Did you have a "mentor" to help you learn?

[Pistolero]

Sort of... a friend of my father reloaded shotshells, and I saw the reloader and watched his kids load shotshells
when I was about 13. By 16, a neighbor had a bunch of guns and loaded with Lee Loaders. After watching him
a bit, I bought a Lyman 310 and was off. He also cast for his original .58 Springfield Civil War muzzle loader, so
I saw that done, too. The Lee Loader was in 7x57 for my Mauser 95 Chileano, which is the first thing I ever loaded
for.

When I graduated college, I bought a Browning HP and got a RCBS Rock Chucker for Christmas from my wonderful
wife (still have both!) and a Lee 105 SWC mold and went to town. Did a lot "wrong" but that HP digested everything I put out
and made a lot of grins. A few years later, I bought a Gold Cup, discovered IPSC and the Rock Chucker just couldn't
keep up, had to get a Dillon 450...... Mostly learned on my own, but had seen some of it done, so knew to get the
books and learn it. My father had loaded his target ammo decades earlier, but had no gear left and was deployed
most of the time, or I was out of the house, so no real learning from him on this item - learned a whole lot of other
stuff from him, though.

Bill

 

[35 shooter]

Ex father in law got me interested from watching him. He was very close mouthed for the most part and wouldn't let you touch the equipment much at all.

I learned most of what i needed to know from lyman manuals and a few tips from the gun rags of the day and some trial and error.
No internet in those days like now, so a lot of answers to advanced loading techniques came slow...you earned it as you went.

After about 15 years of that, i met an ex army competition shooter with a keen interest in bench competition and picked up most of the rest of what i know from him about "precision loading" and just further reading everything i could find on the subject.

I basically started with a lee "whack a mold" for 12 ga. and then a mec junior and a rcbs rockchuck(still have them), and the old lyman manuals.

 

[JWFilips]

If I go Way Back MY Father-in-law got me started reloading about 1980 I just absorbed everything he would say! But Back then it was strictly Jacketed! By the end of the 80's I was shooting heavy bench rest! Somewhere in the early 90's I put that all aside for a new life in the 18th Century! That being said somewhere by 2009 I joined the modern world again and this time with lead bullets!...then I found all you guys!

 

[SierraHunter]

I learned both casting and Reloading from my dad.

 

[Ian]

I learned both casting and Reloading from my dad.

Very fortunate you are. Most of us had to learn it in spite of our parents, or at the least on our own with books as our guide. Is is just me, or does all this sort of seem to skip a generation?

 

[SierraHunter]

I'm not sure I would say that. I have a very hard time finding folks my age that even shoot guns, let alone reload or cast. (I'm 23)

 

[freebullet]

You might be the youngest buck here, welcome! I'm 37 & find myself in the same boat. Overheard some 20ish dorks talking about something called pokemon a while back & when I found out what that is it made me sad fer America's future. At 20 I couldn't have cared less about cartoons but, they were going on about it like it was cool or something special.

I definitely find it near impossible to relate to younger folks today. Glad to have you here.

 

[SierraHunter]

You might be the youngest buck here, welcome! I'm 37 & find myself in the same boat. Overheard some 20ish dorks talking about something called pokemon a while back & when I found out what that is it made me sad fer America's future. At 20 I couldn't have cared less about cartoons but, they were going on about it like it was cool or something special.

I definitely find it near impossible to relate to younger folks today. Glad to have you here.

I don't get along with people my age period. I am honestly ashamed to be part of this Generation, but there is nothing I can do about it.

Thanks for the welcome. I was sent this way by a member here, Tom.

 

[KHornet]

Believe I learned to load via a friend whose father was a loader and
shooter. Was probably between 13-14 or so. The father was a pistol
shooter and a caster. Think the first bullet I ever cast was for a 44
Russian. Probably 14-15 years old. Didn't get back to it until I was
21 and fresh out of the Corps. Started with a 310 tool in 222, and
a Webster oil damper scale. First mold was/is a 311284, and I cast
on the kitchen stove in a cast iron skillet, and pan lubed with beeswax/
vasoline/Crisco with some very fine powdered graphite. All along the
way I became an NRA member and a life member when the member
ship for life was $125.00 payable in quarterly installments of 12.50
until paid off. Over the years I devoured loading manuals, with
emphasis on Lyman. The original 284 mold was HP'd by Buckshot
many years ago, and is one of my favorites.

