Reloading NEWB! point me in right direction!

To learn and introduce new loaders. Tips and tricks from old timers.

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KahrGuy
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Reloading NEWB! point me in right direction!

Post by KahrGuy »

Okay, so I'm tired of paying high prices for ammo and want to get into reloading. I've been reading up a bit on the Internet here and there and I have seen some posts by some folks here and know quite a few of you reload. So for a guy who hardly knows anything about reloading can you point me in the right direction? What type of equipment is going to be the best for me? Cases, primers, bullets, powder...what's going to work the best? I'm not looking to do this one a huge scale. Basically I want to reload range/practice ammo(for now). Mainly pistol, but would like to be able to reload rifle in the future. So maybe give me some examples of equipment that will handle both. Also, I'm really not into casting my own bullets. Any help appreciated. Thanks!
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Post by bataviafarmer »

Well, as far as "brand" of equipment, I use RCBS only because I got a deal on it at a Flea Market.

Mid-South Shooters Supply has an RCBS "starter" kit, which includes all the basic necessities, for $229.

I would suggest that you get the book "The ABC's of Reloading". It really helped me when I got started.

I get all my data from Handloads.com

Good luck and have fun!
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sts47
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Post by sts47 »

I like LEE stuff. it's cheap, and works.

Got myself an old single stage press and scales from a buddy cheap.

Got reloading manuals at the library.

Bought dies for various calibers that I shoot, get brass anywhere i can, buy bullets online, primers and powder at local shops.

I usually make up around 1000 rounds of .45 at a time, and it takes me a while to get rid of it before I reload again. Works just as good as factory ammo, and many times more reliable than Walmart Whitebox.
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Post by Birdman »

My first suggestion is to actually visit a friend who has reloaded (handloaded, whatever)for a while. Go thorugh the process from start to finish. You can go it alone, but the learning curve will be much shorter, and you will have a better chance of not blowing your hand off!
I was shown many years ago how to load shot shells-20,000-30,000 with no problems. The transition to metallics was easy, though I have not reloaded any rifle rounds, just .40 and .44 pistol rounds.
I also suggest a single stage or turret press for the rifle and a Lee Pro-1000 for pistol rounds. Possibly a Lee Load Master for both. In the mean time, scrounge all the brass you can find. Good Luck!
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Post by Whirlwind06 »

I got the Lee press and book 2 years ago.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... t=11082005

Start slow and double check everything!

Check out the the high road reloading area. Lots of good information there. http://www.thehighroad.org/forumdisplay.php?f=15

I would say you need to get started is.

Press
hand primer
load book
Dies
scale
powder measure.
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Music Man
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Post by Music Man »

For reloading powder data check out http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp
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Sneakypete
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Reloading

Post by Sneakypete »

Look at this website - http://www.leeprecision.com/ ,they have a kit on sale for $128, that has everything you need to start reloading, even have some videos that take the mystery out of it. A good place to buy other reloading supplies is http://www.midwayusa.com Other sources are gun shows, you can almost always find powder & primers. (I reload everything from 9mm to 50AE, and .223 to 45-70.)
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evan price
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Post by evan price »

I reload pistol calibers, 9mm, .38/.357, .45acp, .44 mag and I am starting on rifle.

The questions you need to ask yourself are:

1. How much do you really shoot? 1000 a year? 10,000 a year? And how much ammo do you need to make at once?

I shoot about 10,000 rounds a year, divided amongst 5 reloadable calibers. I will frequently shoot 500 rounds at a time at a range visit. 1500 rounds of 9mm or more are not uncommon.
If you shoot say 1000 rounds a year, a single stage or turret press is your speed. Anything more than that is progressive territory.


2. How much space do you have to dedicate to reloading- it can creep up on you how much space it really takes up.

I started out with a small workbench, a Workmate type deal. I don't have room for a permanent bench so I setup a knockdown press arrangement in my den. By the time we talk brass tumbler, press, buckets of brass and projectiles, etc. it takes up an area equal to a good sized desk.

3. How much time can you afford to spend on reloading- including finding and ordering components, sorting and organizing components, etc.

With a full time night shift job and two kids and a wife who works outside the home and running my own business I am pretty busy. If I can get an hour or two to reload at one time, I'm lucky. So I don't want the single-stage batch process. I use a progressive, so I get finished ammo with each pull of the press.

4. How confident are you in your mechanical aptitude? Reloading is not hard per se but it requires some finesse and familiarity with tools and mechanical processes.

