New Guy Looking to Reload...

[glock19gary]

I would like to buy Equipment for reloading 9mm and .223... So far, I have been window shopping and studying. Where should I start and what should I stay away from? I would like to stick with RCBS Equipment with a good single stage press, but not a flimsy one of coarse. Any info would be good. Thanks Jim

[Love Life]

Don't rule out Lee. Great quality for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of RCBS. I have used many companies dies, but always go back to lee. They just work for the money. Here is my List.

1. Lee clasic cast or turret press
2. Handgun dies- Lee
3. Rifle-Lee
4. Case trimming- Lyman
5. Powder measure- Perfect powder measure or auto disk
6. Same as above
7.Same as above, but recommend RCBS or Dillon
8. Same. I highly recommend the frankford arsenal kit
9. Not necessary but very useful
10. Not necessary if not using cast boolits. Still not 100% necessary if using cast boolits
11. Yep.

Do not get wrapped around a brand name. All the companies have great stuff to offer. Lee is hard to beat for the money and actually provides better options and stuff than other big name companies. RCBS is top quality along with redding. Lyman is hit or miss. Dillon is top notch, but pricey. If you have anymore questions shoot me a PM and I'll give you my number so you can call for any questions.

[mooman76]

You should start by( and I believe everyone will agree) getting several good reload manuals and read, read, read. They will teach you most of what you need to know and help you deside what you want too. Several good ones are Lee, Speer, Lyman and the ABCs of reloading.

[btroj]

Find a shooter who
A- reloads
B- is safety conscious
C- you know and trust

Ask this person for some one on one training. This is the way I learned and it makes everything progress so much better.
This will supplement the advice given by Mooman- read, read, read. Never stop reading and learning.

Start slow and easy, work into this. Always remember that safety is the most important factor.

Good luck

Brad

[Alvarez Kelly]

You should start by( and I believe everyone will agree) getting several good reload manuals and read, read, read. They will teach you most of what you need to know and help you deside what you want too. Several good ones are Lee, Speer, Lyman and the ABCs of reloading.

Yep, yep, yep! READ! I learned to reload WITHOUT a mentor. I must have read Lee's book 10 times. I started with a single press... and now I have a shop full of Dillons... but I still ocassionally use my first press and some of my original Lee dies.

But seriously. READ all you can get on the types of ammo YOU are interested in reloading.

Good luck! Be safe.

[Mossy Nugget]

Can't recommend book study enough. ABC'S of RELOADING, and Lee 2nd. Edition. The section on casting and working up loads for boolits alone justifies the Lee manual. Reloading manuals from bullet makers have load data for their bullets, those from powder makers similarly have data for their powders. I own several.
For cheap starting, the Lee challenger kit is a good value. Has everything you must have except a die set and case length gauge for whatever calibre you want to load. An experienced mentor is very desirable, but not absolutely essential. And, of course, there is a huge wealth of threads to peruse at your leisure right here!

[Cowboy T]

Don't rule out Lee. Great quality for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of RCBS. I have used many companies dies, but always go back to lee.

Do not get wrapped around a brand name. All the companies have great stuff to offer. Lee is hard to beat for the money and actually provides better options and stuff than other big name companies. RCBS is top quality along with redding. Lyman is hit or miss. Dillon is top notch, but pricey. If you have anymore questions shoot me a PM and I'll give you my number so you can call for any questions.

Wise advice from Love Life here; don't get wrapped around a brand name. Ford/Chevy/Dodge, you know. They're all good.

Since you're (the OP, that is) new to reloading, I always strongly suggest starting out in single-stage first, to learn what you're doing. This is a general recommendation for safety reasons. In my case, it was with the $30 "Lee Reloader Press". After I got some experience under my belt, then I got fancy and went progressive. You've got plenty of time--no rush.

[plainsman456]

I would get a RCBS reloading master set if I was going to start today.
When I started all that was available from them was the rockchucker press kit,I still use it today.

[smoked turkey]

Welcome! You have been given good advice so far. I would also put in a plug for the Lyman Reloading Handbook. Mine is the 49th addition and it is crammed full of good information. They also have a good cast boolit handbook as well as one for shotshell reloading.

