I wanna start reloading. Any tips??

[dabish90]

Im trying to get into reloading..
I wanna start with .308 WIN and move on to 5.56, .40, and 45 auto.
Any tips for good companies to buy presses and dies from?
Any good manuals I can read up on and educate myself?
I'd appreciate any help.

 

[sentry1]

The Lee reloading manual has a good intro section, and the sticky threads at the top of this section of the forum are good reads too.

Take some time, make a list of all the things you'll need, and then add to it. A decent set of digital calipers will be a big help, as will the Hornady Headspace Gage (it clamps onto the calipers).

Choose a press, and accessories. I use the Lee Classic Cast Breech Lock, with Hornady Lock-n-Load bushing adapter in it. Cheap way to start, but it'll load to tolerances that are more than enough for my needs.

Oh, find powder. Powder is a pain in the ass to find lately, and primers can be too, unless you want to pay 150% of last year's price. So stock up on a few pounds of whatever powder you decide will work for you. I use Varget and IMR4064 to load for my rifles.

Can't find pistol powder? Shotgun powder works in pistols too. I load Longshot in my .40, because that's all the store had available at the time.

I use cheap, good bang for the buck Hornady dies for my ARs, and RCBS competition (aka expensive) dies for my bolt action. Lee carbide (no lube required) dies for my pistol.

Oh, instead of buying a bunch of expensive lubes, buy one little can of Redding Imperial Sizing Die Wax (for tough jobs), and for bulk lubing, buy some anhydrous lanolin (liquid stuff, not the jelly stuff), mix with 90%+ alcohol in a spray bottle (1:10 ratio I think), and you have home made lube that works great.

Oh, most importantly, be safe. Get some safety goggles, pay attention to what you're doing. Being absent minded when working with incendiary materials is bad juju.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

 

[George Az]

Whoever has a "kit" set up for a single stage press, on sale or as a kit. Natchez, Cabelas, Sinclair, RCBS, -there are several companies with decent prices on reloading equipment and kits. One can sometimes find single stage press kits from Lee, Lyman, Hornady - all of them are reputable and work. For your pistol calibers look into Dillon. The have a great website and have several models with interchangable heads for pistols. You are starting off, get a book, watch some videos. Look at sites by Berger, Hodgdon, Hornady, Sierra & RCBS and start reading. it can be simple or more complicated, but you can start for around $300.00 as an investment and do it safely IF, you follow directions. Never mix powder and do not go off the recommended powder charges.

Many of these companies are American and will warranty theor products for life. I love RCBS and they will take care of you. Dillon is good people too.

Good luck in your quest. Educate yourself and proceed.

 

[ChemE1975]

I started with a RCBS rockchucker kit. great wat to get going without having to choose every item. look for a sale, and may be free shipping, and you will good to go.

As far learning goes...read, read, read. The reloading section here is a great place to learn. Look at posts and the stickys and then research what you do not understand. Most manuals, in addition to load recipes, have sections on actually how to reload. Read that too, read it twice or more.

My best advice is to read and learn a bunch before you start. you do not need to rush into it. you may want to collect components as you are learning. Powder and primers for the 308 are going to be the critical path items for components, so keep an eye out for LR primers and good general 308 powder (varget and others).

 

[DocUSMCRetired]

Take your time, do it right. It has a lot to do with feel. Don't buy cheap, be prepared to make mistakes and throw away money until you get good at it. And even then.

 

[leadbullet]

find a friend that reloads and go pull the handle for a while the make a decision bud. I have been addicted for over 35 years now. proceed at own risk.
cheers.

 

[dariof]

Try to read and talk to as many people as possible. There's so much to learn, but one step at a time.

It' a great hobby.....goin on 35 years of it.

 

[lte82]

The best way to do it is to learn from someone who makes good quality ammo. Go watch them or help them load, and you'll pick it up very quickly.

 

[rdinak]

Buy several reloading manuals Sierra, Hornady, Nosler. Read them. Watch videos on you tube. Work with a reloading mentor to help get you up and running.

Buy quality the first time. Go slow and learn to keep detailed and accurate records. By a label maker from walmart and several plastic boxes that hold fifty rounds of loaded ammo. Load in small batches and work to understand the cause and effect relationship of each step of the process.

Once you have learned. Share with the next new guy a year from now.

Have fun and understand you are not saving money.

And for the love of my Jack Russell Terrier-Dont ever use the term hoarder towards some guy that buys in bulk to save money and has more components in his closet than some other idiot who never heard the Ant and the Grasshopper story growing up.

 

[dabish90]

thank you gentlemen for all the tips

 

[Powermac]

Good presses for pistol and bulk ammo would be a Dillon, loading pistol ammo on a single stage is horrible if your doing more then a few rounds.

A very good single stage for a decent price is the Forster CO AX.
If you are not in a rush it is certainly what i would advice you to buy.

Another option would be to get a Turret press like a Harrels precision or Redding T7.
It speeds up your reloading a bit, and you can use the Redding instant indicator to fast and easily check your seating depth or headspace witch is very convenient.
Not what i use but it sure works well.

A kit like the rcbs rockchucker will set you up okay to start off.
But if you are'nt on a tight budget you will get better equipment if you buy it seperately.


Take your time to learn, read and find info, and buy quality equipment the first time around is my advice.
Start with the most important pieces and go on from there.

If your looking for good standard 7/8-14 rifle dies i would look at Whidden Gunworks and Redding.
I use mostly dies from Triebel but they are fairly expensive and have some wait time and would have to be imported. So not likely worth it for anyone in the US, besides you have some great custom die makers over there.

