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View Poll Results: How did you learn?

Voters
318. You may not vote on this poll
  • Read books or manuals

    205 64.47%
  • Watched videos online.

    9 2.83%
  • I had a mentor.

    70 22.01%
  • Other (please tell us below).

    34 10.69%
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Results 181 to 193 of 193

Thread: How did you learn to reload?

  1. #181
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Denver
    Posts
    7

    I voted Mentor

    Summer of '72 I bought a Blackhawk .357, and then a Win M64A. Had a co-worker who loaded, and he first taught me and worked me through running the Ruger. That fall, I used his Herter's catalog to order a U3 press, Model 5 scale and dies for 38/357 and 30-30. I got set up for both of those cartridges for $53. I got powder and primers at the Gibson's store in Boulder and at Woolworth's sporting goods dept. I pieced together a huge loading bench from scrap lumber where I worked and went from there. I've built several loading benches, for myself and others, usually out of solid doors and various timbers.
    Fast forward 50 yrs and I run two single stage presses at home and one at the home ranch still in the family.
    I bought a Dillon press about 2000 or so, but never set it up and sold it in a fit of broke.
    I started into casting about 2010 or so, rounded up about 500 lb of wheel weights and got some high Sb lead from an employer. Made a few bullets a few yrs ago, but project sat till this fall. I got excited to take it up again and we'll see where it goes.
    -West out

  2. #182
    Boolit Master trapper9260's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Iowa
    Posts
    3,402
    I started to learn how to reload , was when I was a teen and my dad was looking to save money for ammo . He started on shotgun loading and I learn with him on it and just done that and then later on in life I took up doing centerfire. The shotgun loader my dad had got to start was the Lee hand loader . Then later the Lee Load all .
    Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA

  3. #183
    Boolit Master Stick_man's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT
    Posts
    543
    I started "helping" my dad when I was about 10. Started out with a Baer progressive press for 20ga and 12ga and then started into metallics. I didn't know it then, but he was just learning as well but needed to load for the 44 mag Contender he had purchased (I hated that thing because of the grip), and was repurposing some old .308 brass for his .22-250. We pretty quickly got into loading for his .25-06 and for the newly acquired .38/.357 barrel for the Contender. Started casting on my own around 2010 but had been shooting commercially cast .38s for a long time prior.
    "We the people are the rightful masters of both
    Congress & the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution,
    but overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

    Abraham Lincoln

  4. #184
    Boolit Master
    TheGrimReaper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Fayetteville,TN
    Posts
    909
    Taught myself. Read Lyman reloading manual a couple of times. Then started

  5. #185
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Location
    NJ
    Posts
    338
    I picked up tips on forums like this some but very little from manuals. Any body can load a round of ammunition with direction, but to want precision and accuracy is something you have to want to be a hand loader. Straight and consistent loading is key.

  6. #186
    Boolit Buddy
    BP Dave's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Pacific NW
    Posts
    118
    My dad was a reloader and a bullet caster. After he went missing in Viet Nam, when his reloading stuff came out of storage, my brothers and I hid it so my mom couldn't get rid of it (I think she "moved on" the day he shipped out, but that is a different story). Brother passed it to brother until I ended up with it while stationed at Schofield Barracks. I learned to reload from reading through his old Lyman "Handbook of Cast Bullets" and Gun Digest 20th Edition, and fiddling around with his dies, molds, Lyman 45 sizer, and Herters turret press. Sometimes I get a little sad that we never got to shoot together as adults. From the few index cards and notes I found, he was a high velocity guy, and I think he would have been amused by the "pumpkin throwers" I ended up getting into.

  7. #187
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Feb 2024
    Location
    Fair Play, SC
    Posts
    7
    My high school shop teacher...in shop class! We loaded ammo after class for extra credit. Even did some bullet casting, dipping out of pot into a gang mold. Mostly 38 wadcutters and 45's.
    And no one wore safety glasses either.
    The principle was a bullseye shooter, so he got his cut.
    Not long after I got my 1st rifle - a Chilean 7x57mm Mauser. It came with a lee hand loader and an odd assortment of brass & bullets. My shop teacher gave me some machine gun pull down powder and primers...and off I went. That's when the real madness truly began.

  8. #188
    Boolit Grand Master GhostHawk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Fargo ND
    Posts
    7,075
    I was lucky. I ordered a new Rem 788 in .243win, and got talking to the owner of the shop. He was a big burly guy who had built grain elevators in his youth, had taken a bad fall, broke his back and pelvis badly. Doctors told him he'd never walk again. Well he was a mite stubborn about that. Moved back home with his mother to help care for him. 3 years later he was walking with the aid of a cane. 1/4 mile down the dirt driveway to the mailbox and back.

    He had a specialty shoe shop that did custom work, he'd gone to school to learn how to make special shoes for those who needed him. On the other side was guns, ammo, fishing gear and tackle.