Other than to welcome you to the madness, I wanted to let you know about another forum here that you will undoubtly run across sometime. It is called Pay It Forward. The purpose of that forum is sort of a pay back when someone does something nice for you, you look for an opportunity to do something in return for someone else. A while back one of our members here, TCFAN, was nice to me by giving me some plain base cast boolits to try for my 30-30. I want to "pay it forward" to you by offering you a set of steel RCBS dies in 9mm if you can use them. Mind you these are an older 3-die set of steel dies. They are not carbide. That means you should apply some lube to the brass occasionally in order to keep the sizing operation going smoothly. I recommend you eventually purchase a set in carbide. I don't know if the carbide dies are within your budget now or not. If they are by all means get those. If not these steel dies will get you by for a long time. If interested you can send me a PM for more info.

[Swampthing762]

I agree with the Lee Challenger kit. Get ABCs of Reloading book, and Lee's 2nd Edition (very sage advice above, I heartily agree). Also, Lyman Reloading 49 would be a good pick. Hodgon, Winchester, and IMR powders data are all online. Personally, I learned to reload with the Lee Classic Loader whack-a-mole tool (shotgun and rifle). I have a LLA2 and the Lee Hand Press kit, and the presses make life much easier. Due to space constraints, I have to use my LCL kits now. In any event, welcome to the Brotherhood of BoolitThrowers!

ST762

[bobthenailer]

I would first put up a post to see if theres anyone in your area that reloads and if they would be your Mentor this would save you alot of time and work ! and maybe make a new shooting buddy !
IN my local area theres alot of reloading gear in pawn shops and sometimes in smaller gun shops . thats where the real bargin is aroud 50 % or more off of store prices . or ck local want ads or craigs list. You just have to know what they cost new from the discount catilogs [ not retail prices] and if its half price and in good shape , go for it

[firebrick43]

As others have stated, don't get hung up on brands!

I will never bash the original rcbs rock chucked but the new RC supreme is not all that great and cast in China to boot. Same crappy priming system and primers all over the floor without some modifications while depriming.

10 years ago I thought like that about getting into reloading. Spent some extra money to get some nicer stuff other than lee. Thing is that I have replaced some rcbs die sets with lee because the have some better features. Just not as nice of outside finish.

My advice is get the lee classic cast press and safety prime, not the breach lock model. If you want fast change outs you can put hornady lock in load bushing in it later. I don't, just replace the rcbs and lee lock rings on dies I need repeatable settings with the hornady clamp type lock rings. The only better single stage press in my opinion is the redding bigboss 2. (not the boss or big boss). The forester coax gets high marks to but IMHO the priming system leaves something to be desired.

If you are looking at turrets the best value is the lee classic cast turret, the cadilac is the t7. The rcbs turret and Lyman tmag2(press I owned for the first 10 years) are pretty pathetic IMHO. To much flex in the head( if you adjust it out then the turret is locked up and if you try to turn it you break the support rod off). Also I had to adjust the support rod when swigging turrets and the process ended costing a lot of time.

For a bench mounted powder drop the rcbs uniflow is probably the standard. Not to say that the redding and hornady are nice either.

For a scale I would skip the lee and get a Dillion eliminator. It is the same ohaus made scale as the gold standard rcbs 505 but is about 20$ cheaper. Only thing better is a 1010 but is not necessary for most people.

For 95 percent of the reloading out there you can't beat the lee trim system. Cheap, fast when chucked in an cordless drill and less chance of changing settings from other systems. Just as accurate to. There is really no reason most of the time to deviate from the standard trim length that the lee system uses.

Get a reloading tray, powder funnel, kinetic bullet puller, and some calipers. The Frankfort armory brand that midway sells is a good value for these items.

Also I always suggest a lee universal decapping die, excellent tool for around 10 bucks.

[wallenba]

A good cast iron "O" press. Can't go wrong with RCBS or Redding. I usually build my die sets around a Lee set with a Lyman "M" die, and a Lee FCD and a good neck sizing die
(for the .223). Also, a universal decapping die will help when you expand your reloading. A good beam scale, any of the RCBS ones. Avoid the Lee, it is about the only Lee product that should be dropped IMO. A powder trickler and a bullet puller. You will make mistakes! Some imperial sizing wax for the .223. A lee Perfect powder measure is inexpensive, and properly prepped will be exceptionally accurate in dispensing. A loading block, Richard Lee's "Modern Reloading" book, and a dial caliper for measuring. And a chamfering/deburring tool. There are starter kits offered by some manufacturers that will include most of these items and a lot cheaper than buying them separately.

