Letting Young Kids Help Reload?

I waited a little longer, 9 for the older one and 6 for the younger one. I started loading at 9 myself, shotgun first, then rifle at 14, pistol at 15.
I'd keep the powder and primers under lock and key, but I see nothing wrong with him helping you as pictured. My only concern would be him talking about it outside of the home. I had a serious discussion with my boys about that aspect of it, and owning guns in general.

Personally, I think it's because we don't allow our kids to do activities such as this are we faced with a far greater danger to our kids. Figure out a way to keep him at a safe distance and let him continue to carry on spending time with his "Da-eee," he has a father that cares about him and time together is time well spent.

Seems like you could just get a bunch loaded and set a tray with finished rounds at a "work station" for him.

I'm more concerned with myself getting distracted by my kids, especially during powder charging, I would say to avoid them being in there for charging cases if on a single stage. My progressive has a powder cop which works great, but distractions have to be considered.

Good looking son you have there, mines a few years older than that now.

I would say NO!. You have to pay attention to what you are doing, not him. Not worth a empty case or worse a double charge. Mixed primers or powder? I'd keep him away from all your reloading stuff at that age. I didn't let mine help until 5 or 6 when they had more comprehension of whats going on. That was on a single stage press, one round at a time.

I disagree Scooter. If the young one is showing an interest in what Dad is doing find something that he can do as Bassjam did. Something simple.

I raised 5 kids. Four boys and one girl. I started them as soon as they could talk and understand simple directions (about 2 years old). Each one by age 6 were trained to shoot SAFELY. They were trained on a Colt second generation Woodsman (which I still have). The oldest is now 50 years old.

I started helping my dad at age ten and was loading my own ammo at eleven. Dad didn't reload until then but he saw that having a boy that liked to shoot used a lot of ammo. Not being a rich man,he saw reloading as a solution. I think it would be okay to let him help,depending on the child. Some young minds are more organized than others. Education is rarely a bad thing,just start slowly and bring him along as he learns. Doing things with dad is a good thing as long as dad is being careful.

I think it's probably a bit too young even if his activity is compartmentalized to sorting.

He won't see a gigantic disconnect between that and activities involving powder and primers - yet.

I guess my threshold would be the point at which understanding the items accompanies the activity.

My rule here would be: "A little bit of knowledge..."

Todd.

Be sure he washes his hands with soap if he touches lead, primers, powder, or powder residue.

I'm keeping mine away from the reloading stuff will keep he's still in the putting things in his mouth phase. He sits on a chair with some of "his" tools while I work.
I remember sliding the charge bar on a Lee load all when I was little. I also remember getting the hardest spanking of my life for going in the gun room when I was little. By the time I was 9 or so, I was allowed to load shotgun shells.

I think kids have a greater understanding of things, specially if they're interested, than we give them credit for. Of course it's up to the parents to recognize that in their children and act accordingly. Regarding this situation if the child needs to wear protective glasses then perhaps he should also have hearing protection.

I don’t think there’s a wrong answer so long as you’re safe.

For me, I’m more selfish than not with my “me” time while still making time to ensure my son learns stuff. Sometimes he comes along for dude stuff. Most times not.

Same with my wife.

For me, nothing ruins a glass or two of Macallan 18 while I’m assembling an AR or fiddling with fully disassembled Glock like a wife or child asking “what’s that?” every 10 seconds.

Hi...
My son wanted to help me with reloading when he was about 5 years old. He would pull the handle on my RockChucker for resizing .45ACP brass. He quickly lost interest.
At about 10 years old, I showed him the whole reloading procedure along with some pointed comments about safety. He watched for a while and said he thought it was too complicated for him.

About the time he turned 21, we purchased a Hornady LnL to reload for his semi auto pistols. He again quickly lost interest, mostly because he knew that I would reload ammuntion for him.
About two years ago, he borrowed a couple of my reloading manuals to read and after a bit of studying he started reloading. We worked together setting up the LnL for .45ACP and within a few days he was cranking out copious amounts of ammuntion without assistance. He then set up dies for 10mm and started reloading that cartridge.
I had purchased a second LnL at an auction and he set it up for small primer and started reloading 9mm and .357Mag.
Then he set up my RockChucker Supreme on another bench and started reloading rifle ammuntion in several different calibers. He does ladder tests with different powders and is constantly expanding the calibers, powders and bullet that he reloads.

He currently reloads all of our rifle ammuntion and all of our 9mm, 10mm, .45ACP and .357Mag general purpose/target/plinking ammunition as well as all of the .375SuperMag cartridges.

After the holidays, we will be transitioning all of our big bore revolver reloading over to my Dillon 550 and he will be doing all of that going forward.

I will then be doing only reloading for test rounds and low volume reloading for cartridges like .38Spl, .45AutoRim and possibly .44Spl although most of that will be done on the Dillon.

