Newbie Reloading Equipment

[bryanrheem]

Hello all,

Newbie reloader here looking to make an entry level investment. I don't have any equipment right now and have been reading up / checking reviews. I figured it would be wise to ask the knowledgeable folks here as to their opinion on the following kit: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/937051 ... -press-kit

Excited to start giving this wold a go...

[TScottW99]

That's the kit I started out with 10 years ago and the same I use today. You can make excellent quality ammo with it. I load mostly for my hunting guns with it. I'm wanting to add a Dillion now for ammo I shot more of, .45, 9mm and such


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[bryanrheem]

TScott,

Thanks for the input. I'd rather start on this before moving to an advanced setup. Help me really learn what I'm doing.

[Chasbo00]

What calibers are you planning to reload and in what volume? The answers here can affect smart equipment choices. However, in general and for relatively low volume reloading, your choice for getting started looks pretty good to me. If you get it, I would add a powder trickler - they are pretty cheap. You will also want a caliper to measure case and cartridge lengths.

[noylj]

This is me--I would not buy that kit.
Buy two manuals and read the how-to sections. Get the Lyman manual (#49?) and the Richard Lee, Hornady, Speer, or Sierra manuals. If you can find it, get an OLD edition of "ABCs of Reloading" from Amazon.
I would be happier with the Lee Challenger kit and die bushings for each die.
Had a RockChucker for about two years in 1972-74 and got rid of it. OK press, but no better than other single-stage presses of the time. My main gripe was it threw spent primers all over the floor. If you buy the RCBS, you can get an adaptor to use the Hornady die bushings with it and make life a lot happier
Look for a press with a tube that will transport the spent primers to a garbage can or has a bottle attached to catch the primers.
Unless you plan to swage your own bullets, the RockChucker is over-designed. It will last for your life and your children's life, but so will almost every other single-stage press.
I would look at the Lee Challenger press or the Lee Classic Turret press,
a Lyman 1500 digital scale (the Lee Safety Scale is perfectly adequate, but it is so light that it is easy to move and lose zero and the vernier scale can be hard to read until you adapt to it),
a Hornady, RCBS, or Lyman powder measure (the Lee Pro Auto-Disk is the measure I use the most, but some people claim to have found their most accurate load in between two cavities on the disks and it really, IMHO, is NOT designed for rifle cartridges. The Lee Perfect Powder Measure throws the most consistently "correct" powder charges, but it is all plastic and doesn't feel "good." Also, it works with two meshing conical sections that have to "wear" in together and will leak fine grain powder until then. I have mounted mine on a bench with a piece of paper to catch any leaking powder and the measure work great. However, with their own "problems" not found with other units, you will probably be happier with more expensive units).
So, for straight wall cases (almost all handgun cases), you will NEED:
press
scale and trickler to get the charge weight
or
a powder measure and a scale to verify the charge of powder thrown.
set of dies (carbide sizing die--don't buy an old steel sizing die)
some way to prime (you can prime one at time on the press, you can use a primer system on the press that holds about 100 primers at a time to avoid handling individual primers, or you can prime off the press with a Lee Ergo hand-primer or more expensive units from RCBS and others.
Components (cases, bullets, primers, powder)
Nice to have item: 6" calipers
There is no need for case trimmers
For bottleneck cases, you will definitely need a case trimmer--this can be caliber-spcific units from Lee or more expensive mini-lathe units. The advantage to the lathe trimmers is when you might want to ream the case neck ID or outside neck-turn the cases for better neck concentricity (but that is NOT a needed activity for beginners).
Then there are thousand of toys you can buy that may or may not improve accuracy any.
Regarding case cleaning: All the cleaning that is required, unless you are picking up cases from the mud, is to wipe off the exterior with a rag.
If you want a tumbler, buy 20/40 grit corn and be done with it.
You can get more involved in case cleaning, but it really isn't going to make your load better. If you are picking up case from the mud or they are encrusted with dirt, wash them in hot soapy water and soak and then, when cool, agitate by hand.
But first, buy and read a manual or three.

