Family members disapproving of reloading?
 

When you first expressed the desire to start handloading your own ammo, did your family members raise a stink about it? Alternatively, are you interested in handloading but have family members that strongly disapprove?

nope, my wife and kids come in my reloading room occasionally and ask what I am doing and if they can help. Outside of them I dont care what anyone else in my family thinks about me reloading

Just what is it they disapprove of? Saving money, often LARGE amounts of money on many cartridges? Tailoring your loads to your rifle/handgun so that it is a more precise tool? The feeling of accomplishment when you get that load just right for your firearm?

There really is absolutely no downside to competent reloading. As long as you are following all safety protocols in reloading, the same as you should in all shooting sports, then there is absolutely nothing to disapprove of. In all my years, I don't think I have ever heard anyone disapprove of reloading except for ammo manufacturers who, by the way, have used wildcatters formulas to come up with their own cartridges and powder loads for over a century now! And of course claim it as their own unique concept :rolleye0011:

No reason to disapprove. Like when I first got married and wanted to buy a new rifle. She said "I don't think you need one". I told her that she sounded just like my ex wife. She said "I didn't know you were married before." I said "I wasn't"!

Yep,heard it many years ago. Biggest thing was: "YOU ARE GOING TO BLOW THE HOUSE UP!"
What to heck? They didn't care about me getting blown up,just the house!!!!!!!!
It passed,their house is still there [ they have passed on] and i am still doing it .
Its a million times safer than driving down the road to a store!

Back when I first expressed the desire to start handloading in high school and put reloading equipment on my Christmas list, my parents put a stop to it. My younger sister was especially vocal about it. Once I graduated and saved up a lot of money from graduation presents, I started planning on ordering a kit. Since I was and still am a college student living at home, I have to play by my parents' rules. Fortunately, my dad no longer cared, and my mom decided I could do whatever I wanted with my money as long as I was careful. But my sister, man she was pissed. She kept telling me I was certain to blow up my gun and asked me "What's more important to you: some better accuracy or your life?" Whenever I tried to explain the benefits and refute her statements, she got angry with me and didn't want to hear another word of it.

Of course, she has no authority over me, so I bought the kit against her protests. I have over 1000 rounds under my belt, and best of all, no blown up guns. She hasn't said another word against handloading.

I was just wondering if any of you have ever heard any similar ridiculous things about handloading from your family or relatives.

It's funny how those with the least experience with something usually has the LOUDEST objections to it! From what I am gathering, your parents just didn't want you "blowing" money on it (man I am getting GOOD at this pun thing aint I) but your sister's objections sounds more like uneducated hysteria than advise to be followed. While yes, reloading can be dangerous if not done properly, to anyone with an ounce of common sense and a firm grasp at reading and following instructions, it is safer than walking out to your mailbox! Me personally, I trust my reloads a hell of a lot more than factory loads. Especially in today's world of non existent quality control!

LMAO thanks for the laugh Clem, that one had me giggling for a good while! Wife said she can certainly relate as well :D

I got a chuckle out of it also. :D:D:D

I started when I was 16 with shot shell reloading. Had a job that paid me fairly well so I went to a local gun shop bought a Mec 650 Jr a thousand 209 primers 8 pound keg of red dot and a bag of wads bag of shot for my 16ga shot gun. I still have the Mec and shot gun today, try to find an supply of 16ga shot shells in stores today!!!

My mom asked if the powder was dangerous I told her about as much as the 500 gallon barrel of gasoline out by the tractor shed setting next to the 500 gallons of diesel.


I was reloading when I got married and my wife knew before hand. She is fine with it even though I probably have close to 25 pounds of different powders and several thousands of primers.


As long as I am doing stuff in my own home the and wife is fine with it the rest of the family can KMA.


:D Al

Ya gotta love that one! :barmy::barmy::barmy:

Life's too short for such trivial distractions...

Some of the calibers I have owned can cost upwards of $11 a round (450/400 3 1/4 Nitro Express) so when you look at the cost of reloading it, less than $3 a round, my wife wasn't at all upset with me reloading.

I started reloading after I got married. when I explained to the wife what a box of ammo for a 300 H&H mag cost and what I saved by reloading nothing was ever said about reloading. now I reload for all my rifles and revolvers.

Ha... you worry about family members against reloading. I have family members AGAINST gun ownership... some city peeps just don't get what real life, and being human is about. Yeap they think I am a total freak cause I have a rifle... If they knew I had more than one rifle, they would think I am a psycho. So I keep them at bay. They just don't get it, I don't even bother trying to explain about ammo, and that a .22 is used for target and small game and stuff. To them, a gun is a gun, no matter what, it is a people murdering machine.

