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Reloading Class Near Texarkana (within 100 miles at most)

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  • Glenn B

    Retired & Loving It
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    Sep 5, 2019
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    Texarkana - Across The Border
    I have read the ABCs of reloading, it's hiding on my bookshelf somewhere. I also probably have most everything, If not actually everything, that I need as far as equipment goes. I could start now with just the book and YouTube and a reloading manual but much prefer to learn hands on, with someone there who is knowledgeable showing me how to do it. In a class you can ask questions and get immediate answers; that does not work with a book and usually not with a video on the Inernet (simply because the answer is too long a time in coming in most cases). To me it's kind of like learning to drive or to shoot. Sure, you can read a book and go for it all alone with no one to guide you and therefore no one to correct an mistakes you are making that you do not realize you are making and then you can crash & burn or wind up arrested for homicide after a negligent shot. Thus I am left wanting to go to a reloading class.

    If I cannot find one, I suppose the next best thing will be YouTube. Anyone have any recommendations for excellent reloading videos, for beginners, on YouTube. I was thinking Brownell's may have some good stuff along those lines on YouTube or on their website (as I recall, I like dtheir AR-15 build videos very much). There is also Midway USA too but their videos are so commercial it sometimes becomes annoying due to all their in-video sales pitches and the guy with the white hair sounding like a used car, Fuller Brush, or vacuum cleaner salesman of years past.
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    benenglish

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    Nov 22, 2011
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    our instructor in that class told us to break up into groups of about four
    Each group had one as best I recall.
    A proper NRA reloading class requires one press per two students, minimum. Your instructor was not just incompetent to teach and lying about providing a proper NRA class, he was apparently under-equipped by at least half.

    I'm sorry you had to go through that.

    There are very few formal, rules-complying NRA reloading classes in the country. The process of getting all the equipment and getting the certification isn't easy. Once you're set up to give the classes, there's not much demand. Most people have a friend to show them or they read a book or they watch youtube. Or all three. Generally, reloaders wind up producing ammo that goes bang and they're happy with that. Achieving that goal doesn't really require competent instruction or much of it.

    Then there are the volume reloaders, especially the competitive shooters, who aren't addressed in NRA classes. They need slightly more consistent ammo in big numbers and once their progressives are properly set up, they tend to a set-it-and-forget-it state of mind.

    On the far end of the spectrum are those seeking accuracy that (still, today) most shooters can't even fathom. The benchrest guys get groups with center to center measurements of less and 0.10" at 100 yards and strive for better than that. (No, they don't get those groups all the time but it happens enough to keep them addicted to chasing those tiny groups.) In that environment, the tools and techniques are weird, low-volume, and require a completely different mindset.

    Bottom line?

    The target audience for standard NRA reloading classes has shrunk to the point that the classes are few and far between. There are no classes currently scheduled within 100 miles of your location. If you expand your search radius to 500 miles, the only reloading courses currently scheduled are:

    Screenshot from 2020-11-22 07-40-00.png


    Basically, that means there's one guy in KY, one in OK, one in LA, and two in TX who are giving classes. Like I said, few and far between.

    Sorry to be such a downer on this subject.

    I swear, if I didn't have family to nurse (which means I can't keep any commitment to a rigid schedule) I'd get my cert and start giving classes. I don't think there's a huge demand but there should be enough demand to support more instructors than we currently have.

    Side note: As bleak as this sounds, I think that demand is going to grow. For the longest time (and I've done this so I'm blaming myself, too) the need to reload balanced against the time required has been in a ratio that doesn't support reloading. If you just shoot cheap surplus or com-bloc ammo in 9mm, .223, 7.62x39, and maybe a few others, the cost was low enough that it wasn't possible to justify the time spent reloading. I know I've gone through thousands of rounds of 9mm Blazer in aluminum cases that I used to pick up on sale at Academy for $3-$3.50/box. I still have a few thousand rounds of it left. At that price (and often shooting .22LR), the need to reload waned in my life.

    Now, there's no more cheap ammo. We have a limit (our finances) on how much we can buy. Since you can shoot more when you reload, I think reloading is set to make a big comeback. For different reasons, I think we'll be like the French. They can't get much ammo. In their case, it's for legal reasons that limit their stockpiles, not economic reasons, but the principles still apply. Because they are limited in the number of rounds they may possess, they lay in large quantities of reloading supplies. Components don't count against their allotment so they keep plenty on hand and typically just assemble ammo the day before they shoot. In their (admittedly, small) centerfire shooting community, reloading is thoroughly embedded; everybody does it.

