The case in summary The price of ammunition is rising, and many hunters are choosing to make the cartridges themselves to save money. Homemade hunting bullets cost around NOK 20, compared to NOK 50 in the shop, according to hunter Per Gunnar Øines. Making your own ammunition requires accuracy and knowledge to avoid mistakes, which can lead to dangerous situations. Home loading is a popular activity among hunters and sport shooters, and interest is increasing. Brokers underline that there are a number of risks associated with home charging, but that it goes well as long as you follow the books you are supposed to follow. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Now autumn is here, and for over 130,000 Norwegians that means one thing: hunting. Hunter Per Gunnar Øines at Longva in Sunnmøre has spent months getting ready for deer hunting. He provides homemade ammunition. He has the impression that more and more hunters are doing the same. – Then it will be easier, so you can shoot and train more. And then you have a much larger selection of bullets to use, he says. In the shop, it can cost around NOK 50 for each hunting shot. Øines has calculated that equivalent ammunition made at home costs around NOK 20. Training ammunition costs around NOK 13 to make yourself, while the shop price is around NOK 25. This means that he saved around NOK 800 just on the obligatory launch before the hunt. Per Gunnar Øines has been making his hunting bullets himself for years. He has the impression that interest has increased among hunters. Photo: Mia Sofie Ytreberg / news Nervous about making mistakes On the workbench at Longva in Haram, there is gunpowder, weights, charging presses and other equipment needed to use the empty store cases, and thus make new ammunition. There is also a handbook on the bench and it is Øines’s Bible. He has read the charging book from cover to cover, because there is a lot that can go wrong. – You can have too much gunpowder in or too little. In the worst case, you can forget to have gunpowder in, and the bullet will become stuck in the barrel, says Øines. He is a mentor for Roy Kolseth, who started making ammunition a couple of years ago. – I’m completely fresh and nervous about making mistakes, but if I do as I’ve been told, it’s quite easy, says Kolseth. The gunpowder is weighed so that you are sure that it will be the right amount. It is important to be accurate when making ammunition yourself. Per Gunnar usually makes 50 balls at a time when he’s at it. Saves several thousand kroner For Kolseth, it was the rising price of ammunition in the shop that made him start with home loading. His teenage son has just started hunting, and his father wants him to practice as much as he can to become a safe hunter. But it is expensive. – We probably wouldn’t have shot more than absolutely necessary if we didn’t charge ourselves, says Kolseth. In this hunting bow, Roy Kolseth will sit during the hunt. He started making his own balls a couple of years ago. Photo: Mia Sofie Ytreberg / news He makes around 200 rounds of hunting ammunition for himself and his son, and thinks he saves NOK 5-6,000 by doing the job himself. Another factor was that the ammunition he bought at the shop caused great damage to the venison. Now he has adapted the type of bullet and amount of gunpowder to avoid that. Noticing great interest Håvard Skjerstad Andersen of the Norwegian Hunter and Fishing Association believes home loading is for those particularly interested. Norway’s Hunting and Fishing Association does not have statistics on the number of people who practice home loading, but knows that it is popular both among hunters and sport shooters. – For the hunters, it is expensive to train a lot when the ammunition is expensive. For the hunt itself, the price does not have much to say, because that is not where the volume of shots goes, says communications manager Håvard Skjerstad Andersen. He still does not think that home loading is for most hunters, as it requires both knowledge and investment in equipment. Andersen also doubts that there is much to save. – Of course you buy in large volumes and maybe several people join together and buy equipment, then it will be cheaper, says Andersen. Dangerous to experiment At the hunting shop Jafi in Ålesund, many people come in to buy the equipment needed to make ammunition. – It’s starting to get so expensive that you almost have to charge yourself if you’re going to shoot a lot, says market maker Nils Kristian Valaas-Lundsvoll. Stockbroker Nils Kristian Valaas-Lundsvoll says that many hunters spend a lot of money on the hunt and that those who want to shoot a lot often make the ammunition themselves. Photo: Mia Sofie Ytreberg / news – A cartridge that used to cost NOK 25 probably now costs around NOK 50. He also underlines that there are a number of risks linked to home charging. – But as long as you follow the books you are supposed to follow, it goes very smoothly. The danger is if one experiments without it. Per Gunnar Øines is satisfied with the balls he has made himself. Photo: Mia Sofie Ytreberg / news At Sunnmøre, Per Gunnar Øine’s pack has his stock market and the home-made ammunition for the shooting range. He fires five bullets at a flash shaped like a reindeer. The computers next to him give the answer to how he hit and how fast the bullets had. – It was an approved launch. It was fair enough. In any case, he is dead, says Øines. Published 05.09.2024, at 21.17
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This way the hunters get cheaper ammunition
