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Posted: 1/28/2015 8:10:52 PM EDT
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I'm sure this general question gets asked quite a bit here but we all know how "good" the search function is on this site so bare with me.
I am looking at getting started with a reloading setup. I don't want to just start cheap and end up buying new stuff down the road, but I don't want to spend $1000 either. I will be reloading mostly 300 Blackout, .260 Remington, 5.56 and 9mm if that makes a difference. Won't be doing huge amounts of ammo, I shoot maybe 2k rounds a year. I do want to be able to load the 260 to take advantage of some accurate long range loads and some subsonic .300 and 77gr 5.56 rounds. I have heard some good things about the Lee Classic Turrent Press but beyond that I'm at a loss. I'm not sure if I should piece it together, or if there are any "sets" that are good enough for my needs. |
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A turret (I also use Lee tools) is the single most versatile tool you can get.
I suggest, turret, dies, good beam scale, good calipers, good lathe trimmer(forster). All other minor tools can be had pretty cheap, funnel, primer pocket cleaner, chamfer/deburrer, etc. I also am not a fan of the 'kits'. Get the tools you want, individually. If you live in an apt, or otherwise dont want a mounted press, the Lee handpress is usable, and portable. |
| RCBS products seem to be on sale at a few shooting supply sites. I recommend RCBS and the Supreme kit is a good buy. It with dies and shellholders, a case trimmer is a must have, a vibratory case cleaner such as Lyman's Turbo 1200 to clean before sizing and to remove case lube before loading to get you started. The Supreme kit doesn't have items you won't use. Better yet if you could find one, a Forster Co-Ax press would be ideal. Haven't used any Lee products. Need a caliper to measure everything. Later or now I highly recommend a quality electronic scale. Maybe other items I've missed. A great hobby if you have the time to spend. Buy a few different manuals such as bullet company and powder company manuals. |
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Quoted: I'm sure this general question gets asked quite a bit here but we all know how "good" the search function is on this site so bare with me. I am looking at getting started with a reloading setup. I don't want to just start cheap and end up buying new stuff down the road, but I don't want to spend $1000 either. I will be reloading mostly 300 Blackout, .260 Remington, 5.56 and 9mm if that makes a difference. Won't be doing huge amounts of ammo, I shoot maybe 2k rounds a year. I do want to be able to load the 260 to take advantage of some accurate long range loads and some subsonic .300 and 77gr 5.56 rounds. I have heard some good things about the Lee Classic Turrent Press but beyond that I'm at a loss. I'm not sure if I should piece it together, or if there are any "sets" that are good enough for my needs. No "kit" is complete so to the above you will need dies, shellholder, caliper, and for rifle a trimmer. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/817007/rcbs-trim-pro-2-manual-case-trimmer-kit?cm_vc=ProductFinding Hornady also make much the same kit. I don't know the Lee turret press, but many here like them. You need to start with 2 books that are good for beginners, ABC's of Reloading, about $20. Will explain the tools, and components. Will also give step by step reloading instructions. Hornady 9 about $30. A manual that has 300 blk loading data. Not very many manuals list this cartridge yet. To get you started read this thread, http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/263380_Everything_You_Wanted_to_Know_About_Reloading_But_Was_Afraid_to_Ask.html Welcome to our hobby.
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Opinions are like necks, everyone has one. I think it is better to buy used quality than new less than quality. On this forum's equipment exchange I have seen great deals on used Dillon and Redding equipment. Take your time, and buy quality. It will certainly be cheaper in the long run.
For the number of calibers you listed, the quick change feature of a Forster Coax would certainly be desirable. Another worthy candidate would be Redding T7. If you start off with single stage RCBS or Redding it will always come in handy as you grow your reloading equipment. Better to have a really nice powder measure/scale and a used press, than a brand new press and a cheap scale. |
| I started with a Rockchucker in March of last year. I couldn't get the volume of ammo I needed without sitting at the press several hours a day, multiple times a week. I bought a Dillon 550b in December. Now I can make 500 rounds in a couple of hours. The press was less than $450 and I use the dies I already had. |
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I started with a Rockchucker decades ago and never regretted it.
