Best equipment for beginner reloader?

jibjedi

jibjedi

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I was wondering if I might be able to get some advice on which brand name of reloading equipment to buy as a beginner reloader?

What is a good quality brand that is not bottom of the rung and will not break me financially either to get started?

I am not looking to build any super technical hunting loads, just 30-06 rounds for my M1.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!
 
One of the Lee kits. I bought a Lee Turret Press myself (not the kit) because I plan to do some larger volume pistol cartridge reloading, but for lower production use a Classic Cast press is a great value and will last a lifetime.

Mark
 
I got the lee anniversary press as well. Gets ya goin right out the door for ~150 plus dies and components then you can always upgrade as you go along and see what works for you. Most important is get some manuals and read, read, read.
 
LEE 50th anniversary kit single stage, you'll have it the rest of your life and it's great for doing rifle and .38special. After this you can go with a turret press for medium volume pistol production, we're talking 100-250 / hour.
 
Go with RCBS you cannot go wrong and they stand behind their stuff. I have had stuff 10 years years old that they have replaced or sent me parts for. You'll pay a bit more but it's worth it.

Grijim
 
It depends on your budget, good quality is not any harder to learn on, not any more complicated. As someone mentioned, RCBS Rockchucker press kinda sets the standard. Redding, Lyman, all make solid cast iron presses as opposed to Lee's aluminum. The best single stage press in my opinion is the Forster Co-ax and no harder to learn on, and never need to buy shellholders.
 
Lee is bottom rung, but that rung is more than good enough for 80% of reloaders out there. Reloading is a specialty product, there are no bad manufacturers, the market simply wouldn't support it. I have been loading for 20 years, and most of my gear is Lee.

I recommend the Challenger press for rifle rounds. The turret press will not work for .30-06.
 
How about a Lee hand press? It doesn't get much more low-buck than that, except maybe a Lee Loader set.( which isn't good for semi auto's)
 
A Lee Classic Turret Press will do .30-06, but the auto-indexing must be disabled.

I think you will probably find a turret press to be quicker than a single stage. Besides which, it allows you to leave your dies set up in the toolhead, so you don't have to change them out for different operations.

Whatever press and dies you choose to use, I recommend the Lee Factory Crimp die, as it is much easier to adjust bullet seating and crimping when they are performed by separate dies. Also, you don't have to worry about collapsing case shoulders from over-crimping.
 
I've used the same RCBS press for close to 30 years. Solid as the day I bought it.

As Battlerife noted, the stuff you will find on any reputable dealer's shelves is all pretty good and none of it will give you bad ammo. What I would stay away to begin with is the ultra-fancy, high-speed, low-drag, big-bucks setup. Once you have made a bunch with a simple rig, you'll have a better understanding of what you're doing. That's the time to think of tarting things up a bit. I personally find it relaxing, so not churning the rounds out in huge numbers isn't necessarily a bad thing.

One thing to invest in is a good reloading manual - Sierra, Speer and a bunch of other ammo firms publish them. They're full of good advice and can save you a lot of grief.
 
I started off with the lyman turret kit 3 years ago. With the exception of a digital scale (my failing I'm sure, not the scale's) I've used it as is for 1000s of rounds.
 
Cleaning the brass

EDIT- Oops, this was supposed to be a NEW POST I've left this and moved the info to a new thread. Sorry.
 
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BattleRife said:
The turret press will not work for .30-06.
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How do you figure that?

Edit - Nevermind, I just saw tjhaile's reply. I was going to mention that I have loaded a couple hundred rounds of 30-06 in the last couple of months with no issues, but I am using it as a single stage with the indexing rod out. For pistol cartridges I will use it as a semi-progressive, but I like to do rifle cartridges as a single stage operation for better consistency. I think it will go up to .338 Win Mag with the rod out, maybe longer than that.

Mark
 
mmattockx said:
How do you figure that?

Mark
Click to expand...

The Turret press is supplied with the Auto-disk powder measure, which even with a double disk kit will not drop enough powder for a .30-06. I suppose you could go to a different powder measure, if you could find a way to set it up.

I also can't imagine there is enough clearance inside the frame? A long-action case standing up in a turret press frame must be pretty close to the top, I would think it awfully fiddly to get a bullet in over the case mouth.
The Turret is clearly designed for pistol rounds. I'm told it works okay for 5.56mm, but I don't load anything longer than .32 H&R mag on mine. I could be wrong, but I have to believe it is a substandard press for anything over 50mm case length.
 
BattleRife said:
The Turret press is supplied with the Auto-disk powder measure, which even with a double disk kit will not drop enough powder for a .30-06. I suppose you could go to a different powder measure, if you could find a way to set it up.

I also can't imagine there is enough clearance inside the frame? A long-action case standing up in a turret press frame must be pretty close to the top, I would think it awfully fiddly to get a bullet in over the case mouth.
The Turret is clearly designed for pistol rounds, and I'm told it works okay for 5.56mm, but I don't load anything longer than .32 H&R mag on mine.
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Ah, not an issue for me. I use an RCBS Chargemaster combo, so I have it throw every charge. I bought the press without the accessories and have not got around to setting it up for pistol use yet. I have loaded .44 mag, but with the Chargemaster throwing those loads as well. Later this spring I will get to using the full zoot set up for some lead bullet 9mm loads.

As I noted above, I think the turret press will handle .338 WM with no problems when used as a single stage. I have no clearance issues with 30-06 and 150gr. FMJ for my Garand, there is lots of finger room even with the primer arm still in place. With that out you gain another 1/4" or so of stroke for the really long cartridges.

Mark

Mark
 
grijim said:
Go with RCBS you cannot go wrong and they stand behind their stuff. I have had stuff 10 years years old that they have replaced or sent me parts for. You'll pay a bit more but it's worth it.

Grijim
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There is not that much difference in quality of any of the mid range presses, and certainly there is no difference in the ammo they make. For example, the RCBS Rockchucker that many people mention is now partially made in China!!

The press you use is the LEAST important factor in assembling top quality ammunition, so chose what you like and what your budget allows.

Look near the bottom of the page what equipment is used to produce itty bitty one hole groups at 345 yards. http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek075.html
 
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