Thread: Foster coax or Rock Chucker

Don't get me wrong @10-Ring, I love nice stuff. I've lost count of the amount of times I've stood in front of various makes of presses and scales and so on and nearly walked out with a bundle of goodies... One day, it will happen, sooner rather than later if @Wingman keeps sending me videos of his very cool new set up and how smooth and fast it is...

The question of affordability and "deprivation" is a good one, something that's very different from person to person obviously. I guess it's got a lot to do with the way you are programmed when you are young. I think the primary reason I haven't committed to high-quality super funky reloading gear is not because I can't afford it (I can), but because I was always taught that functional is more important than flash. (Maybe replace the word "taught" with "brainwashed".) This was when I was a teenager being taught by my grandfather how to reload on a shoestring and still bring home a fat deer of an evening. And that approach to life in our house is applied pretty much across the board, even though I hated it as a kid and I'm pretty sure my kids hate it now! We are just a chip off the old block after all...

Funny though, because put me in a situation where I must choose gear to survive a year in the remote outback, and I will buy the most expensive fridge freezer I can find (Engels - I have three), and then spend a small fortune on building a rocksolid auxiliary triple battery system with Redarc charge controllers, with solar.... Because the risk of warm beer is a risk I would never ever be prepared to take... Whereas my grandfather would have dug a deep hole and tried to keep the ice frozen inside a polystyrene box in 35°C, for a fortnight.

Can't deny though there is an element of (probably misguided) pride at being able to put together accurate rounds with a minimum of kit. I also like its portability - I can take my reloading bench into the bush and mount it on a Black & Decker Workmate and sit under a tree.

I'm reading a book at the moment about the early days of benchrest competition. Whilst benchrest is of no interest to me whatsoever, reading about how those guys acheived fantastic accuracy with 1950s and 60s kit, reloading at the competition under a tarp with their nerdy mates... kinda puts my old Grandpa's approach to life in perspective. They didn't really know any different.

Anyway. I'll stop waffling.