How did you start re-loading?

[Oldbloke]

About 35 or 40 years ago I started with a cardboard box with most of the bits for a Classic Lee reloader for a 12g that a work mate gave me. The scoop was missing.

Next I purchased Classic lee reloader for my 30.06.

After a year or two I bought a Simplex Master O press and RCBs dies for the 30.06. Used DIY Scoops, DIY loading block.
Purchased additional bits as required such as trimmer and scales.

[bladeracer]

I bought a .222Rem rifle when I was seventeen, a Lee Loader, a can of 4198, some primers, 40 pieces of Winchester brass and a few different bullets to play with. I never bought or fired any factory centrefire ammo in my rifles until I got my first 6.5x55mm rifle a year or so later. For that one I was buying the Norma FMJ ammo as it was fairly cheap.

[geoff]

I've always lived hundreds of kilometres away from a gun shop and back when I started, reloading was quite cheap. I'm grateful for having good stockpiles of consumables for my most-loaded calibres but I look at retail on powder and primers these days and think geez.....the economics ain't so great anymore.

My first press was a hand-me-down super simplex setup. It came in an old army 303 ammo locker with a heap of half empty powder tins that were decades old even for back then. Can't bring myself to get rid of them.

[bigpete]

Using dads 223 Lee loader to load 222 rimmed for my martini

[bigpete]

Using dads 223 Lee loader to load 222 rimmed for my martini

[wanneroo]

There was a huge panic and run on guns in 2013 during obama's 2nd term. 9mm, if it could be found, was over $30 a box, which was considered an insane price at the time. A lot of common calibers could not be found either or if they were they were priced high.

I didn't have much money at the end of 2013 and I had time on my hands until all the work I had booked in 2014 kicked in, so I decided to learn a skill and learn how to reload. I watched a bunch of videos on Youtube and also read some reloading manuals. Since the budget was low and I had no bench, I got a Lee hand press, 9mm dies, the cheap Lee powder measure and a few other tools. Got some cheap "seconds" 9mm bullets from Midway and the only powder available locally was Unique so I started with that.

There was a slight learning curve figuring out how to set up the dies, I think I messed up a few pieces of brass, but I got it all figured out and sat there in a cold barn in an old wooden chair and was super happy when I made my first box of 9mm.

Regardless of prices, I think there is a degree of self autonomy and sufficiency there being able to reload your used brass.

[No1Mk3]

Bought a Lyman 310 hand tool in 303 in 1973 , bought 30/30 dies a month later then 8x57 month after that. Made powder scoops from fired cases using a friends scales to determine charge weights with a couple of common powders (IMR 4350. Norma 204) Bought a Lee Loader hand tool in 308 plus a Lee scoop kit and a Lyman D7 scale the following year when I got the 308 Spanish Carbine 1895. Moved on a bit since though.

[Wm.Traynor]

I had a 25/303 on a 98 Mauser action and there was no such thing as factory ammo, I Think. A Straightline tool made by Bill Marden Snr., was my reloading tool. To get the powder charge right, the local chemist weighed a minimum charge of 4740, into a couple of empty cases and even put corks in their mouths. A couple of flat washers over them seating stem and i was a reloader and have been ever since

[yoshie]

I joined the pistol club and had a 22 for a year or so, not really intending on buying anything bigger. Eventually I got K38 smith in 38 special and was surprised at the price on factory 38 special. There was a gun shop at Cooparoo that had Lee anniversary kits cheep and i started loading my old 38 cases with AP50 using an old wooden board with about 350 holes drilled in as a loading tray, now I have turrets and progressive presses

[6mm Remington]

Back in the late 1980's I aquired a rifle, reloading dies and some reloaded ammunition from a workmate. He had been using Mulwex AR2206 and those loads would produce a four foot flame out the end of the barrel. I was fortunate enough to know a gentleman who passed on his vast knowledge of ballistics and he set me in the right direction and kindly provided me with a RCBS rock crusher that I still use regularly all these years later. Thank you Mr M.E.C Barrett.

[animalpest]

Started loading for 30/06, 44 mag, 22/250 and hornet back in 1980. Bought an orange set for beginners. Still use most of it today.

