Starting reloading - Which Kit?

ccwcanada

ccwcanada

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Going to start reloading soon. Will load .300WM in obviously not too great of quantity, approx 600 rounds per year.
Also .223 Remington approx 2000 rounds per year.
Possibly also get into 9mm and .45ACP approx 2000 rds/year each.

Question is: should I get the Hornady auto-progressive for faster reloading, or get the Classic Kit with single stage press but more stuff in it.
For the .223 and hand guns, might be reloading 500 rounds at a time. Will it kill me with the single stage press? Or is the auto-progressive still too much overkill for a single user?
 
I think after 500 round using a single stage you'll want to stick a knitting needle in you face just to stop the monotony. I use a single stage for .223 bolt, but I still buy my 9mm.
Regardless of your decision, reloading is a great hobby. When you're set up post some pics of the new toy.

peace..
 
A possible option might be a kit with a turret press. They can turn out good pistol ammo at a relatively good pace, and still be good for rifle rounds. Not as complex as and a little cheaper than a full progressive press and IMO a better press to learn on as you have less things going on all at once so you can better observe each stage of the process. If you find later that you want to get into more precision loading for the rifle rounds you can always add a single stage press later on.

I just loaded up 250 rounds of .38spl with a Lee loader! You want to talk about tedious! I rarely shoot pistol and only have the one caliber (for now) so I won't be getting a progressive any time soon, but I'm seriously looking at a turret press in the near future.

I currently reload for .243win, .270win, & .303brit with a Lee anniversary kit (with the alum press) I've had for 5+ years now and it makes great ammo. IIRC the kit was about $120 and came with almost everything you need. All I added was dies, shell holders, and trim length gauges for each caliber. I did upgrade to an RCBS 5-10-10 scale as I didn't care for the one in the kit (although it does work ok) and I got the RCBS one used at a good price.

Do a search for reloading kits and you will find many different opinions on the many different brands and types of presses. Read through a bunch of them and consider what your budget is, what your reloading needs are now and also what you might want to do in the future. This will help you get a better idea of which setup will work best for you.
 
I currently own a Dillon Square Deal B for pistol reloading and the Lee anniversary kit for rifle cartridges.

I really like the RCBS Dies (the competition die for .223 has a small window to drop in the bullet so you don't have to balance it on the cartridge)
 
carbonrod said:
Well, neither. Choose between a 550b, and a 650 from Dillon.
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Here is a more helpful - better rounded - answer regarding progressives: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127691


Regarding progressive or regular press, you can do about 100 rounds per hour with a regular press if you know what you're doing, but 50 rounds / hour is more realistic especially when you're starting out. The rate on a progressive is about ten times this. So now you can look at your volume (~6000 rounds per year, all in) and decide if you want to spend about 120 hours per year reloading for pistol / 223, or 12.
 
acrashb said:
Here is a more helpful - better rounded - answer regarding progressives: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127691


Regarding progressive or regular press, you can do about 100 rounds per hour with a regular press if you know what you're doing, but 50 rounds / hour is more realistic especially when you're starting out. The rate on a progressive is about ten times this. So now you can look at your volume (~6000 rounds per year, all in) and decide if you want to spend about 120 hours per year reloading for pistol / 223, or 12.
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Awesome link, thanks. Think I'll go with the Hornady LNL AP...all it means is I'll get to shoot more with less time reloading.
Fun stuff! Should be one more pay cycle and have the funds saved for the case tumbler, press, scale, other odds and ends...and I've got a couple thousand rounds of supplies ready to go!
 
Don't waste your money buying a Dillon 550 or 650 or SD (only for handguns) if you are not loading tons of rounds/week. And even then, ...

I am using a Lee 4 turret press for rifle cases and a Lee loadmaster for 9 mm and 45. The new Lee are half as much plastic as the old ones and mine work flawlessly.

I would not touch a single stage press.
 
ccwcanada said:
Awesome link, thanks. Think I'll go with the Hornady LNL AP...all it means is I'll get to shoot more with less time reloading.
QUOTE]

Hey, PM me & I'll send you a quote for everything you need. My prices a competitive & I carry all the components you need. It will be delivered to you with no need to run all over town looking for components.
Regards, Henry
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mardig88 said:
i would say the lee classic turret press is exactly what you;re looking for!
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X2

I bought a classic turret last year, after a couple of years of loading 1000+ pistol rounds several time a year with the lee single stage made me want to slit my wrists.
The biggest benefit of going with the classic cast turret is once your carbide dies are set up correctly for your specific load you never have to f**k around with them again, just throw the plate in, slap on the pro auto disk power measure, load up the safety primer with primers and start loading.
I still use a classic cast single stage for rifle ammo, but not for vast amounts. As other have also said, I suggest staying away from the aluminum lee challenger press that comes with the anniversary kit, as they tend to self-destruct if you get any cases really stuck in them. I also suggest the lee loading manual – not included anymore with the anniversary kit – as it is full of good info on using lee specific equipment in the first 200 pages.
 
You cannot go wrong with Dillon...

And I have and use reloading equipment from about a dozen manufacturers including the following presses:
-Hornady LnL
-RCBS Rockchucker
-2x Dillon 550s
-Dillon 650
 
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The Dillon 550 will work very well for your needs. I think that even a turret press would be slow for the volumes you want to reload.

Money spent on quality tools is never a waste. Your time savings will more than make up for the additional equipment cost.
 
The Hornady LNL or the Dillon 550, given the amount of rifle ammo you want ot load, would be the right choices so I would buy one of those two. For mostly rifle my preference would be the Hornady.

That said, for learning on, buy a single stage to go with the progressive. You will always need one anyhow for bullet pulling, loading small test batches as you work up loads etc. Load 3 or 4 thousand rounds on the single stage. When you are 100% proficient doing that, move to the progressive for large batches.

Reloading is great fun but it is also something that requires a great deal of care and knowing exactly what you are doing. As others have said, with the amount going on at one time on a progressive it is a very hard way to learn correct procedures. Best of luck.
 
Dean2 said:
Load 3 or 4 thousand rounds on the single stage. When you are 100% proficient doing that, move to the progressive for large batches.
...with the amount going on at one time on a progressive it is a very hard way to learn correct procedures. Best of luck.
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If I had the benefit of hindsight when starting out, I would have skipped a single stage and went with a 550b to start.
The only thing loading thousands of rounds on a single stage will do is A)learn one a lot of patience and B) waste a lot of time that could otherwise be spent shooting.

If someone can walk and chew gum at the same time, they can learn loading on a progressive.
As a parting thought, I've compared loaded ammo done on my rock chucker and the 550, and there is zero difference in 'quality' of ammo loaded from one to the other. The precision and reduced runout can easily be had on a 550.
 
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