Thankfully, this is just my sister. My wife doesn't give a damn, as she is a normal human being.

I think for most people it's a safety concern but competent individuals with some common sense will be fine. It will save money in the long run especially shooting certain calibers.

I never have been questioned by immediate family members. My dad started reloading in the 80's, and taught me how when I was in grade school. By the time I was in High School, I was working up my own loads for new rifles by myself. I do have a cousin, though, who won't shoot any of my reloads. I let him shoot some .44 mag loads that were a tidbit on the hot side. They must have hurt his delicate little hand, because he still refuses to shoot anything I load.

LMAO!!! He sure wouldn't want to shoot any of my .44mag loads then. Mine aint just a "tidbit". My Rugers are some tough pistols and that toughness gets tested with every shot! I take them to the edge and then peek a little bit over :D He would probably be comfortable with my .45lc loads though. They are soft little puppy dog loads :D

My wife does a bit of her own reloading. Our 3yr old already took over decapping responsibility, he loves running my old Lee O-Press (now my dedicated universal decapper).

My extended family tends to only criticize my reloading because of the money spent on new presses (have 7 set up right now), but then the next day they're calling for me to press more ammo for them.

My ex used to complain( For lack of a better word on a family website!!!) and it came up in court. I just sat back and let her attny go with it. My attny then brought out all the furniture, merchandise and home furnishings that she had bought her kids on the sneek without me knowing. Her attny then leaned over and whispered to her. She then decided that my loading stuff wasn't quite so important after all, seeing I had receipts of her stuff that almost tripled my expenditures!!! My current g-friend loves to reload with me for she then gets to go shooting and even suggests that we are getting low on a particular component for 1 of "her" favorite weapons and we go shopping!!! AND SHE IS A CITY GIRL!!! Go figure!!!

I told my wife not long ago,if the house catches on fire RUN.
I have not had any issues yet and been loading around forty years. Safe storage of components makes them last longer anyway.

I'm certainly not offended that he won't shoot my reloads. I'd much rather share the fruits of my labor, with those who appreciate it. Currently, I reload 22-250 for the father-in-law, which usually earns me "guest of honor" treatment whenever we come over for dinner. I also load .223 for one of my college buddies. He's used them to stack up more coyotes than I thought possible with a single-shot Handi-Rifle.

I currently load for 18 rifle cartridges and 6 pistol. From .220 swift up to .500NE and from 9mm to .500 S&W. Lots of goodies in between :D

[QUOTE=Ridgerunner56;4273229]I told my wife not long ago,if the house catches on fire RUN.

I know that feeling!!!! I showed one of my buddies on the local fire dept that if they get called to my house and it was anymore than a faulty smoke alarm and could see flames getting it really good, drop a 1-1/2" line thru the wall into my vault. He asked why. I showed him. When he started breathing again, he understood why!!!!

Sounds Familiar
 

Yes indeed, my wife never said "YOU ARE GOING TO BLOW THE HOUSE UP!"... LOL !!!

But, her father was an old time plumber and worked with lead a lot. She was worried that I would get into casting my own bullets which could produce an accidental fire or poisoning. I assured her that I had no interest in casting my own bullets. She still did not want me to do any reloading activities in our regular living areas. This limited me to our unheated or cooled garage. I agreed. I already had a light duty workbench in one corner. I thought it might be sufficient.

I was eager to try out the new single stage press and 30-06 dies I had just bought. I bolted down the press to my flimsy workbench and tried to full length resize a once fired 30-06 case. I almost ripped my light duty workbench off the wall. Clearly, I needed a much stronger workbench. I re-cycled the wood from my original workbench. The boards became storage shelves above my new workbench made out of 2 X 4 studs.

Here's a link to a PDF file about my reloading workbench that I posted on another forum. It is mostly a letter I wrote to my sister and her husband about how I became interested in target shooting again in my old age. It contains some photos of my two workbenches. A small portion of my original workbench can be seen when I was restoring my Dad's old deer rifle. The others are of my new workbench just after I completed it and about a year later.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-O...WzebK17b9gqtTb

Stay Safe,
Ron

I never asked them. Why would you?

Hey Ron,

I really enjoyed your link about your dad's rifle and your work bench for reloading. That's a lot of great memories you have.

True dat. He probably has his own place now and even more reloading equipment. :biggrin:

I can't say here what I would tell them!

I was 14 at the time.....they seemed OK with it! I guess they would rather that I hand load and shoot, rather than smoke and drink! :s4: memtb

That's what I tell my wife when she complains. "I could be at the bar every night"

-Jake