[Char-Gar]

I won't try and hide my thinking about Lee equipment in general and I don't hold that stuff in high regard even though many do.

There is lots and lots of good equipment out there, but as you favor RCBS, it is as good any any and better than some. The RCBS Rockchucker press will last a lifetime and their other stuff is also first rate. Their customer service is superlative.

[Russel Nash]

If you were going to shoot say like 150 rounds of 9mm or .223 each weekend then I would suggest going with a Dillon progressive press.

The catch though is ....there is always a catch isn't there?... progressive machines are expensive to buy initially and then to keep fed. they just "eat" components left and right and before you know it you'll have a pile of ammo ready to shoot.

like everyone else has said here, find a reloading mentor. in lieu of that, read, read, read some reloading books/manuals.

I started back in 1994 with a RCBS Master reloading kit. That was back when their Rock Chucker presses were made with cast iron right here in the States. Even though I have a Dillon progressive press now, I still keep my old Rock Chucker press around. I use it for pulling bullets from rounds I have goofed up on.

my other piece of advice is to see if you can find primers and powder locally to you. I have never had to pay a HAZMAT fee for ordering in primers or powder, and I hope I never will, either.

I can get Winchester primers for right around $23 a "brick" of a thousand. it's been a while, so I might actually be able to get them still for $21 a brick. Just like two or three years ago, I could get a brick for $14.50 to $15.50. uggg....the good ol' days.

This is just me, but paying say like $30 or $35 a brick is just nuts.

there is a reloading cost calculator over at handloads.com. if you can't get components cheaply enough, then I really don't see the point in reloading. just buy ammo at wally world.

[m-bear]

Loading with a single stage is for people who shoot very little or need very precise loads.
A rockchuccker kit is close to the price of a dillon 550 or a lnl. A single stage will load 100 rounds an hour maybe 150. The 550 will do 450 and hour all day long. And here is the cool thing. you can use it just like a single stage press if you want. If you don't want to spend that much money buy a lee classic cast.

Here this is from Glock talk.

Which reloading press is right for you?

I have been asking experienced reloaders questions about their presses and their reloading habits. I find it interesting that the average person loads in short burst. They average 30 to 60 minutes at a time. This seems to hold true weather the person is a competition shooter or a plinker. That leads me to believe that the mast majority of reloaders buy way more press than they really need. As one person pointed out with a Dillon 550 you can load 250 rounds in half an hour and you did just that every day Monday through Friday that’s still 1250 rounds a week. Very few people shoot that many rounds a week on a regular basis. I have shot that many rounds in a weekend but only because I went to a class. I certainly don’t need that much out put every week. Even a Lee classic turret press will yield 500 round a week with that schedule. Am I suggesting that everyone buy a Lee classic turret press? NO But 75% or more of shooters could get by with one if they had to. There is a saying in the racing industry. Speed cost money haw fast do want to spend? The same is true in the reloading industry. The faster you want to go the more it is going to cost you. Thankfully the costs for reloading are tiny compared to racing. Also a quality reloading press can last you a lifetime. Spending $500 to $1000 dollars on a reloading machine doesn’t seem so expensive when you realize that in 10 years you only spent $50 To $100 dollars a year for that machine. Also in the case of Dillons they hold there value. If you decide to sell your reloader you can expect to get 75% to 90% of current market value back on your purchase.
Case feeders are something to think about even if you don’t want one when you first start to reload. A case feeder will greatly increases your hourly production. Not all Case feeders are made equal. The lee is the least expensive and versatile. The 550 Case feeder was an afterthought. It works on pistol cases only. The 650 1050 and LNL all have similar functioning units that load both pistol and rifle cartages. These case feeders can increases your output 40% or more. The new low cost Hornady bullet feeder has the potential to increases these press another 40% or more. While it can be installed on a four station press you have to give up something else to make it work. Both of these products are reasons to look harder at the 5 station press instead of the 4 station presses. The Hornady LNL and the Billon 650 should both be capable of production rate over 1000 rounds an hour with a case feeder and a bullet feeder.
The Presses
Lee Pro 1000

