I'm 16 and i just recently started reloading. i was wonderin how many of you guys are around my age? i actually started reloading 3-4 years ago, but just got my own stuff recently.

Welcome though I am no teenager. I did not start until 22 so you started significantly earlier than me. Next year though it will have been 40 years and I have learned and enjoyed it a lot.
You will find that over the years your interests may change as you learn more. I started off with hunting rifle, then varmit rifle, then shotgun, then hand gun, then bench rest, then cast bullets in BPCR calibers off of a bench rest.

Similar to ireload2. I am now 53 and started loading when I was 12. I think your interest in loading at such a young age is fantasic. Stick with it as it is very rewarding to actually hunt and take game with your own reloads.

BRAVO!!!!!

I started when I was 14 and have been at it for 53 years. Good luck but always be careful.

Dang, y'all are OLD! I started when I was 22 and have been at it for 29 years...it just keeps getting better. Hang in there, Beretta9289, and welcome to a great hobby.

Ok, I'm somewhere in between Beretta9289 (but I *was* a teenager, once... ), but I sure ain't as old as SOME of you guys!

Anyway, I did start way back in my early teens. Started casting lead bullets in the garage with my dad & loading them in 38 Special. (When I think about how we did some of it, I really should be scared too!). Moved on to loading 22-250 for groundhogs with an older buddy. I *know* that it was before I was 16, cause I had to rely on him to get my bullets and haul my butt out to the groundhog fields, cause I was too young to drive!

Still loading, still enjoying it.

Glad to have you aboard Beretta9289!

Started reloading when I was 18. I started out with rifle calibers and now reload both rifle and pistol. I'm now 20 and still have as much fun reloading now as I did then.

I started at 19 just loading for a good ole 06. It's turned into an addiction. I'm 21 now. I have learned to appreciate the skill and expertise it takes to become an accurate shooter.

I now load for 5 rifle calibers and 2 pistol calibers. I can only see this progressing in the future.

I started at 14. The local shops would not sell me loaded shells but would sell me powder, primers and bullets!!!

I started when I was 15. I'm over twice that now!

I started helping my dad size and prime pistol cases when I was around 12/13. I started really getting into loading when he brought home a shotshell loader. I`m not sure but I believe I was probably 14 or 15 then. I didn`t get my own stuff until I was 21-22 year old and liveing to far from dads tooling to load up a few when ever the urge struck.

the way i got into it was like this. i went to this range w/ my dad when i was in 6th grade, i guess around 11-12 ys old. well i picked up all kinds of pistol brass and took it to my friends house one day. his dad had guns all over the place and had a reloading shop in the back yard and he put em in the tumbler and said come over here tomorrow. so i did and he helped me load em up. now, i'm reloading by myself. so i guess i started when i was 12, but really started to reload just recently by myself. i just can't wait till i can get an RCBS chargemaster combo this summer! i'm tryin to get all the things i want/need now so that i can have them when i get married and not "have" to buy them then. when ur a teenager, you can work, buy stuff, and still save some of it. no bills or nothin to worry about. so i'm diggin into it this summer.

Well i started when i was 15 years old and now im 18. Im addicted to it. I make at list 1 trip per week to the rifle range. My girlfriend thinks im crazy, but shes catching on that shooting/hunting is #1 in my life, and is surprisingly ok with that. So i think shes a keeper. Have fun, theres nothing better than shooting groups in under .2s.

Let's put a date on it guys.

I was loading all our '06's for elk hunting and practice when 14 in 1958.

Was married to a bambi lover 30 yrs and put things on hold for 25yrs of it. Am back at it ten times as much.

Hell, my first press was a 40# (just guessing) Herters' C press, still have it, but haven't used it for years. Paid $25 for that and $6-8 for dies.
Primers were 30cents, 4895 a buck, and 4831 at times was 50 cents a pound.

Brass was nickle a coffee can full at the scrap yard by the barrel's full. Just dig in and get what you wanted.

Welcome to the club kid!!
Get that girl friend into loading and shooting too. Especially IF you think you'll be the one keeping her. Good luck both ways!

Interesting thread.

George

I started at 17 in 1969 with a Lee Loader for a .30 Carbine I had an older friend buy for me.

Thirty-seven years later, I still have that same Lee Loader, plus a 10x12 room full of additional equipment. I moved the firearms out years ago to make room for the extra stuff I had to have for loading one cartridge or another.

It's gotten to the point where I shoot only to empty brass so I can have something that needs reloading.

I started 33 years ago when I was 17. My youngest son actually learned the process when he was about 8 and now that he is 13....he could put together very safe and accurate ammo for just about any gun.

