How did you learn to reload?

[budman5]

I bought a Dillon press and a Speer manual in 1980.
I load for everything I shoot.

[Gtrubicon]

I had bought a ridiculous amount of reloading equipment and supplies about 2001, Then I met OSOK, he taugh me everything I needed to know about reloading, casting etc. He was a forum member here, and my friend. He died 2 weeks ago. I will always miss Charles Irby, aka OSOK. He always mused that people assumed his handle acronym was for “one shot one kill”. But it wasn’t. He grew up near Houston Texas and explained to me that “Oh, It’s OK” sounded just like OSOK with the Texans accent. He was a brilliant man, very active on this forum and I had the pleasure to know him and learn from him. He is greatly missed.

Sam

[corbinace]

I had bought a ridiculous amount of reloading equipment and supplies about 2001, Then I met OSOK, he taugh me everything I needed to know about reloading, casting etc. He was a forum member here, and my friend. He died 2 weeks ago. I will always miss Charles Irby, aka OSOK. He always mused that people assumed his handle acronym was for “one shot one kill”. But it wasn’t. He grew up near Houston Texas and explained to me that “Oh, It’s OK” sounded just like OSOK with the Texans accent. He was a brilliant man, very active on this forum and I had the pleasure to know him and learn from him. He is greatly missed.

Sam

I had not heard that, as I have been gone for a bit. I too always enjoyed his posts and viewpoints. I am sincerely sorry for your deep loss.

[kevin c]

I read a couple basic instructional manuals on reloading end to end, twice. Then read the pertinent cartridge specific sections of three or four reloading handbooks from various bullet and powder manufacturers.

My first loads were straight out of the books, right down to the specific brand of bullet. I moved on to changing same weight bullets, and eventually my own cast. I experimented with powders, looking for specific performance characteristics geared towards action pistol competition. For the last, I used on line resources specific to the application.

I have never loaded a shot shell or rifle cartridge, being mostly a pistol guy.

[tigweldit]

Dad. He started me loading and casting when I was 5 years old. The year after he gave me my first .22. That was 65 years ago. I still have and shoot the H&R single shot bolt gun and the molds he taught me on.

[Thebigbaby]

A couple buddies showed me the very basics. Then along the way gained more knowledge by trial in error, acquaintances and folks like y’all on the interwebs. I believe a have it down pretty good now. Next is perfecting cast boolets and pc.

[Bazoo]

I learned from reading voraciously about the subject. I started with the Lyman 48th Edition Handbook, coupled with lots of questions on forums. I finally just started reading everything I could get my eyes on, and still do. I don't watch much in the way of youtube videos. I retain information from reading well, however.

I've read the Lyman 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 handbooks, cast bullet handbooks 1, 2, 3, 4, shotshell handbook 5th, Speer 6, 8, 10, 15, Hornady 2, Lee 2, ABCs of reloading, RCBS cast manual, Sierra Second Edition, and The Art of Bullet casting, not to mention many articles online and many handloader magazines and several Handloading Gun Digest books. I've also read The Complete Guide to Handloading by Sharpe, The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target by Mann, and From Ingot to Target by Fryxell & Applegate.

I'm working on Cast Bullets by E.H. Harrison currently.

I'm wanting to read a Nosler manual as well as the Lyman 50th and 51st also.

[Iowa Fox]

Mom and dad bought me a Lee loader for Christmas 1963. No Books, No magazines , No internet.

[BobT]

I read the instructions on the Lee Loader and went to town, that was around 1970 or '71. Since then I have become a collector of reloading gear and load for several different rifle and pistol cartridges. I have also reloaded shotgun shells in 10, 12, 16 and 20 gauge but now only the 12 and 20 remain. I started casting boolits in 1981 or 1982.

[mgunner]

I started six years ago. I was watching YouTube and saw a video about reloading and was pretty amazed. I didn't even know that reloading was something you could do. Never even heard anyone talk about reloading presses. What's even weirder is that my father belonged to a hunting club in the early or mid 80s and I never heard anyone mention anything about reloading.

After I saw that first video I was hooked. I watched hours of videos about reloading and read some blogs. Then I purchased a set of Lee dies, reloading components, and a Lee classic turret press kit which came with a copy of Modern Reloading. I'm still using that press.

So I learned by watching videos, reading blogs, reading Modern Reloading, and then used the detailed instruction sheet that came with the die set to set up my dies and started to reload.

I just recently started looking into casting; and I'm waiting for my first mold to be delivered.

[Swineherd]

Interwebs

[Butler Ford]

New Lyman 45th edition, Lee Loader in 357 Mag, pound of Win 296, box of hollow points and 100 primers. Faith that the good Lord and Lyman would keep me from hurting myself too badly. Learned pretty quickly that my carpenter's hammer was not the best idea but the handle worked pretty well.

