Who taught you to handload?

[9x56MS]

My Dad passed away last year and I got the old rock chbucker and all his old reloading manuals. Oh the memories there. I may have left some tear stains on a couple of them. We didn’t reload shotgun then as you could buy a box of 25 for $2.50. In the 1980’s I taught myself to reload shotshells as me and my beagle were bagging in excess of 100 rabbits a year. The family didn’t eat chicken for about 5 years. But Dad was a grouse hunter. now every time I hear a grouse flush I look to my right for Dad.

 

[wild willy]

I taught myself WITHOUT the internet Thank you......

Same here I still remember firing that first reloaded round 45 years ago Wasn’t really fear but still had my full attention

 

[THEWELSHM]

have you tried a Classic Lee Loader at the shooting bench? that’s good therapy!

I have a RCBS rockchucker in single stage, and LNL Hornady for progressive mate, all good I had a Lee turret once, but sold it without using it to someone that would use it.

Thewelshm

 

[Bobaloo22]

I watched a friend at work run 9mm on his Dillon then started to look at a few utube guys and got the confidence. I got The ABCs of Reloading and read, read and read some more. I learned that as long as I knew to be careful and triple check loads I would be okay. I bought a 1973 Spartan single stage and LOTS of other stuff and after only a year and a half at 63 years old here I am. By the way this site is awesome!

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

The funny thing is my uncle would spend an evening reloading two cylinders off .44Spl or a handful of .30-06 and never feel rushed or stressed. He’d pour a cup of coffee and we kids would sit around the loading area listening to the lead pot heat up, talking about the last hunt or the next…. It seems like shooting a dozen rounds a year was sufficient. Uncle Charlie never lost a deer, pig, turkey, catfish or bass. It didn’t seem to be all about volume of fire.
Times change. People are people. Negativity breeds self-hatred. Don’t let negativity drag you down. Stay positive and keep reloading. Shoot like Barney Fife: you only got one shot. Make it count.

 

[cfullgraf]

I taught myself. Lots of reading, lots of obtaining appropriate information, a a bit of having less than optimum results.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

Both of these pertain to me.

Nobody I knew reloaded. I can read, but if it wasn't for Richard Lee I could not have afforded even buying the tools.

Started with a set of Lee does; which come with instructions and data. And a scoop. I was all set - loaded thousands of rounds with just that and a hand press.

You're a better man than I, cause I hated using the scoops so much, (and going through two cheap electronic scales) I had dad buy us a RCBS Chargemaster lol.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

remember the 1st time you shot your own handloads! I was SO scared! and that 7STW kicked like a Donkey

Yep. I remember holding that 38 revolver as far as I could from my body and turning my head as I pulled the trigger… just in case. When nothing blew up, I was hooked.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Yep. I remember holding that 38 revolver as far as I could from my body and turning my head as I pulled the trigger… just in case. When nothing blew up, I was hooked.

my wife ask me the other day, she has No Idea what I do in my reloading room… You make your own bullets, What if you blow yourself up?!?!?! …. Bless her heart!

 

[Mark_Mark]

I started with cap-and-ball revolvers back in the 1970's.
Extreme poverty (and the acquisition of auction and swap meet lots of reloading components, tools and books) led me to reloading, 20 years before that 'internet'... .

I’m imagining:

The Quick and the Dead, gun shop movie scene, John ask “What’s the most Worthless POC gun in this store” the Kid pull out a Colt Navy 1851 RM conversion, “Five Bucks”!

then Kid tells Cort, “ It shoots straight, or I wouldn’t sell it”

 

[EricBu]

For the most part...the old retired ornery guys who lived on the bar stools at the Ft Ord sportsmans club in the 80s.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

I watched my dad start handloading 9mm for his Browning P35 Highpower with a Lee Loader back in the early 1970s. He eventually moved up to an RCBS single stage press and then upgraded to a Rock Chucker press. When I bought a Marlin 336 from my sister's boyfriend, my dad taught me to handload .30-30 on his press.

In the mid-1980s, dad gifted me an RCBS Reloader Special single stage press for Christmas, and he set me up to handload .223 and .308.

If I haven't handloaded a million rounds with that Reloader Special press, then I've come awfully damn close.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I watched my dad start handloading 9mm for his Browning P35 Highpower with a Lee Loader back in the early 1970s. He eventually moved up to an RCBS single stage press and then upgraded to a Rock Chucker press. When I bought a Marlin 336 from my sister's boyfriend, my dad taught me to handload .30-30 on his press.

