Need help for a new hobbie of reloading!
 

Good morning, I have decided that I would like to get started into reloading. To start with, I want to use RCBS products for most of my equipment (rcbs rockchucker) but if there is a particular item that is made by someone else my ears are open. I have a bench set up in a spare bedroom in the house.

I guess that my next step is to go shopping. My first decision in do I want to buy a press and then start adding equipment from there or do I want to buy a kit. I want to start loading 9mm bullets to start with.

PLEASE, let's go shopping. If you would, please take some time and come up with a list of items that I will need to get started. I will need items from the press to brass and HP bullets. Thanks in advance for the help. My budget right now is around $600.00!

1) If you don't have a real good place to shoot and test reloads, Spend some of that budget on a shooting range membership.

That's no problem, we are members of a Range that is only 3 miles from our house.

how many calibers do you plan on reloading for ? rifle and pistol ? target shooting and or hunting loads ? these answers will help us with your list !

I shoot quite a bit of 9mm as does my wife. I have a .270 and a .308 that I deer hunt with. Also, my daughter shoots a .243 for hunting.

You can get away with a single stage or turrent press for .243, 270, and .308. I assume you want quality over quantity with these cartridges. I can load 50 rounds an hour with a single stage and they get good quality control.

Not sure how many 9mm rounds you shoot that will make a difference in the press you need. Spending 4 hours at the press to get 200 rounds of 9mm that gets shot up in 5-15 minutes would be frustrating.

I am to the point where I use balance beam scales plus digital scales and dial calipers plus digital calipers to make sure my measuring devices are accurate. This is mostly for hunting rounds that get loaded hot and precise.

Make sure your family or anyone else makes an honest attempt to return brass from the reloads you make them. It is going to get costly if you are replacing stockpiles of brass that got lost after the first loading.

any thoughts on progressive,single stage or turret ? even though i have used rcbs for over thirty years or so i might be inclined to recommend a redding t-7 turret press they are the better turret press "stronger" in my opinion the nice thing is you can set up your turret heads with your different dies and just change out the turrets for different calibers. that's one thought which by the way i have a rcbs 4x4 progressive and a rcbs rock chucker supreme and since i got the redding turret i haven't touched the other presses. the one thing is rcbs has made some new progressive presses since i bought mine and i think they are much easier to set up and use also they have the interchangeable die heads which no matter what press you decide on is the way to go in my opinion you just don't have to spend all that time setting up your dies with the exception of the seating die which will be different for your different bullet weights and so on. what do you think ?

Look, I'm medically retired do I have plenty of time. I think that I'll start off with a single stage press. If you disagree please tell me why so that I can make an informed decision. Again, I have never reloaded a single bullet and respect everyone's opinion.

i personally would go with the redding t-7 turret press it is basicly a single stage press with a rotating head on top very easy to set up and use. also made in the usa !

Muzzlestuffer, I'll check it out.

ok let me know if you have any questions? i really think it would be the way to go !

I would not go with a single stage - I'd get a turret.

W/ turret you can set up each die set (9mm, 243, 270 & 308) in a plate. Then just change the entire die set and plate w/o having to re-adjust each die when you switch from 1 cartridge to another.

When you shoot your first deer with your bullet, you will be hooked for life !!! :fighting0007:

I've been loading for about 50 years and still use the same single stage press I got when I was 12 years old. I load for 8-10 rifle cartridges and 6-7 different revolver/pistol cartridges. I weigh every rifle charge on my RCBS scale but don't weigh my handgun charges. With the handgun rounds I have no trouble loading 100-150 per hour once the cases are prepared (sized, primed, mouths flared).
Go with the single stage if you don't shoot competitively and don't need a couple hundred rounds a week.

I would recommend against a single stage press with 9mm on the menu. Simply put - You'll "outgrow" a single stage press for 9mm in about 100 rounds, and instantly feel like you are wasting time... I started out with a single stage, added another single stage, bought a handful of progressives, and now I'm down to a single progressive, two single stages (one for precision ammo, one only for depriming), and three turrets set up all the time. My Turrets do most of my loading.

For reloading a mix of lower volume hunting rifle and moderate volume pistol ammo, a Turret Press is the best compromise. It's much cheaper than a progressive set up, but much, much faster than a single stage. Not all Turrets are created equally, my Redding T-7 and the RCBS Turret, for example, are manually indexing - which gets old quickly, hence why I reload most of my rounds on my auto-indexing Lee Turret instead of my T-7. I've never seen an RCBS Turret in person, but their priming system looks incredibly cumbersome, I would not use it, in favor of a hand priming solution instead of that ridiculous tube.

