I just noticed from the date on some old records that in another week will be exactly 50 years since I loaded my first hand load!
Things were crude back then and I had little money, but managed to buy a LEE loader for my
1917 30-06, a crude sporterized WW1 veteran, original iron sights.
In addition to the loader itself, less than 10 bucks, you had to buy primers, a plastic mallet, a box of bullets and a can of powde, all for about 20 bucks. The sporting goods store owner looked at available powders back then, and found that the only load combo that would fit a bullet weight and the included powder scoop was IMR 4320. About 46 grains if my old records are accurate. And a150 grain bullet.
You'd take the spent cartridge, drive out the old primer, then hammer it into the “ die” which only neck sized it, then reprised it in the base thing that also served as a bullet seater. Once reprimed you’d take a scoop of 4320 leveled off with a pocket knife, then dump it down the die into the case. Then you’d take a bullet and tap it home with the bullet seater thing ( the primer was safely kept in the clear by the base thing! Tapping the bullet home popped the loaded round out of the die! I still have the original plastic mallet from 50 years ago, too.
i used this fairly crude reloader for years till I could afford a then new RCBS JR press (now outdated by the rockchucker but still works perfectly) and a powder scale and measure. With the old Eddystone 06 I shot lots of deer, a caribou, elk, Black bears, moose, a stone sheep and mountain goats. The longest shot in those days was about 150 yards on a goat,maybe maybe 100 on the sheep. Missed a huge bighorn at about 100 yards...damn...but you remember misses more clearly than hits!
No range finders back the. Later on I had the old gun drilled and tapped for a cheap 30 dollar Japanese scope, equivalent to the cheapest made in China scope these days.
Before the gun was scoped I won second prize in an iron sight mechanical running game competition. Wait, guess it was first prize. The guy who shold have easily beaten me mistakingly stuffed 270 loads in his 06, and his bullets went pretty wild! We all kidded him that he now had good fire formed brass! LOL
I've reloaded maybe 10,000 rounds, a variety of pistol and rifle since than, and have got quite a few interested in reloading, recently mentoring a young fellow with some more modern stuff to start with.
Seeing my 50 year old handwriting and scribbling in the margins of my first reloading manual (now a collectors item) brought back a lot of old memories that I thought I’d share. Hope I’m smart enough to include pictures.
I wonder how many handloaders started with the ancient LEE loaders? I’d bet several on this website, mostly old farts like me. LOL