Kids today have it a little easier learning the proper methods and tricks, video`s, the web, ect. They likely will know more then us old guys by the time they are 30. I always enjoy hearing of teens reloading and shooting, there just aren`t enough of them.

Here`s a guy that likely will know more then me (not hard to do) by the time he`s 13 and I`ve been learning by mistake for over 40 yrs.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d149/1Savage/100_0267.jpg

Well, I didn't start until I was almost 30 (~5 years ago) - would have loved to start earlier. Been into guns and hunting since I was 7 or 8, passion hasn't died a bit!

My 3 year old "helps" daddy now - he loves helping me work the press when neck-sizing or seating bullets - just sits patiently waiting for the next one.

Gotta start 'em young!

Well im 18 now and it been about 5 years now but just this last year has been by myself.

I was given my first press (CH C model) and dies for 303 British when I was 11. That was 48 years ago. I now load for some 60 plus calibers and shotguns from .410 - 10 gauge, cast and swage bullets. The lead poisioning I suffer is from the addictiveness of the hobby

Welcome!

Well, it's been at least 100 years since I was a teenager, but I bought my first .30/'06 (a Model 721 Remington) when I was 13, and quickly discovered that I had to start handloading for it if I was going to learn how to shoot it.

I started with a Lyman 310 tong tool (which I still have!!), a Pacific powder scale that had screw poises which you had to set by putting little aluminum weights in the powder pan equal to the charge you wanted to throw, a box of M2 ball 150-grain bullets from the DCM, and a pound of Hodgdon's surplus 4895 powder that came in a brown paper sandwich bag!

Handloading is still fascinating even after all these years!! Maybe even more so, considering what we have available these days.

Beretta: I started when I was 15. Bought an RCBS Junior press, a scale, a can of IMR 3031 and a box of Sierra 150-grain flatpoints for my new Marlin .30-30. Been loading ever since, and now I'm 53. You have some good times ahead.

Im 18 and have loaded almost 1300 rounds this last 3 months.

quote:

My 3 year old "helps" daddy now - he loves helping me work the press when neck-sizing or seating bullets - just sits patiently waiting for the next one.

My almost 3 year old doesn't quite wait all the time...as my pinched finger proved! She is eager to try anything daddy does though...

I was a late starter. I hunted a bit in my teens, but put it on hold through the college and early career years. I was too busy fishing and chasing girls I guess...

My dad started me loading shotshells in 1971. I was 11 then so it's been 35 years if my math does me right. As you may find out handloading is a life long addiction.

My daughter started loading shotshells for me on a MEC 600Jr press when she was 11. I paid her two pennies each (was in England for three years then so child labor laws didn't apply ). Problem was I went on a business trip (USAF officer at the time) and she loaded until all my 12 and 20 ga components were gone. Had her mother go to the Rod & Gun club to get more!
Later, back in the states, she decided she wanted to load her own .45ACP ammo. Started that and did an excellent job. She would love to have boys take her out to "teach her to shoot." Guess who taught who?

Beretta9289: Congratulations on your interest in handloading!
Handloading is a rewarding and very interesting hobby!
I also started handloading at a very young age and that made it additionally difficult as I had to teach myself ALL the in's and out's of the mechanics of handloading!
It was simply a cost thing as I could not afford to shoot centerfire ammo at the costs of factory cartridges back then.
I was 12 years old in 1959 and I often walked home from football, track and basketball practice and had to pass a quality sport and gunshop on my way.
One of my mentors there actually loaned me my first press and I gathered brass at the local range for free (at the time brass was literally thrown away by 98% of the shooters!).
Powder was often found for 75 cents a pound (surplus)!
I hope you are lucky enough to have a "mentor" for your reloading that can answer your questions and give you direction in a timely manner and you don't have to wait for the next after school practice and walking home to get your questions answered.
Be sure and keep good notes (in a log of some type) of your trials and loads.
And take this to heart as my only advice to you - don't "push" the max load envelope!
I have seen Rifles and pistols wrecked by poor decisions in this regard and I have seen two of my friends injured seriously with over max loadings. Its not worth the risk exceeding safe and sound pressures and loading recommendations.
I have been shooting targets, Big Game, Small Game and Varmints for 47 years now with my "safe reloads"! And if I do say so my self I have been VERY successful at these endeavors and very reassured and happy with my "safety concious" handloads.
Best of luck to you with your reloading career.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

varmintguy...i don't by any means try to max loads out. i'm not in it for velocity. i haven't even gotten near max year for my .270. i need to get a heavier load, but i'm not crazy about the whole maxed out deal.