How many have mentored a prospective reloader that actually took up the hobby?

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kalielkslayer

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Everytime there is a ammo shortage, I get approached about reloading. Everytime I’ll spend the time to explain as much as possible, regardless if it’s at the grocery store, youth sporting event, dinner party.

It always includes an invite to the house to show the process and the offer of a reloading manual to borrow with me telling them to read the 1st 50 pages before they purchase anything.

I’ve only had 2 people take me up on that offer. Each time it was 2 hours. Prepped a few pieces of brass, loaded a few rounds on the Rockchucker. Then let them run a few rounds on the Dillion. Then go outside and shoot a few off. Then explain the differences of loading for rifle. One walked away with a manual, the other lost interest before he left.

The guy that took the manual, returned it a couple months later. Then told me he had finally found factory and the initial cost of reloading wasn’t worth it to him.

I’m curious how many of you have mentored someone in the hobby of reloading successfully?

PS: I wish I had a mentor when I started.
 
I was a successful victim to brief mentoring. I was dead set on factory ammo until I actually loaded ammo on a Dillon 450. But my motivation was to make ammo better than factory for match shooting. And I took the NRA metallic reloading course before getting started myself.
 
I had a few friends who got into it at the same time I started, so I wasn't mentored myself very much, but three of the guys I've shown are at minimum dabbling with it, and making hunting ammo. I've loaned out a couple reloading manuals with the "read the front half" instructions. Got a few more that will take it up this year. I enjoy teaching and watching the light bulb come on when they fire their first loads.
 
My start in reloading was decades ago. When in my early teens, I was a high volume shotgun shooter, and was stunned when my dad came home one day with a Texan reloader. Said if I was going to be shooting that much, he couldn't afford to buy that many shells, and I needed to learn to reload. Said we would both learn together. Him to know enough about it to make sure I was doing it right. Worked out well. He then briefly tried to reload for a rifle, but that didn't go so well, so he quit. Factory ammo wasn't that expensive and we didn't use much of that. Wasn't practical........or safe (the way he was doing it). That was pretty much the way it was left until the last few years.

With each passing ammo shortage, I'd get concerned, but not that concerned. Two years ago, finally hit the trip wire and expanded repertoire to include rifles. Motivation was the belief that without the ability to make one's own ammo, would be no ammo. With background in shotguns, it was an easy transition. As much as anything, it's mental. Overcome the fear that you will do something wrong. To me, the expense of equipment and components not that much of an issue. I'm not a bean counter on a strict cut line of financial justification.

If things continue the way they have been going, will be gobs and bunches of guys ready to follow suit, but with no luck. No components, no equipment, no nothing. I figure I got in under the wire. Hopefully I will be proven wrong.
 
kalielkslayer said:
I’m curious how many of you have mentored someone in the hobby of reloading successfully?
Click to expand...
I've "mentored" several (probably a half-dozen or so) people in handloading over the years. The only person I know of that actually took up handloading for himself after I mentored him though is our grandson, and we have 4 of them! ;)
 
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Howa 9700 said:
My start in reloading was decades ago. When in my early teens, I was a high volume shotgun shooter, and was stunned when my dad came home one day with a Texan reloader. Said if I was going to be shooting that much, he couldn't afford to buy that many shells, and I needed to learn to reload. Said we would both learn together. Him to know enough about it to make sure I was doing it right. Worked out well. He then briefly tried to reload for a rifle, but that didn't go so well, so he quit. Factory ammo wasn't that expensive and we didn't use much of that. Wasn't practical........or safe (the way he was doing it). That was pretty much the way it was left until the last few years.

With each passing ammo shortage, I'd get concerned, but not that concerned. Two years ago, finally hit the trip wire and expanded repertoire to include rifles. Motivation was the belief that without the ability to make one's own ammo, would be no ammo. With background in shotguns, it was an easy transition. As much as anything, it's mental. Overcome the fear that you will do something wrong. To me, the expense of equipment and components not that much of an issue. I'm not a bean counter on a strict cut line of financial justification.

If things continue the way they have been going, will be gobs and bunches of guys ready to follow suit, but with no luck. No components, no equipment, no nothing. I figure I got in under the wire. Hopefully I will be proven wrong.
Click to expand...

I started the same way. Shotgun on a MEC 600 Jr at about 16. My Dad had reloaded shotgun before I was born so he got me started with the new MEC. 14 years later I started doing rifle. At the very beginning of the pandemic I got into handgun ammo.

I’m shooting skeet now and the savings is real, even with shot being $40 a bag.
 
__steve__ said:
The other way around, as a new reloader (2 years) I have been mentored many times by mentors who weren’t even aware of mentoring me. Of course using published load information as parameters, I have learned much, and have had success from advice and feedback I have received here and a few other places. Thanks
Click to expand...
I’ve learned a ton on THR as well. Sometimes I don’t even understand the terminology.

