How did you learn to reload?

[BuckeyeShooter]

How did you become a reloader?
For me it started with an hour at the bench with a competition service rifle shooter.
The posts from Culvers Shooting Pages.
Glenn Zedikers books.
Forums and then you tube since it matured.

[Allen]

My brother. Plus a lot of reading, not just from experiences of others but products for sale.

[JimF]

“How did you learn to reload” . . . . .

Read books . . . . . .Lotsa’ books!

My very first handloading session was with the 45-70.
My trapdoor was a disappointment at the target . . . .until I fed it the bullet DIAMETER it liked!

[BuckeyeShooter]

My very first handloading session was with the 45-70.
My trapdoor was a disappointment at the target . . . .until I fed it the bullet DIAMETER it liked![/QUOTE]

We saved the 45-70 brass from my trapdoor.
What a punisher with store bought ammo.
We had to shoot at an offset target to see my groups cause of the sights setup.
I bought and scoped a Henry single shot just to play with 45-70 loadings.
It's a hoot to shoot. What bullet &powder did you setle on?

[lyman]

never had a formal class or in house mentor,

did read a bit, and started with the whack a mole LEE, which sucked for what I needed

started shooting Service Rifle, then bought a Dillon 550, and was gifted a Forster Coax, with a pile of reading material, measure etc from a retired shooter,

like most reloaders, ended up with a few more presses and a pile of tools, etc, but that Forster Coax has loaded more rounds than any other on the table,

as well a some damn good Service Rifle and Garand loads,

[bruce]

Bought a Winchester post M-70 in .243 Win. Accurate. Solid MOA rifle. Saved my brass. Bought a Lee Loader ... some 105 gr. Speer bullets, some IMR 4320 and some CCI primers. Loaded up a couple of boxes of bullets. Failed to fully understand use of the scoop. All worked well. Did have a few rounds that were odd. Little hard to raise bolt. Then, had to use a scrap of 2x4 to tap the bolt up. Finally, fire a round ... smoke ... LOUD noise. No way in Sam hill I could raise the bolt. Drove over to Ajax Gunshop in Chalmett, LA. Old Cajun gunsmith said, "You blow the damn gun up!!!" He took the gun back into the shop. About 1/2 hour and a couple of rifle shots later, he brought my rifle out. Replaced extractor, spring. Cost ... $25. Threw the rest of the ammo into the swamp. Decided I needed a stronger gun so I swapped the Winchester for a Ruger M-77 in .30-06 Springfield. Been shooting .30-06 ever since.
.
Bought a nice S&W Model 19-2. Four inch. Nickle plated. Gorgeous. Reloads at the gunshop were $ 5.00/50 rds. Bought myself a Lee Loader, a pound of Unique and some primers. Boom baby!!! I was in business!!! Learned to use the scoop properly. Only problem ... it was S ... L ... O ... W. Got a RCBS Reloader Special for $ 180 including bullets for my pistol and rifle, two cans of rifle powder and lots of primers. Started loading .30-06 for my rifle and .38/.357 for my revolver. The year was ... 1980. Sincerely. bruce.

[Major Tom]

Self taught via lots of books circa 1970.

[PWC]

First book I read was Phil Sharpe's book from the library. Someone stole the book later on. Now I have an ele. copy. My Pacific "C" press came with 30-06 and 38 dies and Lyman 45th edition.

CSP, TFL and THR helped refine my understanding and process

[Art]

I learned from a couple of friends, plus some reading. Once you know the basics any real expertise, in my case, came with practice.

[RCS]

In high school found a nice tong tool in 45-70-405 in a antique shop. Friend next door had a M73 rifle cut-down to carbine
length that his grandfather used for deer. The old man got too old to hunt and gave the trapdoor to his grandson, The tool
would cast and size the bullets. We modified an ice pick to deprime, the tool would prime the case. We used black powder
and the tool always put a nice crimp on the loaded case. We had a small hose attached to the basement sink to run hot
water down the bore. We used hot water to clean the fired cases. It was cheap to shoot.

[mtnboomer]

Lots of reading.

The older gun magazines ('80s and '90s) had a lot of reloading instruction in them. Then I read ABC's of Reloading, then Modern Reloading by Richard Lee.