If you are capable of changing the oil and sparkplug in your lawn mower you can reload. You need to use calipers and basic hand tools and know how the press operates.

5. What calibers are you reloading for? Is it financially worth getting into reloading? Or are you trying to be prepared for lack of factory ammo?

I load for 5 calibers right now and am setup to load for more. If all I had were 9mm the savings are just enough to justify a press with how much I shoot, 5000 9mm a year. However, the 6 boxes of .44 magnums I reloaded last year basically paid for my press. Loading everything else is a bonus.

If you are going to stick to a few calibers of pistol ammo, check out the Lee Pro-1000 presses. For $130 they are equipped to load a single caliber right out of the box including dies. All you need are components.
(Well, you should also have a powder check scale, calipers, and I recommend a tumbler because clean brass loads easier)
A Pro-1000 can be converted to a different caliber with a shellplate and dies and a few other cheap parts you may or may not need, depending on the case size.

Lee also has their Classic Cast turret press reloading setup which will literally get you everything you need except dies and a tumbler (which is optional but recommended).

eBay has lots of deals if you shop carefully for bargains.

BASIC PRESS OPERATION:

Single-Stage

Press has a single die mounted over the ram.
First, take your fired brass. Individually load a single shell, deprime and resize. Repeat until all your brass has been done.
Take your deprimed cases and using a hand primer, seat a primer in each case individually.
Now, remove the deprime/resize die that you set up, and install and setup the expander die. Run each shell through the expander.
If you can dump powder through the expander, this saves a step. Otherwise, now you have to add powder to each shell.
Now remove the expander die and install and setup the seater/crimp die.
Individually set each filled, primed case in the ram and add a bullet and compress. Repeat until done.
To load 200 rounds of ammo, you need to pull the press lever 1000 times, and you don't have ANY finished ammo until all the cases are done with the previous step. If you need to stop, you will have ammo in various stages of completion.
Will work for rifle rounds.

Turret Press

Same as a single stage, but instead of a single die position, there are multiple dies mounted in a usually-circular movable plate above the ram.
To use the press, you setup each of your dies in the turret plate and never need to move them again. No more setup time when changing dies. Ideally, you buy a seperate turret plate for each caliber so you don't need to adjust anything.
Otherwise, the steps are the same as a single stage.
Load shell. Deprime/resize. Turn turret (or some will index it for you). Prime on press. Expand/powder dump. Turn turret. Add bullet, seat bullet. Remove finished round, turn turret to beginning again.

Faster than a single stage, and you have the advantage of working on a single piece of ammo until it is done.
It still takes multiple pulls of the handle for each piece of finished ammo.
Will work for rifle rounds.

Progressive Press

Similar to the modern assembly line.
Dies are mounted in a plate similar to the turret press. The shells, instead of being loaded one at a time, are moved under each die in sequence by an indexing shell holder that moves with the ram.
You start pulling the press handle, and empty casings start at the beginning, advancing one after the other through the stages of the press, exiting as finished ammo one-after-the-other as the press is worked.
If you need to stop just withhold empty casings from the press and once you are done, you're done.
You get a finished round with each pull of the handle.

This type of press requires a little more mechanical know-how and more patience and double checking because if you make a mistake, you could possibly make a mistake that is multiplied by how many times you pull the handle before you see the mistake (like running out of powder).
Not advised for most rifle rounds.

ArcherAce has a nice video of him running his Pro-1000 press on here somewhere.
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Post by ArcherAce »

evan price wrote: ArcherAce has a nice video of him running his Pro-1000 press on here somewhere.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2kWXyxOEbZ0

I'm going to be off work again in a few weeks. I might make a video of the reloading process from start to finish. That should keep me busy for awhile.
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Post by MikeACP »

That would be pretty cool if you could. You can read all you want. Seeing an operation being done is something else.
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Post by mauser »

I prefer Hornady L-N-L but it really does not matter as long as you get started. For price, you cannot beat the Lee kit that Sneakypete recommended. Another good source is E-Bay. You can find a lot of new and used stuff on there. If you are not sure what you want, stick to a new kit so you know it includes what you need. Lee, RCBS and Hornady all offer starting kits. Hornady and RCBS are probably better but the Lee kit has more included and is $100 cheaper.

Start with a single stage press and learn the mechanics. Too many people try a big progressive to start and either get frustrated with the setup or get it working but do not comprehend the basics of reloading. Also, you will want a single stage to produce good rifle loads anyway. You can always upgrade to a progressive later.