It was and is a great first press that I will keep my entire life. Even when you eventually go with a progressive, a good single stage is invaluable for pre-load prepping, especially military brass. I've since added a Hornady LNL AP progressive and am very happy with the choice. However, if it were today and I had to start all over again, I would have gone with the Hornady single stage press instead of the Rockchucker. I say that for one simple reason, and that is that you can use those wonderful Hornady "quick change" bushings on both their single and LNL-AP presses. Setting up that way, you get all the advantages of a turret press by being able to change out dies in seconds without having to readjust. Definitely start with a single stage press, not only for cost savings at first, but because you will put that single stage press to good use even after you go to a progressive. As a side note, I have already converted my Rockchucker so that it uses the Hornady quick-change bushings, so I now have the equivalent of the Hornady single stage press. |
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Recently, I got into reloading. Many of the great folks here steered me in the right directions, and answered all of my many questions. I am learning and loving every minute of it. It's a lot of fun.
I chose the route of going single-stage (the RCBS Rock Chucker kit listed in the link) to get comfortable with the process and to learn the correct ways of doing things safely. dryflash3 mentioned the ABC's of Reloading book. It has thorough explanations to all aspects of reloading, but gives great standards and practices for doing all of the processes in detail. The RCBS-kit comes with the Speer reloading manual. Another that I particularly like is the Lyman Manual. The 300 BO I load centers around the Nosler 125 gr Hunting Tip only, so I used the load-data from Nosler's website to come up with a recipe that works for my rifle. Also, the forums have a 300 BO thread that has some great information, too. I did purchase a couple of different trimmers. Both were expensive. But, since a portion of my plan was to have the ability to trim mass amounts of .223's and 300 BO's - I invested in the Giraud. For my precision and load work-ups, I went with the Sinclair / L.E. Wilson manual-trimmer. A bit overkill, but I like having options. The RCBS kit also came with a 505 scale. It's not electronic, it's not beautiful to look at, but it does the job for me while working up loads. Just invest in a powder-trickler, and you will have a lot easier time. It was also suggested to me to invest in a few of the MTM Reloading Trays. After using them, they are absolutely fantastic and I can't imagine reloading without them. Enough from me. That's my contribution. You're definitely in the right place for people who can help get you in the right direction. A lot of good people around here. |
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Here's a goods deal and you can help out a fellow poster at the same time: I'd do the single stage for 2k per year. But that's me.
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Quoted:
Lee Classic Turret is what you need for that round count. Started with it myself. Great press. Don't get a single stage. You will go mad. You can always turn off indexing on the Turret press to essentially make it a single stage. This. I started with a single stage, then upgraded to the Lee classic turret. I recommend starting with the turret. |
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I have a rockchucker and a dillon 550. Started on the rock chucker and switched to the dillon when I found a deal on one for $450 with four dies ready to go. I would just jump into a progressive press. I like the Dillon because it's manual advance and I don't reload so much that I trust the machine and my last setup to work 100% even though it does unless I forget something like changing shell plates.
