Help, I've lost interest in reloading!

Ebb and flow...It's only natural with most things we do...The old been there done that syndrome.

I Was in a gun building/collecting and reloading frenzy all of my youth and into my late twenties...Then the farm, flying, outfitting and horses took over for better part of 20 years...I Was still hunting and shooting but only reloading what I absolutely needed...Suddenly the fever came back...I still do all the other activities and a few more but the reloading fever is back too...I'm reloading and shooting rifle like I was a kid again...Although my past shotgun and handgun shooting and reloading fever still alludes me.

For me the catalyst that reignited the reloading fever was the addition of a different platform and target...The AR and precision bolt gun at long range shooting steel...So long paper and hello clang.
 
What????? No Tinfoil hats here???????????

It's the subliminal messages hidden in the audio clutter of all those podcasts fault. They brainwashed you.

Ok, now for some reality.

What you're going through is normal. I find the ebb and flow of the whole shooting/smithing/trading thing has a lot to do with what goes on around me at the time. When it's time to go fishing, I tie flies, work on the boats/truck, pack up the fishing gear/dog into the truck and go fishing. Completely forget about anything to do with shooting.

In the past, life, in the form of work, finances, home, etc steered my thoughts in different directions.

Let me give you a for instance.

Over the years I have endeavored to have at least ONE rifle that shoots to point of aim COLD. No warm up shots or fouling shots needed. Once the little light came on and I found it really wasn't a big deal if the rifle wasn't properly cleaned after every outing it not only wouldn't do it any harm (non corrosive) I seldom had to worry about flyers on that first or second shot from a freshly cleaned barrel. Yeah, I know. I prefer to say I must have been distracted.

Anyway, other than for competition, my shooting dropped off other than to do with my smithing hobby and of course set up a new component group for a particular rifle. Other than maybe a couple of hundred rounds of centerfire per year, I do most of my offhand practice with 22LR/22WMR/22Hornet. A lot of this came about after my shoulder joints started deteriorating. Still, handloading went from thousands of rounds per year to a few hundred.

This year, shoulder surgery kept me from shooting since last April. Quite honestly, I wasn't even interested in hand loading or shooting at all. Over the last few weeks I've been experimenting with a few new to me rifles to decide which one or two I'm going to hunt with this fall. It has and still is a toss up between four different rifles. Lo and behold, all four of them are jewels. They shoot anything I put through them well. Most loads go into sub moa groups if I do my part. The rifles are 1500 Howa x 7.62x39, Weatherby MkII x 243 win, Ruger RSI #1 x 243win and a Mod 700 Remington x 257 Roberts. All are suitable for the job. All have recoil in the range I can easily handle without flinching and all of them fit me properly, which means they come up well and the scope picture is very easy to acquire. All of them shoot to point of aim COLD from a fouled barrel out to 300 yards. I use a shooting stick for offhand shots. I know, I'm cheating but the animal won't know the difference.

OP, don't sweat it. Maybe you need a new shooting partner??? Maybe you need to get into a new venue such as bench rest shooting??? Maybe the shine has gone off the apple for awhile??? ORRRR heaven forbid you're just sick and tired of it all????
 
The mentioning of tinfoil hats and bei g sick of it all reminds me of what turned me off shooting for a couple of years:

I was crazy busy and stressed at work, being a lead hand/ babysitter at the shop as well as being involved in organizing shooting events at my Range. My relaxing time at the range was no longer relaxing because I was still stressing out there getting things organized. On top of that, the events tended to attract guys who always talked tinfoil hat stuff/ fixated of gun grabbing or just wanted to be super competitive and it kills the the fun when you just want to have fun shooting and talking gun stuff.

Bit of a tangent but it shows that it can be something indirectly related that is putting you off your hobby.
 
What he said.I get that off and on as well,lucky for me i have bunch of other hobbies so I never get stuck doing something I don't like.

For example I finished this guy yesterday.Finnish H-75 Hawk in cardstock.1/60 scale or so.

 
kawicrash;14141514? Now said:
When you say "I look and walk away" are you going to something else that puts a smile on your face or are you in a "real funk". If you are smiling and enjoying life with your family great!!!!! If you are in a "real funk" try to correct the problem. Life is to short not to live it to the fullest. Shooting is one way to live life to the fullest but not the only way.
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I find myself reloading more during the cold winter months - when its very white outside and especially when the white stuff is coming down. Once, I have a load as good as I can get - I will go back to that data and load some up - I stop experimenting trying to get the group a little tighter. That said right now my goal is to get 5 shots within one and a quarter inches at 200 yards "consistently"

ivob
 
If you're interested in Milsurps, maybe pick up something chambered in an "oddball" cartridge. Something that is commercially unavailable. Perhaps the reward from making your own rounds that are otherwise unobtainable will inspire you to pick it back up.
 
What else do you have going on in your life that may have you in the funk, it's possibly not reloading that's got you down.

I haven't shot a gun or reloaded a cartridge in over a year; two young kids at home, by the time they're fed and put in bed there's no time left in the day. Weekends are the same, always "something else" to do.

Chances are there's "more important" stuff going on right now, it happens. As others have said, you'll come back to it, if not Oh well not the end of the world.

Keep your reloading stuff though, sounds like your daughter might get into it when she's a bit older. I would have though it was the coolest thing if my dad had reloading equipment and let me use it when I was old enough.
 
Welcome to reality. Reloading is as much fun as watching paint dry or grass grow.
Even less interesting (if that is even possible) than watching golf, curling or darts while sober.

It's a means to an end - shooting - which is interesting - so we suck it up and load.

I find Beer, faster equipment and good background noise make it more tolerable.
 
For me, reloading is my Zen moment, where you shut everything else out and just focus. I'm retired, so I can spend whatever time I need to play with reloads so that certainly helps. The other thing I find is to reload what you enjoy to reload, that you are good at, because I find I load some calibres better than others. Currently, I am having great fun casting and reloading shotgun slugs. If I was still working and time constrained it would likely be very different. Bottom line, I highly recommend retirement...
 
Freedom Ventures said:
Welcome to reality. Reloading is as much fun as watching paint dry or grass grow.
Even less interesting (if that is even possible) than watching golf, curling or darts while sober.

It's a means to an end - shooting - which is interesting - so we suck it up and load.

I find Beer, faster equipment and good background noise make it more tolerable.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The price-per-round and round-per-hour are columns in my excel reloading spreadsheet.
 
i've always hated reloading. its boring and mundane, but i did it because it was cheaper than buying factory. now that prices have gone up and my range time has gone down significantly ive basically stopped reloading. last time i touched my press was probably a year ago. I'm half waiting for finish my gun room and get a new 650. then ill have a new toy to play with and that will be that.
 
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