How did you learn to handload?

[Charshooter]

How and who taught you the basics? For me, it was a few high-school buddies. Our fathers hunted but did not handload, but we were all in the same shop class and got together and started loading.

Now my wife had it quite different, she had her father teach her and her brothers all about handloading and he was quiet an early expert. Then she had Frank Barnes teach her advanced techniques, what a pedigree!

 

[Jim Watson]

Uh, I read the book. Books, plural.

 

[Hazzard]

For me it was a neighbor who was retired from the military and also a member of their rifle team. It only took one range session to convince me once I saw the difference in group size between factory ammo and handloads. He was a bit miffed when I outshot his Weatherby with my Savage after I worked up some loads of my own, though.

 

[Novus Collectus]

Neighbor had a Dillon and exposed me to the basics. I bought a Lee and read the book for the rest.

 

[armoredman]

A buddy showed me the basic stuff, and several manuals fleshed it out. Several people online also assisted with helpful advice.

 

[alucard0822]

I didn't have anyone around to teach me to reload. I bought a single stage press, a set of 44 mag dies and the lee reloading book. I read the book cover to cover, read about every "how to reload" post on a couple different boards, then started with a pound off blue dot and a box of xtp's and worked up my first load about 2 years ago. I am fairly mechanically inclined to start with and reloading itself is fairly self explanitory, I now have a decent setup with a pair of lee progressive presses and a rock chucker. I reload for 5 pistol and 4 rifle calibers, and reloading makes normally expensive rounds cheap, and can bring out the true potential in calibers that are fairly anemic in factory loadings. I have not "saved" any money reloading, but shoot more than twice as much, and have the confidence to try new and exciting calibers.

 

[scrat]

just like most other things i do in life. i learned on my own. no help. i did a boat load of reading. asked a lot of questions then started. crazy thing is it was only until around 4 months ago did i realize that people on the internet talk about loading. so here i am. after a long time of loading. even though i have been doing it for a while i feel as though im new compared to the amount of what other people are reloading.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I started in 1963 with a used Hollywood press that I bought from a college professor. I read the Speer manual and there was a shop a few miles from me that specialized in reloading. The owner was kind of a curmudgeon, but full of knowledge. You could take a coffee can and buy powder from his 50 pound drums. If you bought from him, he would give you tips, but the majority of my knowledge is self taught. He even had presses that he rented out by the hour set up on benches in his shop.

Now I've got three presses going all the time, and a whole library of loading manuals, along with a ton of other equipment. I load for 27 different calibers and shoot literally thousands of rounds a year. I cast a lot of bullets and have four Star lubrisizers, a Lyman, an RCBS and two Saeco lubrisizers.

At one time, when I was rangemaster for the Sheriff's Dept. I retired from, I loaded all the practice ammunition for a department of 600 sworn personnel. That was a lot of loading on an Ammo-Load press.

Fred

 

[LoneCoon]

My father showed me how to reload. I'm still learning though, as evidenced by the two screw ups I had this weekend.

 

[Art Eatman]

My uncle did the Tom Sawyer thing, sorta. Persuaded me that while I was loading for my '06, I could load for his '06 and his Varminter and my father's .243 and the Swift and the...

Hey, teenagers are easy!

, Art

 

[Walkalong]

Bought a Partner Press kit and went from there. Self taught until I got to Benchrest. I learned accuracy reloading for rifles from some of the big dogs in the game. They will teach anybody who loves the sport and will listen.

 

[agd1953]

I read reloading manual and more reloading manuals and then I found THR to fill in the blanks

 

[LHB1]

An old, retired gent from our gun club helped me start reloading in 1963 for .357 Mag and .45 ACP. I soon branched out into reloading rifle and shotgun ammo also and added .44 Mag pistol caliber. Have loaded and fired a lot of ammo in the last 44 years. Still going and enjoying both the reloading and the shooting.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[Batmaxwyo]

I got started out of nesesity and...

learned in Junior High School.

My dad bought a Remington 25-06 to take me hunting when I was 14. He let me have the rifle, but would not buy the ammo. Around that time in school there was a hobbies interest class week where us students could take class from cooking to guitar lesson, and yes a reloading class too. Our 8th grade science teacher taught the class in the science class room with about 14 school owned RCBS presses. That is how I started out with RCBS equipment. An RCBS Junior 2 Press that came with 25-06 dies, and a RCBS reloading kit with a Hornady manual, powder scale, powder thrower, lube, lube pad, de-burring tool, and loading block.

The store would not sell 14 year old ammo, but they would sell me powder, primers, bullets, cases and reloading gear. Bought all my RCBS equipment with my $30.00 month paper route money. I sometimes laugh when I see posts asking for justification to reload, and costs. I load up to 18 different calibers now on the same equipment. It is still as good and accurate as the day I bought it and has paid for its self many, many times over.

 

[Jacka L Ope]

By the book.

 

[Mtdew]

(in JR High) convinced my father that reloading would be cheaper and got him to buy the Lyman Shotshell Handbook and a MEC press..

 

[jrfoxx]

Father taught me shotshell reloading when I was around 12-13 (we shot a lot of skeet and trap for a few years together), then taught me handgun reloaing when I bought my first gun, Ruger blackhawk .357 mag, when I was 18.Unfortunately, that was 15+ years ago now, so I'm ALMOST starting over from scratch, but not quite, I remember the basics and general idea....

 

[Sistema1927]

I started out with an original Lee Loader for .45 ACP and followed the instructions in the enclosed leaflet. Sat at the kitchen table and hammered the cases into the die with a mallet. Did that for about 6 months, then decided to move up to an RCBS Rock Chucker and assorted other equipment that I bought used.

Sold all of that stuff while working on my Master's Degree, and then started all over with a Lee Anniversary set about 15 years ago. Now using a Lee Classic Turret Press.

Taught myself. Read plenty of manuals. I have made my fair share of mistakes over the years but none of them have caused injury or damage to any weapon. I feel that I now turn out ammo that is every bit as good as factory. My processes and procedures are refined and safety is paramount.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Loading manuals. I read a lot...

 

[georgetwalkerjr]

Tubbs and books

I watched David Tubbs/Sierra Advanced Handloading videos.....several times....to get the visual image of what it actually looked like. I also used books....reloading manuals largely, but the video helped me put pictures with the words in a helpful way. Also, a fair amount of "trial and error."

 

[GCW5]

I learned from a retired USAF Col. He was a stickler for detail, and weighed every charge, even for his .45 ACP. Real slow, real carfull. He had all Herter's equipment.

I have had the pleasure of teaching my 3 sons how, even though they let me do most of it myself, how to reload. One of there years, I'll show the grand kids too!

 

[Ben Shepherd]

My father taught me the basics.

 

[Quintin Likely]

I'm teaching (taught) myself, reading reloading manuals and experimenting.

 

[RustyFN]

Books and gun forums.

 

[SSN Vet]

like most other things in life....I read the instructions.

I credit Nuclear Prototype Training Unit Ballston Spa, NY or teaching me how to teach myself.

It's amazing what you, a cubicle, a study guide, 12 hours a day, a 24/7 tech. library, a thermos full of coffee and a well stocked gee-dunk machine can achieve.

Now making sense of it all....and figuring out what's really important and whats minutia.....that takes some helpfull shipmates (a Sea Dad or two, or three) like you'll find here.