A good seater, and a Micrometer makes the adjustments more enjoyable:
Whidden Gunworks Seater, Redding competition seater or the Forster Ultra micrometer seater are all good.

A Redding competition neck sizer and a FL bushing die or a body die.
Alternatively a whidden FL bushing die, and a Redding competition neck sizer.

Seater stems for the dies if you are going to shoot VLD bullets to ensure consistent seating depth.

The appropriate size bushings for you caliber/brass/chamber.
Redding and LE Wilson makes Bushings.
And remember to remove the expander button from your bushing neck sizer at least.

Redding competition shellholder kit for your cases ( if you don't buy a CO-Ax).

Imperial sizing die wax, Imperial dry neck lube and Imperial media applicator.

A decapping die, Sinclair or Redding fx.

Lock rings Sinclair, Forster or Hornady would be my pick.

21 st centruy expander die, with PMA tool expanders.


Other things to get:

Loading trays, SInclair plastic ones are cheap and very convenient to clean.

A powder funnel, fx a saturn of the right size.
The aluminum/brass funnels will not have trouble with static electricity, and kernels clinging to them.
I use 21st centruy shooting with drop tubes but not needed for most loads really, and not cheap.

A case trimmer, Trim it, WFT, WFT2, Cts Engineering all works very well for a reasonable price and is fast to use.
Just remember safety glasses.
If you don't mind hand turning and want the ultimate in precision a Le Wilson or SInclair/wilson will do you very well.
And if you don't mind paying and want the most genius trimmer ever made, Giraud tool company, it will save a lot of time and do your inside outside chamfer while trimming length very precisely with some practise.

Inside and outside chamfer tool, The 28 degree sinclair version is a good inside chamfer tool.
ANd the K&M version is nice.

Primer pocket uniformer, Flash hole uniformer.
II use 21 st century shooting products for this and they are very good.
K&M shooting also makes quality tools for this.

Pirmer seater:
21 st centruy shooting.
K&M shooting.
Sinclair.

A RCBS bench model should also be good, never tried it.
If you want a magazine fed check out the 21 st century model for Lee trays.
And if you want the ultimate in consistency the K&M with gauge or 21 st BR model.

A quality caliper.

OAL gauge, Hornady or Sinclair.

Headspace Gauge.
Hornady and Sinclair for caliper mounted.
Larry willis Digital headspace gauge is my favorite though.
Redding instant indicator can also be used.
There is also a lot of other types on the market.

A Sinclair chamber length Gauge although it's not reloading 101, it's a useful tool.

A case cleaner.
Stainless media, Ultrasonice or dry tumbling.
STM is certainly preferrable in my opinion at least.

A good scale of some sort.
A RCBS 10-10 is a precise beam scale.


A powder dispenser.
A electronic Chargemaster 1500 is nice and quite accurate.
Or fx a redding br dispenser, Harrels dispenser, or Neil Jones dispener.
The NJ is the most accurate one of them but costs more then a CM.





Handloading for Competition, is a good book.

THe stickys at the top of the forum, and some good info around here.
Also the accurateshooter forum has a lot of good info.

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting...8-hand-loading-precision-rifle-pic-heavy.html


The Rifleman's Journal: Articles Index
This site has a lot of good info.

Complete Precision Case Prep within AccurateShooter.com
Expander Mandrels and Neck Tension within AccurateShooter.com
How to Load More Concentric Ammo within AccurateShooter.com
Neck Tension ? Not Just Bushing Size within AccurateShooter.com
Neck-Turning Basics within AccurateShooter.com
Neck-Turning Tool Cutting Tips within AccurateShooter.com
O-Rings on Dies May Reduce Run-Out within AccurateShooter.com

OCW Overview - Dan Newberry's OCW Load Development System

exterior ballistics

Internal Ballistics - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc

 

[valkyries]

I bought the Lee classic turret press kit a few months ago and Lee dies. I started slow and have only loaded 9mm with it so far. Will eventually be doing rifle too. So far its been great. Its affordable, all steel and works. Also came with Lees modern reloading book, which is pretty good. I'd recommend doing as much research as you can first. Good luck.

 

[Smithcollector]

Ditto starting with a good kit. I use my 25-year old Rockchucker every week, even though I've updated some of the other tools along the way. I learned a lot (hopefully) and probably could sell the whole set for close to what I paid.

Do some reading on single vs progressive; depending on whether you are loading for volume or accuracy (or both) your decision might be different.

 

[shurt]

The first thing you should do is take to heart everything that's already been said in your post! Great information and advice for someone new getting into reloading. You've got to always taking it seriously with every round.

 

[bubbala]

lyman and lee have good intros in their books. you might find it less confusing sticking to one brand of equipment. and keep it simple for now.
no bushing dies and other precision stuff. oh! and start with a singe stage. you'll always have a use for it.

 

[damoncali]

Get a Lyman manual (it has the best instructions), and a kit (I'm partial to the RCBS kit). Expect to spend about as much as the kit costs on yet more crap, but only after you get started and figure out what other crap is worth paying for. Then, if you get hooked, expect to pay 10-15x more on yet more crap. But you will be able to tell yourself that if you amortize the cost of your equipment over 30 years of shooting, it's practically free. Never forget this. Reloading equipment pays for itself.

If at all possible, find an experienced mentor to help you get squared away. It will save you a good deal of confusion.

 

[dariof]

Good thread, and you got some really good advice.