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Posted: 11/6/2008 7:41:27 AM EDT
| Looking to reload .308, .223 and 9mm. Looking at the dillon 550b. Would this be a good one to start on? I want to be precise with the .308 but the 9mm and .223 don't have to be match grade or anything. |
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To begin on your path to re-loading. My suggestions would be to...........
Get a hold of some books and check the Internet. Invest in a re-loading manual (or several). LEARN the processes that one must go through in order to produce a round of ammunition. Get an idea of how certain jobs are done and take notes of the choices available to do the job. Get a mentor and/or go to classes that might be held by the local gun shop or gun club. If you have never re-loaded ammunition. As a "first press," IMHO get a bench mounted single station press. LEARN the techniques and "problem solving" of re-loading. Later, IF/WHEN, you want more production......consider a progressive press. "Learn to crawl before you walk, learn to walk before you run, learn to run before you drive or fly." YMWV......in the end, it's your choice. Aloha, Mark |
| After manuals, get an RCBS Rockchucker Supreme and dies. I would recommend the competition dies from the get go. Well worth the extra dollars. Reloading is very simple, just take your time and concentrate on the task at hand, follow the manuals guidelines and you will never have a problem. |
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Lots of folks buy 550's to start. However, if you buy a Rockchucker to start, you'll always find a need for it after you add a Dillon and other presses.
There's a lot of information at the top of the forum to keep you occupied while you wait on printed manuals, including links to on line tutorials that walk you through the process. |
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Bravo Great Advice! Quoted:
To begin on your path to re-loading. My suggestions would be to........... Get a hold of some books and check the Internet. Invest in a re-loading manual (or several). LEARN the processes that one must go through in order to produce a round of ammunition. Get an idea of how certain jobs are done and take notes of the choices available to do the job. Get a mentor and/or go to classes that might be held by the local gun shop or gun club. If you have never re-loaded ammunition. As a "first press," IMHO get a bench mounted single station press. LEARN the techniques and "problem solving" of re-loading. Later, IF/WHEN, you want more production......consider a progressive press. "Learn to crawl before you walk, learn to walk before you run, learn to run before you drive or fly." YMWV......in the end, it's your choice. Aloha, Mark |
| If you are going to be assembling precision loads for your .308 I suggest you start with a single stage press..this leaves less room for error and allows you to focus intently on one case at a time. Like everyone before me said, get a good reloading handbook and do your research. There is a lot more involved than just buying a press and some dies. Case prep alone requires a fair amount of tools, and you will need a good micrometer and powder scale if you want precision and accuracy in your work. |
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Quoted:
Lots of folks buy 550's to start. However, if you buy a Rockchucker to start, you'll always find a need for it after you add a Dillon and other presses. There's a lot of information at the top of the forum to keep you occupied while you wait on printed manuals, including links to on line tutorials that walk you through the process. +1 on the Rockchucker and a good manual. I got started reloading 25+ years ago with this setup and a Sierra manual. |
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+1 to the above useful comments, esp reading as much as you can.
My first press was/is a Dillon Square Deal B. It's progressive, auto-indexing, and I found a killer deal for it as part of a full reloading setup on the EE here. BUT - I loaded my first rounds using it like a single-stage press until becoming more familiar. It can be done, but you need to use self-discipline and not try to load hundreds of rounds per hour at first. |
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Don't get yourself all worked up. It is not rocket science.
Do a bit of reading. I agree that along with the 550 you will also find use for a single stage . My preference is for the turret style but thats me . Used equipment is fine and can save you a bunch. You might understand the fundamentals faster if you start with straight wall pistol caliber. Th 9 is as good a place to start as any . There are a few extra steps to prep the cases for bottleneck rifle calibers so you might want to hold off untill you get up to speed with pistol, then build your skill into rifle . |
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I started out doing 9mm to familiarize myself on what was going on, i first got a good manual and read it to see if it was something I wanted to pursue and found it pretty straightforward.
