Posted on 11/25/2014 10:56:15 AM PST by marktwain
A reader sent this picture of his daughter assisting him in reloading cartridges. On a single stage press, such as the RCBS 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.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
Kewl, but I’d have the kid wear eye protection.
Are you my brother?
I don’t think that child is going to be involved in the mass manufacture of ammo eight hours a day.
Congrats! Well, it looks like that nose job came out as an improvement!
5.56mm
The best research hasn’t documented a safe level of lead exposure in children. Levels one tenth the level allowed by OSHA have been show to cause permanent learning disorders.
There are a lot of chores that are good for kids, reloading ammo probably is not one of them.
Then put them in a sealed haz-mat suit.
Seems kind of silly, there are plenty of character building things to have them do without all the fuss.
Definitely don’t take them out target shooting, right? All that lead in the air could hurt their little brains.
How did the old generations survive with all that lead in the paint and gasoline?
Nope taught the kids to shoot when they were in grade school. I let them play with sharp objects and compete on contacts sports too. Just try to keep them away from direct contact with neurotoxins.
Do you find many “zero exposure” studies persuasive? Nearly all toxicology studies that I have seen indicate some level below which there is no detectable harm.
I have not read the lead studies, so I cannot comment on them.
The maxim used to be that “The dosage makes the poison” because nearly everything is toxic in high enough dosages, and nearly everything is harmless (or even necessary) in low enough dosages.
Obviously, we can detect incredibly low levels now, that were undetectable before.
Straw man argument. I’ve never seen a zero exposure study regarding lead exposure in kids and neither have you.
I have seen studies that show acceptable levels in adults is associated with permanent harm in children. There is a zero harm level, I agree, but would you expose your kids without knowing what that level is or the exposure level they are receiving?
Unlike a lot of things people worry about, lead is a real poison. It is a persistent poison and exposure is cumulative.
I wash my hands thoroughly after reloading would you recommend not doing so?
Read the studies, some of it is pretty interesting. But your point about dose making the poison is valid and the dose for toxicity in children is very low and the exposure when reloading in a non negative number.
It would be interesting to try to figure out what the exposure from reloading is.
The fired primers and dirty cases are probably worse than lead bullets. The residue is very fine
I used to review wipe tests and air samples,both types of tests would need some modification in this caase.
I suspect that metallic lead is not as toxic as the lead compounds from the primers. Is that correct?
Next you're going to spoil my memories of those summers spent as Grandpa's "Little Asbestos Remover".
More easily transfered to the skin or inhaled. In the battery plant there was always more trouble with the paste than plates. I would still wash my hands after handling lead slugs though.
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