Equipment for reloading

[MontanaJack]

KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. Start with a good basic system. There are lots of very good Youtube videos to help you understand fundamentals. Best quick start would be to make contacts with experienced shooters that also handload. See if they would be willing to invite you over to "see how they do it and what equipment they like and use". As a beginner, don't let anyone push you to go with a progressive press. I've been doing this for over 60 years and have multiple presses, scales, powder measures, etc. My advice: 1) buy a good single stage press. Suggest Hornady, RCBS, or Redding. 2) buy a quality manual scale. 3) Start with one rifle caliber that you like to shoot a lot and get a set of dies and shell holder the same brand as your press. 4) A current loading manual published by the brand that makes the bullets you want to use. The Sierra Reloading manual is a great reference for a beginner and their bullets will be adequate until you get more experiences and start using boutique bullets. Avoid getting sucked into the bullet debate too soon. 5) 6" dial or electronic caliper. 6) Consumables: case lube pad, powder, primers, brass, brass holder, bowel for powder and a thin small spoon for powder, powder trickler. That will get you started. Your first upgrade may be a auto dispensing electronic powder dispenser, such as the RCBS CARGEMASTER (about $300). Good luck & have fun!

PS: Powder measures work adequately for fine grained pistol powders, but not larger grained rifle powders. I use them for pistol loading with my Dillion 750 Progressive and my MEC 9000 Grabber for shotgun. However, I weigh every charge for my larger rifle cartridges.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Two mititoyo calipers

 

[budlight]

I want a progressive reloader and an ultrasonic brass cleaner for sure.

Let me know. Thanks.

Ultrasonic cleaners are a waste of money. I started out with dry media tumblers. They really do a mediocre job and leave media dust inside and out. The walnut shells are always getting wedged in and you have to dork with them. I bought the Hornady Ultrsonic cleaner. The little baskets don't hold many cases and they do a another mediocre job. I gave it to my wife for a jewlery cleaner.

You can't beat wet media stainless steel pins. lots of Dawn dish soap and 1/2 tea spoon of dish washer ultra shine crystals powder. Let it tumble for 3 hours and pull out 200-300 pistol/rifle cases and they look brand new. Very pretty. Only someone without clear thinking would use the other two options. The pins clean inside and out. No oil or mess for reloading.

I use a single stage prep for all rifle rounds. Size and decap then off to the Thumblers tumbler to remove all the resizing oil.

Check the length, trim and inside and outside chafer on my RCBS case prep machine.

I use the franklin hand primer after the cases have dried for a period of time.

I have a dillion 550. I bought a 750 and chased problem after problem, case feed, primer feed and seating with moving the handle forward. I loaded so many bad 9mm's that I sold it because it was a PITA. It would miss a primer and it would rotate to the next powder fill station and the fine ball powder would dump into the turrent and jam up the whole mess. It was such a problem compared to my sizing and hand priming 550 operation that I had been using for 15 years.

A good balance .

 

[Hugnot]

Money is a reaL big object for me.

I am still using my 50 year old RCBS Rockchucker press, olde RCBS scale & powder measure. Lee equipment is becoming more common on my bench with Lee Ram Primer tool, Lee F/L & Collet dies. I still use some 35-50 year old RCBS dies like .308W & .243W. I use Redding body dies in .204R, .22-.250, .308. Ammo production includes fire forming 6mm AI & .280 Rem brass. I load .20P ammo using a Redding .223 bushing die with a .226 bushing.

I load & shoot over 2,500 rounds per year including pistol ammo & feel no need for a progressive press. I anneal brass using a simple loop tip propane torch. Case neck tuning is done with my cordless & RCBS neck turner. Case trimming is done with a Lyman Ready Trim & cordless. Tool steel cutting edges are maintained with a small diamond file. A 10X B&L triplet magnifier is used to inspect surfaces & edges. I wipe cases clean using paper towels & rubbing alcohol. Crud is removed from primer pockets with a small steel pick. A micrometer & caliper for measuring.

If I had to assemble new ammo production gear there would be no changes.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Watch F class John interviews top shooters on youtube and their reloading rooms. Will give you ideas about what the top guys use.

