I was wondering if you use basiclly the same equipment to reload pistol ammo as you do rifle ammo, I know dies will be different but can you use the same presses and all? Ive been wanting to get into reloading but Id like to reload for my rifles as well as my 45acp and if it takes 2 different sets of equipment then ill be alot less likley to get into it because of cost. But if you basiclly just need another set of dies and your good to go then im all for that.
Thanks, sean

Yes you use the same press. Some steps can be different to load pistol cartridges, but you still use the same loading press.

Drilling Man

You tend to shoot a lot more handgun ammunition than rifle ammunition. I would start with a turret press to let you load handgun ammo faster, and still retain the ability to load rifle ammunition.

I second the turret press
I have a Lyman T-Mag

how much does a turret press run? Im a poor poor college student so if it`ll save me a small fortune I dont mind doing them 1 at a time

An awul lot of people on this board slam Lee products, but you can get a Lee turret press that's manualy indexed for less than $50 from Midway USA. It won't last the rest of your lfe, like the Lyman Tmag mentioned above, but it will load thousands of rounds before it wears out. I've had one for over 15 years.
Look here:http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=405548

Im about as new as you can get to reloading and may sound dumb, but whats the difference between a turret press and a regular press? My reloading experience includes helping put the lead in the caseing on about 20 shells for a friend and I watched him do the rest. Thanks for the info, Sean

Yup, same press can be used. Be sure to pay a few extra $$s to get a carbide sizing die instead of a standard resizing die- its worth its weight in gold.

A turret press will usually have one shell holder, and three, four, or more die stations. By having your dies already set up and adjusted, you save a lot of time over a single stage press. You can use a turret to either batch process (size, bell casemouth and charge, and seat bullet seperately), or as a kind of poor man's progressive press, size, rotate,bell and charge, rotate, seat bullet. either way, it is faster thean a single stage.

I have been getting by with an RCBS Rockchucker for the past 25 years.

There are some innovative methods you can use to increase effiency for loading pistol ammo. #1 BUY A POWDER MEASURE. For the semi-autos it is important to get a vibrating case cleaner to facilitate reliable feeding. Next select a large volume of brass i.e.250 rds, resize allat once, then perform the case mouth expansion process. Then using the powder measure begin throwing powder charges and seating bullets in batches of 25.

The one plus about the 45 ACP is that you can use the same case holder for standard rifles (308 or 30-06) as what is needed for the 45.

A great place to get single stage reloading presses dirt cheap is at garage sales. If you are patient, there are some very good deals out there. Another place to find a single stage reloading press is at a IPSC pistol match. Those guys go thru high volumes of ammo, and do not have the time to waste, using a single stage press and loading ammo one at a time.

Don