Recommend Set Up For Precision Reloading?

beltfed said:
:confused: How much have you got into your rifle? Hate to break it to you, but $300 is a drop in the bucket on what you will end up spending.
You will save money loading your own match .308, but it is still going to cost you a small fortune...
Don't get me wrong, I have Dillon, Redding, RCBS, Lyman, and Lee for my reloading duties, so I'm not being elitist, but I would strongly suggest steering clear of the Lee press....as always, ymmv. Good luck with your decision.:cheers:
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:( I suppose you're right. I'm not sure what to think now though, as Jerry has a lot of experience in this field but I hear it breaks easily, and I'd rather pay more expensive once than buy twice...
Only thing is, I flat out don't have $400 to spend on reloading kit. If the Lee kit will suffice at all, then I won't mind going with that. It's not like the reloading will be overly heavy, and it's only for one cartridge.

-Rohann
 
Rohann, when I say the Challenger press cast part WILL break, I mean after alot of use. I load ALOT and some pretty big stuff. The last time one of the parts broke, I had used it for a year.

I sincerely doubt you will have problems with the press until you are well into the lifespan of your barrel, maybe even the next one.

By that time, you will have gained the experience and BUDGET to change or not. I haven't yet but keep spare parts on hand so I have no down time.

Like shooting, you can think and plan all you want but until you start burning powder....

You have been very careful and have all the bases covered in this post for your review. Start somewhere and start loading up ammo. The rest will come very quickly with EXPERIENCE.

For all the info you seek on equipment and what it does, I suggest you pick up a load manual or two. I recommend the Lee volume 2 and the most recent Nosler. There is wealth of practical info buried in these texts. Add the info you get on this and other boards and you cannot help but be successful.

Jerry
 
Max Owner said:
Thanx for the replies, so far.

Can I get a break down of what people recommend for individual components?

Digital scale make and model.
Balance scale.
Tools, etc............

Been looking around on the net and I'm getting a head ache...................

Leaning towards RCBS or Redding press, so far.
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RCBS Balance beam scale 10/10 great starter scale
Case mouth chamfering and deburring tool -Forester or RCBS
Primer pocket cleaner- LEE/RCBS
Flash Hole deburring tool -RCBS/Wilson
Brass case cleaner/tumbler- Lyman/RCBS/Frankford Arsenal
Dies to many manufactures to list
Electronic scale-Dillion
Digital Vernier calipres for measuring case length
case trimmer -Forester
 
Max, sorry...

My parts list to Rohann would also be my suggestion to you. First thing to get is a quality Runout guage. That way you can decide what does or does not work for you.

Even the fancy stuff can do some strange/undesired things.

I use the collet neck die because it works. If the fired case has no runout coming out of the chamber, you CANNOT induce runout sizing with this die. The bushing dies can create some unique problems all their own.

I have yet to find a LR/accurate rifle that you couldn't load for with 3 to 4 thou of neck tension (standard in a collet die). Most LR shooters are finding higher neck tension to work better when large amounts of powder are ignited at elevated pressures.

Brass prep can be as elaborate or as simple as your choose. Bottom line, cases with identical case volume (not necessarily weight), similar annealing (same lot helps), and deburred will work IF there is little to no runout.

Size as little as possible and make sure the necks stay true. Same goes for the seating. Bullet runout as low as possible (didn't say zero) usually just off the lands. Test on paper to see what your rifle will tolerate. Some can tolerate quite out of true ammo and still drive them into the same hole. Very small changes in powder have the same impact as changing seating depth.

I rarely adjust my seating depths as there are easier ways to reach the same goal.

Using a good quality powder and primer while matching an accurate bullet to the barrel, will do more for accuracy then alot of finicky load steps and expensive tools. Some barrels don't shoot no matter what you do.

This will get you to 1/4 to 1/2MOA if the barrel is up to it. The real finicky stuff MIGHT shave off another tenth if the rifle is up to it. Very few are.

If you want short BR 0's, that is a whole different ballgame.

Jerry
 
mysticplayer said:
Rohann, when I say the Challenger press cast part WILL break, I mean after alot of use. I load ALOT and some pretty big stuff. The last time one of the parts broke, I had used it for a year.

I sincerely doubt you will have problems with the press until you are well into the lifespan of your barrel, maybe even the next one.

By that time, you will have gained the experience and BUDGET to change or not. I haven't yet but keep spare parts on hand so I have no down time.

Like shooting, you can think and plan all you want but until you start burning powder....

You have been very careful and have all the bases covered in this post for your review. Start somewhere and start loading up ammo. The rest will come very quickly with EXPERIENCE.

For all the info you seek on equipment and what it does, I suggest you pick up a load manual or two. I recommend the Lee volume 2 and the most recent Nosler. There is wealth of practical info buried in these texts. Add the info you get on this and other boards and you cannot help but be successful.

Jerry
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I trust your experience, and thank for your reply. I'll go with what you said as well as taking in other people's precautions regarding certain parts, so I think I'll go with a Lee but will need to keep accuracy variables in mind (are there any others???). Would you recommend I read a manual before buying a kit?

I think the reloader comes with a Lee loading manual for something like $20 extra. Can you help me work out exactly what I need to get?
-Lee Anniversary Kit
-Lee Delux collet dies
-Dewey Primer pocket cleaner (is this one needed?). And I won't have to trim during the life of the brass? What exactly does the trimmer do?
-Flash hole deburring tool from RCBS???
-Forster trimmer and outside neck turner?
And I won't need to lube if buying the collet dies?
-Sinclair runout gauge?

And can this all be bought at Higginson?

Also, could you explain this? Or would this be in the manual:
I use the collet neck die because it works. If the fired case has no runout coming out of the chamber, you CANNOT induce runout sizing with this die. The bushing dies can create some unique problems all their own.

