ORIGINAL: NoKnees

Let me be the one to offer a counter point to buy the best you can afford.

When I left the army to go to college some 30 years ago I was going to loose the use ofthe army suppied reloading equipment (the 6th MTU)and had to buy a set for myself but as new college student I was really strapped for cash and some of my competitive shooting buddies lauged at what I bought. I got a lee reloader press, a lee case trimmer and a plastic lyman scale and a lee autoprime.

30 years later I still use the autoprime and and the hand trimmer(well everyso oftenI need a new cutter for the trimmer). I have a new press and an autoscale but the original lee pressand plastic lyman are still on the bench and stilll work fine. I reload mostly for rifle and 44 mag and I guess to do about 800-1500 rounds a year. Although there wasa few yearsI did 2-4K a year. Except for a few things like a good caliper its not equipment that will make good loads. its a good understanding of the princpals and understanding whichvariables are most important inwhat point of load developmentand error free execution that aremost important.

One thing about equipment, wether its cheap or expensive. it has to be to specs andworking correctly. I once got a set of dies that were incorrectly labeled/boxed and it caused me no end of difficulty. It should have been a 338-06 AI die set.. thats what the box set said, but the dies were really 338-06. accuracy was so-so but I couldn't fit the right amount of powder in, resizing was hell, I almost sent the gun back to the gunsmith with a complaint about his chamber etc. I wasted a whole summer before I figured about what was happening.

Oh, follow all those little safety rules, there important