Hey everybody, I'm new to the hide, but a pretty experienced shooter. I'd like to get a complete list of every single item you would buy to reload 300 Win. Mag. I'm aware that a lot of folks "buy twice", especially with reloading equipment. Break it down as much as you can for me. Thanks!
- Thread starter HT0317
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Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
Press. Dies. Measuring Tools. Scale. Powder flow. Trickler. Manuals. Bullets. Brass. Primers. Powder.
The fist thing is a manual; get one or two and read the first couple of chapters. Let that guide you. Everybody has their way to do things; if you have a buddy to coach you, take advantage. You'll soon be doing things your way.
I literally just came from my bench to check the 'hide forum, loading some .45acp rounds I worked up. It's my therapy; loading and this forum!
Press. Dies. Measuring Tools. Scale. Powder flow. Trickler. Manuals. Bullets. Brass. Primers. Powder.
The fist thing is a manual; get one or two and read the first couple of chapters. Let that guide you. Everybody has their way to do things; if you have a buddy to coach you, take advantage. You'll soon be doing things your way.
I literally just came from my bench to check the 'hide forum, loading some .45acp rounds I worked up. It's my therapy; loading and this forum!
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
"buying once" for reloading is a pipe dream
50 people will give you 50 "buy once" lists - but none of them will match your 20/20 hindsight list
do it like the rest of us and just buy a bunch of shit you end up not using
"buying once" for reloading is a pipe dream
50 people will give you 50 "buy once" lists - but none of them will match your 20/20 hindsight list
do it like the rest of us and just buy a bunch of shit you end up not using
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
Here are some things I wish I had known about.
A beam scale tuned by Scott Parker.
If you are going to throw charges and then weigh a cheap used powder measure is fine otherwise buy this kind. http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/pid=38306/Product/RFD-Rifles-Culver-Style-Powder-Measure
A Forster Coax press.
Saturn caliber specific aluminum powder funnels.
Wilson trimmer with "Micrometer". The Mic makes all the difference especially when you have a bunch of different cartridges to trim for.
NECO dry case neck lube.
Imperial case sizing wax.
High quality digital calipers and mic.
This guys products are excellent. Buy the headspace gauge and the magnum belt collet die. http://www.larrywillis.com/
The inexpensive Lee auto prime works just fine.
Stainless steel media tumbler kit using Lemishine.
Here are some things I wish I had known about.
A beam scale tuned by Scott Parker.
If you are going to throw charges and then weigh a cheap used powder measure is fine otherwise buy this kind. http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/pid=38306/Product/RFD-Rifles-Culver-Style-Powder-Measure
A Forster Coax press.
Saturn caliber specific aluminum powder funnels.
Wilson trimmer with "Micrometer". The Mic makes all the difference especially when you have a bunch of different cartridges to trim for.
NECO dry case neck lube.
Imperial case sizing wax.
High quality digital calipers and mic.
This guys products are excellent. Buy the headspace gauge and the magnum belt collet die. http://www.larrywillis.com/
The inexpensive Lee auto prime works just fine.
Stainless steel media tumbler kit using Lemishine.
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
If you are loading for a 300 WM,chances are you don't need to load 500 rds per hour.Get a good single stage press and learn the processes.A good load manual from one of the major bullet manufacturers(at least one)should be at the top of your list.You could start with a complete kit from RCBS,Hornady,etc.They will provide you with all you need to get started.As time goes on,you'll probably load for other calibers,and may want to get equipment to speed up things,but if you start on a small scale and lose interest down the road,you haven't got a ton of money tied up in equipment.FWIW, I've been using the same RCBS rock chucker press for almost 20 years.
If you are loading for a 300 WM,chances are you don't need to load 500 rds per hour.Get a good single stage press and learn the processes.A good load manual from one of the major bullet manufacturers(at least one)should be at the top of your list.You could start with a complete kit from RCBS,Hornady,etc.They will provide you with all you need to get started.As time goes on,you'll probably load for other calibers,and may want to get equipment to speed up things,but if you start on a small scale and lose interest down the road,you haven't got a ton of money tied up in equipment.FWIW, I've been using the same RCBS rock chucker press for almost 20 years.
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: George63</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"buying once" for reloading is a pipe dream
50 people will give you 50 "buy once" lists - but none of them will match your 20/20 hindsight list
do it like the rest of us and just buy a bunch of shit you end us not using </div></div>
Yep! Kinda like holsters: who DOESN'T have a drawer full that were the 'coolest' just to be replaced 6 months later.....
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: George63</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"buying once" for reloading is a pipe dream
50 people will give you 50 "buy once" lists - but none of them will match your 20/20 hindsight list
do it like the rest of us and just buy a bunch of shit you end us not using </div></div>
Yep! Kinda like holsters: who DOESN'T have a drawer full that were the 'coolest' just to be replaced 6 months later.....
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: NCHillbilly</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">You could start with a complete kit from RCBS,Hornady,etc. </span>They will provide you with all you need to get started.As time goes on,you'll probably load for other calibers,and may want to get equipment to speed up things,but if you start on a small scale and lose interest down the road,you haven't got a ton of money tied up in equipment.FWIW, I've been using the same RCBS rock chucker press for almost 20 years. </div></div>
This is good advice.