Another advantage of turret presses is the number of holes available. In a 6 or 7 hole head, a reloader can have 3 sets of rifle dies (2 dies each) in place in the same head. That saves a bit of expense over having a single turret for each cartridge (like the Lee 3 hole turret), and saves time when changing from one cartridge to the next.

I spend much of my professional life analyzing processes to improve production practices. Two rules I have learned to live by:

1) Spend effort where effort gets spent - meaning as a process developer, you should spend time, effort, and money figuring out how to improve the steps of the process where the most time, money, or effort gets spent. If you only spend 10% of your time on a step, getting 50% better is only a 5% change. If you spend 50% of your time on a step, you only have to get 10% better to get the same 5% overall. You want to be very efficient at the least efficient steps.

2) Fix where things get broken (or can get broken) - meaning a process developer needs to identify the steps in the process that can introduce inconsistency. If weight sorting your primers takes an hour, but doesn't give any improvement for accuracy, you shouldn't waste time weighing primers. BUT, if your powder dispenser doesn't throw flake powder consistently, it WILL give inconsistent ammo, so either figure out a different powder it does throw well, or figure out a different dispenser to throw your flakes.


So....

Reloaders spend time and effort (rule number 1) doing these steps:

1) Prepping Brass
2) Weighing Charges
3) Taking brass in and out of the press

And inconsistency in ammo typically stems from inconsistency in the process (rule number 2) in these steps:

A) Weighing Charges
B) Setting Dies between batches
C) Prepping brass

A turret press will help reduce how many times you have to move brass in and out of the press - 3 - and eliminates the need to reset dies from batch to batch - B. Bushing compatible presses also save on B, but not on 3.

Electronic aides in brass prep can speed up the process greatly - 1 - and a lathe style trimmer with a reference case will help ensure the trim is consistent for every piece of brass - C.

Personally, I use an automatic/electronic powder dispenser/scale for weighing charges because they tend to throw accurate charges whether in stick, flake, or ball powders. Drum style dispensers aren't as consistent for flake powder, and jam up a lot. Scoops are only accurate if you fill them the same every time. A lot of time will be spent if you hand spoon every charge onto a pan. There's nothing faster than a good metering powder in a drum style dispenser with a micrometer, but it does require a lot of diligence to ensure accurate charge weight. So for my bench, EITHER 1) an automatic dispenser/scale or 2) a drum dispenser set up over a pan with a trickler beside it tend to be the most consistent and fastest method for me - which addresses 2 & A from above.

Other than that, don't get too caught up on brand loyalty unless they're give it to you for free and paying you to use it. A reloading bench isn't a fashion show, and ammo loaded on color matching equipment isn't any more accurate than non matching equipment. I have Forster, Lee, Lyman, Sinclair, Dillon, EGW, RCBS, Redding, PTG, Frankford Arsenal, and Hornady equipment on my bench (that I can think of off the top of my head), mixing and matching dies, scales, trimmers, presses, shell holders, priming tools, etc... It all works together. You'll find that certain mix of equipment that works best together for your method as you go, and pigeon-holing yourself into one color will rob you away from a lot of good gear.

I agree not to go color blind. While I have an very old RCBS single stage press, I have dies from Ponderosa, Lyman Redding and RCBS.
I have a foster case trimmer, and home made load blocks easy to make too. I use a RCBS digital scale weigh each and every charge and every tenth charge on a balance beam scale to keep the digital scale honest.

I did this thread a while back.
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/relo...reloading.html

You can save a lot of money by watching E bay, Craig's list, the local penny pincher paper, and local auction sale flyers for stuff.
I bought my tumbler at a auction of a machine shop selling off equipment they no longer wanted a needed.

:D Al

I think every new reloader would be best advised to use a single stage press. I do use a turret press for pistol cartridges most of the time just for a bit of speed but sometimes I use a single stage press for the same purpose. I always use a single stage press for rifle cartridge loading, but as I have no interest in being "tacticool" I am more interested in accuracy than volume with rifle cartridges.

I would guess that most high volume loaders eventually use progressive presses. A "O" style single stage press is the most versatile press and can do everything.

As stated brass preparation is an important deal. That said I have dedicated brass prep sessions. I inspect, clean, deprime, resize, and trim cases in large quantities. Then when I load my ammo all is left is to create cartridges. I find I can load more ammo this way because I only want to spend 2-3 hours max per session.