As far as components, your brass you have already accumulated is your best bet as that is the biggest expense. Provided of course you have on hand a good supply of brass cases with boxer primers. Your book will explain the difference in detail. There are several good sources for bullets. The plated lead give you a sort of jacketed bullet at a lead bullet cost and are great for practice ammo. Any brand of primer will work but you must match the size and ignition to what you are loading. You would not buy Large Magnum Rifle for 9mm. The brand is not always as important as consistency. (Your manual will explain what to do if switching brands of primer in a published load). Powder will depend upon the published load you decide on. Some people try to narrow their uses of different powders to buy in bulk and save while others experiment with as many different powders as possible.

Either get a kit with a good book or buy a book and get started. After you have read it and studied the loads, pick one and give it a try.
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Post by shooterwolf »

I think a Lee turret press would be a good starter.

Go to glocktalk, get on their forums and look for the reloading forum. There is a sticky at the top regarding gear reccomendations for the beginner.

Best advice for a newbie, don't be afraid to ask questions and don't take any one persons advice for gospel. Get several opinions.

Evan, good post.

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Post by JU-87 »

I have owned a Dillon RL550B since 1992, and I'm very happy with it. I can reload hand gun & rifle ammo on this one press. Dillon has a LIFETIME,noBS guarantee on all there products. If it breaks, they replace it, period.

I know first hand how tight money can be while raising a family. I owned some good quality guns, but could not afford to shoot them very often due to the cost of ammo! I asked about 10 fellow shooters at the range,and a couple at work: 7 of 10 used Dillon.

I believe there are 3 items where you should NOT try to save money-where you should buy the BEST QUALITY you can afford: Tools,Tires,and Guns. I decided to sell a handgun to buy my RL550B press. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made reguarding my shooting sports.

If you are looking for cheap junk, then buy a Lee press for about$130.

If you can find a used Dillon press, they usually cost only about $20 less than a brand new one. That's because of the lifetime guarantee. How much does a used Lee press cost? :roll:


The current price of a RL550B is $395.95 .That's still about the price of a decent handgun. Here is a link to Dillon: http://www.dillonprecision.com/

You can see a video of the set-up here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6ZuaihzGiSU
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Post by cgs500 »

I agree with JU-87.

I started with a Lee Turret and there was some messing around to get it to index correctly. I still have it and have loaded 1000's of rounds with it. I wanted something a little faster, I tried a Lee Pro 1000 and sold it after about 400 rds. I went with the Dillon RL550B and love it. Yes the Hornady progressive is a nice press and I would consider it now.

At the time, with my experience with the Lee progressive, I didn't want to make the leap to another full progressive. The Dillon let me load at a reasonable pace and keep and eye on things until I became familiar with quicker process.

I didn't have the resource of the Internet at the time and word of mouth was all I had to go on. I had a little trial and error but I am happy with the Dillon. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. It seems that instead of us "pointing you in the right direction" we may be playing pin the tail on the donkey. :lol:

Reloading relaxing and a great hobby by itself, enjoy!!!
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evan price
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Post by evan price »

I believe there are 3 items where you should NOT try to save money-where you should buy the BEST QUALITY you can afford: Tools,Tires,and Guns. I decided to sell a handgun to buy my RL550B press. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made reguarding my shooting sports.

If you are looking for cheap junk, then buy a Lee press for about$130.
With all due respect, JU87 I agree with you to a certain degree but disagree on the presentation.

There are those of us who will do quite nicely with a Sears lawnmower and not need to spend the extra cash buying a John Deere.

It all depends on how much one intends to reload. If I were shooting IPSC or IDPA or whatever competition and needing thousands of rounds every month, sure, a Dillon would be ideal.
If you are a weekender who shoots a few hundred rounds a month, a Lee machine is "good enough".

I'm not cracking on Dillon, quite the opposite, it's just that in my life I have seen lots of people spend way more than they needed to get started in something, or else not go ahead and do something at all because the expense was seen as too high.

If you are just starting in reloading, with zero experience, my advice is to start with more moderately priced equipment and see if it meets your needs, or if you even want to keep reloading at all, and then buy what you actually find you like/need once you KNOW what that really is.

I see used Dillons for sale pretty regularly that are coated in dust and hardly used, "No time for reloading".

To reiterate, I am not bashing Dillon. Lee progressives are consumer/homeowner grade equipment and you get what you pay for. But there are many millions of rounds that are produced on red presses every year.

Lee's Classic Cast turret press is as strong as any other turret out there and has a better turret design that won't get sloppy like models with a single center shaft will.
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