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.