And at what age did you start reloading?

[cigargod]

My father was an avid reloader for shotshells, 30-06, 44 mag and a few others that I can remember, so I think about 10 years old. I can remember reloading several hundred 12 gauge shells a day many many times.

[BigJimP]

I started learning ...both metallic and shotshells...when I was about 10 from my grandpa....

I bought my first equipment when I was about 22 ...and on my own out of college.../ and been at it, more or less since then for around 40 yrs now...

[happymachinist]

Started reading about it in tech school at 20. Lack of funds and being completely overwhelmed caused me to shelf it. Now at the age of 28 I'm giving it a go and loving it. I've never been one to get in a hurry, ask my girlfriend she'll agree.

[nstoolman1]

Started when I turned 18 (1974). Still have the same Rock Chucker press I bought in the starter kit.

[44flattop]

Sometime in the teenage years.

[GeauxTide]

1969.

[eldermike]

1974, right after college. My first real job after college (worked since I was 14) I reported to a man that had a range at his house. The bug bit me at his house.

[USCS]

I got my start 30 years ago at the age of 16 loading .30 carbine using a Lee "Hammer it in" set up. About a year later I got a Rock Chucker which I still use for rifle ammo. Two Dillon 550s handle the mass production of pistol rounds to feed the USPSA/IDPA habit.

[Elkins45]

I was 17. Lee Loader in 357 magnum.

[Crankylove]

Started helping Dad/Grandpa/Uncle reload when I was 5-6, started loading on my own in my late teens, didn't get my own reloading equipment until mid-late 20's.

[viciouskitty]

I started rolling my own about 3 years ago on a lee loader when I was 21. I graduated up to a lee classic turret and am now loading 9mm, 45, 30-06, 223, and 38 specials

[mavracer]

I want to say I was 14 or 15 I'm 48 now and am still loading on the same RCBS Rockchucker.

[jrobin3360]

During the 2013 panic & shortage. I'm 54 so I got a late start. Never thought an ammo shortage would have been possible here.
Live & learn. Loading 45 acp & 38 spec right now. Will soon try my hand at 223.

[cw308]

I started when I was 45, now 22 years later I'm still learning things. I've been fine tuning my loads, taking my time & using gauages. Before I would clean the case, size, check length. prime, powder charge & seat the bullet. There is alittle more to reloading then just that. I enjoy it so much, from reloading to the shooting bench. One hole five shot group. Chris

[Sevens]

I started at 17 years old, which is certainly later than most who had Dads, Grandfathers, Uncles, or Neighbors who taught them the ropes.

I picked my items from a catalog, ordered them through a friend of the family (kitchen table FFL) and one of the items was the Speer #11 manual.

The Speer#11 manual was my ONLY mentor. Was 1988, I didn't have the internet and I never once had anyone show up at my bench to show me anything. As such, I was EXTREMELY cautious about every little thing. I would say that I started out almost irrationally slowly at this game.

.38 Special in Federal brass, Speer swaged LRN and SWC bullets of 158 grains, Lee dippers, CCI-500 primers and Hercules Green Dot powder. Lee Challenger "2001" O-frame press, Lee dies. I didn't even own a scale of any sort.

I load around 20,000 rounds a year these days, 97% of which is handgun calibers, across about a dozen different chamberings, but mostly in 9mm, .38, .357, .40, 10mm, .327 Federal and .45 Auto.

An odd twist to my story is that metallic cartridge reloading was something I dabbled in AFTER I got set up and rolling with my Mec-650, making 20 gauge skeet loads. I had that process down to an exact science and had made countless boxes of shotshells before I even bolted down my Lee press to attempt .38 Special. I used to shoot 8 rounds of skeet each week when I was in High School, but I packed up the Mec-650 in the late summer of 1990 and it hasn't been out of the box since the late summer of 1990.

[MOshooter65202]

Dad let me start hanging out and helping in the reloading room as long as I can remember around 4 years old or earlier? Over 46 years ago.
One year for show and tell I took a Lee handloader to school and loaded a shotshell in elementary school

[jwrowland77]

Originally Posted by MOshooter65202

Dad let me start hanging out and helping in the reloading room as long as I can remember around 4 years old or earlier? Over 46 years ago.

One year for show and tell I took a Lee handloader to school and loaded a shotshell in elementary school

They'd probably call in a bomb squad now. That's like one time when I was young, we had just learned about pocket knives and got checked off on them. Well, I went to school with my pocket knife in my pocket and I started whittling away at some wood while on lunch in elementary school. They just called my dad and that was it. Man my dad was not happy about that. Mainly because he had to leave work to come get it. How times have changed.

[MOshooter65202]

That's for sure jwrowland. These days I would've been escorted out by the bomb squad and swat haha

[jersurf101]

I was 17 when my dad got me into handloading in 1995. We started with .270win and 45acp on an old Lyman press. My dad now loads on a Dillon and I use Lee. Between us we load every caliber we own minus rim fires and shotgun rounds.

[JasoninSD]

I've been loading since the age of 22 which has been some 20 odd years now. My son started helping out at about the age of 7. He is 12 now and loaded his own ammo (with supervision) to shoot three does last fall. It was nice to hear him talk about how well "his" reloads we working on deer.

[Brotherbadger]

Last year, so 29.

[salvadore]

I was 18 in 1968 and it was for a 30/30 94 with a lee loader and from a non gun enthusiast family. My mentors were Skeeter Skelton and Elmer Keith, started casting 71/73 and killed my first deer with a SAA Colt in 1974 with a .357. The load was an RCBS 150 grain SWC in a 38 case over 5 grains of unique. Will try to find a pic so everyone will see what a mighty hunter I am.

[Average Joe]

12 ga shotgun shells with a Lee classic loader when I was 12.

[Clark]

49

[TylerOutdoorsman]

I inherited a reloading setup: 2 single stage presses, 2 Lyman beam scales, about 8 sets of dies, and a plethora of components and oddities from my great uncle who died in about 2006. I built a bench and started reloading several rifle and pistol calibers. Now I have 2 Lee Progressive Pro loaders (one for 40 S&W and the other for 45 ACP), a Lee Classic Turret Press, and both of the single stage presses I inherited from my uncle on the bench.

I started loading 12 gauge shotshells last year when I got a MEC 600 with primer feed for $60 off a guy on craigslist, complete with a shot container full of #8 and a powder container full of CLAYS.