 

[SierraHunter]

Wow! 125 for a NRA membership? I joined last December just before the price hike, and it was $1000. I am doing it on the payment plan which is $25 every three months. I usually pay a bit more.

 

[Ian]

I think I can speak for all of us here that we're glad to have you along, and wish there were more like you. People who strive to master dangerous things such as firearms and hot lead for fun, sport, or food are the sort who also tend to do other things that make humanity move in a constructive direction.

 

[Minute Of Berm]

I started reloading in '64 or '65, my BIL was into it and he started myself and my father down that road, I remember loading for the .243, a 300 sav. my 44mag, 22-250, and a 300win mag. I didn't start casting until 2015 and owe a vote of thanks to the guru crowd here, and over at CB. An honorable mention to "462" who lent moral support and encouragement through some of my failures.

Thank you all gentlemen.

 

[smokeywolf]

Started out sweeping Dad's shop floor when I was 2 or 3 years old. Pulling on a press handle by the time I was 3 or 4. Dad was a good teacher with regard to firearms safety and handling, but didn't have the patience to teach reloading. Also, he spent a good portion of his time gunsmithing. 2/3 of what I know about casting and reloading I've learned from books and the internet.

 

[oscarflytyer]

My Dad was my shooting and hunting mentor and got me started in all things outdoors! I have had help along the way, but the casting I primarily learned on my own, and got a lot of info off the forums and some guys were very helpful one on one via IMs/email. Have 5 boys, and coached all of them. So I tend to be the mentor for my boys and any of their buddies that want to get into shooting/hunting/reloading. Enjoy it a lot, and know how much it helps, not having had help with casting.

 

[popper]

No, parents were anit-gun. year before I got retired I got a Marlin 30/30. Found ammo wasn't that cheap so I learned reloading from THR. Got a 40SW & bullets weren't cheap so I got a Lee moukl & pot. Got pointed to CastBoolits to learn casting. Might say it's been downhill from there. Got an AR10, learned about alloys, coating, etc. Somehow got into shotguns but don't have a desire to reload them.

 

[KHornet]

Sierrahunter, glad to have you on board. You will learn and gain much from
this forum.

Paul

 

[Maven]

My parents were anti-gun as well, but I watched with great interest when the shop class ahead of ours ( i.e., more advanced) poured lead keels for their sailboat projects. (This was ~1955 or '56.)* I didn't begin casting until 1970 though when I got a Italian Colt 1851 replica .36cal. Casting in earnest began sometime in the early '80's, but no mentor. Rather, I read various cast bullet books repeatedly, especially Lyman CB Handbk. #3 and E.H. Harrison's "Cast Bullets" adding titles as they became available.

*Not a chance that this would happen in a 6th grade shop class now!!

 

[RBHarter]

I can't remember a time where there wasn't an M5 Ohause , a 500/600jr MEC and an Orange Crusher or Rock Chucker around . I loaded my 1st metallic cartridge when I was 10-11 and a case or 2 of 12ga not long after that .
It kind of dried up from about 1985 to 1992 when the factory steel shot just wasn't getting the job done and it was twice the price of what it cost to load it .
Casting was a whole nother bucket of snakes . It stared of all innocently with a box of Speer bullets for a 38 ..... Then came the thrill of a commercial 180 gr slick in an 06' . I wanted to shoot more for less and $22/100 was too much for bullets to be practicing breathing,trigger and hold over ........ Then came the 45 Colts .......that was probably it when the price jumped from $18 to $38 /50 .

CB was a huge asset in learning why rifle bullets weren't working out .
I got into paper patched for a while . Most of what I'm doing is perfecting loads that work and working for matching jacketed performance levels whether groups or terminal performance .

 

[JWFilips]

This thread is Pretty informative: I'm 63 and really can't imagine that any of the older folks had parents that were anti-gun! I grew up, as Well as my son, with the knowledge that a gun was a tool to be used for a specific purpose ....... in our case it was for procuring food for the family and alternately the sport of the hunt!
When I started shooting competition in the 1980's, My family accepted that as another use of the tools. Now being the youngest in my family ( not much of us left) the quest for shooting cast bullets accurately has also won a place into the proper use of these tools.

 

[gman]

My dad wasn't a handloader or a bullet caster but my first memories of being in a duck blind was with him. We made some duck hunts and deer hunts together but dad didn't hunt much anymore. He did however always make sure I had a place to hunt growing up.