 

[MontanaJack]

A progressive press might not be the best place to start as a new reloader. I use and would recommend RCBS, Redding is another brand I trust. The Area 419 Zero is a fine piece of equipment as well. I have at least 3 or maybe 4 Rockchucker presses along with a couple of Harrell's portables and a few Lee hand presses. I also have 2 Dillon 550 setups, one for .45 ACP and the other for .45 Long Colt. I use the old style Lee hand priming tool but there are several good ones.

The V4 Auto trickler is a great set up and will weigh powder charges to the single kernel but so will a 50 year old Ohaus M5 scale tuned by Scott Parker. I personally use an RCBS Chargemaster Lite and a good beam scale to verify my charges.

Unless you are loading in very high volume for serious competition there is really no need for automated equipment. For serious accuracy work a stout single stage press for a resize die and an inline seater such as the Wilson with an arbor press are used. The most accurate rifles in the world are typically loaded at the range with the simplest equipment you can use.

As a general rule, if it uses batteries then it's worthless to me as far as reloading is concerned, the one exception I make is a Brown & Sharpe digital caliper, I use it with the appropriate attachments to check case lengths before and after sizing.

You will also need some sort of case trimmer, I like the Wilson but there are a lot of good ones and they all do basically the same thing.

Ultrasonic cleaners will make brass look new and I like them personally but you have to be careful if you use them and leave ammo loaded for long periods of time, neck welding can be an issue. I like shiny ammo but in reality it does nothing for accuracy, a lot of benchrest shooters just lightly brush the inside of the case neck, and wipe the carbon off the outside of the case neck with a piece of steel wool and call it good.

By far the best investment you can make is a good reloading manual, invest the time it takes to read it, especially the warnings!


This statement scares me a little, I don't really know how you mean it but I'll just say that you can spend thousands of dollars on the ultimate reloading set up and if you don't take the time to learn to use it it's still dangerous.

I hope I didn't give the impression that I'm being condescending, that is not my intention. Reloading is a great hobby in my opinion and a large part of the enjoyment I get from shooting/hunting.

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This is a good place to start IMHO.

Best of luck!

Agreed. Best not to be distracted with the complexities of high tech gear while learning fundamentals. i grew up in the 50's and 60's learning from my dad. In those days he earned about $5/day as a pipefitter. So, hunting was done to feed us and reloading was done to have ammo he couldn't afford to buy. He started with low cost gear and eventually upgraded to an RCBS MODEL A single stage press that he used for the rest of his life. He had an oil dampened powder scale, again using it for a lifetime. He bagged more big game than many of us will ever see using quality, simple, reliable gear and studying constantly to understand the process. He never annealed or trimmed a case, but he probably didn't reload brass more than 3 or 4 times.

 

[Mrvmax]

Ultrasonic cleaners are a waste of money. I started out with dry media tumblers. They really do a mediocre job and leave media dust inside and out. The walnut shells are always getting wedged in and you have to dork with them. I bought the Hornady Ultrsonic cleaner. The little baskets don't hold many cases and they do a another mediocre job. I gave it to my wife for a jewlery cleaner.

You can't beat wet media stainless steel pins. lots of Dawn dish soap and 1/2 tea spoon of dish washer ultra shine crystals powder. Let it tumble for 3 hours and pull out 200-300 pistol/rifle cases and they look brand new. Very pretty. Only someone without clear thinking would use the other two options. The pins clean inside and out. No oil or mess for reloading.

They do the same thing in a different way except that wet media makes a them shiny and there is less mess to clean up. Rinsing and draining wet media is a pain but if you have a lot of brass it is quicker than ultrasonic. The ultrasonic is done in 15-30 minutes so it is also quicker.

 

[budlight]

They do the same thing in a different way except that wet media makes a them shiny and there is less mess to clean up. Rinsing and draining wet media is a pain but if you have a lot of brass it is quicker than ultrasonic. The ultrasonic is done in 15-30 minutes so it is also quicker.

Yes and they don't look new inside and out. The pins clean out the inside carbon and restore the case volume. I take the time to run all the same case volume shells for competition shooting.

