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Another new reloading setup advice

bwp86

Private
Minuteman
Sep 9, 2018
67
5
Trenton, MO
I was looking around at RCBS and have the rock chucker supreme press, chargemaster link, and the case prep kit in my cart. Looking at $682 for those three. Is that a good starting setup? What else do I need besides components and dies? Is my money better spent on a different brand?
 
for the money me personally would have gone turret press if you already at 600 ish
for less you could not have to switch dies back and forth constantly as far as brand I am running a rebel not expensive ( well relatively ) and besides the constant switching of dies ( to me it sucks ) the press works fine ( after fixing the bolts and nobs so they stop coming loose ) loctite got to love it . but you would have to look around but a 8 stage lyman is only 300 dollars on amazon no idea about the shipping if the charge any . but a Rock Chucker® Supreme Press $209.99 from rcbs so you know you could find it cheaper somewhere , any way best of luck with what ever you get .
 
The press is $158 with the 25% discount, OnX. I’ll only reload two rifles calibers. The chargemaster link is $225 and the case prep kit is $300. Wasn’t sure if these are worth the price or if there are better options for the money.
 
Those prices for the press and scale are reasonable and I would have any objection recommending those two.

I’d skip the case prep center and find a solution with a three way cutter blade that allows you to trim/chamfer/deburr together in one step rather than three independent steps for every single case.
 
Those prices for the press and scale are reasonable and I would have any objection recommending those two.

I’d skip the case prep center and find a solution with a three way cutter blade that allows you to trim/chamfer/deburr together in one step rather than three independent steps for every single case.
Any you’d recommend? What else would I need to get started?
 
Any you’d recommend? What else would I need to get started?
How many different chambers and calibers do/will you load for and how many cases per week or month etc?


If you only do 100 a month then the time spent on independent operations isn’t thaaaat bad. If you do 100 a week then you’ll notice it quickly adds up.

The top end that’ll get recommended are giraud and Henderson. That lets you swap different chambers and calibers quickly and painlessly but they are $$$$ and makes a bunch of cases go by quickly rather than taking days to do. If you spend 10k in ammo a year those trimmers will be worth it.

Next I would look at the normal rcbs lathe trimmer that comes in the kit stand-alone but swap the default flat cutter blade out for a three way cutter (caliber specific) and then attach the drill adaptor to it to power the shit and save your elbow grease.
 
I’ll only reload for two calibers starting out. Probably would make sense to go the rcbs route for that.
 
Igauging origin off Amazon are good affordable calipers that won’t chew through better ones or poop the bed on you. I use a set myself for my seating depth comparator measurements.

The rcbs hand primer is fine I guess, I like the lee old model square hand primer, no opinion on the new ones, but I’d probably buy the Frankford arsenal kit as it lets you adjust the depth. Over time my lee primer wore out and the frankford can adjust so I shouldn’t ever “wear out” on you.

I like the Lyman 1200 vibratory tumbler that I bought a solid lid for and use 20-40 grit cob media from grainger. I use an rcbs media separator but some people do a basket over a bucket. Really any tumbler will be fine and media separators are easy and keep the cob contained.

Dies- they all make good dies and bad dies so I no longer really recommend one brand or another on low end affordable, I’ve been burned by all the big players, hornady, Redding, forster etc. Get a micrometer seating for as it just makes adjusting it so much easier.
 
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