[SquibCity]

Mostly a mix of all 3 for me, started thinking about reloading when i started shooting more and more around 6-7 years ago. father in law had done it for years. Started reading/ buying reloading books, watching videos on Utube before they were "Weird" about it. Father in Law Helped with The Basics and Went on From There. Now Load Thousands of pistol and Rifle Rounds a Year, When Supplies Allow. I always try to buy Supplies when i see them, and not being that Jerk that buys everything i see. What a Crazy Rabbit hole it is to reload/ Handload. Start Small with very little, and then venture in to other calibers, casting, bp, Etc... I Love it though

[cpaspr]

I voted other, because I couldn't vote more than one.

As a youngster, maybe 10ish?, dad would set everything up, and I'd load up .38 Specials for him. Years later, mid 70s, he'd set the pot up out in the shop, and I'd cast .38 semi-wadcutters by the hour. 1976, I went off to college, graduated in 1980 and moved north. About 1982 had a friend of my brother from high school "loan" me his RCBS JR press, powder measure, etc. But they just kinda sat in a box. Late 80s, I got married, and about 1990 I dug everything out and had to learn the loading process all over again to load some .38 Specials and .308 Winchesters. Boxed it all up again. Moved, and late 90s set it up in the garage, and had to re-learn again. Finally, after the kids were gone mid 2000s, I moved the reloading equipment into one of the empty bedrooms, and turned the 2' x 5' closet into my "man cave". Sometime about 20 years ago, my dad gave me all his casting equipment, including those bullets I had cast for him in 1976, when he put it all away. It sat for a while, and about 15 years ago I pulled it out and had to learn/relearn about casting. I do both frequently enough now that I don't have to relearn the process each time.

So, initially, mentor.
Later, read books.
Later still, internet forums, some my questions, mostly reading other people's questions.

[trapper444]

My uncle got me into reloadinng he had a small setup and i have been reloading since the late 80's i

[Advil]

My dad taught me when I was really little. We still load together all the time. I cast, he coats and sizes, we both load ammo but admittedly he does more reloading than I do since he really does enjoy the process I do it out of necessity to shoot more. We both enjoy working out the bugs and improving the process.

[MOshooter]

My Dad was an avid hunter, a serious quail/pheasant hunter.
I grew up in his reloading room since I was 3 years old, late 60's
He had a couple Mecs and a Herters model 3 and loaded the 20, 12, and 10 gauge shot shells. In metallic he reloaded 280 Rem. 30-06' and the 30 carbine back then.
I also read a lot of manuals, along with books pertaining to reloading.

[Hickok]

Old Speer manual, RCBS Junior press, Sierra bullets in green cardboard box, IMR 3031, and a German 98 Mauser 8mm, ordered from Sears and Roebuck, my first rifle!

The 98 action was "Danzig 1918", (if memory serves me right) and now has a .338 magnum barrel on it, put on by my dad, when he had a gun-shop.

[2TM101]

Mom and dad bought me a Lee loader for Christmas 1963. No Books, No magazines , No internet.

I bought me a lee loader in 1977. I still have it. In 1981 I took up shotshell reloading as Mather AFB had an active skeet and trap club. Then 30 years later I found the lee loader again. Took up loading again when California decided to make me get ammo through an FFL, but we just got that thrown out.

[Murphy]

Sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I was an avid reader of Guns & Ammo and Shooting Times. Between various articles my curiosity got the best of me about this thing called reloading. About that time I owned a Remington 788 in 22-250 caliber and a Dan Wesson 6" Model 15. I enjoyed shooting (a lot) but the cost of ammunition was another story. Living in a very rural area, luckily there were two different places in the county that sold reloading goods. Like many before me, I started with the LEE CLASSIC LOADER for the 22-250. After rounding up what I figured would be as good a hammer as any made of plastic, a short stump about 10" tall, I sat down cross legged in the living room floor and went to work. All I had to go on, was a few articles with loads and the info in the Lee kit. Paraffin wax was my lube of choice for resizing. After assembling the first round I was out the door to see if it would even go bang, yep...it worked! Several months later, a running buddy of mine had a brother who thought he wanted to reload and had bought a full set up of RCBS gear, but gave it up and sold me his RockChucker and 10-10 scales at a very cheap price. I had no idea at the time just how high end those two items were, and still are in my book.

Of course reading all the time about how Skeeter Skelton favored this bullet called the Lyman #358156, it was my next step down the rabbit hole. I couldn't find a place to buy/mail order any of them and just had to have them. After 40 years, I figure to start saving by all this reloading 'stuff' any day now.

To sum it up, I learned by reading and doing. No mentor, no internet. Did I mention I get sticker shock when I buy factory ammunition in any caliber?

Murphy