How did you learn to reload?

[upr45]

mostly read about it, was back in 1985. No videos then or internet. Started when bought a bolt action 7mm mag. Figured it would be the only centerfire rifle i needed. Was i ever wrong!!! Planned on loading it down for deer. Several guys i worked with reloaded so was able to ask them when needed.

[375supermag]

Self taught...no mentor or friend to help or teach.
Just a few reloading manuals and directions from RCBS die sets.

[white eagle]

Bought a manual and read it and just started
it's an evolving craft never stop learning and improving
your teachers are the targets , cases , and rifles you use

[panhed65]

Back in 1971, just out of the Army, bought a Remington 788 in 6mm, at the same time, a rcbs jr press, scale and dies. dealer thru in a lyman manual, so with its help learned. being that young, was always after the speed, but soon learned to put accuracy first.
Barry

[beemer]

First thing I did after finishing high school in 1970 was getting a car and putting together a reloading outfit. I got started in '72 with the first victim being a 38 spcl and a 6mm Rem next. No one around here had a clue so it was a couple good manuals and have at it.

The first casting was round balls for a ML with 38 spcl shortly after in about '77. After getting into milsurps in early 90's I took up casting for rifles. What took me so long ? I'v been interested in a couple other things but this one will be here when the others are gone.

This hobby is really interesting, as simple as you want or as intensive as you want. It's a never ending search, the more you learn the more you realize how little you know.

This forum is a good place to be.

Dave

[ddeck22]

Books and manuals do a very good job for giving you the basics. I cam along after the internet, so videos are invaluable for setting up and troubleshooting a particular press or particular tools.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Books, manuals, started with a blue Pacific C-press, 1964(?), no internet, information limited - Lyman, Speer Manuals, instructions in press and die packages, a few books in library, got Lyman bullet casting 'kit' for Christmas - Lyman 45 Lubrisizer, Cast Iron melting pot, Lyman ladle, 31141 single cavity mold, .309 H&I sizing die and top punch. Still have all but the Pacific C-press, it cracked after a couple years,
Now I have way too much stuff but that's OK. The internet does help when setting up tuning various progressive presses, case processing but does make buying stuff/spending more money way too easy. No supervision, on my own, father was not a hunter or shooter, he did go along to buy stuff some stores would not sell to a 'kid', provide transportation to the stores that had gun and reloading stuff, just had that gun DNA. A lot of catalog mail order then, guns mailed through USPS. No FedEx, UPS only around the Great Lakes, they were in the HERTER's catalog, but did not go everywhere, no zip codes, no area codes, no 911, HOW DID WE SURVIVE!!

[Rapier]

Being a military family we moved a bit. In 61 we moved to NH where I met a fellow that was into old military and European center fire guns, cheap guns. He reloaded ammo and cast bullets to run his trap lines during the winter months. I was curious about the hows, so he offered to show me how he made cast bullets and how he came to use cast bullets for the cost savings, with accuracy. Trappers are a thrifty bunch. I had lawn mowing money in HS so started with a nut-cracker tool in 62, with dies, a hammer and a piece of 2x6 scrap. No manual or scales, just a Lyman dipper. I still have a nut-cracker tool, in my go bag.

[Tripplebeards]

A guy who let me go bear hunting using hounds around 99’. He basically showed me the wrong way now to do it. But for my interest and started in the craft. We loaded up some 300 RUM Nosler ballistic tips and 243 XLCs that could not hit a 4’ pice of cardboard at 100 yards because the spread was so bad. The 300 RUM did about 1.5 MOA. He wasn’t measuring every powder dump and we had huge inconsistencies. I went out and bought a RCBS master reloading kit a couple months later and digital scale. First ladder test with my loads with my 243 and 90 grain Nosler ballistic tips I shot all in one hole at one hundred yards like I missed the target with the the other two shots. At two hundred yards I shot a cloverleaf that was just under .3”. I was hooked after that. I did ALOT of reading before I started loading myself. If YouTube existed at the time I wasn’t aware of it as I didn’t use my first computer much at that time.

[Dusty Bannister]

In the late 60's I entered a career that required firearms proficiency. The duty issued revolver was a model 10 that appeared to have been in a dog fight and lost. Soon after I upgraded to a Smith mod 19. The agency issue practice ammo was 38 Spec wad cutters of questionable quality but did an excellent job of leading the barrel. A fellow officer offered to load some with JHP for a percentage of the reloaded ammo. Done deal. I have never seen such deformed HP noses in my life. Everyone was different but they poked holes in paper and did not lead. I got the Lee "whack a mole" and some cast bullets from Hodgdon that were slathered in the NRA 50/50 lube and actually had some success. Somewhere along the way, I added a Bonanza O frame press.

