Fun afternoon!

[contender]

Shooting is fun.
Teaching shooting is fun.

But today,, I had the pleasure of starting a younger gentleman in the wonderful world of reloading. He had purchased a reloading set-up,, and most of the stuff he needed to start. But he asked for a mentor. So this afternoon, I went to his place & guided him on the beginning of the path to making his own ammo. He only loaded 10 rounds,, to start. we'll take those out in a few days for chrono testing.
But he's excited & very happy.
He mostly shoots USPSA competition,, and has achieved Master Class level in "Limited Optics." But he was as excited as a kid at Christmas when he gauge checked the first rounds we did. All were very good.
He has also studied martial arts a bit,, and honored me by calling me "Sensei!"

 

[bedfordboy]

You can reply “You have learned well grasshopper”

 

[Jeepnik]

I suppose that since I learned to reload as just another part of shooting I never really looked at it as anything mysterious. Looking back I suspect that teaching me to reload was quite like teaching me to mow the lawn. Simply another chore to be learned on my way to adulthood. I taught my kids the same way.

I have taught a few adults to become ammo self suffient ovet the years. Again, I always looked at it ad part of teaching them how to shoot. Much like cleaning a firearm and doing small repairs.

Thanks for pasding on part of our sport.

 

[MaxMan]

I wish someone had taught me many years ago,

 

[contender]

Back in my youth,, nobody I knew reloaded. When I went into the Army,, I decided to get into it, and didn't have a mentor. Luckily,, I started with books, and the .38 Spl. I made mistakes,, but ever since about 1977,, I've been packing my own powder. But I wish I had been fortunate enough to have someone to teach me.
So,, by helping this great guy get into it,, I know I'm doing just a small part of ensuring the future of it all.

We have a few more sessions planned before I'll tell him to go at it alone. We went through all the basics & how to set stuff up & such yesterday. And only loading 10 rounds to test was just the beginning. Plus,, he had evening plans with his fiance'.

He's going to come down one day this week, we'll test his ammo across the chrono AND for accuracy. Then the next session will be to load the other 90 primers from that one pack into ammo IF,, the load we work on is good for his purposes. We'll most likely have to tweak the load a little, so it may be just 10 more rounds next time. It all depends upon how the accuracy & velocity is.
He's wanting a good load for USPSA competition so his power factor is one of the things we are looking at too. The velocity will tell us what PF we have. We are looking for a PF of 128-130 approximately. We can't go below 125. He's been using a commercial ammo that has a PF of 137, so he'll be reducing that level of recoil a bit.

 

[Johnnu2]

I've been reloading since about 1972........ I'm still learning bits and pieces to this day.....So, I go slow and double check everything.
Nice work Contender........

J.

 

[contender]

It is fun to see the excitement in a new reloader. This gentleman just soaks up the knowledge. He wants to get into casting & such as well. I told him we'd get his loading stuff down a good bit before casting bullets.

 

[Kevin]

I wish someone had taught me many years ago,

Here's a shout out to Contender.

When I first joined this forum 17 years ago, I was just getting started with reloading as well.

I remember not understanding how the powder got into the case. Yeah, stupid…

As a new member and total stranger, Contender mailed me an RCBS funnel.

It was a light bulb moment and yes, the funnel is still being used.

So yes, this kid that Contender is teaching has a great start. He will undoubtedly go far.

 

[contender]

Aww,,, geee,, shucks,,,, you are gonna embarrass me Kevin.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I never had any direct instruction, but I learned by watching my dad for years. Then when I was a teenager, along about 1977, I bought a 1966 GTO that someone had put a 427 Corvette engine in, and I needed the motor to replace the 396 that I blew up in my 1966 Chevelle SS. I paid $400 for the GTO. After pulling the 427, I sold the rolling chassis for $395. But the buyer didn't have it all in cash, so he gave me $300 plus a cheap Llama 1911 style pistol, I think it was a .380 cal. I then traded the 1911 for a 12 ga. High Standard autoloader. Then I traded the shotgun for a flat latch S&W pre-model 36. Then I traded the S&W to our local gun dealer for a RCBS Rock Chucker combo setup with .44 Special dies and a pile of additional reloading accessories. That was the end of that particular bargaining chain, and I still have that press. I wish I still had the GTO and Chevelle though!

