BountyHunter
Well-Known Member
Go with a good quality single stage press to start. My rockchucker is 50 years old and still going strong. Cannot beat it. I can load everything short of 50 cal. You are not going to do that on an aluminum Lee. Progressives are not the way to start and much more difficult for inexperienced reloaders especially to make very accurate ammo. I would spend the money on a decent powder system like the RCBS lite, Lyman, Hornady etc as they are fast and more than accurate for what you want. I just bought a Lyman system for $160 and it is accurate to 0.1 all day long. I know I weighed multiple lyman throws on my FX-120i which is a $600 plus scale that weights to .01. The lyman is faster and easier than the FX even with a $300 auto trickler added. I used the FX for competition 1k BR loads.
Buy redding FL bushing dies and forget the NS crap. It will bite you and none of the top competition shooters in LR or even SR, NS only anymore. It will get you in trouble eventually unless you are shooting powder puff loads well below top SAAMI and no one here does that.
Also it is impossible to NS only with FL dies, you are working the body some unlike real NS dies. That has been proven time and time again. Hint, buy a separate shell holder for each die set and leave it in the die box. Shell holders are supposed to be same height but I have seen them vary by as much as .011 that will mess up your headspace. All my dies have "the" shellholder to use in the die box. I do not swap them out. I have one set of dies open on my bench and they are put up before I get another out. Buy the Hornady shoulder headspace comparater sets along with the ogive comparators.
Any of the hand priming setups, Lyman, Lee will work and are much easier.
Do not forget, digital calipers, bullet pulling setup (RCBS) as you will need it trust me, primer pocket cutters and cleaners, flash hole reamers, case neck inside and outside chamfer tools, multiple loading blocks, case trimmer (Wilson or Lyman), simple media brass tumbler (forget steel pin or sonic for now). Buy a small flashlight to leave on your bench and use it to visually check each and every case for powder and correct height BEFORE you start to seat bullets. There is a reason I said that and told you to get a bullet puller.
Go to alex wheelers website and look at his videos on how to measure and set up your dies for headspace and correct fit. It is not as the die mftrs say turn the dies all the way down.
Buy redding FL bushing dies and forget the NS crap. It will bite you and none of the top competition shooters in LR or even SR, NS only anymore. It will get you in trouble eventually unless you are shooting powder puff loads well below top SAAMI and no one here does that.
Also it is impossible to NS only with FL dies, you are working the body some unlike real NS dies. That has been proven time and time again. Hint, buy a separate shell holder for each die set and leave it in the die box. Shell holders are supposed to be same height but I have seen them vary by as much as .011 that will mess up your headspace. All my dies have "the" shellholder to use in the die box. I do not swap them out. I have one set of dies open on my bench and they are put up before I get another out. Buy the Hornady shoulder headspace comparater sets along with the ogive comparators.Any of the hand priming setups, Lyman, Lee will work and are much easier.
Do not forget, digital calipers, bullet pulling setup (RCBS) as you will need it trust me, primer pocket cutters and cleaners, flash hole reamers, case neck inside and outside chamfer tools, multiple loading blocks, case trimmer (Wilson or Lyman), simple media brass tumbler (forget steel pin or sonic for now). Buy a small flashlight to leave on your bench and use it to visually check each and every case for powder and correct height BEFORE you start to seat bullets. There is a reason I said that and told you to get a bullet puller.
Go to alex wheelers website and look at his videos on how to measure and set up your dies for headspace and correct fit. It is not as the die mftrs say turn the dies all the way down.
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