Kit or Seperately?

For maximum life, you should use a collet neck size die as much as you can. Full length is only for when the case gets hard to feed. Ammo that sees rough handling in the field should be crimped.

For me, the turret press was great as I reload a bunch of different calibers. Keeps me from having to reset my dies each time. But I didn't set it up with the powder drop, etc. I don't even use my powder drop measure. I quit using that alltogether. It was a real PITA with stick powders. Right now, I use the scale and a plastic spoon. I have a powder trickler and digital scale coming from nachess. I load each one individually with a powder funnel and loading block from a scaled load.
I like the Lee dies for rifles and I get all the dies, collet neck only, full length, seater, and crimp, and I only load one pistol caliber for a carbine for my dad, and those are hornady dies that I got for a screaming deal....
If I had to put it down to what equipment I'd buy, and remember that I load for 5 calibers, it would be as follows:
Lymann turret press ( I use the press attachment for priming but find the attachments for that annoying, so feed the primers individually)
a digital scale in 0.1 grain incriments (they all seem to work once they warm up)
Powder tray for the scale (Might come with the scale)
pilot type case trimmer and trimmer head
case prep brushes, (can use bore cleaning brushes a size larger) I prefer brass or copper to steel, and a flat brass toothbrush sized brush for doing the outside
powder funnel
loading block
bullet puller (you will have a loaded bullet and go, "Oops!!! No primer!!!!" DO NOT try to prime an otherwise loaded casing!!!!!!)
primer flip tray (Or several if you're using different types of primers)
replaceable screwdriver bits, flat type, to clean out primer pockets
digital caliper
stuck case removal kit
plastic mallet
crescent wrench or 2
powder trickler
3 or more reloading books
Shellholders if you don't get them with your dies

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. A few other things:
Plastic spoons
a single serving yogart container
notebook
masking tape
plastic type bullet carrying boxes
sharpie fine tip
small cardboard boxes for sorting brass into
pens


Hope this helps.
 
kolkim said:
I'm wondering if jewlery scales that goes in 0.01 grams will work instead of grain scales if you convert it.
Click to expand...
I know Gandhi had already touched on this one a bit, but one other thing to consider is that 0.01 grams of accuracy is not as accurate as 0.1 grains. 0.01 grams is 0.154 grains. If your scale is accurate to +-0.01 grams, then you could be out as much as 0.3 grains. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, depending on the type of round, bullet size and powder, 0.3 grains can be the difference between a min and max loading.
 
amosfella said:
For maximum life, you should use a collet neck size die as much as you can. Full length is only for when the case gets hard to feed. Ammo that sees rough handling in the field should be crimped.

For me, the turret press was great as I reload a bunch of different calibers. Keeps me from having to reset my dies each time. But I didn't set it up with the powder drop, etc. I don't even use my powder drop measure. I quit using that alltogether. It was a real PITA with stick powders. Right now, I use the scale and a plastic spoon. I have a powder trickler and digital scale coming from nachess. I load each one individually with a powder funnel and loading block from a scaled load.
I like the Lee dies for rifles and I get all the dies, collet neck only, full length, seater, and crimp, and I only load one pistol caliber for a carbine for my dad, and those are hornady dies that I got for a screaming deal....
If I had to put it down to what equipment I'd buy, and remember that I load for 5 calibers, it would be as follows:
Lymann turret press ( I use the press attachment for priming but find the attachments for that annoying, so feed the primers individually)
a digital scale in 0.1 grain incriments (they all seem to work once they warm up)
Powder tray for the scale (Might come with the scale)
pilot type case trimmer and trimmer head
case prep brushes, (can use bore cleaning brushes a size larger) I prefer brass or copper to steel, and a flat brass toothbrush sized brush for doing the outside
powder funnel
loading block
bullet puller (you will have a loaded bullet and go, "Oops!!! No primer!!!!" DO NOT try to prime an otherwise loaded casing!!!!!!)
primer flip tray (Or several if you're using different types of primers)
replaceable screwdriver bits, flat type, to clean out primer pockets
digital caliper
stuck case removal kit
plastic mallet
crescent wrench or 2
powder trickler
3 or more reloading books
Shellholders if you don't get them with your dies

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. A few other things:
Plastic spoons
a single serving yogart container
notebook
masking tape
plastic type bullet carrying boxes
sharpie fine tip
small cardboard boxes for sorting brass into
pens


Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Helps alot. I was figuring I was going to not use the powder measure and just manually put the powder as it is the most important component anyways. I will use your list as a checkmark for what I need.
 
I would say for a new reloaded to go buy a complete kit like the lee classic turret press kit. I bought one and am very happy with it. Just take the indexing rod out and use it as a single stage, that's what I do and find it's great to have all of my dies set up at once. The only thing you really need in addition to that kit is your dies for the caliber you want to load, a lee rifle charging die which simply raises the height of the powder measure so it clears the taller rifle dies, and a funnel. You will also need a pen, hammer, punch set, labels, caliper, bullet puller, Tupperware containers and I'd say at least one more reloading book as its good to cross-reference data.

I use the Lee auto disk pro powder measure that comes with the kit and I find it's VERY accurate and even measures flake powders very well.

The lee scale is very accurate but can be a PITA to use. I still use it because I don't do a lot of powder measuring off the press and only use the scale to check my charge every so often. After 1000's of rounds I've still never had a problem with the auto disk measure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom