Reloading with the kids

[jenrob]

Just thought I would throw something in here about this, and see how many do or have thought about it.

I have a 4yr old daughter that loves to play with all the little things on my bench when she was 3.75yr I asked her if she wanted to help. Boy did her eyes every light up and with a bing smile came a yea. So I started just letting her pull the handle. depending on what I was loading she had to have a little help.

Then after a several sessions she keep wanting to do the powder ( I did all the priming myself by myself ) I have a RCBS chargemaster and could set it on auto and every time it beep she knew that it was time to pour the powder.

Sometimes we would have to start all over and dump 20 or 30 charged case back out cause she would get so excited as she dumped it in before she got it all in she would (in a loud voice) say yea, and jerk a little and dump powder all over the tray.

Now I have a video of her doing ever step. All my dies are setup on a LNL bushings in a Redding press with the slide bar primer. I set all the dies out like she needed and the bullets and set the chargemaster up. She put the dies in and put the case in sized it then when changing dies asked this one. Yep and she changed them out then pulled the case put the funnel on it dumped the powder then put it back in and set a bullet.

The entire time she was doing it she had the biggest smile on her face. After that one she was saying let's do another one Daddy.

My wife said you wanted a boy didn't ya! I said nope love my little girl and she can hunt and fish and reload to.

 

[tbtrout]

My daughter is 4 and my son is 6. They started helping me about 1 1/2 yrs ago. I found a cheap single stage for them to deprime with. They both can and do load start to finish, with supervision of course, on the Rock Chucker for rifle and on the SD for pistol. Not only is it passing on my hobby but it is priceless family time.

 

[dakotasin]

my 8 year old daughter reloads her own ammo for her 300 wsm and 30 carbine. she still gets help w/ trimming operations, and i do all the powder handling, but she does the rest.

my 4 year old daughter does bullet seating for whatever i am loading for at the moment, and i'll let her have a crack at sizing every now and again if i am neck sizing or shoulder bumping, but she doesn't have the strength yet to do a full length resize.

the girls love it, and we spend some time together...

 

[jenrob]

I have a Lee press that she plays with but like your daughter she can't full size on it but with the Redding press it has more leverage and she can git-r-done on it.

 

[scrat]

i have two boys 8 and 14. they have been reloading with me for years. They dont even mind the hard work. primer pocket cleaning, trimming cases. even help pulling on the handle once in a while. it really gets them into it.

 

[kennedy]

I let my 5 year old grandson pull the handle on my lee turrent, it has auto index so he loves to watch the dies rotate.

 

[OAKVILLE SHOOTER]

Sounds like I need to let my 5 yo get a little more involved.

 

[jenrob]

OAKVILLE, Your 5yr old wants to do everything just like mom and dad.
Just remember they get excited when they do get to do it and you will probably wind up with powder a couple of different places and have to start over but what else do you have to do. You don't loose much powder this way but gain a bunch in the enjoyment you watching you r 5yr old get so much enjoyment outta getting to do what dad does.

 

[BP44]

GOOD THREAD FELLAS.


and post some pics

 

[ADKWOODSMAN]

When my daughter was 4 she would sit on my lap and pull the RCBS Jr. handle for seating the bullets. My I miss those days--now she has two 5 year old tornadoes!

 

[earplug]

My five year old son, learned how to reload on a single stage press doing pistol rounds.
Now he helps on my progressive placing the bullets prior to seating. My wife thinks its fun to load my RCBS primer strips. She thinks its a easy pin ball machine.
I usually work in our open garage while kids play out front. I get lots of interest for a while, until the mystery is shown.
Have only had one kid's Mom complain about my hobby and her kid.

 

[jenrob]

Yea my daughter likes the progressive watching everything happen. She also likes putting the bullets on. It's kinda funny I was thinking about it today while we were useing the progressive. With a little help from her I can almost reload as fast on my LNL as I can on my single stage

 

[ldv444]

Child Abuse!