But I was referring to hands on mentoring.

Manuals, online tools like load data.com are priceless. I wish the online tools were available when I started shogun and rifle.
 
Im not very social so no one has ever asked. But i was mentored by my grandpa starting about the age of 12. He loved spending the time with me and i loved making ammunition. That was the coolest thing back at that age. We kept at it, he gave me the supplies to get started, and my first two deer were taken with my own hand loads.

We would shoot together, fondle his collection, and do some loading or brass prep. He had health issues, and one day he started sending guns home with me by the armful. Then he died one day when i was a couple months shy of 16, in a freak accident. By then i had amassed half of his collection in my own safe. We split the remaining guns 3 ways and i got all of the reloading equipment. Then the shop i had my reloading stuff set up in burned to the ground, taking all of the handwritten notes and such with it.

But ive got the memories and the skills thanks to him. I consider myself lucky. Here he is with my grandma and their dachshund.

20221209_093129.jpg
 
From perspective of a guy who started back when, and compare that to now, the Internet (and websites like THR) now serve as the mentor. My old Lyman and now the 50th, while covering the basics, are in my mind remarkably short when it comes to anything valuable past the basics. They repeat the same thing 3 times, but leave out a lot of the good stuff. But between the forums and youtube, a guy can learn a lot. Some of it might even be true.
 
55 or so years ago ( 12-13 yr young) I taught my self to load shotgun shells on a Lee Wack-A-Mole in 20 ga. My dad then bought a Mec 600 to load for his 12 ga. When I got into handgun and rifle I bought my first press RCBS Jr. Used it for 30 yrs and passed it on to a neighbor I taught to load 44 spl and 38's with. I've taught/tutor several over the years with the most resent being 2 near by neighbors. One asked how much I would charge to tech him, I said zero. Which surprised him, I told him its to keep the knowledge going forward. He was into the long range hunting with mag calibers, > 400 yrds. To my knowledge they are both still hand loading. Though 1 that moved has limited time with his growing family. There are a few others around that handload and come to me when there having problems. My nephew asked about it but that was it.
 
In the 1960's the owner of our local gun shop helped me get started and was available for questions I couldn't answer and gave much advice ... but he was selling me reloading equipment and supplies .
In the 1970's 1980's and 1990's ... I offered to teach several people how to reload ...
Not one person ever took me up on my offer . I bought a reloading set-up for my son thinking he would like to reload 9mm for the Beretta 92 FS he owned ... I asked " Do you want me to show you how to reload 9mm ?" ... and his reply ... "Why would I want to do That ... I can buy all the ammo I want at the store ! " ... So I just kept the tools and dies and and my mouth shut and later my Dad gave me his old WWII Walther P-38 ... and I had my own reason to load 9mm's .
I would be glad to teach anyone , 50+ years experience that I would love to share ...
... but nobody seems interested .
Gary
 
The man that took his personal time
decades ago to show me left me with
the obligation to show others who were
interested for the same price I had paid
which was free
I've showed maybe a dozen or so over
the years, and most kept at it and progressed at it. The last 2 I showed
were much younger, and kind of almost
resentful that I knew what I was doing
and they didn't. The last one was a
coworker and afterwards all he ever
did was tell me how wrong I was about
this and that because so-and-so on
whatever web site said that I did everything
the old geezer way and that loading
manuals were just lawyer books, and
so on blah blah blah yak yak.
I finally just asked him to return the
manuals I'd loaned and to do whatever
you want to whatever way you want to
do it. I was only trying to help you out.

I don't know if he ever blew up a gun
or not.
Only one other person has asked since
that time, but the diseases hit about
the time he expressed interest and
tools and components got scarce and
expensive. I told him I'd still help out
if things got back to "normal " before
TEOTWAWKI
 
I guess I can claim 2.

I don't know if it was mentoring. It was more like sucked in.

We hunt and shoot together. Once I went down the rabbit hole, they were very interested in participating etc.

We all have our own setups, but we share some items and have joined forces ($$$) on some things.

I bought an AMP and they bought all of the Collets.
16 Collets so far, with some doing double duties.
 
I should say that I don't know how
anybody today starting from zero
with new tools could ever amortize
their expense of getting set up unless
they're loading in the thousands yearly
until they're too old to load and shoot.
Components are way way higher and
many times more scarce than when I
started loading.
 
kalielkslayer said:
I’m curious how many of you have mentored someone in the hobby of reloading successfully?
Click to expand...
I find it mildly amusing how many folks have read the OP and have misunderstood it enough to count folks as "mentored" who didn't continue in the hobby. Introducing someone to reloading isn't mentoring. Mentoring, in reloading, is teaching someone how it's done and guiding them successfully into the hobby to the point that they are ready to mentor someone else.