A chronograph is a good tool to use on accurate hunting ammo. You want to check for consistent and reasonable velocites with the most accuracy you can get. When you start killing game with these reloads you will feel a huge sense of pride.

i would also recommend if you don't have any friends that reload try to go to a place that has reloading demonstrations like sportsmans warehouse has some not sure if you have one close to where you live? also get a couple of reloading books in advance of buying your equipment and read up this will help you as well lyman has some good reloading books and explains a lot of the process in there.

I have been loading for 50 years, and prefer my Rock Chucker. I have tried many different presses over the years, and will not change. I have had friends that have purchased the progressive presses and get phone calls asking me to help them set the thing up, and they have gone to a single stage. Personally, I don't like them. With a single, once your dies are set, all that is required is to change the die and start the process. IMO a properly set single is more consistent with less variables to cause grief. I have no problem sitting and reloading a couple hundred , and then blasting gophers into oblivion so that I can start again. A Rock Chucker will be handed down to your grand kids, and the RCBS warranty is forever.

starting off with a single stage press is a good idea. until you are more familiar with reloading, id stay away from progressive press's. id look at an RCBS kit that includes a rockchucker press and has most of the things you will need to get started. also get different loading manuals for the bullets you will be using. might I suggest Hornady's manual as it has a lot of info on reloading and gives you terminology you need to understand about reloading. also deal with someone that knows reloading at the store you deal with. also look up price on the internet to get an idea of how much different places are selling their kits for. good luck and have a safe experience with reloading.

Thanks for the advice Mr. Slim.

Another good manual is Modern Reloading. http://leeprecision.com/modern-reloading-book/
It gives you clear concise step by step instruction.

yeah i see someone said be safe i would second that and whatever you do is don't get distracted focus on what your doing and look in each case before you seat the bullet to make sure you have powder in there you don't want to forget it !!

That right there is why I seriously never recommend progressive style presses to beginners. All to easy to miss an extra charge amount in the case. I have several single stage presses and can easily load up 200 an hour after case prep. Mercy's lathe style case trimmer suggestion is as spot on as one can get. Accurate case length can be the rise or fall of a well crafted load. And one thing you NEVER want to "skimp" on is your scale! A high quality scale will not only aid you with accurate loads, but SAFE loads as well. Calibrate and test your scale often for safety.

i hear ya and agree. the one thing about a turret press it is basicly a single stage if you use it that way then as you become familiar you can "progress" to the other stages. that way you don't have to spend the extra cash on another press but you know how that goes i have four presses and use them all for different types of reloading !

bigtimer, did you get started with your reloading yet? did you find all the equipment you wanted? let us know how things are going.

Bigtimer called me today and want me to drop a note in on this thread. He had an emergency entry in to the hospital and was just released today but is not ready to get on the board.

Standby - I expect him back soon.

Hey BT get better!

JW

glad to hear things are OK with him. thanks for letting us know.

^^This.

That includes no radios, TVs, kids, friends, wives, cell phones, texting, etc., your complete focus should be on reloading. Do I need to mention alcohol or smoking?

You will need a notebook to write down your loads and how they performed. A way to store and organize targets (IE: take a digital picture) is also helpful.

I would also suggest you write your own reloading notes specific for your equipment and written in a way that you can understand and quickly reference. I have notes for all of my equipment. When I need a quick refresher I look at my notes instead of searching though an owners manual.

Save all your manuals in one place.

FWIW I have a single stage RCBS. My 49 year old legs and back can comfortably (and enjoyably) manage 50 rounds in a single reloading session. 100 rounds is do-able but tiring.

Good luck! Reloading is a lot of fun.

I hope you get better.
My .02 on the reloading deal is you will not out grow a single stage press if you have Rifle round you are wanting to load as well. I have the Rockchucker and the hornady Progressive. I only use the hornady for bulk .223 and 9mm and even then it's not very often. I have never visited a "mature" reloader who did not have a single stage press....ever. I started with the RCBS kit and it served me fine for the time it took me to learn the process and get comfortable building safe rounds. You will add other items and processes such as annealing as you go. I would suggest buying Modern reloading by richard lee and the abc's of reloading To be very blunt if you aren't willing to invest $50 in instruction manuals and read them before you load your first round you are going to have a frustrating go at reloading.
To quote my Reloading mentor many moons ago "Jon, you are creating a controlled explosion 4" from your face. The amount of attention to detail you pay is completely up to you!"