've got a major shoot on this weekend, I suppose I should get off my arse and reload some ammo before then."

And if you enjoy doing it and would "do it for shits 'n' giggles" or to relax anyway, then you get the factor of "How much would you be paying to destress or enjoy yourself at other hobbies/passstimes to occupy the hours you typically spend reloading?" How much would it cost you in fuel to get there?

People shell out a fortune to go places, use equipment, get massages or stress therapy, rent a cabin, visit the beach, go trout fishing, whatever. If you're getting the same pay-off just sitting at home engaging in a hobby that doesn't cost as much - and has incidental benefits of saving money for one of your other hobbies - you're ahead of the game.

Confucius reckonned that if you have a job you enjoy doing, you will never "work" a day of your life.

[Drunken Monkey]

Rant over.

It's hardly a rant, they are all valid points. If you have a lot of free time, DIY is both good value and rewarding in other ways, there's no doubting that. I shot more rounds that weekend than all rounds fired in the 2 years previous (and about the same as the whole year 3 years ago). So for casual shooting it's a no brainer, buy off the shelf. My understanding is for professional hunters (e.g. people shooting 5 days a week) it's a no brainer, you will save by reloading.
Then you've got all the rare stuff that Mr Merde shoots, even if he had the cash to blow on ammo, I imagine finding off the shelf black powder ammo is a hit and miss affair.

[jono035]

Also, if you derive enjoyment from it in some way then you're effectively doing something that you'd consider doing with your spare time anyway - it all boils down to whether your attitude is "fuck, what a cunt of a week, I'm gonna do some reloading to unwind" or "oh, fuck, I've got a major shoot on this weekend, I suppose I should get off my arse and reload some ammo before then."

And if you enjoy doing it and would "do it for shits 'n' giggles" or to relax anyway, then you get the factor of "How much would you be paying to destress or enjoy yourself at other hobbies/passstimes to occupy the hours you typically spend reloading?" How much would it cost you in fuel to get there?

People shell out a fortune to go places, use equipment, get massages or stress therapy, rent a cabin, visit the beach, go trout fishing, whatever. If you're getting the same pay-off just sitting at home engaging in a hobby that doesn't cost as much - and has incidental benefits of saving money for one of your other hobbies - you're ahead of the game.

Confucius reckonned that if you have a job you enjoy doing, you will never "work" a day of your life.

Yeah, certainly. If it got to the point where I couldn't be bothered reloading and had the money I'd just say screw it, buy the ammo and shoot less of it. At the moment it is spending an hour or two out in the shed listening to music with the cat to keep my company in the evening rather than playing computer games or watching a movie while browsing forums and other websites. To be honest if I was browsing the web then chances are it would be for reloading information anyway

At the moment I was champing at the bit to get my hand-loads of .44 magnum fired because I wanted to see how they turned out. They were all good so I chose a load that was about 5-10% down from max loads with that bullet and loaded all 150 cases that I had. Took about an hour and a half using cases already cleaned/deprimed/trimmed.

[Indiana_Jones]

I'm in Chris

Shall take one or two mosins and the .22 BSA. Along with grog and food.

-Indy

[Drunken Monkey]

What's the shot type for clays? No 7's or similar? 00 ?? (lol)

[jono035]

It's hardly a rant, they are all valid points. If you have a lot of free time, DIY is both good value and rewarding in other ways, there's no doubting that. I shot more rounds that weekend than all rounds fired in the 2 years previous (and about the same as the whole year 3 years ago). So for casual shooting it's a no brainer, buy off the shelf. My understanding is for professional hunters (e.g. people shooting 5 days a week) it's a no brainer, you will save by reloading.
Then you've got all the rare stuff that Mr Merde shoots, even if he had the cash to blow on ammo, I imagine finding off the shelf black powder ammo is a hit and miss affair.

That was definitely a rant. I very rarely pass up the opportunity to use 100 words when 10 would do

You are quite right that occaisional shooting with common rounds wouldn't benefit from the savings of reloading, especially considering the relatively high up-front cost if you want to get fully set up (around $800 in my case). In that case the only advantage would be quality of the ammunition produced, which in a Mosin means sweet f-a.

The cheapness of the 9mm when I started shooting was what discouraged me from reloading for so long. I was also looking at the highest priced reloading equipment. It wasn't until I talked to Chris about getting started on a $250 Lee kit that it started to make sense and everything went from there.

Edit: 9mm ammo price damn near doubling sped things along, as did becoming aware of the possibility of using plain lead projectiles and the plans to buy a larger calibre pistol.

[jono035]

What's the shot type for clays? No 7's or similar? 00 ?? (lol)

I vote for 00, that sounds like fun

[Mr Merde]

What's the shot type for clays? No 7's or similar? 00 ?? (lol)

If you can hit clays with 00's then I'm not going up against you.

I find #7's are good. There is about 230 pellets in a 1 1/8 load.

00 there are 9.

[Mr Merde]

Havent been able to lay my hands on a thrower yet.

RM you wouldnt mind standing in front of us and chucking them into the air, would you?

[Drunken Monkey]

Now see if we had time we could have combined the firearm thread enthusiasm with a medieval weapons thread and build our own ballistae or trebuchet to throw our clays - double the fun!

[The Pastor]

havent been able to lay my hands on a thrower yet.

Rm you wouldnt mind standing in front of us and chucking them into the air, would you?

no problem

[Wolf]

I've got friends into medieval enactment - they can't supply a ballista or trebuchet but we might be able to get RM a steel helm and breastplate for when he's out in front of everyone throwing the clays...

[Drunken Monkey]

The difference between artists and engineers:
Artists do medieval re-enactment so they can dress up.
Engineers do it so they can build cool shit and knock other stuff down.

The more I think about this, the more I think building a small scale clay bird throwing tebuchet sounds like a good way to spend a weekend...

[Wolf]

The difference between artists and engineers:
Artists do medieval re-enactment so they can dress up.
Engineers do it so they can build cool shit and knock other stuff down.

The more I think about this, the more I think building a small scale clay bird throwing tebuchet sounds like a good way to spend a weekend...

I do it so I can dress up and use cool shit to knock other stuff down.

That's also why I like the blackpowder club - dress up and use cool shit to shoot stuff.