Reloading press?
- Thread starter TNT
- Start date
The Lee classic cast should do you just fine.
Consider adding on some of the following accessories:
RCBS chamfer/deburring tool
Tumbler
Digital caliper
RCBS lube pad or decent spray lube
If you plan on doing higher volume shooting, you may want to upgrade down the road.....like me
Consider adding on some of the following accessories:
RCBS chamfer/deburring tool
Tumbler
Digital caliper
RCBS lube pad or decent spray lube
If you plan on doing higher volume shooting, you may want to upgrade down the road.....like me
Yes, get the breech lock challenger. It has a priming system and the 3 "bushings" that come with it allow you to lock your dies. This will save you soooo much time when you're doing rifle loads. The press will cost like $70.00 and the dies + shell holder as little as $25.00. A pound of powder will be $30'ish and primers are $5.00 / 100. Rifle bullets will cost you $25.00-$40.00 per 100 for jacketed soft points. You're going to be in for $150.00 to $175.00
I started reloading in university to save a bit of money on 6.5x55 (got most of the gear given to me or as birthday presents). That was about 12 years ago. I now have over half of a 8x16 ft room dedicated to reloading rifle rounds (single stage press), handgun rounds (progressive press), shotgun shells (slugs and buckshot). I have actually bought guns just because soemone gave me dies for a particular caliber 
. Anyone who says they do it to save money is full of s**t; if it costs half as much to load as buy factory ammo, you will just shoot twice as much . I actually bought a 375 H&H magnum with one main reason being that I could load the rounds for less than half a factory box; the fact I shoot 25-50 rounds every time I take it to the range because they are jsut reloads is besides the point .
My latest "cost savings" measure is casting my own bullets; we will see how that goes.
As for your question the Lee kits are fine if you plan to just do it infrequently. If you plan to get into it hardcore, I would look at a RCBS master reloading kit. Other than dies, most of the Lee gear I have bought over the years has been replaced, but at least it got me started.
. Anyone who says they do it to save money is full of s**t; if it costs half as much to load as buy factory ammo, you will just shoot twice as much . I actually bought a 375 H&H magnum with one main reason being that I could load the rounds for less than half a factory box; the fact I shoot 25-50 rounds every time I take it to the range because they are jsut reloads is besides the point .My latest "cost savings" measure is casting my own bullets; we will see how that goes.
As for your question the Lee kits are fine if you plan to just do it infrequently. If you plan to get into it hardcore, I would look at a RCBS master reloading kit. Other than dies, most of the Lee gear I have bought over the years has been replaced, but at least it got me started.
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
Hehehe a classic GunNut reaction.
I've taken a somewhat similar course of action in preparation for the purchase of my next rifle. At the last few gun shows I've picked up a set of dies and seven boxes of factory ammo for a 358 Norma Magnum. Now I'm ready to find a Schultz & Larsen in that caliber.
- Location
- Sudbury, On
All in, my very first visit to our local gun shop to start reloading cost me about $350.
That included EVERYTHING you could possibly need:
-Lee Breech Lock Challenger kit
-.308 Winchester three-die set (Lee-brand, of course)
-.308 Winchester trim tool
-.308 Hornady 150 grain BTSP bullets
-1 pound of H4895
-100 large rifle primers
-50 new Winchester brass *omit if you have brass already, deduct about $70*
I already owned a caliper, these go on sale at Canadian Tire for twenty bucks all the time. You WILL need one to properly load ammo.
That was a month ago. I now must have almost double that amount invested, collecting this stuff is indeed an addiction!
That included EVERYTHING you could possibly need:
-Lee Breech Lock Challenger kit
-.308 Winchester three-die set (Lee-brand, of course)
-.308 Winchester trim tool
-.308 Hornady 150 grain BTSP bullets
-1 pound of H4895
-100 large rifle primers
-50 new Winchester brass *omit if you have brass already, deduct about $70*
I already owned a caliper, these go on sale at Canadian Tire for twenty bucks all the time. You WILL need one to properly load ammo.
That was a month ago. I now must have almost double that amount invested, collecting this stuff is indeed an addiction!
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I'd go with one of the kits that are available from RCBS myself. They're pretty good and the only thing that I would upgrade off the start is to go with a digital scale to save time and increase accuracy. That said, I've assembled plenty of loads using a beam scale.
Nothing wrong with the Challenger. One CGN member/dealer, Mysticplayer, has used a Challenger and Lee dies to load ammo that shoots itty bitty groups at over the horizon distances.
How you prep the components and put the ammo together will make much more of a difference than the equipment used to assemble it.
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek075.html
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
X2. As part of my reloading equipment update I purchased an RCBS ChargeMaster Combo and it's a gem to work with
. Mind you, being from the 'pre metric era' I have to refer back to the instruction manual often but so far it's proven to be a definate move in the right direction. I hung on to my old Lyman D5 balance beam scale though, just to check the new technology every once in a while.
