How did you learn to reload???

[richc]

Just a thought I had recently based upon my own experiences as a new reloader... how the hell did y'all learn all this stuff about reloading before the internet gave us the ability to come together?

Yeah, I probably would have muddled my way through all this. I likely would have called Dillon a whole lot more. Maybe I would have taken the course at Kittery Trading Post (but I doubt it... I'm a guy and don't stop to ask directions either.).

But damn there is a lot to learn. Most of my life I've learned the hard way through my mistakes. Some of them have been costly. But that is how I learn.

So how did you learn in the beginning?

)

Rich

 

[Palladin]

Dad taught me when I was 10 or 12

 

[BossHarley]

Read and read, then carefully applied what I read - while re-reading etc....

 

[gerrycaruso]

I learned in the early 70's. I read a lot and taught myself.

 

[richc]

Follow up question... if you're willing to share... what was the biggest or mostly costly mistake you recall making?

I think we all can learn from our own mistakes. Learning from the mistakes of others is an extra bonus!

thx

Rich

 

[MisterHappy]

By osmosis, from dad, then by doing it....

Most expensive mistake?.....shooting so much that reloading was required!

 

[wmccurdy53]

I learned to reload at Lowell Tech, back when the Earth was flat and they still had Rifle and Pistol teams at State Colleges.
I did take both the Beginners and Intermediate seminars at KTP last winter before I bought my press. 20,000 rounds later, I consider myself an Advanced Intermediate Reloader.

 

[bpm990d]

I was 18 years old and doing it all on my own. I read a lot of books and got an RCBS Rock Chucker kit. That was more than twenty years ago. Certainly would have been a little easier if the internet was around, but I managed to muddle through it by talking with people. I also asked a lot of hard questions and tried to verify what people told me with other sources. I consider myself very knowledgeable about rifle, but pretty clueless about pistol.

B

 

[DukeNukem]

If I wanted to go shooting 3 or 4 times a week when I was a kid I had to reload...that was my chore...many many nights spent reloading..fond memories.

 

[Andy in NH]

So how did you learn in the beginning?

Read and read, then carefully applied what I read - while re-reading etc....

Just like he said. And a couple of calls to the nice people at Dillon Precision.

what was the biggest or mostly costly mistake you recall making?

Thinking that brass was brass. Not knowing that some manufacturers cut corners when it came to brass quality.

I mixed WCC in with A-MERC and reloaded it for my .45 ACP. When it was fired, the A-MERC bulged so bad I'm suprised the case didn't rupture. I was very lucky I didn't damage my pistol or myself.

After that I spend way too much time sorting through 4 - five gallon buckets of .45 brass looking for that dreaded headstamp. Twenty gallons of looking at every headstamp, one at a time, to ensure I didn't have an accident.




.

 

[Len-2A Training]

I asked a very active club member, competitive shooter. He invited me to his house one day and he taught, I watched and asked questions. Then I went out and bought a Spar-T single-stage press and went to town.

Stupidest mistake? Going cheap and using lube on pistol cases. It got on everything. Shortly thereafter I bought all carbide die sets, thus avoiding this problem. This was back 1976-7 and I don't think that Dillon existed back then.

--------------

Side story: As a kid, I traveled with my Dad occasionally. He was a salesman, selling supplies to the glass and hardware trade. AAA Police Supply in Dedham also sells boats and back then, it was all in the shop that is all police supplies today. I recall a Chris Craft boat hanging from the 2-3 story ceiling. But I was fascinated by the reloading bench set up in the rear of the store (~where the glass counter today is in front of the fireplace). The shop was run by Mark's Father. Not long ago I told this story to Mark, who now runs the place.

 

[Kicker96FS]

DukeInMaine got me into it about 8 years ago, before he had classes. Now I am a reloading fool, just can't stop cranking that handle!

 

[stoneypete]

My friend Bill. Not only did he introduce me to St. John Moses Browning's heavenly inspired 1911, he taught me the skill needed to feed my new addiction. On top of that he had about a ton of lead ingots and he taught me to cast my own bullets. He let me keep all that I cast and only once did he ask that I bring along some lube for the lube/resizing.

 

[KMM696]

Dean Grennell's "ABC's of Reloading" taught me. Best book I've ever read for getting started.

 

[center442]

Dean Grennell's "ABC's of Reloading" taught me. Best book I've ever read for getting started.

+1 on that. Basically, I'm self-taught. A lot of reading, and then a lot more reading. The ABC's will give you the basic fundamentals and get you started. Once you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it, the rest will come pretty easy. There is always more to learn though, but that's what keeps it interesting.

That, and a virtually unlimited supply of ammo.

 

[Cross-X]

Follow up question... if you're willing to share... what was the biggest or mostly costly mistake you recall making?

I think we all can learn from our own mistakes. Learning from the mistakes of others is an extra bonus!

thx

Rich

Failing to measure each load, and letting your buddy make a few rounds...

 

[Mike-Mike]

Dad taught me, I was making shot shells when I was about 8 or 9yo with an old MEC press.

