Absolute beginner to reloading - My intent is to NOT waste your time.

dcalf said:
Start with a high quality single stage, used is fine (i would recommend green, or orange, but not red). You will never wear out a quality single stage, and will continue to use it as long as you reload.
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Dunno about "RED" presses, or what you have against them, but my RED Forster press has been fantastic!

I watched a lot of u tube vids about reloading. Ultimate reloader, Cortina, among a few other great video creators. Lots to learn from them, and then jump into the rabbit hole.

Be prepared, that hole can get might deep with no bottom in sight!

I've had a great journey so far, and still learning lots.

If you can find someone locally to mentor from that is also a great booster when creating your first rounds. Always nice when you can take game with you own rolled bullets.
 
About the only presses I would maybe steer someone away from may be FA. I don't trust the way they're built, the "cheapie" single stage that was selling for 100.00 on the intro, is over 200.00 now, have my doubts about the brgs in it, M press has some design flaws. Only heard of two failures on the O press so far. Heard of two folk with the ram bore worn out on Hornady's, RCBS has had handle castings break a few times over the years, Summit press has had flawed castings on the upper part, not sure if that has been fixed, FA has had design issues with the M press, not sure if they've fixed them or not, screws breaking, incomplete machining, die holders. Lee has been known to have linkage issues and handle casting issues, lots of plastic & pot metal items folk need to keep spares of. Alum presses can spring, be it a C or an O press. Forster has had issues with the C style linkages, jaw bodies can be bent under certain circumstances. All can be subject to issues, it's the nature of price points and cast stuff occasionally has unseen flaws in mass production items in anyone's brand. Who knows how some stuff has been abused too. Most of the time, the company just sends the parts for it, n/c to customer, unless they can't supply it anymore.
 
TerminallyCranky said:
I want to get started with reloading 44mag, 44spcl and 6.5PRC. I reckon this question's been answered a million times by now, so if there's a link or two for newbies like myself to learn from, I'd appreciate the advice. I'll do my best to learn the terminology. I don't mind used stuff, but I will cough up the cash for quality new equipment. I especially want to be accurate as a beginner can when reloading 6.5PRC.

Thanks, all!
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As others have said get a variety of reloading manuals and read them. Get ones made by your chosen bullet manufacture first. Get others to cross reference loads. You may want a turret press for the pistol cartridges but a single stage is probably more precise for the PRC. I'm a RCBS guy mostly but my bench is a mixture of what works best for my processes. There are tons of instructional vids on utoobe and rumble in the bronx.. just type in your cartridge of choice with the word reloading. I have found RCBS to have an incredible warranty, not that you should need it but stuff happens and if your honest they always seem to treat you like your the only customer they care about. Ultimate reloader on utoobe has tons of product demonstrations including comparisons.
 
It is fun to try different bullets, seating depths and powders for each firearm. Best to chat with guys with similar rig and application before purchasing supplies. Once you find your sweet spot for your setup there’s more time for shooting!
 
nomad 68 said:
Buy as much as you can used. I bought evertthing new when i started. It was costly then. Now the prices are ridiculous as with everything today.
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Good advice, lots of us are timing out and good used equipment can be a huge savings if your patient and your timing is right.
Tools always have huge depreciation; just watch the adds and know what the current prices are as some guys think everything is worth what they paid plus interest and freight…
 
TerminallyCranky said:
I want to get started with reloading 44mag, 44spcl and 6.5PRC. I reckon this question's been answered a million times by now, so if there's a link or two for newbies like myself to learn from, I'd appreciate the advice. I'll do my best to learn the terminology. I don't mind used stuff, but I will cough up the cash for quality new equipment. I especially want to be accurate as a beginner can when reloading 6.5PRC.

Thanks, all!
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Big thanks to everyone who took the time answering this call for help. I tried liking all of them, but those i missed, i have read & appreciate the suggestions. Lots of good advice on equipment, what's ok used, what's best for my desired caliber of 6.5PRC, which might end up being a 7rem mag, a pretty extreme shift in price, but also leaves me the option to hunt larger game if i get the opportunity. One caliber to do it all (targets at 600m - 1.5km, hunting deer, bear) seems to suit the 7rm better.
I just want to get good enough at reloading to keep a respectable chrono spread. I want to avoid the pitfalls & bad gear like "crazy Reg's ethically sourced incendiary boat tail bullets with 7.8% hate & discontent in every projectile - 200 pack".
 
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One thing very few ppl ask about when talking about reloading - what kind of reloader are you? I wish someone asked me when I started.
What you buy, how you build you processes of preparation and reloading heavily depends on this.
- "Precision reloading" (including developing loads for hunting) - Iow volume, high consistency. You will probably get away with single stage high quality press and other high quality tools.
- "Weird calibers" - low volume, consistency is not that important. This is if you reload for antique, surplus of obscure calibers for occasional plinking. Single stage or hybrid (Lee turret) is fine, basic Lee tools are fine.
- "Competition reloading" - high volume, decent consistency. Usually volume reloading of 9mm (and use to 5.56). This is when you need to go with automation and progressive presses.
 
