Posted on 03/31/2008 9:13:02 PM PDT by Andonius_99
I was of the mind that BP was a single shot and then some cleaning and repriming and.........
Actually, I reload Black Powder, and I don't mean just in the field. I reload .38 Special, .45 Colt and .44-44 cartridges for my black powder shooting Old West style revolvers and lever action rifle.
I use a Lee turret press to reload all of the above calibers. Same process as smokeless, only you have to pay much more attention to details, no static, etc.
“.44-44” Whoops! I meant 44-40!
You need to be a bit more specific in your needs.
Are you reloading lots and lots of handgun ammo?
Are you after ultra accurate rifle loads?
Trying to save money on your plinking?
I compete with handguns and use my Dillon 550 to crank out 500 to a 1000 rounds a month.
I started with a cheap little Lee press that just wasn’t up to the job, but was a cheap way to get started and I’m still using most of the Lee dies I bought.
Some buddies that shoot handgun only are found of the Dillon Square Deal B, which is cheaper, but loads only handgun rounds.
Find someone at the range where you shoot who reloads and make him/her your new best friend. Try the reloading forums on Glocktalk, brianenos.com, and some other enthusiast sites.
When pricing out the gear, make sure you get quoted on the bells and whistles. This is a very gadget heavy hobby and can easily add 40-50% to the cost of the overall setup.
If you decide on a Dillon, be sure to go through the brianenos.com site, he has a lot of good info and can cut you a slightly better deal.
Good luck, and start picking up brass at the range today.
Or Post No 11’s recommendation aka Dillion !
RCBS Rock Chucker and Dillion are my mainstays........good products.
The Lee Challenger Anniversary Kit is the way to go. Not much money and get it with the book Modern Reloading by John Lee.
A set of dies, powder, primer, bullets and you are ready to go.
Or for 17.00 at Midwayusa.com you can get a Lee Classic Loader that has eveything you need to load for a single shot rifle. It is what I use and it produces superbly accurate ammo. In addition you need the book and a Lee Safety Scale, a set of calipers and a plastic faced hammer.
This small outfit, that will actually fit in your pocket will allow you to determine whether you like to reload for very little money. If you get one, give me a ping and I will give you some tips on using it.
BTW, ther are a lot of reloaders who never, ever read the instructions so beware of their counsel. For each piece of equipment you get, read the instructions five times or until you understand them. It pays off.
If I had known just how cheap reloading was and how easy it was to produce rounds that are better than store bought at 1/4 the cost, I would have started decades before I did. It is very rewarding.
Most of the advice you’ve gotten so far is pretty good, especially the part about getting more than one manual. If I may make a suggestion though, don’t go out an buy some top-of-the-line outfit until you’ve cut your teeth on some more basic equipment.
Not everyone enjoys reloading. You might try it and find it isn’t to your taste. Even Dillon equipment won’t command a decent resale value unless you’re very patient and wait for a gullible sucker to come along. Your first press should be a used press. If you decide to give it up you can get your money back and if you decide to continue reloading you can always use a second press. (I still have the used Lee Challenger that I bought out of the Nickle Ads.)
Whatever you do, don’t rush out and buy some Dillon/HAL-9000 Computerized thingamajig until you really have a need for it. If you’re loading less than a hundred rounds a week you need (yes, NEED) to spend a certain amount of time tweaking and pampering whatever equipment you have. All that work will pay off when/if you do go to the superpress.
Have fun!
Reread post #27. Spend very little money to get started. You can spend the big bucks later, or as I have done, gone to simpler more accurate technique.
There is no relationship between the cost of the press and the accuracy of the ammo.
Several folks recommended Dillon, but I don’t recommend that for a beginner. Dillon sells progressive reloading machines, and until you know what you are doing that would be a bad idea.
I recommend starting with a single stage press. It’s hard to beat the RCBS Rockchucker. RCBS sells a starter kit...see this link http://www.rcbs.com/general/intro.aspx
Click through to the products and select Single Stage, Turret and Progressive Reloading Kits . I recommend the 9045 - RS5 Reloading Starter kit. The Partner press reloading kit is cheaper, but the recommended kit comes with a Rockchucker press which will last the rest of your life.
I do not recommend using the priming tool included with the kit. Instead buy their 90200 Hand Priming Tool.
After you have reloaded a few thousand rounds with these tools, and you’ve determined you REALLY need to reload more ammo faster then by all means look at Dillon products. They are the best for reloading LOTS of ammo. I go for small quantities of extremely precise reloads, but I shoot benchrest, and that is what is required for that dicipline.
BTW...Freepmail me and I’ll be glad to discuss my recommendations in post 29 in more detail.
Have fun!