In the mid-1980s, dad gifted me an RCBS Reloader Special single stage press for Christmas, and he set me up to handload .223 and .308.

If I haven't handloaded a million rounds with that Reloader Special press, then I've come awfully damn close.

U’m going to pull out my 9mm Lee Loader tonight! best fun EVER!

 

[entropy]

My Dad started me loading his Skeet shells for him at 9 years old, long before the Internet. He got me started with rifle at 14, when I bought my aunt's old deer rifle, and pistol the next year when he let me use his Colt Trooper after he bought his Python. I still use both presses I learned on, a MEC 600 Jr. and an RCBS Jr3.

 

[Mstafford88]

This and other forums as well as books taught me lol

 

[Riomouse911]

I had no home computer in 1995, so it was Richard Lee’s book that came in a 2001 challenger kit and the other reloading guides I bought that gave me my start.

Stay safe.

 

[41 Mag]

My dad purchased his Wells kit back in around 62. I came along not long after. I can remember going to the "shooting store" with mom to pick up his primers and powder. It was next to the store that had the tube tester. Dad did a lot of everything repair part of being brought up through the end of the depression and WW II.

I would sit on the armrest of an old chair and help him, handing him cases or bullets, and finding those, in his words damn slick primers, that seemed to jump out of his fingers. I started pulling the handle around 70 or so with him watching me like a hawk on a mouse. We loaded '06 and 303 British the most but also 30 Carbine.

I learned how to sneak up on a charge with that little Wells scale, and how to use a fingernail to dampen the rise and fall when putting in the initial scoop. When I turned 12 I got a 12ga and it took him about 2 months to come home from work with a sack of hulls, a press, and the rest to get me out of his wallet every week buying shells. Since then I have only purchased the absolute minimum of factory ammo. Usually for a new to me firearm that I needed to get a baseline on. Nowadays however it is just the basics, usually brass and dies. I'm pretty much set on the rest.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Taught myself after I retired although I had an intellectual interest before that just no time.

Here in the burbs no one talks about such things except while at the range.

 

[JerkyFreak]

The ABC's of Reloading that came with a Lee 50th Anniversary Kit. It gives a great start with the basics on how not to kill yourself.

 

[unwashed]

Taught myself as others have stated with books, winging it and trial and error, mid 1980's.

 

[JEBruns]

Myself using books.

AL Gore hadn't invented the internet.

Same here. You need another voting option for us pre-internet folks.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

You're a better man than I, cause I hated using the scoops so much, (and going through two cheap electronic scales) I had dad buy us a RCBS Chargemaster lol.

I don't think those electronic powder drops even existed back then. If they did I could not have afforded them anyway - hell, I didn't even have a scale!

Yep. I remember holding that 38 revolver as far as I could from my body and turning my head as I pulled the trigger… just in case. When nothing blew up, I was hooked.

Similar here. I held the pistol in my off hand, turned my head to look to the rear, held up a piece of plywood betwixt my hand and my head.... Pulled the trigger.

Apprehensive would have been the word then.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

I don't think those electronic powder drops even existed back then. If they did I could not have afforded them anyway - hell, I didn't even have a scale!

Similar here. I held the pistol in my off hand, turned my head to look to the rear, held up a piece of plywood betwixt my hand and my head.... Pulled the trigger.

Apprehensive would have been the word then.

Yeah I couldn't really get the scoops to be 100 percent the same every time so I guess you had better luck than me cause like you said, even with a scale it took a bit to get the right powder charge. How did you verify (or at least, make sure they were close) charge weights?

 

[JCSC]

My neighbors father in law was a prairie dog hunter and loaded his own precision cartridges. He taught me to load my first gun, which was the 270 with IMR4350. From those basics, I expanded my knowledge thru manuals and this fine board of information.

 

[Bartojc]

I mostly taught myself, actually I should say I am still learning . Growing up it was all around me, an uncle reloaded by the thousands, a friend of my dad was quite the hunter and reloaded. As far as my father, he wasn’t much of a hunter, small game is it. A firearm to him was a tool like a hammer, and he did not reload but was very selective as far as ammo usage. Dad was a good shot always as I remember.
I started during an ammo shortage when I could not find enough in one spot to feed my growing usage for pistols. I started so I would not have to search stored for loaded ammo, and writhing a year loaded every cartridge I shot. It has become qui te the rabbit hole.

Jeff