In the early to mid 70's I bought a couple of bullet molds from another co-worker and slid into the cast bullet abyss. Just the reloading and cast bullet manuals, and whatever gun magazines I could get my hands on at the time. It has been a wonderful hobby all these years, meeting great folks, and generally shooting more than I would have if not for the casting and reloading.

[lancem]

Wow, 50 years ago when I was 18 I bought my first rifle, M1 Carbine. Couldn't afford ammo but saved up for a Lee wack-a-mole and the rest is history.

[trebor44]

RCBS Jr. press and accessories, old Lyman #3 manual and it progressed from there. A never ending learning curve. Now, five presses (red, blue and green) later and options to cast, I think I am hooked. Incentive for reloading was the "economy" of reloading

[wddodge]

I'm going to call it a combination of all three. I read reloading manuals to start, a friend answered who knows how many questions and then the internet came along to show me all the tools that I didn't have.

Denny

[gwpercle]

1967 - Books and Loading Manuals - That was allthere was unless your Dad or Uncle reloaded .
I didn't know of but one other person who reloaded ... a kid in grade school , Fishy Hubbard , his Dad was on the BRPD shooting team and he reloaded their practice 38 special ... Fishy helped his dad cast wadcutters and would show up with a blister now and again and He gave me a cast boolit once ... Fishy's talk of casting and reloading in grade school planted the seed,
in high school I got $25 from my dad , a Lee Whack-A-Mole Classic loader and a Lee 1 cavity mould , read every book in our high school library and bought a few manuals and haven't stopped . Didn't have many persons to discuss this hobby with till 2011 when I found Cast Boolits and joined .
I am glad I learned before the invention of U-Tube "Experts" ... the first reloading video I watched the guy blew a S&W 38 DA Top Break because he didn't know the difference between "Black Powder" and powder that was the color black ... the can said Bullseye ...
but "expert" filled the case like loading black powder and blew it apart on the second round .
Amazingly he blamed the gun and ... U-tube will let you show wrong and dangerous acts just like it was safe and proper ... I don't want no part of U-Tube and it's reloading "Expert's" that blow up firearms .
Gary

[Electrod47]

Simple instructions that came with my first Lee Loader in 38/357 and purchased at the same time 1978 45th Edition Lyman Reloading Book.

Man, I wished I had a mentor, would have sped things up by several years. My in print mentor was Major Nonte. I miss that guy. Own and reread everything that old boy put paper and still enjoy it.

[super6]

Books was the way I learned, Got gifted a Holly Wood SR and needed a place to start, And bought every Manuel I could find! Every one of those used different powders, primes and brass! I have accumulated more than is humanly possible. And theirs that pesky pour your own thing, Thanks to CB! Shot gun was just as the same.

[country gent]

I started with a lee loader in 222 rem. an old bottle caper was added for the mallet. ( Dad got tired of the tapping).When I bought my first press dies and scale the owner / gunsmith of the shop took me in the shop we bolted the press down on a board and he showed me the process. I had both books and a mentor. This was in the mid 70s.

[rbuck351]

When I was 14,my dad took me to a drug store that had a gun section in the back corner. He went to the gun counter and told the counter guy he wanted a cheap loading set up for 12 ga. It was my birthday present and I end up with a Lee whack a mole, a lb of red dot, a box of primers (100) a box of alcan plastic over powder wads, a box of filler wads, a five lb sack of shot and a #3 (?) Speer loading manual. He didn't reload and never shot more than the one round from his 17 Enfield it took to get a deer or a second round for an elk.

So, I was on my own and learned to load from the manual. Next was a RCBS reloader special in 38 spl and then a Lyman mold and a ladle to save more money. Now twenty some presses,30 some die sets, a bucket of boolit molds and a life time supply of components, I am now ready to start saving money. I hope.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

There was a R. F. Wells reloading manual that came with a basement full of reloading equipment that I bought in the 90s, from an old timer with poor health. After I read that manual, I bought another manual Nick Harvey's practical reloading manual. After I read that, I found a older Lyman manual at a gunshow, I bought that and read it. Then I went about loading my first cartridge, 44 Mag. I sure wish I had the internets back then.

[Springfield]

When I was 15 I bought a Lee Loader for .303 British so I could shoot my Dad's Enfield. Didn't do anymore loading until I became a Deputy Sheriff and couldn't afford to buy as much 9mm practice ammo as I wanted so I bought an RCBS Rockchucker, and it took off from there. Never had any outside help, just read the instructions with the LEE and later some reloading books, as the internet didn't exist back then.