Bought a Lee Hand Press and a set of Lee .30-30 dies (both used) and jumped in with both feet. Eventually i worked up to a Lee Challenger press, then a Lee Turret press.

[BuckeyeShooter]

I also have Mr. Lee's book.
Jouster was a major factor for me, learning to reload.

[fguffey]

Before I learned to reload I had to know what was happening to the case when being sized. I started by scribing lines around the case at the case body/shoulder juncture and at the datum on the shoulder. The scribed lines became artifacts, the artifacts indicated to me I was not pushing the shoulder back, as I sized the case the scribed lines moved toward the mouth of the case; meaning I was not moving the shoulder back while sizing the case. Before that I already knew there was 'bump', bump was a function of the cam over press-only. The non cam over press did not bump.

And not everything is a head space gage and everything does not haver head space. SAAMI says my cases do not have head space. I accept that. I never jumped onto the 'bump wagon'. The only bumping going on is when the cam over press changes direction; that change of directions is referred to as being 'bump'.

And then there is seating the bullet off or to the rifling. A few believe it takes too much time to type the instructions or they believe it is complicated; I make a transfer, everyone else has to purchase a work bench full of tools. I am the fan of bullet hold, I want all the bullet hold I can get.

F Guffey

[Ltdave]

when i was in the Air Force a civvie i met was a shooter and he introduced me to USPSA (US version/arm of IPSC). we both shot revolvers although most everyone was shooting 1911s in some manner.

i was buying my ammo from him for pretty cheap and as long as i returned the cases he didnt mind. well he only had a couple of single stage RCBSs and i stopped over one day when he was loading so he showed me what he was doing, how he was doing it and i just jumped in and helped.

i didnt get my own real set up until about 4 years later after i had separated. i DID have one of those Lee Loaders and i bought a pound (metal can) of powder long before meeting this guy but never even attempted it because it looked like a lot of work for very little gain. i gave him the powder and then i think the Loader got tossed after 2 attempts to sell it at a garage sale

[mtnboomer]

Before I learned to reload I had to know what was happening to the case when being sized. I started by scribing lines around the case at the case body/shoulder juncture and at the datum on the shoulder. The scribed lines became artifacts, the artifacts indicated to me I was not pushing the shoulder back, as I sized the case the scribed lines moved toward the mouth of the case; meaning I was not moving the shoulder back while sizing the case. Before that I already knew there was 'bump', bump was a function of the cam over press-only. The non cam over press did not bump.

F Guffey

When I set up my Lee dies for full-length resize, I do it by Lee's instructions.

However, when I'm only neck sizing, I use a black water-based market to color the case neck down to the shoulder. As I adjust the die, it rubs the marker off the neck so I can keep an accurate account of how far down to set the die.

[fguffey]

Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.― Mark Twain

I started many years ago, back then reloaders used bullet hold, I want all the bullet hold I can get, and now they use tension, I am the only reloader that has tension gages, all of my tension gages measure in pounds. Neck sizing reduces the diameter of the neck, reduces the diameter of the neck increases bullet hold, I do not use a marker because I can feel the reduction in the diameter of the neck.

F. Guffey

[Tenboremag]

Pretty much learned myself. Bought a copy of Maj. George C. Nonte's book, Modern Handloading, and took it from there. I was about 15 at the time.

[Phloating Phlasher]

Lots of books & A Lyman tong tool. Small batches as I learned so I had few mistakes to correct when I messed up.
This was before the Lee classic whack-a-mole was invented!

[fguffey]

15 years old, that was a good start; at 14 I was at Fort Hood getting my License for 4X4s, 6X6's and cutting powder charges for 105 Howitzers/self propelled.

F. Guffey

- - - Updated - - -

[remus]

I learned from a WWII paratrooper vet named Arnold back in 1959 who was already an experienced reloader. First cartridge was 7.65 x 53 Arg using C&H dies that I still have and use. Brass was hard to find and he taught me how to make it out of 30-06 sized down.

[JimF]

. . . . . .Brass was hard to find and he taught me how to make it out of 30-06 sized down.

Ahhh, yes . . .
The versatile 30-06 case comes to the rescue . . . .

Before factory brass became available, I also made . . . .and still use . . . .reformed ‘06 brass in my 98/09 Argentine and my Type 99 Jap.

Also used 6.5 Swede brass to easily make 7.5 French ammo.