Gwion wrote:Yes but as you say above, you are not taking time off work to reload and unless you are a complete nong or have a very cushy job, you are not reloading when you would otherwise be earning.
Free time IS more and more valuable as our lives get busier but do you charge your family restaurant prices when you cook them a meal? Do you have a taxi meter in your car for all the time you spend running around on personal or family business?
In real terms it does save money because you are not shelling out and you are only counting hypothetical earnings.
Yes, if you are really time poor you wouldn't reload but in that case you probably wouldn't put much time into hobbies and probably be happy shooting 1" groups at the range once a month or a couple of times a year. Mind you, you might spend a LOT of time and money trialing ammo to find a round that your rifle likes.
Totally agree you need to factor in the time but not so much that the time has a fiscal value unless it impacts your earning time.
As for case prep, etc, i do that while watching a movie, which i like to do in down time anyway. The only time i find inconvenient is the actual loading because it's tedious, repetitive and mind numbingly boring. I can think of quite a few things I'd rather do for 'contemplation' than reloading.
The only point I'm making is that if you are reloading purely to "save money", then it's a false economy.
Obviously that goes for anything we do, but the difference is we don't usually choose our hobbies or past-times to save money. It's like making your own beer or bread - you're probably not saving as much money as you think, but ultimately the pleasure is in the process of making something enjoyable that you can't necessarily buy off the shelf.
In that respect, I agree. After all, I reload myself!