Some people have fairly good luck with them and swear by them. Most people just swear at them. If you want a cheap press and like to constantly tinker with a press then a Lee Pro 1000 might be right for you. There are more negatives than positives reviews on the web about them. I know one guy that swears by his. I have never used one myself.
. One Hour Production Rate 300
Cost $143.99 12 2010

Lee Classic turret press

If you are going to look at a Lee turret press only look at the Classic. It’s not a progressive press and you have to pull the handle 4 times for each round. It’s slow, it’s cheap, it works. If you are on a tight budget it will give you more production for the same price as a lot of single stage presses.
One Hour Production Rate 200
Cost $94.99 12 2010

The Dillon Square Deal

The Dillon Square Deal is a pistol caliber only press... no bottle neck cartridges.. The Dillon Square Deal uses proprietary Dillon dies so you won't be able to use any dies you might already own. If you want to change calibers you have to buy more Square Deal proprietary dies for it. The Dillon Square Deal has a small footprint which is a benefit if you are limited on bench space but a detriment if you have big fingers. The Dillon Square Deal is the least expensive of the Dillon press line. If you are sure you are only going to load one or two pistol cartridge then this might be the press for you.
One Hour Production Rate 400 - 500
Cost $365.95 12 2010

The Dillon RL550B
RL550B is manual-indexing four station progressive press. The Dillon RL550B is the workhorse Dillon press line. It can load almost any center fire rifle or pistol cartridge. It has 120 caliber conversions available for it. In the Dillon line the Dillon RL550B is the most economical add calibers to. It has less expensive caliber conversions than other Dillon presses. If you were buying just one Dillon press and wanted the most bang for the buck, it would be a Dillon RL550B. According to Dillon more RL550s have been sold than any other progressive machine in the world.
One Hour Production Rate 400 - 500
Cost $376.00 12 2010

The Dillon XL650
The XL 650 is auto-indexing five station progressive press. The XL 650 was built from the ground up to be an auto-indexing press with a case feeder. The Dillon XL650 comes standard with a tube system for an automatic case feeder. The automatic case feeder is sold separately So the advertised starting price doesn’t accurately reflect the true price of a Dillon XL650. A fully set up Dillon XL650 cost twice what a Dillon RL550B cost but produces twice as much ammo an hour. The caliber conversions for the Dillon XL650 are noticeably more expensive than the RL550B and the LNL. For large volume reloading, versatility and ease of use a Dillon XL650 is hard to beat.
One Hour Production Rate 800 – 1150
Cost $ $544.95 bullet feeder $212.95 .12 2010

The Super 1050 B
The Super 1050 B is the king of the Dillon line. It is designed for commercial use and not normally in the running for what press should I buy. If you need it you know you need it.
One Hour Production Rate 1200 +
Cost $1589.95 12 2010
Hornady Lock N Load AP
The Lock-N-Load AP is an auto-indexing, 5-station progressive press that features the Lock-N-Load bushing system, which allows calibers to be changed very quickly. The Lock-N-Load is the cheapest press to equip with additional caliber conversions. During Automatic Indexing Each station moves 1/2 a stage on the upstroke and 1/2 a stage on the down stroke and the up stroke, making for a smoother function. This means less chance of flinging powder out of cases. The Lock-N-Load AP can be used with or without a case feeder. This allows you to start at a Dillon 550B price but to upgrade to a Dillon XL650 speed press at a later date. The earlier editions of this press were known to have issues and were more in line with Lee quality presses. With the new generation of presses Hornady is trying to go head to head with Dillon including matching their warranty.
One Hour Production Rate 500 with case feeder 800.
Cost $ $381.99 bullet feeder 279.99. 12 2010


The Warranty
lee reloading products are guaranteed not to wear out or break from normal use for two full years or they will be repaired or replaced at no charge if returned to the factory. Any LEE product of current manufacture, regardless of age or condition, will be reconditioned to new—including a new guarantee—if returned to the factory with payment equal to half the current retail price.

