How did you learn to reload?

[popper]

Bought a Marlin 30/30 ( my first gun) and 15$ a box ammo just before I got retired. Decided to reload for it. Then 40sw. Then decided bullets were expensive so bought a Lee dripper and couple molds. Terrible hobby.

[gwpercle]

I had nobody to teach me and the internet didn’t exist so I bought one of the early Speer manuals and read it, then started buying equipment. That was more than 40 years ago.

One of my main "Instructor's" was the infamous 1972 edition of the Speer Reloading Manual Number 8 ... that year I bought a new 357 Ruger Blackhawk (my first handgun) and the brand new Loading Manual to go with it . At the time Speer was supposed to know what they were doing ... It has a great "How To" section in it and it taught me how to adjust 3 die pistol dies , well written well illustrated ... and ... I still use some loads from that Manual .
Gary

[DocSavage]

Lee Loader in 44 mag in the early70s from there RCBS rock chucker then a succession of Dillon presses starting with a 450.

[tchepone]

Self taught, began in 1964, reading books, magazines, experimentation. Made some errors along the way but still have my hands, fingers & eyes. It has been a long journey but most enjoyable. Somewhere I discovered that it can ( has) become a sickness. My wife and friends refer to my reloading area as my "sick room." I have never regretted my hobby. gjh

[1I-Jack]

Started loading 12 ga back around '86 on a brand new MEC. My instructions were from reading books, reloading manuals, and an occasional question answered by a friend who reloaded. He hooked me up with a Rockchucker and some other equipment being sold off by a divorcee ($100 for the lot) and I was off to the races reloading .357. There was a local auction house that held auctions every Wednesday night and I slowly accumulated more reloading equipment and a few casting items. Eventually casting was the next "step". Reading was my major learning tool accompanied by some trial and error.

Fast forward to a few years ago and I came across this site doing a web search. LOTS more reading! It's been very interesting learning from the members of this community. Learning what I was doing wrong, right, and all of the "better" ways to do some things. Keep up the good work guys. I don't post often, but I still read a lot.

[jd9770]

Started with shotgun in high school and slowly progressed from there to rifle, pistol and casting.
I learned by reading manuals and books.

[barrabruce]

Started out at 10 learning to load 12 gauge with a Stirling loader.
Got the neighbour to make a powder bush for it.

Which was the wrong size and after a lot of parental support in the form of abuse from crap shells and being told I was useless and stupid.
Blahhh blahh

Eventually relenting he got the right bush for the powder and I managed somehow to not blow anything up after all and made good shells.

Became number one golden child for a while


More seat of your pants, reloading data and the manufactures how to set up pictures etc.
No inner web or mentors.

[Kylongrifle32]

I got my first job at the age of 15 at a full service gas station a block from my house (1981). I was also cutting a lot of lawns in my neighborhood. A guy I worked with had a brother that was big into groundhog hunting and he hung around the station when not working or hunting. One day he came in and ask me if I was interested in buying a Remington 788 in 243 from a friend of his and start groundhog hunting with him. I asked dad if I could and he said it's your money do what you want.
Hanging out with Gary I soon learned that the reloading shops that he visited would sell a kid who put money on the counter reloading components but not ammo.
Started with the Lee whack a mole dies.

[DDriller]

My Dad was an avid trap shooter and reloaded all his shells. I learned from him when I was 8 and started reloading for him and our family banker with Dad's supervision. I got $.25 a box. Then I learned to reload .38 and .357 from casting the bullets to the finished rounds. Next was forming .243 from .308 and loading them. 60 years later loading for everything I shoot except .22LR

[Zingger]

I was among those that replied with a mentor- but really was just a kid with the go-fer duty. Chief of the deburring tool and trimmer. Years later with my own house I lucked out on a pre-loved RCBS complete set and gave it a go, been doing it ever since. On my own I would say I have only been loading for 12 years, and learning more every time I load. Thank you all for sharing your stories. My own daughters have been helping since they could walk nearly.

[gypsyman]

Talked with the owner of the LGS, went with his advice. 1974, Rock Chucker press, dies, components, Lyman book, and went to town.

[Duckiller]

My father, two uncles and a family friend bought a Herters press, powder dropper and other tools. Shared but most reloading was done in So. Mi. Some time during jr/ sr hi I was taught. Dad bought Herters shot gun press. Learned a bunch on it. Still have a couple of cans of bulk powder, no data. Its been a fun 65+ years.

[Shurshot2]

Bought a Lyman “kit”, thought that would be all I needed for reloading, it worked but the passion grew into much more. The book that came with the kit was very helpful.

[Jeremy McLean]

For me it was a combination of sitting at the dining room table with my dad loading shotgun shells and helping him sort the good shells from the bad ones his favorite hulls were Federal papers. Fast forward 30 years I picked up a Lee anniversary kit and started loading for bottle neck cartridges and haven't looked back.

[stripe]

These are al very interesting stories and great fun to read. As for me, I bought a Lee hand loader for 3006 when I was about 15 in 1965, some 180 grain Hornady soft points, a can of IMR 4064 and a supply of Remington larger rifle primers (9.5?). Read the instructions that came with the Lee loader and, with every thought of perhaps killing myself, went through the process. In my mind I kept repeating what I had read that Daniel Boon said "Make sure you are right, and then go ahead." Well - that's what I had read. To this day I still use IMR 4064 but now an RCBS turret press.

[ebb]

I watched a working partner shot his reloads and they were more accurate than my store bought, I bought a press from him and he gave me step by step instructions. His instructions never included lubing cases, so I stuck my first case. Put i all away for ten years then a friend from church and i shot together one day and the subject came up. I told him my story and he told me to come over to his house and try with him. We made some good ammo, so I set up my press and did what he showed me. He retired and moved to Tennessee but we still talk on the phone, ive been out to his new place several times and we shoot the whole time i am there.

[Texas by God]

My oldest brother, my sisters boyfriend at the time; and The Lyman manual circa 1972 all got me started. I’m still learning more and that’s a good thing. Before we bought an RCBS JR., I used Lee Loaders for 22-250 and .38 S&W.( my only guns besides a Nylon66 at age fourteen).
People say that it doesn’t save money but there’s no way I could have afforded to shoot hundreds of prairie dogs on farm pay if I had to pay $5 a box for ammo! Same with the Enfield .38 S&W- those shells cost as much as .357 Magnums back then.

[Good Cheer]

In the 70's with a $15 dollar second hand press, Lee molds, wheel weights, local beeswax.
The boolits were so hard they hardly needed lube.

[jimlj]

I started reloading before Al Gore created the internet or YouTube had videos on how to do anything you can think of.
I bought a used Speer reloading manual at a gun show. I spent the next several months studying the manual and buying new and used reloading tools. My first reloading "bench" was a 3/4" plywood shipping box I bolted a 2X6 along one side to stiffen the box enough it didn't fall apart when sizing brass. I still have the Speer manual and most of the tools, but my reloading bench has been replaced a few times with upgrades.

[dverna]

Very telling about our demographics