And at what age did you start reloading?

[mkl]

Cleaning out some old picture files and found the attached picture of my son. Thought I'd share with the group just for grins.

I started when I was 16 years old. Not to great a start since I broke a decapping pin on my first try. Was loading a .303 British. That's when I discovered what Berdan primers were.

Proud to say that my son is now 44 years old and has definitely passed me in reloading skill in that he is even casting his own bullets.

Methinks I may have started teaching him a little young, but who knows? It seems to have worked out okay

[jwrowland77]

Well I just got started 2 years ago at age 34. I'm currently teaching my oldest daughter who is 9. She's doing everything except primers. She dropped her first deer last year and so she got a bigger rifle for Christmas. Well, she said she wanted to be the one to reload for it, so I'm teaching her.

My middle daughter ,6, and youngest, 4, deprime and resize pistol for me.......when they can stop fighting over who's turn it is. Lol

[floydster]

mkl, great pic

I started reloading when I was 16 years old on an old Delta drill press, I am now 78 years old, the time has gone by in the wink of an eye

When I first started I had some old bench rest shooters that were my mentors, how happy I was when I got my C/H single stage, man, what an advancment, and my cast iron Redding scale, which i still use.

Enjoy your son, My Dad was killed when I was 6 months old, so I really don;t know what it was like to have a father, but I did have some great brothers at the time, and they all were handloaders--all are past away now--one lonely reloader left.

[TATER]

Kool Picts mkl,
I started in my early-mid 20's, Now, My wife on the other hand, she was pre-teens when she got started.
added:
Its funny, We cant work together in the kitchen at the sametime. But, we can each grab a press in the gunroom
and never make a sound. go figger

[JefferS]

I started last year when I was 47. Didn't seem like it was too late to start.

[Forrest68]

well I started at 45 myself which was last year right bout this time actually when I finally got all the componets to start maken my 9mm. Been enjoying it ever since, easily over 10k rounds loaded so far

[Gster]

I started just a little over a year ago when I was 56. Like a lot of things I enjoy, I wished I'd have started a long time ago.

[Daffy]

Started reloading in 1978 at 18, couldn't afford to shoot if I didn't. Been casting for about 16 years now.. I think..

[Blindstitch]

I started when I was 9. First I was only allowed to install primers with my grandpa. Then I went to seating projectiles. A little bit later I was finally allowed to measure powder and do the whole process.

Now that my grandpa live in a va home and can't have his reloading stuff I have acquired quite a bit of it and have been boxing my stuff back up and using what I learned on.

[mike7.62]

I started when I was 14 in 1971, my mentors were two of my older cousins. I started with .357 magnum. Buy the time I became an adult I was casting my own bullets, both rifle & handgun. I enjoy reloading as much as I do shooting.

[bbqncigars]

I started back in '67 with some Lee Loaders. At the tender age of 11, I figured that using a hammer to load wasn't the best idea. A year later I was mentored by a couple of my dad's friends who reloaded. Those fine gentlemen steered me into blowing a years wages as a paperboy on a Bonanza Co-Ax press. I still use that press regularly, and thank God I had such mentors as a youth.

[jepp2]

I started in 1964 at the age of 13. Loaded 12 ga. shot shells for several years before I moved on to metallic loading for rifles and a couple of years later for handguns.

When I think about how much I learned from my mentors, I worry about new reloaders these days with no mentor. You can learn a lot from the forums, but as you can tell from the problems folks have, the benefit of having someone guide you while looking over your shoulder just can't be valued enough.

[1stmar]

Great pic and story... Started when I was in my mid 20s. Press was a lee pro 1000 and cartridge was 357, dan Wesson w interchangeable barrels. Wish I still had it.

[Nevmavrick]

My mom let me start reloading when I was 12. She got me a Pacific kit for Xmas right after I turned 12 in October. That was in 1959.
I used to reload so I could shoot...now, I shoot so I can reload, lol.
Have fun,
Gene

[PoiDog]

I've had two tries at it. The first time I got involved was in 1983 or so, and I was around 31 at that time.

It didn't take, and I sold off the gear and components. Had a Rockchucker then, wish I kept it around.

Fast forward to the late '90s. I sold a gun I wasn't using, and bought a Dillon 550B with the proceeds in around 1999. I had already bought an older RCBS Reloader Special single stage from another loader.

This time it took, with a vengeance; I'm in it for life this time. Now I load everything I can, and have casting equipment as well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

A great hobby, and very rewarding. I should have stayed with it since the '80s, but we all make mistakes.