Hornady Warranty “We guarantee every one of our reloading tools and accessories for Life” No-Risk, Lifetime Warranty. Hornady reloading tools and accessories are warranted against material defects and workmanship for the life of the products. Parts which by nature of their function are subject to normal wear such as springs, pins, bearings, etc… and, parts which have been altered, abused, or neglected are excluded for the warranty.
If the product is deemed defective by either workmanship or material, the reloading tool or accessory will either be repaired, reconditioned or replaced at Hornady Manufacturing Company’s option. If it breaks, we’ll repair it or replace it at no charge.
Dillon precision No warranty cards, registration or serial numbers are necessary. Whether you are the first owner, or the seventeenth, all our hobby-level reloading machines have a lifetime warranty. If you break, damage or wear out anything on them, it will be fixed or replaced – whatever is necessary to restore the machine to normal operating condition. If a minor part is all that is needed, contact us and we will ship the part. If something major is damaged or broken, contact us and we issue the customer a return merchandise authorization-RMA- to return the item to us for repair. The customer pays the shipping; we fix or replace as is warranted.
I rate the warrantees from worst to best Lee, Hornady, Dillon. Both the Hornady and Dillon have excellent warrantees. The difference is that Dillon will also warrantee consumables. Hornady has been doing this lately also but it isn’t in there written warrantee. Lastly Dillon will even completely rebuild a press to new condition for a small fee. They don’t care if you are the original owner or if you found it in a garbage can. They still honor their warrantee.

So which reloading press is right for you? That depends…
How much ammo you are going to make a month average?
What is your budget?
How much time do you have to reload?
How many different calibers do you want to reload?
Here is my personal picks.
You only load 1 pistol caliber and you just want to knock it out fast.
The Dillon Square Deal
Budget of $300 or less…… Lee Classic turret press
Budget $300 to $600 …. Dillon 550

Budget over $800 …… Dillon XL650
Budget doesn’t matter with 1 caliber …. The Super 1050 B
You only want to buy one press to last for the rest of your life regardless of what you want or how many calibers you reload….. Dillon RL550B
http://www.leeprecision.com/
http://www.hornady.com/reloading

http://www.dillonprecision.com/

[adrians]

BOOKS,,,BOOKS,,,,BOOKS,
THEN HANDS ON.... just buy the best equipment you can afford at the time,
once the train starts to roll there is no stopping it and it;s a long and fun ride ..
be safe and enjoy..
have a great wekend,, adrians.
oh and listen to these guy's on this "cyber sight" they are the proverbial * gold at the end of the rainbow*.

[liljohnnie]

Here is my opinion in a nutshell.
I started with a Lee Reloader single stage press, Lyman 500 balance beam scale (which i still have and use often), RCBS powder funnel, RCBS loading block, Lyman tubby tumbler, two sets of RCBS dies in 9mm and 38/357 and alot of patience.
From that i moved up to a Lee 50th anniversary kit (challenger press, safety scale perfect powder measure etc.) The powder measure sped things up considerably.
After that i was all in, I bought a Dillon 650 with casefeeder in 2001 and now have a Lyman single stage, a Texan 3 station press, Lyman DPS 1200, Lyman mag 20 and Mini Mag, 2 Lyman lube sizers and dies for i think 13 calibers and i'm just getting started.I cast 7 different flavors of boolits for 4 calibers (also just getting started).
It's a wonderful sickness that can only be cured(if only temporarily) by going to the range and emptying out some brass. You don't have to spend alot to get started but you best believe you're going to spend a wagon load before they lay your butt to rest, but at least you will have a broad grin on your face.

[Russel Nash]

You can also look on Craig's List in your area.

Near the upper left corner of your area's Craig's List page there is a search window, just type in keywords like "RCBS", "Hornady", "Lee", "Redding", "Hornady", "Dillon", "Mec", and "Texan".

You could save a bunch of money that way.

[David2011]

Man, there's a ton of good advice here. Is it worthy of being a sticky? My two cents' worth is that no matter how many Dillons or other progressive presses you might own a single stage press is nice to have for limited runs, load development and calibers for which you don't want to invest in a caliber conversion kit. Hope I don’t ramble on too much but I would like to tell about my current situation as it relates to the OP’s questions. The equipment recommendations have been great. Here’s how I’ve gone minimalist but have the good tools available.

