How to get my soon to be 5 year old involved?

[lts70]

My oldest boy is turning 5 soon and I would like to get him helping me with my casting and reloading if I can think of anything safe enough. He is a great little helper and wise for his age. I just was hoping you guys could help me think of some safe activities I could start him off with.

[btroj]

My daughter enjoyed pulling the handle on the press for sizing cases. I placed the case in the shell holder, she simply pulled the handle. I also let her do some bullet sizing/lubing with my Lyman.

I stuck with very simple "no feel " tasks where there was little chance of trouble. I would avoid primers and powder in any activities at that age. Casting would be the same- to much risk of injury.

My goal was to get her interested. Keep the sessions short as kids have almost no attention span at times.

Enjoy these days while you can- mine graduates this spring. It goes fast. Real fast.

[GSCSA]

My three year old grandson loves to pull the handle on the press as well. Maybe helping sort brass or cleaning primer pockets, etc..

[williamwaco]

Casting idea.

His eyes are a lot better than yours.
See if you can teach him to inspect the cooled bullets and cull the flawed ones.

I store sized bullets in boxes. base down, lined up in neat little rows like soldiers
perhaps he would enjoy something like that.

[cbrick]

While lead can be toxic to adults a bit of common sense and decent hygiene can all but eliminate the risks.

Not so with children, the risks are far greater and the consequences are permanent. I would advise keeping him well away from casting areas and/or sources of lead for at least two more years. I understand your wanting to get your son involved with a great hobby but . . .

The following paragraph is from Glen Fryxell's article: Safe Handling Of Lead When Casting And Tumbling Brass (http://www.lasc.us/FryxellSafeHandlingLead.htm)

As a Ph.D. chemist involved in the environmental chemistry of heavy metals and heavy metal toxicology, perhaps I can add a few helpful comments here. First off, you are right to be concerned about your children. Lead is considerably more dangerous to kids than it is to adults. A healthy 200 lb man can carry a lead burden (with no symptoms) that would cause severe mental retardation in a 5-year old. This is because one of the main effects that lead has is on the developmental biochemistry of the brain and spine. Once you've grown up, lead can't enter that particular pathway anymore. There are still other toxicity mechanisms to be concerned about, but the neurological development of children is easily the most serious. If you want to learn more about lead and its effects on kids, the CDC has an excellent report that they will send you free of charge from their website (I recommend this report to anyone who shoots cast bullets -- notice I did NOT say "bullet casters").

Hope this helps, stay safe.

Rick

[Suo Gan]

While lead can be toxic to adults a bit of common sense and decent hygiene can all but eliminate the risks.

Not so with children, the risks are far greater and the consequences are permanent. I would advise keeping him well away from casting areas and/or sources of lead for at least two more years. I understand your wanting to get your son involved with a great hobby but . . .

The following paragraph is from Glen Fryxell's article: Safe Handling Of Lead When Casting And Tumbling Brass (http://www.lasc.us/FryxellSafeHandlingLead.htm)

As a Ph.D. chemist involved in the environmental chemistry of heavy metals and heavy metal toxicology, perhaps I can add a few helpful comments here. First off, you are right to be concerned about your children. Lead is considerably more dangerous to kids than it is to adults. A healthy 200 lb man can carry a lead burden (with no symptoms) that would cause severe mental retardation in a 5-year old. This is because one of the main effects that lead has is on the developmental biochemistry of the brain and spine. Once you've grown up, lead can't enter that particular pathway anymore. There are still other toxicity mechanisms to be concerned about, but the neurological development of children is easily the most serious. If you want to learn more about lead and its effects on kids, the CDC has an excellent report that they will send you free of charge from their website (I recommend this report to anyone who shoots cast bullets -- notice I did NOT say "bullet casters").

Hope this helps, stay safe.

Rick

I agree 100% with Rick here.

[cbrick]

My three year old grandson loves to pull the handle on the press as well. Maybe helping sort brass or cleaning primer pockets, etc..

Primers are made with lead styphnate, tumblers and/or primer pocket cleaning are not good places for youngsters.

Am I being paranoid? Perhaps but lead really is far more dangerous to kids and I would much rather be over cautious than learn later that I should have been.

Rick

[bigjason6]

If you're running a progressive press and you don't have a bullet feeder, you have one now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZc30viF5k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[41 mag fan]

It's like taking a child hunting or fishing. Start out simple, don't worry about how many rounds you'll get loaded, or how many fish you'll catch or squirrels you'll kill.
Something very simple like pulling the press handle, will instill a love of the hobby many years afterwards.

One easy thing and it can become a game, that will hold a childs interest, is if you have alot of 1 caliber, throw a bunch in a box or bowl like 223's for example. Throw a few 45 acp cases in and have one as a sample to show the child what to look for.

An easy game to the child that'll keep his attention, esp if you can maybe size as he picks thru them. With a little encouragement of them handing you what they've sorted and you resizing, will go a long ways on instilling a love of the reloading hobby.

[scattershot]

When my boys were that age, they used to "help" by counting bullets. Of course, I had my own count, but it was something we could do together, and it helped them learn to count, too. Inspecting brass and cast bullets is a reasonable task for kids, too.

