Reloading....How old?

[winmagman]

This morning I was loading up some 243 ammo and my oldest (11 in Dec.) asked if he could help.

Now in the past he has handed me bullets during the seating process or handed me brass while I was weighing charges, but he wanted to do the whole thing start to finish.

So since the brass was already prepped and primed I walked him through the process of throwing and weighing the powder and then the seating the bullet and measuring the finished round. After the instruction session I turned him loose on the last 20 rounds while I watched over his shoulder, especially the powder throwing. I gotta say he did a fine job, not the fastest on the scale but I think thats due to the fact that I harped on how critical this stage was and his desire to get it perfect. As for seating his OAL came out on target + or - .001. He keeps this up and I'll have my own personal bullet factorylightbulb

So how many of you guys let your kids pitch in while reloading and when were/are you comfortable turning the loose on their own?

Chris

 

[fj40mojo]

Thanks for the memory prod. I was the same age when my dad started showing me the ropes at the reloading bench. Parallel story. By 14 I was loading my own without supervision, I was pretty proud when dad handed me my own set of keys to the shop, kinda like getting your driver's license . Every big game animal I've ever shot was killed with hand loads done with my own 2 hands. When I turned 18 and went into the Army he got me my own reloading set up, Rockchucker Master Reloading Kit. Still using it. I let my 5yo help at the bench, he loves throwing brass in the tumbler and seating bullets. He's not anywhere close to ready to go on his own, but I think it's great that he is showing interest in my hobby. Can't wait to take him hunting!