I told my oldest daughter the other day that “her time was over, better luck next year.” Then I said to my middle daughter that “her time has come, you’ve got three months.” That may sound harsh but consider the context, their names are Summer and Autumn. Makes a little more sense now, right? In December I’ll tell Autumn “you gave it your best shot, better luck next year,” while to my youngest daughter I’ll say “don’t worry your time is coming.” Her name is Spring.

Another Autumn is upon us. I won’t be entering the woods this year in pursuit of the “big one” because life happens, to all of us. It seems like it’s happens more as you get older.

I recently converted all or most of my loading data from physical load logs and scratch pieces of paper on the bench to a digital format. It was tried once before back in the early “aughts” but…well, that hard drive’s still around here somewhere. Swearing to be more diligent with my record keeping and logging the data when it was collected, the load bench will soon be covered with scraps of paper and printed out “gun rag articles” die box deep.

Nevertheless, this last digital “conversion” was cause for some reflection.

Why do I need to load another batch of “hunting ammo” every year for at least three different rifles when you only have one or two tags at most? Those who know, know the problem of which I speak. Those who don’t, just know we envy you guys.

There’s one box left of a batch of 264 Winchester Magnum ammunition in the cabinet that my dad loaded in 1980. This ammunition has been used to kill antelope, deer and elk from 1980 through 2006. Why on earth would you have a box of handloaded ammunition that old? Well, because those are original 140 grain Nosler Partitions that’s why. You know? The ones with the groove around the middle of the bullet.

A box of 130 grain Nosler Solid Bases for the 270 Winchester also reside on the shelf. This bullet was the precursor to the Nosler Ballistic Tip and no, it isn’t 50 year old ammunition. It’s just a 50 year old bullet in 20 year old ammunition. Anybody remember the Hornady dual diameter, 160 grain Round Nose, 6.5 caliber bullet? Yep, I have some of those in 6.5×55 Swedish Mauser ammunition, it was loaded in 1978. All this begs the question.

Why do we need to load a fresh batch of “hunting ammo” every year? The simple answer is, because we’re going hunting and why not load a fresh batch of “hunting ammo.” Everyone else buys a new box of ammo so why shouldn’t I have a new shiny bullet and a fresh polished piece of brass. No one will ever know your ammunition is the same ammunition you’ve been loading for 30 or 40 years, because visibly it looks fresh off the shelf.

Time Marches On

The real question should be why don’t we shoot all the ammunition we reload?

When I was a kid on the Prairie Dog “killing fields” of southern Wyoming dad used to say, “Don’t shoot up all your ammunition on the way out. When your pocket is about two-thirds empty turn around, you might need those last few shells to fight your way back to the truck.”

On the way home in the evening he always asked if I had some ammo left.

“Yep, I gotta few rounds.”

“Good,” he’d say.

“Why?”

“We might need ’em for the Indians.”

I know this type of conversation don’t mean much now and might even ruffle some feathers or get some ganders up. When I was a kid it was waning toward the end of a great era, the “Western” era, Cowboys and Indians. That’s my reason for not shooting all my ammunition.

Over the seasons these leftover rounds stockpile up until eventually you end up old boxes of old ammunition.

Concerning some of these old boxes of ammunition, will I ever shoot them? Probably not. I could break it all down and repurpose the components, the bullets at least. Everything else is useless. No, they’ll sit on the shelf and receive a warning label for my posterity, “DANGER! DO NOT USE! SAVE FOR THE INDIANS!”

Why not reuse what you can?

Because when I look at those old boxes of handloaded ammunition it reminds me of a different time. They’re boxes of memories. They contain stories of trips to the Colorado Plateau, the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas and Coastal Ranges of California with my dad and my own children. Each cartridge sparks a conversation of a “fall fell or fail.” The old bullets remind me of a time when traditions had meaning, we weren’t so bogged down with distractions, and life just seemed simpler.

Besides, if I used that old ammo to fill one tag a year for my huntable future, there would still be some leftover for the “great safari.” That’s a hard pill to swallow. No, that old hunting ammunition has more value to me left alone than it does in the magazine or chamber.

Will I ever stop loading new “hunting ammo” for hunting season? Not on your life. But when the end of hunting season’s time has come I WILL keep shooting the ammo loaded, because who needs four different batches of the same ammunition from the last 4 or 5 seasons. Besides I still have scrap paper and I can see my load bench in spots between the “gun rags.”