He really enjoys the process of reloading and working with the tools and developing different loads. That will only increase after the holidays because one of his Christmas gifts will be a chronograph that he has been talking about wanting for a couple of months.

bassjam said:

This one's going to be challenging like that. When he was 8 months old he was following me around the house when I was installing blinds trying to get to my drill. At 18 months he had figured out things like the TV remote that our 4 year old daughter still doesn't fully understand. For now child locks on the garage door and door to my gun area is enough, but eventually I'll need to step things up a little more.

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Learning quickly is good. One of mine is 19 months and figured out doors that open part way have something stopping it. So he starts feeling around for the child lock.
I live by if I'm not teaching my kids, someone else is. I want to monitor what they learn until they are old enough to understand things.

Scooter22 said:

I would say NO!. You have to pay attention to what you are doing, not him. Not worth a empty case or worse a double charge. Mixed primers or powder? I'd keep him away from all your reloading stuff at that age. I didn't let mine help until 5 or 6 when they had more comprehension of whats going on. That was on a single stage press, one round at a time.

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I say YES! You

How else will they learn?

Slow down.

Measure each throw.

Seat bullet immediately after charging.

By age 12 or 13 he should be able to do it on his own . . . solo.

I let my granddaughters sort brass, and put the loaded rounds in boxes when they started showing interest. The oldest one now 12, is loading her own ammo. Make sure they wash their hands really well after handling any ammo.

Kids are prone to put their hands in their mouths so I would be very careful given the potential toxicity of the components.

The best way to avoid children having a accident with a firearm is to remove all of the mystery about them. The rule in my house is you can look and touch my guns anytime when you ask for permission. The rule for me is when they ask is to get my guns out and let them see and touch whatever one they want.

Over Thanksgiving I called my 5 year Granddaughter over and showed her a pistol I had. I let her touch and her attitude is “What’s the big deal? Mom and Dad have guns around the house.”

When my children were young I reloaded on a RCBS Rockchucker. My son sat in my lap and put them primers one at a time in the primer tool that was on the press. It worked out great. With his small fingers he easily put the primer in the cup holder.

O.P. You did good. By letting him participate you are removing some of the mystery about guns and ammunition.

BSA1 said:

The rule in my house is you can look and touch my guns anytime when you ask for permission. The rule for me is when they ask is to get my guns out and let them see and touch whatever one they want.

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When can I come over?

The same rule is in effect at my house. My boys - now ten and eleven - show very little interest in guns now that they realize the house is full of them and that they can be accessed at any time by request.

bassjam said:

My 22 month old is obsessed with anything an everything mechanical in the garage and my gun area bench. Yesterday I was reloading some 9mm, and after hearing him plead at the door "Da-eee, Da-eeee" I let him in. The sound of the finished rounds dropping into the bin of my Load Master caught his attention immediately, and he wanted to hold the fresh rounds as they came out. I decided to see how his helping skills were so I placed the reloading tray next to him and asked him to take the rounds out of the bin and place them in the tray, primer side up. He knew exactly what I asked and did exactly what I wanted, but as I was working the press I noticed the blast shield for the primers and realized he wasn't "protected" where he was sitting. Since there was only about 15 primers left by then I put some safety glasses on him and continued slowly, but it began to worry me.

My question, if you read all this, is everyone's thoughts on letting a toddler "help" like this? Safe? Unsafe? Downright dangerous? Suggestions? Obviously I think it's pretty cool to have my little buddy hang out and get engaged in my hobbies, but not if it's going to put him in serious danger.

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Obviously there is some slight risk, just as there would be taking him fishing or bike riding or just about any other recreational activity. You are to be commended for including him and I hope you keep it up.

My 6 yo grandson loves pulling the handle of my rcbs auto 4x4. Let him seat bullets after initial and charge. Have him pull the handle slowly until my fingers are clear from inserting bullets.

I don't have kids but I have cats.

Kids and pets are a distraction that COULD possibly lead to a problem. So I think your worry is valid. They also do not know not to put their hands in their mouth, or lick their hands. So chemicals are a concern.

Honestly I'd be ok with one of them watching when they are a little older, but anything a small child did in my reloading area would be very heavily monitored and I don't know that I'd ever be truly comfortable with it until they were capable of handling some complex ideas. Every kid is different though, so only you can gauge the safety of your setup and his maturity level.

BSA1 said:

The best way to avoid children having a accident with a firearm is to remove all of the mystery about them. The rule in my house is you can look and touch my guns anytime when you ask for permission. The rule for me is when they ask is to get my guns out and let them see and touch whatever one they want.

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.38 Special said:

The same rule is in effect at my house. My boys - now ten and eleven - show very little interest in guns once they realized the house was full of them and that they could be accessed any time by request.

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This is the same rule I grew up with and the same rules that I have in place for my children. There is no mystery around our house about guns, they have never been caught trying to access my guns, and have shown interest when I get them out. And when they ask to see any of them I come down to their level and show them.