Mentors in Reloading: Who Guided You?

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A friend and myself bought a Lyman C-press for 9 dollars. We bought a manual
or two and were really surprised at how easy it was to reload rifle cartridges.

Zeke
 
zb338 said:
A friend and myself bought a Lyman C-press for 9 dollars. We bought a manual
or two and were really surprised at how easy it was to reload rifle cartridges.

Zeke
Click to expand...

Compared to many hobbies, reloading is "easy". But few have as big a need for attention to detail.

I always chuckle when I see posts that make reloading seem like it's difficult and complex. IMHO it's not. But one needs to be aware of the dangers, have an understanding of what's going on, and understand safety procedures and how to be safe.
 
1965 bought a 20 gauge whack a mole. Got some mentoring from an older sisters father in law.
Through a series of adventures I became acquainted / friends with a former all Army Hi-Power Rifle shooter.
Any loading,case forming,bullet casting/swaging,shotgun recipe you can think of he helped me solve any problems.
He's passed on and his departure is sorely missed here!
 
My dad was a reloader. He tried to get me into it when I was a teenager, but I didn't care. Then we didn't get a long real well for a long time, and then when we did reconcile, he really wasn't shooting and loading any more.

And then he passed away in 2012. I inherited all his books, loading tools, notes and recipes, and oodles of components. I read and studied every piece of literature I could get my hands on, and finally got all the tools set up and carefully worked my way through it, and got my own process down pretty well.

So, though he tried to mentor me, I wasn't listening. And then when I was ready, he was gone.
but it's okay, I like to think he'd be proud of what I've made of it all. And he's on my mind every time I'm processing something, figuring out a new kink, streamlining a process, or whatever.
So, he's my mentor in spirit.
 
I got my first inspiration and some books from my Father in law. The ABCs of reloading.

Pretty cool, it gave us some common ground. Something to talk about. Now I get everything from the internet and occasionally a book.
 
I almost forgot about this. When I was young my two older brothers and my dad were in a trap league. They stopped before I was old enough to shoot but I used to sit with my oldest brother and help load trap loads on a progressive shotshell press in the shed for hours and really enjoyed being involved and spending rare time with him. Years later when I started shooting and it had been long put away I went and got it out of the box and loaded a dozen boxes or so by myself. Luckily the correct bushings and all that were still in it because I knew how to put shot and primers and wads in it but I had no idea about powder loads or anything. Could have been a dangerous situation really. My old man was pretty peeved when he came home and saw me using it. So I guess that was the first time I ever loaded anything.
 
I guess I'm self taught (self smart???).

Learned initially using a Ponsness Warren 375 loading 20GA & later 12GA shooting trap. Between the 375 instructions and a Dupont Re-loaders guide I got by. Later when I added centerfire I bought a basic RCBS Rockchucker kit and read the Speer #9 and an old ABCs of Reloading by Dean Grennell. Much later came a subscription to Handloader Magazine.

Chuck
 
My grandfather on my mothers side was the self sufficient type and reloaded 12 GA and a couple rifle cartridges/handgun ammo and cast lead bullets. He had the presses/dodads you would typically see in the Ideal loading manuals. I still have his old Belding & Mull manual and his Ideal manual from 1951. When I was around 8-9 years old in the mid 60's he had me helping him and teaching me how to do it all. That learning really helped through this last component shortage. We usually purchased powder in a brown paper sack at Duckworths (the local hardware store in Skowhegan ME). You could get either "rifle" or "shotgun" and only after some years later did they start to stock canister propellant. Each bag came from a different barrel so we had to work up the "mystery powder" loads each time. As you can imagine this helped when I could not get book load data to use up my old stock that did not list data for the caliber I needed. Got into high school/college and girls, fast cars, etc. were my focus so I did not load much for a few years. Finally got my own setup so I did not have to drive 3 hours back to see my grandfather and use his stuff to reload about 1978. Over time better jobs providing more money and could spent more for firearms/reloading till the present. Life is good these days.:thumbup: If not for reloading I would probably only have a rifle, handgun, and shotgun with a few boxes of ammo to hunt with them yearly. YMMV
 
No mentor, no internet, reloading books and the scientific method are all I had to help when I started.

Shortly after I got started, my Brother joined in and being older and smarter kept things moving along, splitting the cost on better equipment, etc.
 
I started with a Lee Loader in 1973. Eventually graduated to a RCBS Jr that I still use.

Didn't have anyone to show me. Like others I read several different manuals.
 