It's obvious that you have not used a pin type cleaners is why you would say something like this. I do lots of say 1500 rounds of 243's from a recent trip. So I can knock out about 200 every 3 hours and let them sun dry or winter dehydrator. Say 20 at time in the ultra sonic for 20 minutes is 60 per hour and they are not clean inside and out.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Yes and they don't look new inside and out. The pins clean out the inside carbon and restore the case volume. I take the time to run all the same case volume shells for competition shooting.

It's obvious that you have not used a pin type cleaners is why you would say something like this. I do lots of say 1500 rounds of 243's from a recent trip. So I can knock out about 200 every 3 hours and let them sun dry or winter dehydrator. Say 20 at time in the ultra sonic for 20 minutes is 60 per hour and they are not clean inside and out.

Sounds like you need a better ultrasonic cleaner.

I have all 3 types of cleaners and they all have issues of their own. .

Dry media has all kinds of dust issues and doesn't clean inside or primer pockets. I'm currently trying rice as a media but it takes forever and it still get stuck in the primer pockets and doesn't clean them or the inside of the case

Ultrasonic cleans well including primer pockets and inside the cases but does not polish them if that is important to you. I have the large one from harbor freight that heats to 176°F and can clean for up to 30 minutes at a time. My brass gets very clean with it.

I have a love/hate relationship with my wet tumbler. It cleans & polishes very well but the **** pins get stuck inside all my cartridges 6.5mm and smaller. Plus unless I want to buy distilled water to wash and rinse in there will be water spots on the brass. I tried the chips but it peened the brass terribly bad. The surface was noticeably rough.

 

[FEENIX]

This is the beauty of having personal choices and preferences for people to choose from.

Some advantages of ultrasonic cleaner over the others:
- you can clean muzzle devices - suppressors/muzzle brakes, dies, etc.
- the wife's pieces of jewelry

 

[nksmfamjp]

Well, if I tell you what you need, you will get what I think you need, but you need what you think you need.

Place to reload
Bench for reloading
Case cleaning system
Annealing system
Press
Dies
CBTD measuring tool
Bench mount primer seater
Powder measure
Scale…ideally 0.02gr accuracy or better
Case trimmer
CBTO measuring tool
Possibly a L.E.Wilson type seater
Possibly neck turner

 

[Justice1327]

Yes and they don't look new inside and out. The pins clean out the inside carbon and restore the case volume. I take the time to run all the same case volume shells for competition shooting.

It's obvious that you have not used a pin type cleaners is why you would say something like this. I do lots of say 1500 rounds of 243's from a recent trip. So I can knock out about 200 every 3 hours and let them sun dry or winter dehydrator. Say 20 at time in the ultra sonic for 20 minutes is 60 per hour and they are not clean inside and out.

I shoot 6-8K rds a year. I used to use the SS media wet Tumbler after every one or two firings. However, when I realize that the carbon in the neck actually benefited me, I quit doing it. I now use rice and a vibrator tumbler. Have also used ultrasonic cleaners, and they don't work nearly as well as the rice Tumbler. but after four or five firings, and depending on the type of powder, and the external conditions on the Brass, I will SS wet media Tumbler clean them.
Your choice may be to wet media w/SS someone else's choice may be different.
BTW… things are rarely obvious after just one response in a text message

 

[RStraten]

I wouldn't mess with an ultrasonic cleaner or tumbler for brass. It doesn't need to be shiny or polished or have the inside clean. It makes no difference in functionality.

 

[marchboom]

Find a mentor. Someone who knows what equipment works AND WHAT DOESN'T WORK. Can save you a lot of money. Learn from their experience and their mistakes.

I would get a single stage press first and learn how the process works one step at a time. There is a lot of things happening with a progressive (at the same time) and you don't want to miss anything that might not be just right. Then if you have the need for speed, get a Dillon progressive. They work great when the operator follows the directions.

Use a good vibratory tumbler with walnut media. This media won't stick in the primer pockets.

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Stay away from wet tumbling. Sure, the cases look shiny but pins will get stuck in some cases and the pins will do peening damage to your brass. Plus it's a pain to do.

Get at least 3 reloading manuals and don't start reloading until you understand every aspect of the hobby. Only takes one mistake to ruin your day.

DON'T BUY CHEAP STUFF! Even if you have to save your money for a while buy quality, proven equipment.
Remember, only rich people can afford to buy cheap stuff.