I chose a progressive vs. S/S due to space but either way is fine, I found a wealth of info from seasoned pros like ma96782, dryflash3, AeroE, Keith_J, Tromatic and AssaultRifler etc ... and there are many more here so you won't be without help, like others have stated there is no alchemy in reloading just stay within the published data in the manuals you will most likely collect and you will be golden Don't get caught up in home brew recipes of reloading it will get you into serious trouble, stay with brand components, pay attention and you will be able to produce ammo as good but most likely better than what you can buy because you control the quality and the ammo you produce will be tuned for your firearm. |
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I'm new to reloading also. I think if you want to use rifle calibers, having a single stage press is pretty much mandatory. To make things easier on yourself, you should have a Single Stage, or a Turret type press so you can do all your de-priming, and resizing on the single stage.
These are my SOP's: 1. Collect cases from range 2. Tumble (in Walnut media) 3. Sort cases (Inspect) 4. Lubricate cases 5. Resize and de-prime cases (In single stage press) 6. Trim cases (Optional for bottlenecked cases, de-bur neck and primer pocket, swagger primer pocket if needed) 7. Tumble (Corn cob media) This is to remove the case lubricant, clean beneath the primer, remove any brass shavings after trimming. This also applies a final polishing. 8. Re-prime (progressive press) *Note: The first stage could be set up with a universal de-prime die in order to ensure no media is stuck within the flash hole of the primer pocket. 9. Powder charge (progressive press) 10. Seat bullet (progressive press) 11. Crimp bullet (progressive press [optional]) 12. Tumble (Finalized polishing [optional]) 13. Shoot Sure, you encounter a lot of prep work. However, you won't be beating up the progressive press doing resizing while you're trying to administer a consistent powder charge. This rings especially true for larger rifle cases. I don't de-prime first before lubricating, resizing and de-priming because I don't want dirty cases in my dies. Besides, you're going to lube your cases for resizing right? In the progressive? How are you going to remove the lubricant before your powder charge? Wipe it off after the round is complete? This seems rather sloppy. There is a higher potential of contaminating your powder doing it this way. Especially if you just spray the lubricant into a bag and roll the cases around. Do you have a case feeder? Do you really want to dump a bunch of lubed cases into it, or would you prefer polished and clean cases? You don't care that there is debris/fowling beneath the spent primer? Clean pockets seat primers easier. Are you trimming cases? How is that going to happen in the progressive unless you buy the Dillon trimmer die? If you're reloading military brass, you're going to need to swagger the primer pockets after de-priming. All of this is significantly easier to do with a single stage. I'd like to get a turret press, so I could have the de-priming and resizing die for several of my common calibers fixed and ready to roll. However, screwing in the dies isn't that hard, just imagining a more efficient system. My system seems rather anal, but I shoot mostly combat courses. So the strings of fire are very rapid. By the time I notice a squib, Mr. Bolt would meet Mr. Face. I also don't want jams caused by poor prep. |
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I've been loading all my pistol ammo on a 550 for several years. .38, 9mm & .45.
My .223 and .308 gets done on a Hornady single stage press.... With the rifle stuff I feel the single stage help me produce a better quality round... More accurate. and with rifle ammo if I can't have accurate... why bother? |
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From my understanding some of the guys who do rifle on a progressive will first run the cases to do a prep only type of operation (some with a dedicated tool head).
After this in a completely separate operation they take the totally prepped cases and do a reload operation. I myself have not made this leap . I do my pistol on some square deals (one for each primer size!) and the small amount of rifle ammo goes through a turret press |
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I started with a rock chucker, and would probably still use it periodically now if it hadn't been stolen.
With that having been said, if I could go back in time and make my "first press" decision all over again, I would have bought a 550 (or was it a 500 then?). There is nothing I can't do with my 550 that I could with the rock chucker. When loading rifle cartridges with extruded powders I use it like a single stage press. Just my .02 Oh, I have nothing against other brands, just no experience with them. |
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