Why do you want an electric scale? Do you think they're more accurate? Science labs still use beam balances and I can't ever have my analog scale lose power, get weird electric signals from anywhere or be affected by anything other than wind if I have the garage door open when I load. If you spend $300 right now you'll end up wanting to spend another $500 later. When it was all said and done I'd make 100 rounds an hour on my single stage. I would spend hours doing one step of the reloading process on as many rounds as I could so they were ready to go. No it wasn't hard. It was time consuming. I'd spend a lot of time on a Saturday getting spent cases cleaned and flared for pistol bullets or trimmed and chamfured (spelling isn't my strong suit) for rifles. |
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Quoted: This. I started with a single stage, then upgraded to the Lee classic turret. I recommend starting with the turret. Quoted: Quoted: Lee Classic Turret is what you need for that round count. Started with it myself. Great press. Don't get a single stage. You will go mad. You can always turn off indexing on the Turret press to essentially make it a single stage. This. I started with a single stage, then upgraded to the Lee classic turret. I recommend starting with the turret. agreed. I started with the Lee Classic Turret this past fall. Now I have two progressives. I got bit hard by the reloading bug lol. Anyway, when you first start, there is ALOT to learn. The Lee turret was manageable for me, but still allowed me to progress up to about 150-175 rounds(9mm) per hour production. At a certain point, once reloading is more understood to you, and you are comfortable with the steps, the rounds/hr production comes into play for most of us; as we have limited time. The Lee Turret will allow you to grow a bit into the hobby. I would recommend taking out the auto index when you first get it. Also get some extra plastic "cam" index pieces or whatever they are called. They are pretty weak and will wear fast if you try to muscle through things, which you will at first. Even with my 2 progressives, I still find myself doing things on the turret press, and I'm glad I still have it. Whichever way you go, I would start with pistol reloading as it's more simple and there is enough to worry about at first between the various steps and verifying priming, powder charges, COL etc.... Rifle adds more steps and expense. Plus another HUGE expense is the expendables you end up getting, ie Powder, primers, bullets etc... Especially once you start rifle, it's almost required to horde powder/primers when you can find some in stock somewhere. |
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Quoted:
I'm sure this general question gets asked quite a bit here but we all know how "good" the search function is on this site so bare with me. I am looking at getting started with a reloading setup. I don't want to just start cheap and end up buying new stuff down the road, but I don't want to spend $1000 either. I will be reloading mostly 300 Blackout, .260 Remington, 5.56 and 9mm if that makes a difference. Won't be doing huge amounts of ammo, I shoot maybe 2k rounds a year. I do want to be able to load the 260 to take advantage of some accurate long range loads and some subsonic .300 and 77gr 5.56 rounds. I have heard some good things about the Lee Classic Turrent Press but beyond that I'm at a loss. I'm not sure if I should piece it together, or if there are any "sets" that are good enough for my needs. First recommendation would be for the RCBS Rockchucker kit (the 5-0-5 scale is great, not a fan of electronic scales to be honest). It is all good to go, it is needed or in the least, usable. Second would be... well the scale is iffy on the Hornady kit so... back to the Rockchucker kit. |
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I started reloading 3 years ago. I bought an RCBS turret press to start. The press works great. The priming system frustrated me but when I had priming issues with my LnL AP I found that swaging was leaving the primer pockets too tight and my priming issues on the RCBS was related to tight primers. I have switched to reaming and will also start uniforming my pockets too.
My son and I usually go through 3-400 rounds of .223 in a range session. We go 1-2 times a month. This is the caliber I load now. I will soon do others. Here is what I found from my experience.The turret press is excellent because you can leave the 3 or 4 dies set up and just turn the turret for each step. I did each step in batches of 100. It took me hours to load 500 rounds starting from once fired cases. Once I got the progressive dialed in I can bang out 500 round in an hour or two. Now my turret press sits collecting dust. I am now looking to buy a single stage press to have handy for small batches like load development or odd calibers we don't shoot much. I also want a single stage for bullet pulling. with the collet puller I have it works in the turret but I have to remove everything so I can swing the handle. So doing that screws up my set up of the dies in the turret. The RCBS turret has very tiny amount of play in the turret head when operating. Predictable so you can get your shoulder set back dialed in. It just annoys me. Here is my suggestion. Start with a turret press or a single stage that uses a quick change die set up like the Hornady bushings or the Forster co ax. Then later you can go progressive if you want. if you have a turret press you may want a single stage to have a universal decapper in it and for bullet pulling when you make mistakes. |
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Another thing to add. I bought the Lyman manual. Read it and have occasionally used the info in it. If I was to do it over I would not buy any load data.
The internet has many free resources from powder and bullet manufacturers.I save the stuff I want as a PDF and I also print it. I keep the stuff in a binder for quick reference. I have a folder on my hard drive by caliber too. There is also a web site I found that has tons of data available. Before you spend hard earned money see what stuff is free. Some of these books are $30-40. Buying a few of these adds up fast. I only load 2 bullets for .223 and eventually a 3rd. I found a powder I like and developed a load that does a good job in my guns. So now I use that recipe. Once I start load development for .45, .30-06, .308 I will hit my Lyman book and the internet. Someday I will load 7.62 x 39 and 7.62 x 54R but for now the surplus stuff is so cheap it is not worth it. |
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