    Long term, for both economic and political reasons, I think we're headed in that direction.

    Maybe I ought to start thinking harder about getting my cert...

    Anyway, good luck on your search. You can always find the open-to-the-public classes conducted under NRA procedures on their course locator page here.
     

    Mike_from_Texas

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    Feb 10, 2010
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    I didn’t know such a thing existed. I was mentored by a long time reloaded when I was a teenager and figured out the rest by reading and in more modern time the internets.


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    Glenn B

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    ...Long term, for both economic and political reasons, I think we're headed in that direction....

    Well, thanks for that detailed answers; as much as I like to write - I also like to receive detailed answers like that.

    I think you have convinced me to get more serious, not in my search for a class, but to just do it and begin reloading. I will look to YouTube for some how to videos. The thing I will do first, is to lay in some supplies like powder, brass and primers and get myself an up to date Hornady reloading manual. I should have done all of that last year but as that saying (that I hate) goes: it is what it is. So, I will be starting my search today.
     

    Deavis

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    Oct 20, 2011
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    Well, thanks for that detailed answers; as much as I like to write - I also like to receive detailed answers like that.

    I think you have convinced me to get more serious, not in my search for a class, but to just do it and begin reloading. I will look to YouTube for some how to videos. The thing I will do first, is to lay in some supplies like powder, brass and primers and get myself an up to date Hornady reloading manual. I should have done all of that last year but as that saying (that I hate) goes: it is what it is. So, I will be starting my search today.

    It isnt that hard, just jump in and give it a shot. Honestly, if a bunch of semi-literate hillbillies can do it than so can you! Get that extra hillbilly reference?

    Size properly and everything else follows. Literally, sizing is the foundation of your house of reloading. If that is right, everything else is cake.
     

    xdmikey

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    Nov 27, 2009
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    cypress, tx
    I wouldn't trust anyone trying to make a buck or two teaching reloading.

    It's an art and is passed on to others with a love of the art.

    Because I'm posting below him I'll mention him: Deavis has spent quite a bit of time diangnosing my issues, making sure I'm safe and I've seen him comment throughout this section of the forum without regard for personal gain; it's just for the love of the art.

    The statements above are my own beliefs.

    Be safe out there.
     

    Glenn B

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    Sep 5, 2019
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    I wouldn't trust anyone trying to make a buck or two teaching reloading.

    It's an art and is passed on to others with a love of the art....
    Maybe hand loading is easy to learn but it most definitely is not, in my opinion, an art. It is a science - in my opinion and evidently in the apparent opinions of at least the majority of authors, if not every author, of the well thought out hand loading manuals that have ever been professionally published. So while you might not trust someone making an honest buck by giving such course, I most certainly would rather trust a properly trained & certified instructor than trust someone who considers it an art to do with as he pleases, at the moment, based upon on artistic whim.

    Of course, if I canot find one to do the training live in person, I may depend on others I find trustworthy such as videos from Brownells on the subject.
     

    HCS

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    Oct 8, 2020
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    Llano, TX
    that is why I always tell people to read a manual first as the beginning step of learning to handload.
    it not only gives them the background knowledge they will need in order to determine what components they choose and how they work together, understanding pressures, explains the "WHY" of the various steps and their importance, understanding burn rates vs. case size & fill, rifling twist rates for proper bullet selection, ambient temperature effects, seating depth importance, etc....
    a good lesson in not only exterior ballistics, but the effects if interior ballistics as well

    in addition to above, it gives them a good background to formulate a better list of questions they may have in moving forward in their learning process to make handloading not only a safe, but enjoyable & rewarding venture
     

    EZ-E

    King Turd of Shit Mountain
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    May 4, 2017
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    I agree as others have stated, having a friend that reloads, reading the first chapters of do's & don'ts in the reloading manual & YOUTUBE will help tremendously.

    I think seating depth & consistent powder flow are the basics for double checking safety of your loads. I always do 10 pulls with a primed case to make sure powder flow is consistent BEFORE i press a round. Then the 1st batch of 10 i press i measure consistency of seating depth. Then every 50 or so loads i double check powder flow & seating depth. With my Dillion it pretty much stays consistent throughout the 300-500 rounds i usually run at once.

    I try to simplify reloading.... i think of it as i am a chef reading a cookbook for a recipe to cook some food. As long as i follow the recipe & dont deviate my loads should be safe & functional.
     
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