Be forewarned -
LOTS OF RAMBLING AHEADI've been wanting to get into reloading for quite some time - about a year ago I took a NRA reloading class and although I felt it was a lot of good knowledge, it was mostly stuff I had already read in a lot of the books I had picked up and online forums. When I asked about polymer coated bullets - the wise old instructor told me they were garbage and left it at that. I also only got to make 1 rifle round (I don't plan to reload rifle) during that class. I have a friend her taught herself on a Dillon 650 and figured meh I don't need a class - but for some reason I love taking classes about firearms stuff.
So at the local Guntry Club (not my range) there is a business I have frequented for many years before they moved into the Guntry Club - Colorado Gun Cleaners - They clean guns (duh), Cerakote (what I've used from them), and sell Dillon and Mark 7 (if you have never seen a Mark 7 autodrive with a tablet in action, OMG) reloaders and just about anything you need to reload. Well since moving into the Guntry Club they have gotten a ton more business than at their last location and there are classrooms at this range for them to use. So they hosted a free 30 minute spiel about an upcoming reloading class they were gonna offer and I checked it out. Signed up that day. Now it did cost more than the last NRA course I took, but I figure they gotta pay rent to this Guntry Club, I had planned to buy my Dillon from them and I was told that the 8hr class would be 4 hours of instruction and 4 hours of
hands on reloading.
Arrived at 0900 for a 0930 start thinking because of the price - no one would of signed up. Well 15 others besides myself signed up

We had 2 instructors for the oral instruction time and 3 instructors for the hands on portion. (later pictures you will see 3 tables - so 1 instructor per table)
Below are some examples out of the manual and slides they were showing to and talking to.




LOTS and LOTS of good information during the slide presentation/oral/etc portion of the class - the whole class asked tons and tons of questions and the instructors gave great feedback to all of them. What was really cool about the entire class - is you know you are taking this class and they are hoping you will buy from their store - but they NEVER once pushed anything they sold. Just lots of solid good information and great to have 16 students asking questions that I never thought of. A lot of the class is hunters/long distance shooters here in CO - but about half were just looking to save on pistol range ammo and get better accuracy for a good cost.
We break for lunch and the Guntry Club is having a Car show outside to benefit a local PD to help buy body armor - I go out drop $$ in the bucket and get lunch and check out the cars - it was threatening to rain so not a huge turn out.
Jalepeno, Bacon, Cream Cheese!


I owned a 1970 Chevelle long ago - so the Chevelle has always been my favorite - this is a 68 or 69. I've also owned a 69 Plymouth Belvedere I had a 340 in and a 71 Mustang Mach 1. Those days are long gone but I love to admire them still.

During lunch they changed the room around and brought out 3 benches with 2 Dillon 550 Basics on each. We split up and I had 5 students 1 instructor at my table. We would be loading cleaned range brass -Remington small pistol primer 1 1/2 - 9mm 115 gr FMJ bullet with Hodgdon Universal powder using Hodgon's reloading data center website. We sorta treated it like a single stage press - each of us got to set up and run each stage individually with the instructor showing use how/why/when/etc along the way. We made mistakes, we had successes, we learned a lot. Did I prime a case with a spent primer - sure did

Honestly it scared me I thought it was a new primer that I had somehow indented on the machine while pushing it in. But hey I learned. TONS of question/answer during this time.


My first three bullets - BEFORE CRIMPING

I had a great time - I feel I learned a lot and I would of picked up my Dillon 550C that day - BUT 15 other people all went into their store to browse around and a friend had called and asked if I wanted to head to dinner and a free outdoor concert - so next Saturday I will be going in to pick up my Dillon.
This was in the back of the manual they handed out.

Example of their Cerakote work


Even saw BigFoot in the Pro Shop near the Archery area at the Guntry Club