[CJR]

When my sons were young, I taught them to reload and cast. I was using a progressive press to load 45ACP and was afraid of them double-charging a case. So I picked 9-10 grain charge of Blue dot ( a little dirty) behind a 230 gr. RN CB as their load. If they double-charged a case, the Blue Dot would spill over the press and prevent a CB from being seated. It worked and they shot lots of safely loaded ammo. I also recall letting them deprime & resize the 45ACP brass on another press until they resized one of my fingers to 0.451"D. Recovered from that OK and I got them safely to adulthood as fine marksmen. They now have their own families and will soon be repeating that learning process. A great father/son bonding experience.

Best regards,

CJR

[Shooter6br]

My son was very smart ( still is at 25) He started shooting at 5 Let Dad clean and reload. Oh yes use all my guns like they where his LOL My fault I guess Now he is in law school Family is mortified

[Doc_Stihl]

Before I let the kids help, Everything gets wiped down that they'll touch, and hands are washed as soon as we're done.

When I bump swage boolits on the press I put my 3 year old son on a stool next to the press and my 5 year daughter old runs the handle. My boy uses a 2' long piece of 2x4 to tap the boolit out of the swage die and my 5 year old daughter runs the press handle. It's nearly a fully automated system!!!
I place the boolit on and say "swage" and she runs the handle down and up, then I say "eject" and the boy whacks it out. Takes 3 times longer than running it myself, but it's alot more enjoyable.

I don't do anything with them that involves touching brass, primers, boolits, or cleaning solutions. That doesn't leave many fun things to do. I wish they made rubber gloves for kids. My daughter could cull boolits easily and has a wicked sharp eye for finding that stuff.

Make sure if a kid is around they know how much "hurt" is in between that ram and die. My kids have a fascination with putting their pointer finger directly on the item that they're asking "what's this?"

[southpaw]

My boy (4 and a half) likes to help me with everything. I help him size the cases cause most of them take more pressure on the handle than he can provide. He also likes to drop the powder into the cases or powder pan. He likes to place the bullet/boolit on the case and seat it. Actually he wants to do just about anything he sees me doing.

It takes about 10 times as long to get shells loaded but is well worth it. Just remember to take it slow and have them wash up when they are done. Oh and make sure that they keep their fingers out of their mouths.

Good luck with your boy.

Jerry Jr.

[Lizard333]

My five year loves to "trim" my brass. Mainly he just sticks a piece of brass in my RCBS trim pro and turn the handle. HE'll do this for about ten minutes while I am Reloading on my 550B. He also like to put the finished rounds in either a plastic box or bag, whatever I'm doing that day, and I ALWAYS have him wash his hands with me when he is done. Little stuff, but he feels that he is helping.

[catmandu]

I had my kids, and now the G-kids around when I'm reloading. Some think its cool and others don't. The best was to use them as brass-rats when we went shooting. They could find what I could not. Especially in grass. Almost always went home with more than we shot. Doing that made them interrested in the reloading at home.
I have them stack lead ingots, sort brass, and most important - talk to me when we do it together. I don't always get as much done as I would by myself but I usually enjoy it more. Then I get to teach them too. Math, science, termonology and most important Gun Safety. I ask them to tell me the rules. Treat every gun as if it was loaded. Keep finger off the trigger, Never point it at anything you are not willing to destroy (it gets the point accross) I tell them they can see any gun / knife / tool I have as long as they follow PaPa's rule - they have to come get me so we can do it together. Never by themselves. It really takes away the temptation of the forbiden fruit. And I get to have fun too!
Most important - make it fun- if they can't do it correctly - get them their own brass to work on (steel cases that they picked up work well. )

Keep them shooting.

Paul in WNY

[jmsj]

Both of my kids (7 & 11) like to help me reload. I have given both of them an opportunities to cast a few bullets and they seem to enjoy it. I do not let them hang around when I'm smelting though.
Here's a picture of my son when he was 5, I call him my "homemade automatic case feeder".
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae97/jmsj515/183.jpg
jmsj

[southpaw]

I tell them they can see any gun / knife / tool I have as long as they follow PaPa's rule - they have to come get me so we can do it together. Never by themselves. It really takes away the temptation of the forbiden fruit.

When my boy was about 2 I was talking to a guy that I work with and he told me this same thing. I agree completely with it. Don't tell them not now or latter. Take 5 minutes and get the gun out and let them handle it.

If they know that they can see and handle it at any given time they will have no need to go behind your back and handle them.

Tell a kid "don't touch that" and that is all they think about. Some not so much as others but it is still there.

Jerry Jr.

[adrians]

my 6 year old grandson loves to seat my boolits in my single stage press .
he's so proud when he sees a finished round come down out of the die .
"can i do another one papa? please,please,,,
:twisted:[smilie=l::evil:

[3006guns]

While keeping all the cautions in mind, have your son watch the process and then allow him to pull the press handle when seating the boolit. Remember: patience! Take him, the cartridge and the gun out to a range/deserted spot. Have him put on ear muffs and let him shoot that cartridge while you hold the gun. One round. That's it. Look at him and say "Pretty neat, huh! Shall we go home and do it again?"

Then go home and have a father/son snack and some time together. That little spark you just struck will grow into a bigger flame over time.

[Adam10mm]

When I was reloading commercially, my son would help me put the inspected rounds in the plastic trays. Sometimes he'd put on gloves and load the dirty brass in the tumbler.