The company I work for transferred me to southeast New Mexico and I’m living in a 5th wheel travel trailer while I wait for my house to sell. There is lots of public land nearby so I HAD to be able to reload in the temporary home. The public land is so close that I’m able to go looking for coyotes and other varmints after work in the evenings. Struck out today but at least I went.

I went from 2 single stage presses,3 Dillons (SDB, 550, 650) and a lot of nice-to-have accessories in a good sized reloading room to just a Rock Chucker mounted on a Craftsman roll around tool box bottom unit. It takes all evening to crank out 100 rounds of handgun ammo -BUT- it gets it done. I brought several of the nice accessories. They’re all mounted on interchangeable bolt pattern steel plates so I can put any tool in any position on the available bench space. Threaded brass inserts are set into the ¾ ply bench top to accept the mounting bolts that hold the plates in place. The tools include a Saeco powder measure (my favorite), an RCBS Uniflow, an RCBS Lil Dandy and full set of rotors, RCBS bench priming tool, Forster case trimmer and a Dillon primer pocket swager for all of the military 5.56 I’m processing to reload. The extras take up a bit of precious space but let me craft ammo to the quality to which I’ve become accustomed. I have no benchrest fantasies but the tools make the job easier and give me well under MOA for both of my rifles.

I'm loading primarily .223 and 6.5x55, supplementing the rifles with .45 Colt and .38 Special including shot shells for the rattlers. I miss my fast presses and would even load the .223 on the Dillon 550 if it were available. Loading bottlenecked cartridges on a progressive doesn't eliminate the prep work for those who haven't tried it but once the cases are decapped and trimmed I prime, charge and seat the bullets in short order in the 550. With fine grained powders like 748 the Dillon meters well enough for coyote or larger targets. For prairie dogs at long distances each load would still need to be weighed for the extra margin of consistency. For larger rifle cartridges I stick with the Rock Chucker rather than mess with a progressive. In the amount of time it takes to set up the dies, powder charge and seating depth in a progressive you could crank out 20 to 50 rounds in a single stage press. For load development you would still need to weigh each charge by hand instead of using the progressive’s powder measure. The RCBS 505 is my choice for a powder scale. In the big reloading room I had one on the single stage bench and another on the progressive bench so I brought one with me. A variety of funnels will be handy. Some house ware and some reloading funnels are a must for me.

For trimming cases I have a Forster and Lee trimmers for all of my rifle calibers. The Lee unit works well, is hard to mess up and you can't beat the price. The Forster is tedious to set up and I tend to want to leave it set for one length when it’s holding within a thousandth or two of my intended length.

The best addition to the Rock Chucker is Hornady Lock 'N Load bushings for all of my dies. The Rock Chucker has a threaded bushing that can be removed and the Hornady adapter screws into the 1-1/4x12 hole. Changing dies takes a couple of seconds and they’re always set the way you left them. If you have to do something to just one or two cases you have no setup time. Pop out one die, put the other in, do what you need to do and go back to the other operation in seconds. I’ve bought two 10-packs and used all but 2 of them. I even have one on the RCBS bullet puller.

You don't have to pull many bullets to make a press mounted puller seem like a bargain compared to an inertia puller but the inertia puller is the best for cast boolits. The press mounted variety either works poorly or not at all with boolits depending on their shape but it is terrific for j-word bullets. I can't cast right now so I bring what I need from the house when I pay it a visit and end up shooting mostly j-words.

Where I’m living the going price for powder seems to be $31-$38/pound and primers are still at $50.00/thousand (Mid-2011, well after the shortage ended) so I am forced to order. I just got a shipment of primers and powder from Powder Valley. Powder was about $18/lb and CCI benchrest primers were under $30/thousand. That’s an expensive primer compared to their other offerings but I had gotten such awesome results with the CCI BR primers, Winchester 748 and Hornady V-max bullets that I didn’t want to change anything.

I have a variety of dies including some very nice old Pacific Durachrome, RCBS, Lee, Dillon and a few others. None of them are bad so pick what you like and learn to use them well.

That pretty well describes the tools that were selected from reloading since the late 70s to do quality reloading in a minimal amount of space. I should learn to do the same when I write.

David