When did you start reloading ?

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Shotgun in the 1970s
My cousin and I used to hunt Nebraska ring necks in the morning, reload our empty hulls at the kitchen table with lunch, and go back out hunting in the afternoon.
Bought a single stage and started with .243 in the 1980s for awhile then all of a sudden I had a progressive and was loading several rifle and pistol.
 
Started reloading 12 gauge on a Pacific DL 155 in the mid 1970's, learned to load 38 special and 357 magnum shortly after learning to load shot shells. Took a break from about 1979 to 2014. Grandfather owned a gun shop from the 50's to the 80's. Now it is 12 and 20 gauge and 38, 357, 9mm, and 40 s&w. Still using single stage loaders, not a big volume shooter.
 
Back in the late '70s we bought a single-wide (12'X60') mobile home with a lighted, tip-out on the back bedroom that was just wide enough, as well as plumbed and wired for a clothes washer and dryer. After a couple of years, we moved out here into a real house because my wife got tired of going to the laundromat - there's room in our basement here for a loading bench AND a clothes washer and dryer.:D
I started with 357 Mag and 270 Winchester ammo. Nowadays I load for everything except rimfire. I never did get into loading shotgun shells either, but my wife and I both have a few guns that have never seen a round of factory ammo - unless of course someone tested them with factory ammo at the "factory" where they were built.;)
 
Must have been around '81 or '82, bought a Blackhawk in .357/9MM, it was hard to find .357 in the small town I lived in, bought a RockChucker, dies, powder and primers, and a Lee hot pot with a 4 gang mold for the old Kieth type .357 wad cutter. Made jillions of bullets, and since we lived in the country, my backyard was the range...I still have a few of those old rounds, the brass that I bought (probably Starline) is still sturdy, I do load for more different calibers, but that old Blackhawk served me well. I still use the 9mm cylinder as plunk check for my 9's....Automation for me was moving up to a Lee Classic Turret, but son and daughters gifted me a 550B about 7 years back, and now I only use the RockChucker for trimming brass (9x19 down to 9x18) for grandson's Makarov.
 
Summer of '69. I was shooting my 38 up in the hills and as I emptied the cylinder and the spent cases hit the ground I thought "I wonder if I can reuse these?". I knew no reloaders so I researched at the library, scanned through my American Rifleman and wound up buying a Lee Loader, one pound of Bullseye, 100 CCI SP primers and 250 generic 158 gr cast bullets. I used my own fired brass (a week later I scrounged some from the local police range). I already had a plastic mallet, and I was off and running...
 
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