I've had components and most of the equipment I needed for reloading for years.  Decided that 2022 was finally going to be the year I learned.  Took 9 months, but I was finally able to get together with my dad's friend and learn the finer points of loading my own ammo.  

He's been loading for as long as I can remember, and I'm 37.  This morning we sat down at my workbench and he took me through all the steps.  I've read up on it, and watched several youtube videos, but I wanted a lesson from a master on how to set up the dies, scale, powder measure etc.  We took our time and loaded 20 rounds of .45 Colt.  We had a minor hiccup getting the hand priming tool to work, but other than that everything went as I expected.  RCBS Rockchucker press with all the standard RCBS equipment.  It all worked as it should have.

Shot a cylinder full in the back yard and they functioned flawlessly, so I loaded 30 more after lunch.

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A 250 gr RNFP from Bayou Bullets over 7.0 gr of HP-38.  A good middle of the road load to shoot out of my Ruger New Vaquero.  

Looking forward to learning more and loading other calibers.  I have an AR in 7.62x40WT that I want to load for eventually.

That's awesome! Be careful, reloading is an addicting habit, and before you know you'll be set up for 20 different calibers

Great job OP.

To the OP
Congrats!

I understand pulling middle ground load to test your skills..
But, please take to account to do a proper load work up so that your ammo is the reliable, accurate, and safe in your platforms.
Never want a batch of ammo that does not shoot worth a darn, and have to end up pulling the ammo down.
Keep records!

Enjoy!

Well Done.

Glad you had a mentor. That saves lots of headaches. Always play it safe.

I will suggest sticking with very small batches more often for a while. Lots of small cycles are better than few big ones in the beginning.

This will force you to run the whole process and reinforce the steps to ramp you up the learning curve.

Welcome to the affliction.

Good work op

This is so true.

I started reloading in college with the cheapest Lee setup I could get to make the cheapest hunting bullets I could possibly make. Was tired of paying $3/rd for my 300WM hunting rounds.

15 years later and I have a devoted reloading room and would guess I've easily dropped $20k on reloading related gear/components.

Just think of all the money I've saved


Welcome to the hobby! The reloading forum is great, tons of experience reloader here.

good job.  Before long you'll be wanting a progressive.  Only concern is the "middle ground" load.  Always make a small set of test loads from the min charge to the max and shoot them in that order and be prepared to stop when seeing high pressure signs and dismantling the remaining rounds.  Typically though the max charges will be OK, just depends.

Well done!

45 Colt was my first as well.  I only do 3 loads at present, 45Colt, 45/70 and 9mm.  Want to start 5.56 but not sure I want to trim brass and reform it...

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and advice.  Might've jumped ahead a little with a mid range load, but they shot fine in my Vaquero with no signs of high pressure.  My mentor checked them out.  Wouldn't have started there without his guidance.  

I can see this is going to be addictive.  Like I said, I've had components and equipment for a while.  Already have dies for 5 calibers, eyeing some .223 dies but not sure what to get.  Gonna practice on handgun calibers before I start with rifle stuff.

you'll find reloading .223 includes all the steps for pistol, but you'll need to add a trimming step to the process and with most .223 brass nowadays a way to deal with crimped or tight primer pockets (ream or swage), not plug and play like for pistol.

Also lubing the cases, not required for pistol with carbide dies (every pistol die nowadays is carbide anyway).  Then that means a delubing step.

Your mentor probably knows this and can guide you

Congratulations buddy. I still remember my first batch. Was a great personal experience.

Nice job! As others have said it is a fun hobby.
I remember how I felt when I harvested my first deer with reloads in my .243.
For me it was very satisfying to have the tools and knowledge to achieve that, with alot of it gained on this forum.

Well, you're hooked now!

That’s one of my goals. I want to snag a deer or a pig with an AR i’ve built, with my own handloads, and cook it on the bbq grill I built in high school.

Nicely done!  

Congrats. I find focusing on reloading pushes daily clutter out of my mind and gives me a nice reward of useful ammo and motivates range trips.

Having some of those old school reloader guys is great.  I worked briefly with some guys who had 30 years each of reloading experience.  Everything from 9mm to 50BMG.  Every time I ran into a snag, I would tell them what happened.  Then they'd be like, oh yea, you have do this and this.  Stuff I couldn't find searching the Interwebs.  Good luck on your journey.  I started with a Lee hand press and now have 2 single stages and Dillion.

I just recently started doing 50 BMG which is a completely different animal...

Well done OP.

Drop in anytime!

I remember when I finally took the plunge and turned out my first loads.  It's been about 12-14 years since and I still have plenty to learn.  I wish I had someone to help me get started.  Had to go it alone.  Not sure if that was a hindrance or a help.  Good luck with your newfound hobby.