[Nick_C_S]

I started loading on June 4th, 1984; at the age of 21 - almost 22. Don't ask me how I know the exact date. I just know dates; I'm "Rainman" that way.

Anyway, I started on my own. My father wasn't a shooter. He was a veteran, and knows his way around firearms, but he was never a shooter or hunter. (My father is still living.)

I never got around to having children myself. But I've since married into a wonderful family, complete with a 2-yr-old granddaughter, and more to come. I'll happily pass along my sport shooting (I don't hunt) and reloading hobby to any grandchild (male or female) who shows an interest. I'd be honored.

[NWPilgrim]

Started when I was a young father on a budget at 33 yrs old. Back when a box of .30-06 was $8 and even then a box of .44 mag was $24. Budget is no longer an issue but reloading is a wonderful hobby to while away some time.

[44 AMP]

In the early 70s, when I was 16, and legal to hunt deer, my father gave me a deer rifle, and half a box of cartridges. I quickly realized that if I wanted to be able to shoot the rifle enough to get good with it, I would need more ammo.

And buying factory ammo simply wasn't the best option, cost wise. (no steady job). My loving grandmother bankrolled my first reloading set up ($40, a not inconsiderable sum for those days and our situation).

I got a Lyman Spartan press dies and a scale, manual, and loading block.
There was no internet, no teaching videos, and no one I knew that reloaded. Entirely self taught from books and magazine articles.

And, yes, I made some horrid mistakes in the early days.

Now, 40+ years later, I am set up to load for a few different cartridges (32 different rifle & pistol at last count), and over the years, I have learned a few things to do, and not do.

[Shootest]

I can’t recall if I was 20 or 21 when I started, so that would be in 1979 or 1980. I had a mentor but, he was an out of state gun shop owner, so much of my learning curve was on my own in between trips to my family’s hunting camp. I spent many a weekend there in the summer. It was great being able to shoot right out the back door.

[Toolman]

I started at age 52. I'm 63 now.

[9miller]

I started reloading right after I turned 19 and I'll only be 22 in a few months, so only for about 2 1/2 years, I started out because I couldn't buy 9mm until I turned 21 and I wasn't happy that I couldn't feed my 9mm unless I had someone buy my ammo, then I learned I could get all the equipment and components and load it my self. At that moment of discovery, it were as if 4 angels came to me singing "hallelujah! ". Fast forward to now and I have easily loaded over 4k rounds, summing from 4 different calibers. Glad I Googled "how to get ammo under 21". Now I rather spend my time at the turret press than the range and I see going to the range as "testing" my loads (no pun intended) instead of plinking.

[j357]

I finally started when I was 42.

I had a couple of incomplete starts in 2003 and 2005 where I bought manuals and did a lot of reading then questioned my knowledge, time and money to invest in the hobby to the point of convincing myself not to buy the equipment.

In the Fall of 2008 (odd timing huh? LOL) after spending many hours lurking on the boards here, I decided to order myself what many here recommend to beginners in the form of a LCT set up as Christmas present. I haven't looked back and really enjoy the hobby. I currently load for 6 pistol and 2 rifle cartridges.

I got my Dad interested recently and he is now starting to reload at age 70.

[AllenJ]

I started reloading when I was 14, about 38 years ago. My mentor was a neighbor who knew how to get his point accross to hard headed teenager and I still use many of the safety rules he taught me today.

[Swampman1]

Got you guys beat, started last year at 56. Too old...hell no!

[Freakingstang]

A year and a half ago at 33.

I've shot for years. Never had a desire to reload until my uncle died unexpectedly from a bike wreck (he was hit by a dunk in a power stroke that ran a stop sign).

After going through all his gun stuff, as no one else in the family is gun oriented, and he's the reason I'm the gun nut I am. I found all of his reloading stuff. I never knew he reloaded. I found powders, primers, cases, projectiles for 38/357, 223, 303 British, 8x56. Two trash bags full of 12ga hulls, 3 20lb bags of shot and 1500 wads, and old lee load all shotgun press... I never found dies or a rifle/pistol type of press

He had 400 38 special 148gr dewc loaded up. I pulled a couple bullets before I shot them. I got my meticulous-ness from him. Anyone else's loads, I wouldn't have shot them.

He had a pound of Hercules bullseye, Hercules blue dot, Hercules red dot all sealed in the old cardboard cans and two metals cans of DuPont imr4895. I've used all of that powder and then some in the past two years.

I think he'd be proud that I now reload everything I shoot with the exception of .22LR. It was kind of neat to see prices on primers of 69 cents and 8-9 dollar powder prices.