Reloading Gear - New setup for an apartment

[kthomas]

Gents,

For my short long range shooting career, I have been using factory ammo. (Hornady & Prime for the 6.5 Creedmoor, FGMM for .308), but I'm seriously considering getting into the reloading game. I know that reloading is what you need to do to maximize precision, and I have a friend that is moving out of country and I have first dibs on some of his reloading gear. Plus I have about 2,000 pieces of brass for 6.5 creedmoor I can use (mix of Hornady and Prime/RUAG) - with a rough calculation, I figured I can reload for $0.49/round using my used brass.

I live in an apartment/garage suite with the girlfriend, so space is definitely at a premium. I don't have a max limit per say, but I do want to be smart with my money, and spend it where it counts. I want to swing my tentative gear list by you guys, and get your thoughts:

- The C4m3ron reloading table - silly name, but seems like a nice portable reloading bench
- Forster Co-Ax single stage press
- Redding Type S vs. Whidden dies. My friend is offering his Redding Type S dies for a big discount, however I hear Whidden is the way to go...
- FX-120i electronic scale
- Autotrickler (www.autotrickler.com)
- Case trimmer? Giraud?
- Annealer? Necessary? Annaleez? Or other brand?
- Tumbler - necessary? What brand/model?
- Caliper, loading trays and funnels I can surely figure out on my own.
- Anything else that I am missing?

I'm having a few friends helping me out with this reloading, and I have started going through the stickies. But it would also be good to get input from the crowd here, on what equipment you guys find works better than others, so I don't have to make the same mistakes.

 

[spife7980]

That's a pretty damn fine first kit. Personally I would get/make a coffee table or something that you can leave out and have presentable but drill four holes in it to mount the press to. It's what I'm doing in my converted garage/man cave.

Goneith the redding, you will be hard pressed to notice any difference and the cost savings will be nice.

Scale and trickler will be nice if you can't swing it, a charge master is nice too and especially when it's on a good sale.

Of if you can swing a Giraud that's the best but a wft and a chamfer bit won't be the worst thing ever. The Giraud should save a bunch of time though.

Mid wait for an annealer until you fire it all a time or two.

I just have a little Lyman tumbler I do batches of 50 in and it's great, especially at the price I got it for.

Hornady makes a decent enough little caliper for the price. Adequate to do this job at least. Then the headspace seating depth gauges.

I'd get a hand primer, it's quicker than using the one built into the press and worth it for the time savings.

A lee universal decapper is less than 15 bucks and nice to clear some brass to get measurements with out having to size anything.

Case lube will be necessary, I spray a few seconds of Hornady one shot into a gallon zip loc with 50 pieces before sizing. Some people like imperial.

Maybe some lrimer pockets uniformers or scrapers but im torn on whether I really care to clean them anymore.

 

[GhengisAhn175]

-Get a different bench unless you want/need the features of the Cameron bench. If you're doing this at home, a sturdy, heavy wood bench with no flex and legs you can manipulate somewhat if you ever need to move it would be ideal. Depending on the surface the bench will be on, make sure you can level it out and remove any teetering.

-good to go on press

-getting the redding to save money. You're not discounting on quality. Dies are a personal opinion for the most part and depends on how you reload. don't want to confuse you for now and its something you'll learn later as you pick up your regimen.

-good scale; its what I have and its the first scale I recommend for those looking for precision and accuracy in a scale.

-If budget is a concern, I'd forgo the auto trickler. It's more of a "nice to have" than need it to really improve. I use a manual trickler and either way you SHOULD be picking up the pan and placing it back down onto your scale.

-for case prep, I use the frankford arsenal case prep center. I like this the most out of several ive tried (haven't tried Giraud) because its very multi caliber friendly. the only "con" is that you can induce human error if you're not careful (ie for inside neck chamfering if you don't go straight down and instead chamfer on a really bad angle, you'll have a bad cut).

-Get an annealer. I don't know your budget but it also depends on how much you're willing to put into it and 'how" you reload. example: if you get an ANNIE or the AMP you're looking for near perfect annealing for your cases but you'll be doing them by hand, one by one, manually. and their both very expensive.
Nothing wrong with the flame and torch method (annealeez and the likes) you just need to know how long to set your cases for then set it and forget it. Depending on which type of set up you get you can load them all in a tray and it'll take care of itself or you can sit there and move them in and out yourself.

-tumbler: this falls into the cleaning method. There are 3 methods: vibratory (dry media), sonic cleaning (sits in liquid with induced vibrations) and wet stainless steel tumbling media (rotary tumbling).
Each have their methods and it depends on what you're looking for. Neither one is worse or better than the other, it just depends on what suits you.
Some people hate getting their dickbeaters wet so they don't like SS tumbling or ultrasonic.
**That being said, how you clean your cases starts you on your path of your reloading regimen. example: if you ultrasonic or SS tumble you will most likely have to do some inside neck lubrication at some point to decrease friction when seating bullets.

-caliper: Do not skimp on this; get a mitutoyo or starrett from amazon. Pay the 100-150 bucks once and never worry again. It's not about the accuracy of the measurement but the repeatability and drifting. I had two cheap digital calipers that would go wonky on me before I got the mitutoyo. Never had an issue since.

-Since you're not buying a kit, get the area 419 reloading kit. Will have everything you need and it works really well.

Some other thoughts to consider, I'll post a somewhat reloading "chronological" order so you can consider what you need. This is how I do it so some steps may be done at different times.

1. I have a universal deprimer and deprime all just fired cases. (because I SS tumble clean and it takes care of primer pockets)
2. If I need to, I measure my fired cases dimensions to know how much I need to size (implied tools: calipers, hornady case comparator set, maybe micrometer if you are want).
3. I SS tumble clean my cases. (frankford arsenal tumbler)
***Anneal at this point
4. I put my cleaned cases in a cardboard box and a gratuitous amount of lube (I use a dillion or FA case lube spray which is just lanolin and alcohol).
5. I size my cases (again I use calipers and case comparators to make sure I have it set right)
6. I clean my cases again to get the lube off
7. I run my cases through again just to hit the necks to uniform them out
8. Case prep (trim, chamfer, deburr). How you do this is up to you; I use the FA case prep center and love it.
9. I prime my cases (I use an RCBS hand primer with a tray but am about to move to a K&M hand primer). I hand prime because I feel my seat and give my primers a slight crush.
*You didn't mention a hand priming tool so you'll need to get one. Theres plenty out on the market, YMMV.
**Coincidentally your forster co ax press has a primer on it too. I haven't used it. But its there.
10. If I don't know it at this point, I need to measure the distance to the lands (implied tool here would be the hornady OAL gauge and appropriate case).
11. Throw and weigh my charges (implied tools here is a powder dispenser, scale and a trickler at a minimum. I use a FX-120i, an old ass lyman #55 hand thrower and a FA manual trickler).
12. Seat your bullet and measure Cartridge Base To Ogive (CBTO) (implied tool here is get the hornady bullet comparator)

That's pretty much it from start to finish. Theres no one perfect tool or method to doing it, its just personal preference and how you do things. Your results will tell you if you stepped on your crank somewhere.

Other tools to consider:
-chronograph: Magnetospeed V3, labradar, Oehler 35P. I wouldn't recommend anything else and they are in order of precedence.
-Don't need a borescope
-Get LED lighting for your room
-Avoid drafts if at all possible.

 

[Dave62677]

You can anneal with just a torch if you know what you doing.