Boy, are we fortunate...

[Dale53]

I was sitting in my shop cranking out .45 ACP's with my Dillon 550B when I started to remember my first casting and reloading efforts about 55 years ago. I had a cast iron pot (about 10 lb Lyman pot) on a kitchen gas range and a single cavity mould for the 358429 bullet. I had no one to ask anything of and was solely guided by Elmer Keith's little blue book "Sixgun Cartridges and Loads" (not a bad guide at all, as it turned out). I cast fifty bullets in a row (after I figured out "kind of how to cast") and thought I had done a REALLY big thing. I lubed these up (soon got a Lyman lube/sizer) and loaded some up as per Elmer's directions.

Every one of them went BANG!:mrgreen: Man, what an achievement![smilie=1:

Now, if i can't run 500 to a 1000 loaded, match grade rounds in just a couple of hours, I think that I am wasting my time. How time changes things...

We are SO fortunate to have guys like Mike Dillon, Richard Lee, and Fred Huntington (to name just a few) who have not only supplied our needs but have made a well-earned buck or two for themselves. LIfe is GOOD.

Now, back to pulling the handle on that Blue Machine and watch a round drop into the catch bin every time I pull the handle...

Dale53

[imashooter2]

Pretty much my story too. Times change, sometimes for the better.:)

[kodiak1]

Ah yess the old days.
Dale you forgot to mention that safety precautions were not followed to a tee.
The casting on the kitchen stove Aw Yes done that one, Makes a person wonder why when you get alittle bit better from experience you start to get so picky.
Like you said they all went bang a big big acheivement now we want them to cut holes one on top of each other.
Times they do change.
Ken.

[Springfield]

My first reloading was using a LEE hand loader to do up 303 British. Just did what they said, used a hammer to reload and just dipped the smokeless powder. Went to the range and the old guy there said, hey not bad for a 30 year old battle rifle, huh. This is in 1974. Wouldn't even think of loading without measuring on a scale now.

[sundog]

Dale, kinda funny how much difference a day makes, eh?

[NVcurmudgeon]

OK, you guys are going down Memory Lane. I got my start c. 1960, give or take a year, loading .45 ACP for my 1917 Army S&W. I had bought a C-H Super C and Harper dies, which the friendly old dealer had assured me was the company that "made all the dies for RCBS, Pacific, etc." (The Harper sizing die did not last very long.) This outfit was screwed to a pine desk in the room of a friend who had a Redding scale. (Reloading was verboten in my mother's house.) No measure of course, in those poverty-stricken days. Boolits were commercially cast Markell 215 gr. with Unique powder, still a good choice. these loads featured CCI primers, the only company that would sell primers to anyone crazy enough to reload ammunition. (There is still a soft spot in my heart for CCI, and I still use CCI rifle primers exclusively.) Do you have any idea how long it takes to weigh 50 charges for a box of .45 ACP? Now I crank up the Dillon Square Deal and load 500 rounds of .45 ACP in two hours, of course with my home cast H&G #68 SWC boolits. But there was something about that first box of painfully handloaded ammuntion that cannot be matched by my dedicated shop with its three presses and plethora of boolit moulds.

P.S. My friend and I taught ourselves how to load from the book, "Why Not Load Your Own?" by Col. Townsend whelen, still a very useful beginner's guide.

[Lloyd Smale]

I say it all the time. If it werent for my dillons and my star my shooting would be cut in half. I dont mind loading and actually enjoy casting but the main purpose to it all is shooting. When it takes a guy all day to cast and load enough ammo to shoot in a half hour it just doesnt make sense.

[arkypete]

Casting and loading for my revolvers is more of an industrial endeavor. It'a process I go thru to make a truck load of ammo, using Dillons.
How ever, casting and loading for my rifles is still a thrill. I get to 'know' each boolet and loaded round.
Jim

[1hole]

Dale, we both have watched technology progress - all areas - and that's been nice. Sadly, society has regressed - in its behavior - and that's bad.