[bryanrheem]

Ideally, 9mm/45acp/223 prices will stay down so I would only reload 308 and 300 blackout. I would want the ability to reload 9/45/223 just in case, but am perfectly fine buying bulk range ammo.

I understand that single stage presses are not built for speed, but given the lower cost and learning curve, I was going to go with something simpler that would help reinforce process.

[Chasbo00]

Ideally, 9mm/45acp/223 prices will stay down so I would only reload 308 and 300 blackout. I would want the ability to reload 9/45/223 just in case, but am perfectly fine buying bulk range ammo.

I think your choice is a good one for your stated purposes.

[10mmSnob]

Ideally, 9mm/45acp/223 prices will stay down so I would only reload 308 and 300 blackout. I would want the ability to reload 9/45/223 just in case, but am perfectly fine buying bulk range ammo.

I understand that single stage presses are not built for speed, but given the lower cost and learning curve, I was going to go with something simpler that would help reinforce process.

Yeah, you're going to make your money on the more oddball calibers versus the ones that are most popular based solely on economy of scale. I have a formula where I say that my free time is worth a certain number of dollars an hour. If the cost of components plus the cost of labor (# hrs x $/hr) is more than what I can buy the ammo for in bulk, I won't bother. For example:

Say your time is worth $15/hr and your progressive press allows you to make 250 rounds / hr. You are looking to make 500 rounds of ammo that you can purchase for $200 online but you can purchase all of the components (powder, primers, case & rounds) for $100. Total cost to make the rounds would be $130 (2 hrs * $15/hr = $30 added to the $100 cost of components) so I would definitely spend a few hours making that ammo (and put $70 towards the gun fund while I'm at it).

I will say to start slow when you first start reloading, and be EXTREMELY careful when deviating from established powder recommendations (more is not always better). Don't get recipes from random people on message boards, and stick with the established experts (you might as well bookmark http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/ right now).

Also, get a nice brass dowel and a hammer to bring to the range when you're firing reloads because you will end up making the occasional squib load while you're learning.

[bryanrheem]

To be honest, I'm not reloading to save money. I'm doing it to learn a new skill!

[noylj]

One should reload to produce better ammo. If you don't enjoy reloading, don't reload.
If you reload for all your cartridges, you would "pay for" the equipment much quicker.
If you equate all your time to money, you would do nothing but work. If you time is worth $15/hour, then every night you sleep for 8 hours, you are costing yourself $120 or over $43,000 per year. Really, would you really be making $15/hr if you weren't reloading?
For 9mm, it costs me 8 cents per bullet (JHPs), less than 2 cents for powder, and less than 2 cents for primer, for just shy of 12 cents per round. My reloads will do about 2-3" at 25 yards all day.

[10mmSnob]

One should reload to produce better ammo. If you don't enjoy reloading, don't reload.
If you reload for all your cartridges, you would "pay for" the equipment much quicker.
If you equate all your time to money, you would do nothing but work. If you time is worth $15/hour, then every night you sleep for 8 hours, you are costing yourself $120 or over $43,000 per year. Really, would you really be making $15/hr if you weren't reloading?
For 9mm, it costs me 8 cents per bullet (JHPs), less than 2 cents for powder, and less than 2 cents for primer, for just shy of 12 cents per round. My reloads will do about 2-3" at 25 yards all day.

I wasn't saying that my time is worth $15 / hr, I was just using that as an example. My last few jobs has been as a manufacturing engineer so I generally try to break down the cost of production into examples like I described.

[noylj]

>I wasn't saying that my time is worth $15 / hr

"Say your time is worth $15/hr..."

I'm just saying that your opportunity cost is not an issue for a hobby—as part of the value of that time should be your enjoyment. Again, if you don't enjoy reloading or working up loads that are more accurate in your guns, than you are better off buying your ammo.