Little Miss Reloader, Age Five

By Dean Weingarten

Little Miss Reloader, Age Five
Little Miss Reloader, Age Five
Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- A reader sent this picture of his daughter assisting him in reloading cartridges.   On a single stage press, such as the RCBS ( goo.gl/d3X6Xf ) pictured, there  is plenty to do.

A young child can easily and safely deprime cases, such as this young girl is doing.   She deprimed 500 of them for her father, and was very pleased with herself.   It reminds me of pleasant times when my daughter was about five.  She loved to help me reload ammunition.

My own first experiences with reloading were when I was much older, perhaps eight, or nine.  My father reloaded hunting ammunition for his model 99 .300 Savage.  He was deadly with that rifle in the woods.  I helped, or at least watched and handed over bullets.  He used a Lyman 310 tool and an Ideal reloading manual.   The 310 tool works just fine if you use the same rifle and do not have to full length resize the cases.

We only loaded a couple of boxes at a time.   The rifle was not shot that much, mostly sighting in from a bench on our property a quarter mile away, across the Namekagon river, where there was a good backstop, and while hunting.   More shots were fired in sighting in and in small amounts of practice, than were fired while hunting, even if my father routinely shot one or two deer a year.   I shot my first deer with that rifle, at age 13.

Reloading cartridges, and shooting a few of them, is an experience a child will remember forever.   It imprints the brain with the possibilities of being productive and of having some control over the material world.  I recall the experience as being empowering.    It is a great building block for responsibility.   To be trusted with real involvement in a powerful activity that requires responsibility, shows a child that they are loved, trusted, and respected.

As fired cartridges contain small amounts of lead compounds, it is good safety practice to wash hands after a reloading session.

c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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Jeffie

This is not well thought out. Young kids with developing brains should not be at the reloading bench for one reason and that is there is no safe level of lead exposure. Kids are at special risk for lead exposure. Primers create lead residue through a chemical reaction which will be on the brass.Google Lead styphnate for more information on lead created in primers… If a tumbler is used to clean brass that can also create lead dust. The son of the guy who founded Lee Reloading as an adult got severe case of lead poisoning from lead dust from… Read more »

Ron Kelley

Leaving tomorrow for PA deer camp. I will be using my grandfathers 99 Savage in the 300 cart. I figured out the reloading for this rifle this summer. Wish me luck of the Irish.

David

Eye protection, please. You only get two…..