 

[ochmude]

Dean Grennell's "ABC's of Reloading" taught me. Best book I've ever read for getting started.

Same here. Read that book cover to cover before I even touched a press. Then I got a Lyman manual and a Speer manual and thumbed through those for awhile. So far my most costly mistake was loading my first batch of rounds way too long such that I couldn't fit more than two in a magazine. Spent an afternoon at S&W range firing my Glock 19 in single shot mode.

 

[Scrivener]

Stupidest mistake? Going cheap and using lube on pistol cases. It got on everything. Shortly thereafter I bought all carbide die sets, thus avoiding this problem. This was back 1976-7 and I don't think that Dillon existed back then.

Yep. Penny-wise; pound foolish. The dealer tried to tell me, but my Lyman starter kit came w/a lube pad, so I didn't listen.

Replaced the sizing die w/a carbide die some time later and never bought anything but carbide pistol sets after that. I even got carbide dies for .30 Carbine and .223.

It's actually cheaper in the long run - you save time and don't damage cases by scratching them with the crud case lube holds.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

It was the least I could do since your wife so kindly allowed us to mess up her kitchen while you taught me how to brew beer!

DukeInMaine got me into it about 8 years ago, before he had classes. Now I am a reloading fool, just can't stop cranking that handle!

 

[highscore]

I started reloading at the ripe age of 16. I had a friend buy a rifle and decided that factory ammo was too expensive. The guy at the gun shop in town was more than happy to explain it to me and sell me what I needed, a RCBS Junior press which I still use today. I also picked up most of the rest of what I needed, including a Lyman manual. Took a while to get everything I actually needed but I will say that using a grams scale, even for a cartridge like .243 wasn't the brightest idea I ever had. Luckily I took it real slow and actually made some real accurate ammo with it. Good thing I didn't screw up the grains to grams conversion! After about a month I bought a RCBS scale. Stupidest mistake? Hard to say which one was the worst but the .357 ammo I reloaded on my practically new Dillon 550 comes to mind. I happily loaded almost 400 rounds and when I tried to shoot them, found that about one in twenty was a squib load. I was using Unique out of a cardboard container and a piece of the covers vapor barrier got into the powder measure. Learned real quick to visually check each and every case for correct powder charge!

 

[massgun]

I started reloading about 20 years ago. I learned from a fellow competitor/neighbor while shooting NRA Highpower, then bought a couple of books and started reading. I started with rifle cartridges and then got into pistol. I can't honestly recall any big/costly mistakes as I am pretty anal when it comes to reloading.

 

[MasterShinken]

A very kind and helpful NES member

 

[bob68]

i started reloading in the early 80s. i was taught by 2 friends how to not only reload but also how to cast bullets. i also read and reread all the books i started with... abc or reloading....lymans books most are dog earred now so i will be replacing them with new ones for my grandson to read and then reread. worst mistake i made was a few squib loads over the first year or so.

 

[Steve_P]

I just sort of figured it out....that and I read thru ABC's once or twice

 

[DukeInFlorida]

I started out in 1975, when I bought my first rifle, a model 742 Remington, in 30-06 caliber. I wanted to be a super marksman with that gun, and knew that I couldn't afford all that factory (store bought) ammo. So, I started saving the brass, and soon bought my first reloading equipment, starting with a RCBS "JR" press and dies.

There was no internet then. And, no good resources, other than some reloading data books. The Speer book made the most sense to me, and so I read it cover to cover a few times, and hoped for the best. I had no one to assist or rely on for info. My first reloads were scary friom the standpoint that I was relying on the published data, and hoped that it all worked. It did!

I learned TONS along the way, especially as a result of my foray into the world of ultra fast, and high pressures.

I still have my original equipment, and original reference materials. The equipment gets used in the reloading classes, and I show students the reference materials as examples of what NOT to use (out-dated materials).

 

[richc]

I just sort of figured it out....that and I read thru ABC's once or twice

Last night I started my second read of that fine book. There are so many things I did not quite get during my first read, but now that I've made multiple thousands of rounds some of the finer details make much more sense.

A second read is an excellent suggestion!

Thanks,

Rich

 

[KMM696]

Does anyone know which edition was the last "ABC's of Reloading" that Dean Grennell wrote? Mine's one of the early ones, and while I have no technical objection to Chevalier's versions, I like the way Grennell writes better.

 

[PatMcD]

I read all the used books I could find on the back shelves of gun shops and asked all the handloaders in those same shops. Bought a really nice Bonanza Co-Ax from a guy and dove in.

I made two stupid/costly mistakes:

1. I sold the Co-Ax

2. I bought a LEE Pro1000

 

[edin508]

When I was tall enough to reach the handle on the rock chucker my dad would let me work the handle and put the "heads" on for him. He took care of everything else but it got me into it because it looked so cool.
I am still trying to find all of his own recipe books from back in the day with all of his loading and then shooting data from all of the loads that he made. Man I wish he could remember where he put all of that stuff.