    He told me he had been working up a load for .243win that he was having troubles with. Seems one in 8 to 10 bullets downrange were disappearing. Not making it to target. Eventually he figured out that the load was a smidge too hot, jacketed bullets were heating up and blowing up mid range. He solved it by building a frame big enough to hold a whole sheet of newspaper. And a second one some distance behind it. Put them up instead of a regular target. 3rd shot he had 3 holes in the first paper, but the second one looked like it had been hit with a shotgun.

    So he backed the powder from 31 grains of IMR 3031 down to 30 grains and the problem went away.
    He was using speer boat tailed hollow points. Eventually after shooting factory ammo I stopped by one day and we loaded 50. Him teaching me all the way through the whole process.

    Those loads would reach out a dust a crow to 300 or even 400 yards if the wind was light. Typically I'd find a flock of crows, put them up. They would fly into nearest trees, I'd bust one easy one at 60 to 120 yards. They would fly out into a bare field, sitting a LONG ways out there. And I'd bust another one.

    After a while they did not want to play anymore. I miss ya Bob Platt of Ada Mn. RIP
    I truly believe we need to get back to basics.

    Get right with the Lord.
    Get back to the land.
    Get back to thinking like our forefathers thought.


    May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
    and give you His peace. Let all of the earth – all of His creation – worship and praise His name! Make His
    praise glorious!

  9. #189
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Green Valley
    Posts
    735
    Been reading back through this, we are all the same and very different.
    But please allow a knitpicking correction:
    I am "learning" to reload. Never done: Aorist. That's true of a lot of talents.
    I only reload one caliber and it is a bottomless study. 180 to 320 grain? My rifle likes 320, go figure.
    So I settled on Keith boolits, the Ruger loves them. 2nd Amendment in Tucson sold me 4000, I haven't a lot left. In my quest I picked up a thousand? more? J-words of different sizes and shapes and drat if they are worth a primer. The SRH scatters them.
    Keith boolits hit a 100 yard gong if I do my part, and I learned why here. Thank you.

  10. #190
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Feb 2020
    Location
    utah
    Posts
    8
    My journey started in 1979 when I bought my first box of Sierra .270 150gr BTSP's in Las Vegas Nev. While stationed at Nellis A.F.B. shortly after got orders to Mt.Home AFB in 1980 and that is where I got My first press, a bonanza model 68(still have it and use it) then in 1985 had to go to Japan for 4 years so I had to take a break. In 1989 I came to Hill AFB and that is where i stayed and retired twice. I bought a Lyman turret in 1990 and used it for a while then sold it to a friend and went blue after that and bought a dillon RL550 and loved it and then last year I bought a lee 6 pack pro and use it for mostly pistols and still use the dillon for my rifle stuff. The bonanza is still used mostly for de priming and case trimming. I have been contemplating teaching my grandson how to reload if he is interested hopefully that will pan out. Sadly I think reloading is becoming a dying Hobbie because of the greediness of the businesses and the politicians pushing their agenda's which is purposely causing the prices to become too expensive for the normal person to afford to be able to pursue this hobbie.
    Last edited by chuckt56; 02-21-2024 at 04:05 PM.

  11. #191
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Posts
    202
    When I was merely a young pup, my Grandpaw would let me do the brass prep. I learned how to read a set of dial calipers at the age of 7 and he would let me trim, debur, camfor, and clean the primer pockets of his brass. I would do this until I was 16.

    At that point my Dad gave me his old Lee single stage and showed me how he loaded his 30-30. Well, come to find out he was very unsafe in how he loaded it. LOL His load was to use a Lee powder scoop and heap up as much IMR 3031 as he could fit and cram it in the case. Zero case prep, and he only neck side without lube. Somehow I survived my first real venture into reloading without destroying anything but the press.

    A few years later my Grandpaw felt that I was ready to reload myself and taught me the correct way to do things. Since then I've only had 1 squib and a few stuck cases, in dies. I did somehow split a barrel of an old .44 marlin. I'm still not sure how that happened. The previous round did fire and leave the barrel, confirmed with a chronograph reading at 10 yards. I have 2 hypothesis though. The first is that I had severe leading around the barrel stamp, the other is that the gas check came off and somehow stayed in the barrel. Either one causing a partial barrel obstruction and kaboom. Fortunately for my health, the barrel bulged and slightly split right where the stap is.

  12. #192
    Boolit Master slim1836's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Burleson, TX
    Posts
    2,120
    A man I worked with reloaded. He reloaded a few for me and I decided to strike out on my own after seeing his reloads did not meet my expectations. I learned by books and trial and error. Then I found out about casting my own and was hooked. I enjoyed shooting for less as I've always been a poor man financially and it became my main hobby. There is no way I will ever get to the level of skill others possess, but what I have learned on this forum has enabled me to learn so much more on this hobby.

    A special thanks to all (and there are many) on this forum who have personally helped me throughout the years with their contributions and knowledge. This place is second to none.

    Slim
    JUST GOTTA LOVE THIS JOINT.

  13. #193
    On water northern Mn . 1903.colt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2022
    Location
    Backus Minnesota
    Posts
    36
    I was 18 1976 I wanted to save money - I learned on my own - still learning - still waiting to save money .
    03hummerh2 is a backslider caution Will Robinson

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check