[Bret4207]

My partner and I are nearly to the point where a Dillon will be bought. I just gotta twist his arm more! I keep looking at the Dillon catalogs and wishing the chick in the little black dress would come by in person to drop one off. Hasn't happened yet.

My first rounds were 32-20 in a Lee Loader. IIRC the very first bullets were 100 gr Remington Soft Point with Unique. Of course they lasted about 30 minutes. Shortly after a 311316 was located at a nearby gunny shop and the rest is history. The first actual cast boolits were done on a kitchen range with a Lee pot in my swinging bachelor pad, locally known as "The Goat Pen". Not sure if that was due the proclivity myself and my buddy had for frail young thangs or the way I smelled, but there you have it. The first mould was a Lee SC 45-405FN used in a 45-70 Siamese Mauser. Gosh, I wish I had that rifle back! It was one of the Navy Arms models and was just a great shooter.

All this happened sometime between 1977 and 1982. The dates blur and I never was one for writing things down. I will admit that having a Dad in the gunsmithing business was a help. I don't imagine myself and my brothers were much help in his profit area what with the thousands of 22's we went through. Wish I could talk to him now...

[eljefe]

I started out with a Lee loader making 357 and 38 rounds in a dorm room while at college back in the late 70s. Three or four of us sitting around, with an occasional bang from a poorly seated primer. How times have changed!

[Onlymenotu]

well I'm a new caster * only been tinkering with it 6 months or so*... I have a few LEE molds and in on a couple LEE gb molds,,,,,,and a rcbs reload starter kit i bought 25 + years ago to reload 5.56( 223)....I enjoy casting with the very basics but would like to advance to some of the better stuff....I have a older friend who just retired from where I work who strarted out this way.... but over the years has bought and got most of the high end stuff....... and he told me even to this day his fondest memorys of casting,,,, comes from when he was broke/using the very basic's * has me wondering... if'n I want to move on to bigger and better cause I sure have fun/ enjoy it now*

[RayinNH]

My story pretty much reflects your beginnings, with a Lee Loader. I had one in .270 Win. and one .45 ACP. I began reloading in 1969-70. My first shooting related flinch occured seating primers with the Lee tool. It always scared the bleep out of me even though I new it was going to happen. I just didn't know when...Ray

[OeldeWolf]

I started shooting with my dad's old squirrel rifle, from the 40's. I then went to a 1909 Argentinan Mauser, and then proceeded from there. Always wanted to reload, never could get the equipment. Then (while still enduring child support hell) I bought some used 1860 Colt Army replicas with a bonus from work, and a LEE mould and 10# production pot. I started casting, and have not bought RB since.

I have recently (less than a year ago) bought a Co-Ax press, a powder dispenser (RCBS) and a bunch of dies for most all of my collection. Still working on getting a working sizer and dies, though.

Now I rarely buy loaded ammo at all.

Being cash poor all my life, I am a scrounger, so I am smelting lead bars and such already. LOL

[Bret4207]

You guys mark my words, we are living in the "Golden Age" of reloading and just don't realize it! Never before could we get so much weird, obsolete, unusual stuff so easily. True enough we don't have cheap guns and some of the moulds designs we want, but this is as good as it has ever been by a long shot!

[SharpsShooter]

Ahh yes, the memories of humble starts in both casting and reloading too. Lee loaders, single stage presses, dipping powder instead of weighing it.......got the t-shirt for all of those.

Just think for a moment what it might be like if we had the pricing and the ability to mail order the guns too as in the days of pre-GCA.


That could almost be utopia...........

:coffee:

SS

[Mohillbilly]

Glutton for punishment I bought a Lee hand press out fit(dies, funnel,an lube)for 30-06 in about 78.Picked up a couple new 2 hole molds,powder'n primers, and melted lead on the stove in a tin can.I used a pair of pliers to pour with.After a lota squeeezzzzing, an dipp'n,an a squezzing ,I had loaded all 20.And it only took a couple of days..Boy was I proud of that box of roll yer owns.....