[mickb]

Reloading for 375h&h over 20 years ago back when I could still handle the big guns. I wasn't trying to save cost, didnt shoot enough 375 to worry about it.


But wanted to improve performance on medium game. The factory slugs were punching through things without the effect I wanted. So I loaded up taipan 220grain bullets and 270 Woodleigh roundnoses to the gills and got what I wanted.

From memory the 270's were rocking about 2850fos which is near max bookload and 150fps over factory power. Great bullet

[wrenchman]

I started in the 80s with a friend we I started out on the 270 with his lee press I have a lyman single stage that I do every thing I like loading the 3030 and the 357 the most they are rounds that seem to get a lot out of hand loading.
I still load the 270 for hunting its now my go to for hunting deer and have had Great luck the last few years with it.

[JohnV]

I started by buying my first two guns from the Omark rep who came to the factory where I worked . He got me a special discount because he was allowed to buy stuff at trade + his staff discount . I bought a 22-250 and a 243 Parker hale super safari which the Rep delivered right to my work bench , ( the good old days ). All up cost $169 + a case of Tooheys draft . Then later I went to Bill Marden Senior the gunsmith and bought a super simplex O Frame press and some RCBS dies . plus other stuff . I still have the Simplex O frame but the two Parker Hales went when I had to sell stuff off to make a house deposit . Really regret loosing those Parker Hales as the Santa Barbara Actions were very nice .

.

[Noisydad]

I pestered dad to let me have a go at loading .38sp for his Smith & Wesson revolver on his Super Simplex press. That was in 1971 and I was 8. I still have that press (and others) and have been reloading ever since. These days the reloading is nearly exclusively for various black powder shootin irons and I cast A LOT of bullets and make my own bullet lubes too.

[bladeracer]

I pestered dad to let me have a go at loading .38sp for his Smith & Wesson revolver on his Super Simplex press. That was in 1971 and I was 8. I still have that press (and others) and have been reloading ever since. These days the reloading is nearly exclusively for various black powder shootin irons and I cast A LOT of bullets and make my own bullet lubes too.

I bought a 1300-degree furnace this week as I plan to do a huge casting session this winter for pistol bullets. The guy selling it also had 7.5kg of pewter ingots which I grabbed.

[Blr243]

I was in my early twenties building a pergola for an old bloke called Geoff Blakery at Forrest lake. Somehow we got talking guns. He gave me a few reloading tips on his press. And I combined that with stuff I read in magazines More than 30 yrs later I still haven’t blown myself up. Thanks Geoff

[Blr243]

I was in my early twenties building a pergola for an old bloke called Geoff Blakery at Forrest lake. Somehow we got talking guns. He gave me a few reloading tips on his press. And I combined that with stuff I read in magazines More than 30 yrs later I still haven’t blown myself up. Thanks Geoff

[Wapiti]

I started loading for a sporterised 303 when I was 15, using a Lee Loader, the kind you use a hammer with. I would ride my pushy 15km to the closest store, A-Mart All-Sports, and buy projectiles and powder etc and load ammo for it.
Then I got an M1 Garand, and used a Lee Loader for it also. I could buy clips from the local disposals for 20c each, even machine-gun belts full of US ammo to shoot in it. The cases were boxer primed so I reloaded them.
There were a lot of pigs cleaned up with that. I never considered a rifle with a scope.
Then I got an M14 from Peter Cue at Tarragindi, and got a Lee loader for that, and hunted exclusively with it and that was the start of me being offered to do culling work.. I don't think I could do that anymore.
Eventually morphing into standard presses, dies and all that.
Fast forward to 15 + years ago, and after discovering precision rifles I graduated to Redding Competition dies, carbide insert dies for rifle cartridges, micrometer adjustment sizing and seating, electronic auto powder measures and controlling all measurements to thous of an inch. Body dies that leave the necks unsized to be individually sized to the chamber or case neck thickness. Neck turning for tight, custom chamber extreme range rifles where a factory cartridge will not even fit, what a chore that is. Sizing, shoulder-bump, bullet seating, land clearance, bullet run-out. Wow, what a difference that made to consistency. Now, there isn't a cartridge or rifle loaded for that isn't done this way for us.
Taught me heaps, and also how much scurrilous advice is out there too.