I have yet to find a LR/accurate rifle that you couldn't load for with 3 to 4 thou of neck tension (standard in a collet die). Most LR shooters are finding higher neck tension to work better when large amounts of powder are ignited at elevated pressures.
Click to expand...

And

Size as little as possible and make sure the necks stay true. Same goes for the seating. Bullet runout as low as possible (didn't say zero) usually just off the lands. Test on paper to see what your rifle will tolerate. Some can tolerate quite out of true ammo and still drive them into the same hole. Very small changes in powder have the same impact as changing seating depth.

I rarely adjust my seating depths as there are easier ways to reach the same goal.
Click to expand...

To the others: Thank you for your advice and precautions. While I may not have gone your recommended route on the press (still not 100% on that though), I still appreciate any tips and help I can get while starting out with this.

Sorry for all the redundant questions and obvious ignorance, but the information on all of this is quite overwhelming, and I'd like to know a bit before I buy anything yet.
Thank you very much for all the help.

Oh and Max, sorry for the hijack :redface:.

-Rohann
 
Run-out/concentricity guage... This single piece of kit produced the biggest difference in my long range shooting. It really helped to eliminate "unexplained" flyers. It takes 10 seconds to spin each round and determine if it's a good one or it needs to visit the seater again.
I use the Forster one, but the Sinclair sure is a beauty!

On presses, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the highly regarded Forster/Bonanza Co-Ax press. (I'm hoping to buy one as my next press purchase).
On case trimmers/neck turners... I already have a Forster set-up, and it's good; but if I were starting over from scratch again, I'd use the Lee case trimming set-up and one of the Sinclair neck turning kits, like the NT-CH1 or the NT-CH3. Using an outside micrometer, rather than calipers, I can't see any difference between the accuracy of the Lee trimmer as opposed to my Forster.
However, you may want to take a cast of your chamber a decide if you even want to trim-to-length. The nice thing about a trimmer like the Forster is that you can decide to just trim enough to make the batch of cases fairly uniform.

Flash hole tools... You may not need these. If you stick with Lapua, Norma or Nosler brass, it's already done. And I just had a quick look at a couple pieces of Hirtenberger brass, and it looks like they have drilled (rather than punched) flash holes too.

And rather than a primer pocket cleaner, I think a uniformer would be better. You do each case once, then (if you wish) use the uniformer to clean the pockets after decapping.
 
mysticplayer said:
As for the shell holders, just use the standard Lee or RCBS. Look at the enormous slop that is in every shell holder. That slop must be there. This allows the case to center in the die.
Jerry
Click to expand...

The dimension of the shell holder which can lead to problems is the not the slot cut to hold the rim of the case, rather it is the height of the shell holder. The shell holder's height from surface which contacts the base of the cartridge to the surface which contacts the resizing die is critical. If the shell holder is too high it is not possible to set the shoulder back far enough and difficult or impossible chambering is the result. In fairness to Lee, I have not found this problem with their products, but I have replaced 8 or 10 Lyman shell holders which were out of spec. These days I am not loading the broad a range of cartridges, and use Redding whenever possible. If you are wildcatting, an out of spec shell holder will give you no end to grief because you won't be able to close the bolt on any of your formed bottle necked cartridges.
 
As per Splatter - I'm a big fan of the Co-Ax press...its a piece of art...when ordering, remember to get both shellholder plates. Only limitation is you can't use some real long dies...micrometer type.
I agree that concentricity is of vital importance...the Sinclair gauge is very well made and easy to use...but i haven't experience with any others...like to try a Neco.
Also I agree a primer pocket uniformer to be essential...you'll find that brass flows into pocket with each firing, and this keeps the primer depth consistant.

Just a couple cents worth......
 
I bought a reloading setup out of the Buy and Sell for $300 a few years back which included an RCBS partner press, 505 scale, powder thrower, some manuals and all the small stuff, caselube pad...

The press I used for everything including all the chores that go with shooting the .338 Lapua and still use it in addition to my new Redding. I have since replaced or upgraded almost everything but it was a great deal at the time and included everything I needed to get setup for reloading.

IMO the Lee presses are s**t and I have seen it with friends of mine as well so they are out of the question. (they seem to have a proven track record here too):rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I would also recommend using the primer pocket uniformer for its intended purpose as well as cleaning primer pockets after de-priming.

I also like and refer to the Lyman reloading manual quite often.

Ivo
 
Okay, so if I were to go with something else other than the Lee press, would I be able to obtain all the listed (or necessary) components for under $250 or so? What would you suggest for a "reasonable" starting budget?

-Rohann
 
How much does the RCBS kit go for?
I talked to HWMNBN and was recommended that I look around for a used press. What do you guys think about going this route? I can piece together a kit with new stuff and used stuff, and it sounds like the cheapest, most efficient way to go.

-Rohann
 
250? Nope. The RCBS kit is 320, and the Lyman kit is 420, both from Wholesale.

The only ways you're going to get going for near 300, plus dies would be with a Lee aniversary kit and then add a better press, like the Lee Classic Cast for 100ish or the Lyman crusher or the Hornady one for an additional 150 ish.
Or you could slowly collect used stuff.
The stuff in the Lee kit is good stuff, the case trimmer works as accurately as anything I've used, Sinclair sells the priming tool (the only Lee thing in their catalog), so you know that it's good. The scale is very accurate; but limited if you want to weigh bullets. The powder measure is good enough for dumping loads into the scale pan and trickling them up.
 
Is there an option to swap a the Lee press in the anniversary kit for a better press? I'd like some of the Lee kit, but would rather get a sturdier press with better credibility.

-Rohann
 
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