I also didn't realize it was as rare as it seems.

I have three fellow shouters who I've taken from "interested" to, loading on my equipment, to buying their own equipment, to eventually experimenting on their own with different powders and bullets. I started them all out on my Hornady LNL AP
1. Started and stayed with a Hornday LNL AP. But he added a case feeder and a Mr Bulletfeeder
2. Started with a Hornady LNL AP, quickly added a case feeder and Mr Bullet Feeder, moved to a Dillon 1050, and added a Mark 7 Autodrive
3. Started with a Dillon 750, added the casefeeder and Mr Bulletfeeder. Once he got comfortable, he moved up to the Mark 7 Apex.

I knew I'd become a "mentor" when folks would not only contact me with questions, but would refer folks to me when those folks were having issues
 
9mmepiphany said:
I find it mildly amusing how many folks have read the OP and have misunderstood it enough to count folks as "mentored" who didn't continue in the hobby. Introducing someone to reloading isn't mentoring. Mentoring, in reloading, is teaching someone how it's done and guiding them successfully into the hobby to the point that they are ready to mentor someone else.

I also didn't realize it was as rare as it seems.

I have three fellow shouters who I've taken from "interested" to, loading on my equipment, to buying their own equipment, to eventually experimenting on their own with different powders and bullets. I started them all out on my Hornady LNL AP
1. Started and stayed with a Hornday LNL AP. But he added a case feeder and a Mr Bulletfeeder
2. Started with a Hornady LNL AP, quickly added a case feeder and Mr Bullet Feeder, moved to a Dillon 1050, and added a Mark 7 Autodrive
3. Started with a Dillon 750, added the casefeeder and Mr Bulletfeeder. Once he got comfortable, he moved up to the Mark 7 Apex.

I knew I'd become a "mentor" when folks would not only contact me with questions, but would refer folks to me when those folks were having issues
Click to expand...
That is what I was talking about. I actually thought I may have done something wrong on the 2 guys I had to the house to show the process. I’m pretty articulate so I’m sure my explanations were easy to understand. I was patient with questions so I don’t think it was that.

But I also don’t BS when talking about someone else’s investment. I told them exactly what the cost was, and the future costs if they upgraded. I even offered a RCBS 5/10 scale and a RCBS Uniflow to get them started.

In the end it was probably the initial cost. Guess they didn’t feel it was as important to have ammo when you want it instead of when the store has it.

I’m not mad, just curious.
 
Ranger99 said:
I should say that I don't know how
anybody today starting from zero
with new tools could ever amortize
their expense of getting set up unless
they're loading in the thousands yearly
until they're too old to load and shoot.
Components are way way higher and
many times more scarce than when I
started loading.
Click to expand...
You may be right. I started shotgun reloading because it was cheaper.

But with rifle, cost was never the issue. If a $.50 bullet was more accurate than a $.25 bullet, I loaded the most accurate bullet. I like penetration so I spent a lot of money on Nosler Partitions, Barnes X Bullets and now Nosler Accubonds. Cost is for the bullet I want/need, not to save money.

But last week I was in the local Sportsman’s. I couldn’t believe a box of 20, .280s cost $60 dollars!

Even at top dollar for every component, I can save money and be more accurate.
 
kalielkslayer said:
That is what I was talking about. I actually thought I may have done something wrong on the 2 guys I had to the house to show the process. I’m pretty articulate so I’m sure my explanations were easy to understand. I was patient with questions so I don’t think it was that.
I’m not mad, just curious.
Click to expand...
I don't know what kind of shooting they were into but my guys were all handgun shooters who were likely to go through a lot of rounds each month. It wasn't so much the cost of ammo, obviously they'd been shooting factory, but the ability to access large amounts of ammo tuned to their guns.

The first thing you need to determine is what they want to accomplish. Then you have to determine what they need to accomplish that goal.

If I had started my guys out on a single stage press...as is the common recommendation with a new reloaders...they likely would have lost interest pretty quickly. It isn't able what you think they need to do, but what they want to do. You're job is to use your experience to help them reach their goal most efficiently
 
Ranger99 said:
I should say that I don't know how
anybody today starting from zero
with new tools could ever amortize
their expense of getting set up unless
they're loading in the thousands yearly
until they're too old to load and shoot.
Components are way way higher and
many times more scarce than when I
started loading.
Click to expand...
Obviously that isn't a factor for folks getting into reloading today.

I'm not sure I know anyone who isn't loading at least 10k rounds a year. For those who take shooting seriously, they are easily loading double that. 25k is just over 2k/month...that is why motordrives go up to 3500 rounds per hour. Might be one of the reasons that RMR offers increasing discounts on 124gr MW going toward 12k and 21k
 
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