No Factory Ammo Thru Your Guns?

[Crankylove]

Just wondering how many shooters here have a gun that has never had any factory (including surplus) ammo shot thru it.

I have rifles in 22 Hornet and .358 Winchester that have never seen a round of factory ammunition. Not that they are real odd-balls and ammo isn't out there, more that I am too cheap to pay what people are asking for it. So all they have ever seen are my own handloads.

So, anybody else out there have firearms (rifles, pistols, shotguns) that have only had home brewed ammo thru them? Any particular reason why?

 

[warnerwh]

I have 2 .357's and 2 .44's and a 30.06 that have never seen even one round of factory ammo. I'm not saying commercial ammo is inferior but there are no advantages to using it as far as I'm concerned.

 

[kraigwy]

most of my guns have only reloads through them. The exception is the ones I shot when I was shooting for the NG. And 22s of course.

 

[jgcoastie]

When I get a new handgun, I'll normally shoot a few boxes of factory ammo through it, just to work out the kinks and make sure I really like the way it shoots before I go buying dies, hundreds of cases, bullets, etc for it... Plus, the fired cases give me something to play around with while I'm waiting on the brass to get here...

After 4-5 boxes, noting but hand loads except for SD/HD/CCW... Those are pretty much all DoubleTap Speer GDHP's and Federal HST's...

 

[Dingoboyx]

Handloads +1

I shoot a Winchester Little Big horn, 44-40 carbine lever, a Marlin 23" Cowboy and 2 Ruger Vaquaro's in 44 mag (one was 44-40 til recently) the omly one to have ever seen a factory load (since I have owned them) is the Little Big Horn had one box of factory ammo (that came with it)

All of them only get handloads for the obvious reason that factory is so expensive & unneccessary, as my handloads (full case Trail Boss, less projectile depth) 200gr pill, are perfect for what I shoot (CAS)

I wouldn't even concider shooting factory thru these (unless I couldn't buy new brass), I do well with my loads, and I enjoy reloading too much

My Glock 34 I shoot factory coz it's cheap and available, however I have got everything I need to reload 9x19 and will reload some soon.... just for fun)

My P22, of course uses factory, but that goes without saying

 

[armedtotheteeth]

My Armalite Ar-30 300 Win has never seen a round of factory ammo. I guess my lifetime warranty is void. .
Got a 22-250 the same way.

 

[Crankylove]

At least I am not the only one Had a few people gimmie crap about my two rifles never seeing factory ammo, not being able to understand why. I like be able to shoot my guns, and buying Hornet and .358 Win factory ammo would allow me to shoot only a few boxes a year.......which is nowhere near enough and I kinda like the fact that I have a couple guns that are still virgins concerning the factory ammo.

 

[warnerwh]

Your friends are ignorant of all of the advantages to reloading your brass. Good luck buying ammo in .5 gr for powder increments or testing different primers in a load to get the best accuracy.

It may be that a factory load can be as accurate as a good reload however it's very unlikely. It would be very expensive to find that factory load too. Like I said earlier there are no advantages to factory ammo that I am aware of, at least for me. Maybe you could enlighten them. It could be they would thank you in the end.

 

[gb_in_ga]

All of our guns have had some factory ammo through them. And, of course, the .22s have had nothing other than factory ammo. The 336 is getting factory ammo through it for the time being, but only in order to accumulate an initial supply of empties to be reloaded. Everything else gets reloads, with the exception of the HD handguns which are loaded with factory SD ammo. But even with those the practice ammo is reloaded.

 

[Tom2]

I had a Smith and Wesson stainless .44 magnum that never saw a factory load when I owned it, and it mostly shot lead bullets, downloaded from hot to be more fun to shoot. Even then, just one good look at the price tag on factory ammo was enough inoculation to keep me away from it. Light loads made the brass last forever and lead bullets cheap=lots of fun and great accuracy.

 

[Gary L. Griffiths]

I've never bought a factory round of .300 Win Mag. When I bought the rifle, I found a gun shop that had five boxes of unprimed .300 Win brass that someone had ordered and not picked up. I got them for $20.00, and still have most of them.