You could piece something together but ultimately, you'll end up replacing many of them components anyway.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: NCHillbilly</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">You could start with a complete kit from RCBS,Hornady,etc. </span>They will provide you with all you need to get started.As time goes on,you'll probably load for other calibers,and may want to get equipment to speed up things,but if you start on a small scale and lose interest down the road,you haven't got a ton of money tied up in equipment.FWIW, I've been using the same RCBS rock chucker press for almost 20 years. </div></div>
This is good advice.
You could piece something together but ultimately, you'll end up replacing many of them components anyway.
Re: Help a first-time loader with gear selection
I agree with the others who say "buy once" is likely unrealistic. You will probably end up experimenting with lots of different bits of gear - which of course is part of the fun, I suppose.
That said, here's my advice: if you do not live on the land where you intend to shoot as you work up your loads, strongly consider buying gear first that you will take to the range to load. It is not only fun to sit there and work up your loads to the envy of those around you, but it is far more efficient than working up multiples of every possible charge weight at home, every bullet seating depth, etc. and then taking those to the range with you in large amounts. Way better to sit down where you're shooting like a fly fisherman tying flies to match the hatch stream-side. You can get away with brass prep at home, I think, but you want to have at least something like:
- an arbor press
- a hand seating die (e.g. LE Wilson) for your 300 WMM, maybe an extra seating stem for VLD bullets depending on what you are going to load
- a quality powder measure and bench mounting bracket
- a quality scale or balance
- a trickler
- loading funnel (the Satern mentioned earlier matched to your caliber is nice, or 20th century funnels with glass drop tubes if later you decide you need them to get more powder into your case - but start with the little, tube-less Satern)
- a loading block or two
- some measuring kit to validate your loading depth (comparator, for example)
- a bag to haul it all around in
At home, you can then have your:
- single stage press suitable for decapping and resizing - I like the Forster Coax
- quality resizing die (or dies - I suppose you will want a body die and neck sizing die, and if you go this route, maybe you want the neck sizer to be suitable for hand seating to take to the range, too)
- solution for setting up your body die properly - RCBS micrometer
- tumbler(s) (decide if you want an SS media wet tumbler, and if so know that a dry tumbler is useful as well)
- hand primer
- case prep items of choice: trimming and chamfering solution (Giraud of course is awesome), annealing solution of choice (Giraud is awesome but by no means the slam dunk that the trimmer is, and best for high-volume annealing - not really what I think you'd need for 300 WMM), primer pocket uniformer, flash hole uniformer, concentricity gauge + neck turning gear, etc.
- RCBS chargemaster for "production" loading (unless you are really content to hand trickle everything once you've found your target load amount you like) - of course, I gather with 300 WMM you won't be doing a lot of this sort of thing and hand throwing and trickling on your range-portable scale or balance is more than efficient enough
I agree with the others who say "buy once" is likely unrealistic. You will probably end up experimenting with lots of different bits of gear - which of course is part of the fun, I suppose.
That said, here's my advice: if you do not live on the land where you intend to shoot as you work up your loads, strongly consider buying gear first that you will take to the range to load. It is not only fun to sit there and work up your loads to the envy of those around you, but it is far more efficient than working up multiples of every possible charge weight at home, every bullet seating depth, etc. and then taking those to the range with you in large amounts. Way better to sit down where you're shooting like a fly fisherman tying flies to match the hatch stream-side. You can get away with brass prep at home, I think, but you want to have at least something like:
- an arbor press
- a hand seating die (e.g. LE Wilson) for your 300 WMM, maybe an extra seating stem for VLD bullets depending on what you are going to load
- a quality powder measure and bench mounting bracket
- a quality scale or balance
- a trickler
- loading funnel (the Satern mentioned earlier matched to your caliber is nice, or 20th century funnels with glass drop tubes if later you decide you need them to get more powder into your case - but start with the little, tube-less Satern)
- a loading block or two
- some measuring kit to validate your loading depth (comparator, for example)
- a bag to haul it all around in
At home, you can then have your:
- single stage press suitable for decapping and resizing - I like the Forster Coax
- quality resizing die (or dies - I suppose you will want a body die and neck sizing die, and if you go this route, maybe you want the neck sizer to be suitable for hand seating to take to the range, too)
- solution for setting up your body die properly - RCBS micrometer
- tumbler(s) (decide if you want an SS media wet tumbler, and if so know that a dry tumbler is useful as well)
- hand primer
- case prep items of choice: trimming and chamfering solution (Giraud of course is awesome), annealing solution of choice (Giraud is awesome but by no means the slam dunk that the trimmer is, and best for high-volume annealing - not really what I think you'd need for 300 WMM), primer pocket uniformer, flash hole uniformer, concentricity gauge + neck turning gear, etc.
- RCBS chargemaster for "production" loading (unless you are really content to hand trickle everything once you've found your target load amount you like) - of course, I gather with 300 WMM you won't be doing a lot of this sort of thing and hand throwing and trickling on your range-portable scale or balance is more than efficient enough
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