I think for many, like myself, what type of reloader you are is a fluid environment.
That said I think the majority by far are initially motivated to save money, or the twist on that “I want to shoot more but spend the same”.
So cheap equipment that can crank out volumes of cheap ammo that’s good enough…that was me.
Then somewhere in there, now that the ammo works…, the realization that not only can you shoot more which improves your shooting ability but you can experiment with how and what is loaded and it actually improves down range performance.
Anyone with a small shred of OCD or competitive spirit turns into a precision reloader in the quest to punch repeatable tight groups.
Now that you are shooting more you’re exposed to more firearms and obscure or old chamberings and the oddity of them become more of a curiosity and challenge to learn and enjoy either antique or modern cartridges that are hard to feed or impossible to feed from commercial sources…and now you you are a “weird calibres” reloader (I’d prefer antique or wildcat reloader but that’s just semantics).
It’s a fun journey and opens up a ton of interesting options.
Without reloading you inevitably calculate ammunition availability and cost in purchasing a firearm and that process will usually arrive at a mainstream platform, with mainstream results. Don’t read that as a bad thing, it isn’t.
But as your reloading skills develop your firearm purchasing criteria shifts to fascination, curiosity and component or tooling availability (at least it did for me) not what I can get at Canadian Tire.

And in that journey please don’t bias your equipment decisions on colour.
All companies make some great products and no company has nothing but great products.
They all either have cost driven products aimed at entry level low volume customers which are less than stellar or down right duds.
Starting with a cast iron single stage “O” press with steel linkage that can accept larger than 7/8 dies will retain value and last a lifetime and it doesn’t matter what colour it is.
 
TerminallyCranky said:
I want to avoid the pitfalls
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One thing not mentioned about presses is spent primer management. Ideally it is through the ram, not out the side. Much cleaner and not errant primers zipping across the room. Through-ram disposal is a step change feature. Also easy die management matters.

Overall summary of things to look for in a single-stage press: https://squibloads.wordpress.com/reloading/whats-the-best-single-stage-press/

TerminallyCranky said:
& bad gear like "crazy Reg's ethically sourced incendiary boat tail bullets with 7.8% hate & discontent in every projectile - 200 pack".
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Would you have a link? I googled without any luck.
 
acrashb said:
One thing not mentioned about presses is spent primer management. Ideally it is through the ram, not out the side. Much cleaner and not errant primers zipping across the room. Through-ram disposal is a step change feature. Also easy die management matters.
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FWIW, I'm having good luck with my MEC Marksman single-stage press. One out of every ~50 primers or so misses the plastic catch basin, but meh. Primers are managed through the ram on this model. It's a compact, but solid press. What sold me on it was the floating shell holder, size, smooth operation, and rigidity. It's beefier in person, but in a good way. Lots of decent Youtube reviews on it.

Note: On-press priming is not available on this model, so you either have to do that separately or buy a priming die.
 
savagelh said:
The hornady kits have been on sale a lot lately and I think they're ok. I would just get a single stage press to start. You're in luck with 6.5 prc as it's very easy to get very accurate loads with very low sd's. And the load data for it seems very accurate from what ive seen. Some of the older cartridges (think 7mm rem mag in particular) the data is all over the place.

I would also advise against a stainless tumbler to start. You really dont need to clean your brass much at all even just a wipe with brake clean is fine to get the lube off. I dont even bother cleaning primer pockets anymore. I also wouldn't encourage a newer reloader to be getting his cases wet. A tiny bit of moisture in the brass would be quite detrimental.

Theres lots of good YouTube content and some not so good. It's very important to follow published load data from the bullet or powder manufacturer.

A chronograph can be a very useful piece of kit along with learning to identify pressure signs. A quality caliper will last you forever. I prefer digital as its easier to zero and less prone to be read incorrectly. Good luck and have fun. It can be a bit intimidating but it is rewarding when you get the hang of it.
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I like this advise a lot. For a beginner, try to keep it simple and stick to basics until your comfortable with your progress.
You will find it enjoyable by not over complicating things to start with. And yes, you will want to change out processes and equipment as you go along, but starting simply, and taking your time to understand what your doing and why, is, I believe, great advise.
 
senior70 said:
Ditto-Here too, only regret was I wish it was a 4 hole, which wasn't available at the time.
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A long time ago, Lee offered a conversion kit to turn their 3 whole turret to a 4 holer using the same frame. I took advantage of that. It works well to this day.
 
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