You guys have to be kidding! You are abusing your children! Having them around such evil ( guns, ammo, powder, primers)!!!

How dare you spend so much time with your kids! Don't you know that your supposed to put them on the couch with lots of cola, TV, twinkies, and computer games? Ignoring them for hours on end, it enhances their imagination.

Somebody needs to call someone!

PS-My daughter (12 going on 18) loves to help reload, shoot, and is a junior member of the NRA-------guess I'm going to hell for being such a bad example!

 

[scrat]

IDV444

your such a bad parent.


hahahahahaha

 

[carsten1911]

3 year old helper

Unfortunately it is definitely illegal in Gemany to have ANYBODY than a certified reloader (or someone who has already subscribed for a reloading course and wants to learn some practical things in advance for that course)
in the same room when you reload.

Only thing I do with my older son (3 1/2 years) is: He decaps and resizes.

I put in the cases, call "ok" and up it goes! We are having wonderful fun, he loves it!! Now thats allowed, since from a legal point of view "reloading" means putting powder in the case and putting the bullet on top (I doesnt need to be seated, though. Talk about logic...).

When his hands will be big and strong enough he can do the priming with me.

Carsten

 

[JohnMcD348]

My son just turned 4 in Nov. I just started reloading around Aug/Sept so he's been reloadig for as long as I have. I have a Lee single stage and just recently, finally, set up my LoadMaster. When I am doing these things during the daylight hours, I guarantee he is there, either sitting on the table or standing there pulling the lever. When I'm single staging it, he helps by pulling the lever and using the powder throw to fill the case. He will hand me the case, hand me the bullet, pull the handle, loks over my shoulder when using the calipers, everything.
When using the LoadMaster, he's busy pullig the lever, grabbing the bullet to give to me. Then looks at each round that falls to make sure it looks like a good one. Sometimes he gets a little carried away with pulling the lever and I get a pinched figner near the bullet seating die. The wife isn't exactly thrilled with it but she knows it's done safely or not at all with me.

 

[sourdough44]

Heres what I do when the little one wants to be around. I do something is somewhat non-critical. For me that could be as easy as sorting brass or maybe doing some slow resizing. I save the other stuff for when I am alone.

 

[jenrob]

Sometimes he gets a little carried away with pulling the lever and I get a pinched figner near the bullet seating die. The wife isn't exactly thrilled with it but she knows it's done safely or not at all with me.

Yeap had my fingers smashed a few times.

Get your wife involved. My wife is pretty dedicated to hunting. When she was 7mnths along she was elk hunting in the mountains tracking through the snow. the next year we done a lot of road hunting and traded off going on hikes. Then after my daghter was 2yrs and had a halmet that would fit we all took off on Four wheeler just bundled her up real good. Life is to short and kids learn quick at a young age.

I have loaded the Ruger MKII single load and held it with my daughter and let her shot it she has hit probably 5 bottles and cans out of a 100 shots but always says "do it again".

She has come to me with a set of muffs knowing what they are for. So I think I might have a shooter on my hands.

 

[layusn1]

My daughter just unloads ammunition...so does my wife. I get to have all the loading fun.

 

[Eagle103]

My 11 year old is more careful than I am. I also have an 8 year old and a 5 year old that pull the lever once in a while. Even my 3 year old girl likes to help with "powdering". One thing no one has mentioned is that you need to make sure they wash their hands when they're done helping. That sometimes isn't so easy to be sure of if they run off when you're in the middle of things.

 

[jenrob]

I didn't think to mention washing hands. I reload in my shop so once we are down I try keeping my daughters attention on her hand telling her that we need to wash them as we walk back to the house repeating it several times while watching her.

At first I didn't put a lot of thought into that was a mech at one time and remember eating blackened hamburgers and it wasn't seasoning the cook put on them, But with the lead I let my self off ever once in a while if I doing other things outside, but as for my little girl that is prioraty