L
As a benchmark, most starting reloaders use the Lee Challenger Anniversary kit when they begin. It is a nice single stage press and it allows you to learn your craft in a very controlled way. Probably outsells the competition 4 or 5 to 1.
Cause it is cheap, good and fast.
For stuff I burn a lot of, (pistol calibers mostly) there's nothing quite like a Dillon, and the 550 is the classic. Here you get economies of scale and you do stand to save significant money.
The real reason I'm into it, though, is that little feeling that at some point I'm going to have to, because the anti-gunners are doing their best to concentrate their efforts on making ammunition expensive and restrictive. That "I can if I have to" factor is worth money to me. To some others, maybe not. YMMV.
The single stage is slow, but loads are consistent and accuracy is good (my old 700 Rem ‘06 sporter can produce 100 yd 5 shot cloverleafs with my pet load). It works for hunting ammo (low volume) but would not work so well for volumes of ammo. I would avoid autoloading stuff until you gain experience, stick with bolt rifle/revolver loads.
Start with manual recommended loads and work up towards listed max loads. Look for pressure signs, a good manual will show pictures of problems like cratered primers that indicate overload.
BTW, max loads are seldom a good thing. Most rifles I have group the best with loads near or less than max. So don't try to make a 30'06 into a .300 magnum. Get another rifle if that is what you want.
Good luck!
Midwayusa.com has the Lee Challenger Anniversary Kit for 94.99 plus shippping. Took me a good while unpack all the stuff you get in the kit. It was like Christmas.
Reloading can be a real stress reliever or it can be a stress creator.
First, as others have suggested, get in a shooing club and meet other reloaders and go watch the process.
Second, contact Hornady, Dillon, Lyman or Lee and ask/purchase their reloading manuals, and how-to tapes.
Register at TheFiringLine, or Shootin-Talk.tk and get in on the discussions about reloading. Talk one on one with the reloaders. Then,
Make decisions on which and what equipment you will need. In some instances, you can buy ammo cheaper than you can reload it. In most instances, you save about 60% by reloading. Reloading is a hobby that you can begin simple and expand as you need to.
RCBS makes a kit for beginning reloaders. It includes a “Partner” single-stage press, a balance beam scale, a basic powder measure, a simple reloading block, etc. All in one box.
This kit is sufficient to reload for just about anything other than a .50 BMG or forming large rifle cases (which you’d do only if you had a wildcat - and if you were shooting a wildcat, you’d already be reloading.)
Other presses, like the Dillon progressive presses, are better for reloading huge quantities of ammo; the Rockchucker or big Lee single-stage presses are better for reloading big rifle cases you need to re-size, but the Partner will do everything you need to do to get your feet wet. It uses the same size dies as all the other presses, it will decap, resize, prime and seat bullets and crimp (if necessary).
You’ll need a case tumbler at some point to clean up your cases. If you buy clean components you’re just going to load yourself, you won’t need a tumbler. If you’re going to recycle cases, or buy once-fired brass, or be a range scrounger, you’ll need a tumbler.
When you get going and have reloaded several hundred (or thousand) rounds, you’ll know more about what you want. There are many good reloading presses out there, all tweeked just a little bit for the issues the designers and customers found important. For big rifle shooters, they often want a big, heavy single-stage press with good mechanical advantage and repeatability with precision.
For IPSC/IDPA pistol shooters, they want to be able to crank out 500+ rounds per hour.
Everything besides the press (the dies, the scales, measuring tools, blocks and MOST IMPORTANTLY, your reloading data books) you can use regardless of the press.
Get good data books, BTW. And DO NOT START WITH MAXIMUM LOADS. When they book says “start here and work up,” do it until you know your firearms, your components and your ability to make informed judgements.
A digital scale is an absolute MUST.
I do two types of reloading. Each has different requirements - and some similarities.
#1 is precision loading for hunting rifle rounds. This is meticulous low-volume loading, often with breaks to go outside and try a few rounds. For this I use an RCBS single stage press, weigh every charge of powder with a trickler, trim each case. It is slow, but that’s OK.
#2 is high-volume reloading pistol cartridges for competition or plinking. These don’t need to be particularly accurate, just cheap. For this I seldom weigh any powder. Just plow away with my Dillon 500B progressive press. 200 rounds per hour without trying too hard.
Give us more information on what type of loading you plan on doing.
I use Midway and Graf’s quite a bit for supplies. They, and Dillon, are good sources of info.
I think that a great place to go for the archived info and also to ask questions is: http://www.thehighroad.org/ It is a shooting website, and people there are tremendously eager to help (though, like FR, sometimes the humor gets a bit out of hand, and other issues present with lots of people online here apply there also). Go to the reloading section and you’ll find a wealth of information.
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