In 1990 I was 20. Just married & moved to Colorado, I had taken up shooting. The LGS owner, Brian Shanks, mentored me. Taught me first on a Rock Chucker he had setup in the back, then on a Dillon 550 for .223's. He told me what to buy to get started & continued thru the years to teach me the ways. He passed unfortunately around 2000/2001.
Shortly thereafter I took a hiatus from shooting & reloading, selling off most of my gear until about 10 years ago. I replaced it with better equipment as well as getting into casting and black powder. Not a reloading or casting session goes by where I don't think how grateful I am to have had such a great friend pass on his knowledge to me.
 
TheHighRoad mentored me!

I have my data books and online load data from hodgdon and others, but most of my knowledge came from here. for my more accurate rifle loading info I got a lot of info from snipershide as well, but I think you need to take their stuff with a little bit of caution, lots of folks like to run em hot.
 
Im still learning a great deal from the folks on this site and others, and I love anything reloading related.

I started loading in highschool, 97 or 98 id guess.
I had a speer number 12, and an rcbs rock chucker press/kit, my folks bought me.
One of our family friends showed me how to make rounds for my .30-06 the first time, then it was reading every manual, magazine, and book i could get my hands on. I pretty well did that anyway, but now instead of just rifle articles, I focused more on reloading.
 
Gary Gill said:
About forty years ago, my Dad got me started reloading.
Click to expand...
I started at a young age with my father. I started with cleaning the brass then progressed slowly into all the steps of reloading. Dad was very meticulous with his reloads. Separating brass, how many times they were reloaded and also finding a specific load that was accurate for each gun. Looking back he was a great teacher. I still have his Lyman 44th Edition with his notes.
 
I'm a bit different than everyone else. I searched out my mentors. I went to the local LGS and hung out in the reloading section. When I saw someone pick something up I when and asked them if they reloaded. When they said they did I told them that I was thinking about getting into reloading and asked them if I could pick their brain. Now a lot of them would invite me to their bench and show me how they did it. Now I got to see about 20 different benches and 4 different presses. I learned a lot from those that knew what they were doing and a lot from those that did not. Not only did this teach me how to reload but it helped me to decide what press that I was going to get.

Now the best two mentors I had were cops. They don't get rattled when there is a small problem, and have a great eye for detail.
 
Back in the mid 60s with my summer recreation rifle range instructor. I would have been 12. He was soon my math and shop teacher. And he is still a good friend.
 
My father reloaded and I just wasn't interested at all. He passed away and I became intrigued by his guns and shooting them. It was getting very expensive as I have my own child. My neibor kept bringing it up to me. I actually bought a Lee kit and stayed up all night setting it up. He came over and watched me load my first six .38s. Since then I have met several mentors. Along with many on here The mighty RC would often respond to my questions or the questions of other good folks on here.

I have helped encouraged a couple of people in my time, I find it's very important to practice as soon as I learn something new, or I will not always retain it.
 
I say "self taught" but thst really is a mistatement. I read the manuals, talked to people who sold reloading supplies both in gun stores and gun shows.

The most info came from right here, on this forum. Bds, Walkalong, RCmodel, and others got me to the point of confidence.

The internet, while full of misinformation is the largest advantage to hobbyists of all sorts....sharing info, pictures etc.

All these things can then be fleshed out on forums like this one, where guns and reloading are concerned.

Thanks to the high road!

Russellc
 
I guess it has come full circle for me. One of the guys that I mentored for the last two years shot a deer with the first batch of 308 ammo we had crafted together after the workup. He has since purchased his own reloading setup. He resized that brass and installed d a bullet in it. Then he presented it to me as the first round he made that harvested game. I remember that feeling when I did it as well all these years later.
 
For me, one of the shop NCOs was a reloader and explained it all to me and showed me the process, the results, the ability to craft ammo. He had a TC 30-30 and loaded spitzers in it. I was intrigued, but didn't start with my own set up until several years later. It was the late 1980's and my knowledge came from the books. There weren't many, if any, reloaders around where I hung out.

After Andrew in 92, I packed up my gear for a move and didn't break it out until 2005. A couple of starts and stops, deploying, deploying, getting married, moving again, in 2011 it really cranked up. I found THR when looking for information on an old Lyman All American turret.

THR has been a mentor ready to dispense advice as needed, sometimes unasked as you read other's posts.

Fast forward and this time around, I've been the mentor to 4 or 5 guys that have gotten their feet wet at my bench and now have their own benches.
 
My Dad, older brother and I started at the same time 1976. One of my dad's friends was a very experienced reloader so he was available if we needed to know something.
 
Self taught, I got tired of buying ammo at the gun shows, so I bought a Dillon 550b in the late 80's with all the accessories I needed for loading 45 acp. read the loading books, searched the internet and went from there loading all the rest of the calibers I shoot. It's been a good learning experience so far, with a few hick ups here and there, like blowing up a G30 (case head separation)
 
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