 

[coach]

The chevelle and gto would be worth a lot more now. Assuming the they weren’t crashed or rusted out.

 

[jmca]

I started in 1974 with a Lee Reloader set. Seem to remember using a hammer and punch to knock out primers. Then you neck sized them in a pliers? Poured the powder with a scoop? It's been a long time!
I had no mentor, just the instruction sheet!

 

[Paul B]

I first started reloading officially at age 16 back in 1954 My mentor was an old gentleman everyone called, "the Dutchman" alther we actually knew he was german. Germans weren't too popular back during WW2 so he claimed Dutch ancestry. He not only taught me the ropes but bullet casting as well.
When my son in law was married to my youngest stepdaughter I'd already introduced him to deer huntong and when he bought guns of his own later on, I reloaded his ammo for him. When the .300 WSM came out he bought one and sfter shooting up his ammo asked me to reload the cases. He even supplied the bullets, primers and brass, I told him to leave the rifle and the data he wanted me to use, then "fact checked" his data with several manuals. He said the data was what one of his coworkers used in his rifle. I told him the data was quite a few grains of powder over published max so I told him I would do a full load work up. He wasn't too happy. He left the rifle and I went to work. As I thought, the load was way too hot for his rifle and I was still a grain and a half below what his friend was using. The chronograph said the load was only about 50 FPS slower than his friends.

Well, he went out and shot all the new ammo up and came back asking me a run some more for him. I said OK with a well hidden smirk. He came down to Tucson with the needed components and I set things up showing him exactlt how it was done. Once set up, powder setting checked and called good I loaded two rounds of ammo, stepped aside and said, "Now you do it slowly while I watch." I haven't had to load up ammo for him ever since.

I have met several people at the range or Hunter Ed classes who want to learn how to do it and have taught them the basics. I was always able to answer questions down the road if they hit a snag.
Paul B.

 

[AJGUNNER]

I was drawn in during High School. We had an underground rifle range and as a PE class offered during the winter, we could shoot 22's at the 50' range and qualify for all sorts of official military rifleman certificates and medals. In the back of the range was a small room with shot shell reloading gear. A few NOT knot heads including myself, were taught to reload shotgun shells while we were waiting our turn on the 5 position range. At the end of the term we had an outing for the chosen NOT knot heads, to visit a trap range to learn how to trap shoot. It didn't hurt any that the teacher was also my water polo coach and one of my favorite teachers. Believe it or not, he also put together PE classes in the winter for fly tying and winter fishing lure making. Both of these classes also ended the term with an outing to go fishing for winter steelhead and learning to use the flies for trout fishing with a fly rod. The same guy also put on classes in Scuba, Rafting and kayaking and yes each class ended with an outing to actually experience all 3 for real and not just in the swimming pool.

So having the basics of general reloading under my belt, and being the proud owner of a Super Redhawk in 44 mag, I made a quick jump into straight wall handgun reloading. My mentor was also my coach from above and favorite teacher. I could hit him up everyday for stuff I could not get out of the books---no you tube back in the 70's. I graduated quicky from single stage to a Dillon 550. If you like shooting volume this is the way to go. My bench now has a pair of 550's and my original RCBS Rock chucker. Between the 3 of them I have loaded unknown 1000's of rounds of 9mm, 38sp, 357mag, 45acp, 44mag, 45lc, 223, 243, and 7mm mag over the past 45+ years.

In the past 5 years I have taught/mentored 6 different friends/family members into saving money and loading their own ammo. 3 of them including my son have chosen to not buy all the equipment, but just come over and use my gear and their components. 2 guys loading on a 550 can really load some volume in a hurry. 1 guy doing QC, filling boxes and keeping the components filled, while the other guy just sits and pulls the handle.

Much like coaching/mentoring new folks into the shooting sports, we all need to do what we can to keep all aspects of our sport growing with more participants and interest.

Hats off to Contender for doing his part in keeping this sport growing.