Thinking how reloading may be only option!!!

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Domino2013

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I am looking at getting started with reloading. Currently mainly shoot 9mm, 223,308 and 6.5CM. I’ve looked at lee single stage press kits but everything seem sold or over priced compared to each other. Looked at different powders and bullets also but no idea where to start. Only good thing is that I always save my brass don’t know why just always done it.
Any help in the right direction as in is it worth it it reload. Have trouble getting Ammo I like around here in the places I have available. Or is everything going to priced higher because of the virus scare.

Thoughts on any of the above, limited budget also.
 
Higginson's Powders used to sell a complete line of LEE reloading paraphernalia. I haven't checked lately. Have a look. Lee isn't my first choice, especially if you plan on reloading mass quantities, but it all serviceable and produces some accurate ammo.
 
A good manual is a must. I would say save up if you need to to get decent tools. I don’t know how many times I’ve bought something thinking I saved a few bucks then find out it won’t do what I want it to. No need to go crazy but stick with tried and true equipment and you’ll be happier in the end.
 
Limited budget ???? Do your homework. Buy a reloading manual and try to find a reload cost calculator online. I was in a very similar situation about 10 years ago. Limited budget and limited reloading knowledge.. I bought a lee 50th anniversary kit, and I am very happy with it. But remember that is just a start. You need die set for each caliber you want to load. Approx $50 per set the you need primers powder and bullets. 9mm and 223 have a lot of less expensive ammo than many other calibers, that use the same reload components. (reloading payback is much higher on 22-250 than 223). If you do buy the lee kit and decide reloading is not your thing or you want to upgrade to more expensive gear ther will not be a big loss to sell it on ee. I have no data to prove this for others, but in my situation my reloaded ammo costs me about 40 to 50% less than factory ammo would, but I shoot 4 times as much. SO RELOADING TO SAVE MONEY LOL.
 
dmatt said:
Limited budget ???? Do your homework. Buy a reloading manual and try to find a reload cost calculator online. I was in a very similar situation about 10 years ago. Limited budget and limited reloading knowledge.. I bought a lee 50th anniversary kit, and I am very happy with it. But remember that is just a start. You need die set for each caliber you want to load. Approx $50 per set the you need primers powder and bullets. 9mm and 223 have a lot of less expensive ammo than many other calibers, that use the same reload components. (reloading payback is much higher on 22-250 than 223). If you do buy the lee kit and decide reloading is not your thing or you want to upgrade to more expensive gear ther will not be a big loss to sell it on ee. I have no data to prove this for others, but in my situation my reloaded ammo costs me about 40 to 50% less than factory ammo would, but I shoot 4 times as much. SO RELOADING TO SAVE MONEY LOL.
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I also started with the Lee kit about 15 years ago, and still use most of the kit. It has everything you need to get started, less dies, trimmer and components. I'd highly recommend a digital scale as the first upgrade, funds permitting. It really speeds up the process.
 
Many start with a kit. Guaranteed, you have a little of everything in 5 years. Two reloading operations i dislike most are powder dispensing and trimming. If it was me, thats were money would go. Find yourself a local mentor, might be able to use some equipment, find out what you like, plus the advice.

Seems there are a lot of broke people right now, some nice kit on the EE. Might sound a bit vulture like.....but thats were we be.
 
Budget Shooting Supplies is my go-to for Lee stuff. I started out about 45 years ago with a Lyman Turret press (still have it) but now am running two Lee Pro-1000 progressives for various pistol calibers (I would not recommend these to a beginner, as they are fussy, unless you are a mechanic or an engineer). Shop wisely, watch the EE, when you see a sale, buy enough to get you through to the next sale. I have been buying a lot of my components from Hummason manufacturing in Ancaster; they carry Hornady stuff and have about the best price on powders, and the bullets that I like.

Buy a couple of manuals and read and re-read.

This, for me, is a very enjoyable part of the sport!
 
I think that you have set yourself up pretty good for shooting now. The calibers you have chosen are mainstream and have decently priced good quality ammunition available.

9mm: I reload, and shoot 9mm. However I just buy ammo for the 9mm. I buy 500 to 1000 at a time, wait for the sales. And, IMNSHO, nothing short of a good quality progressive is what is required to load this short little round.

223: Depending on how much you shoot, and your need for specific ammunition, buying in bulk will be cheaper than getting into reloading.

308: Another caliber that has a good selection of reasonably priced ammunition.

6.5 Creedmoor: I don't shoot this one (yet). IMHO, especially if you are doing some precision shooting, you may need to handload to have the ammo to best suit your needs. However, you never mentioned that that you have any issues with the ammunition you are buying.

I'd suggest you stock up if you haven't done so already. A years supply is probably sufficient.

Handloading is a great hobby, if you have the budget, space and time, go for it. Buy the absolute best you can afford. Some of the brands I like: Dillon and Redding. I do use LEE reloading dies because they were inexpensive to buy, and have an old Lyman T-Mag II that I wouldn't want to do without. I still use some of the original tools I bought 40 years ago. 40 years ago factory ammo was not good. Any decent handload would outshoot the factory stuff. I just tested some factory 45 Auto, single digit Sd, a bit better than my best handloads, and priced reasonable as well.

I shoot some odd calibers, like 350 RM, 35 Rem, 38 Long Colt, 7mm Mauser and 8X57, handloading is the only way to shoot these. I also load for the 338 Lapua and 416 Rem Mag, and handloading those saves a lot of coin.

Nitro
 
To get started, buy a couple of re-loading manuals - all of them have a first 1/2 of the book that tells you how to re-load, step-by-step - I am thinking books by Speer, Hornady, Nosler, Lyman, etc. Second half of the book gives you "recipes" for how much and what kind of powder with which bullet and primer in which case - all different.

To start, your objective is to make something that will feed reliably into your rifle, go "bang" when you trip the trigger, and then extract. You should not be expecting to get 1/2 MOA 500 yard performance at the start, but it can happen. So figure out how you are going to keep notes - for every load that you try - primer used, powder charge, seating depth, how did it work and so on. No point making same mistake 5 years later that you already made last week.

Basic steps for your saved brass - Clean off your brass - a couple drops of dish soap in bucket of warm water - swish them around, remove and let dry. Won't be sparkly shiny, but will be clean. Lube the case, resize in a full length sizing die - that will also punch out the fired primer. Clean off the lube. Measure and/or trim case length and chamfer the case mouth. Insert new primer. Meter out and install powder charge. Seat your bullet. Each of these steps can be refined; most can be done with cheap or really stupidly expensive gear. So need an apparatus to do each of those above steps - often certain tools do more than one of these things.

If you are after "cheap" then be prepared to spend time; if you are willing to go "expensive" high output, then be prepared to make hundreds at a time with the same error or deficiency. I use a single stage RCBS Rockchucker press - I only load centerfires rifle - I plan to process and prime 100 brass in one evening, then load them up on a second evening. Get rid of distractions - pets, kids, texts, emails, etc. - put your mind fully into what you are doing and mistakes go away.

"Good" brass has same thickness all round - case neck and body - reaming case neck to "even it" does nothing for the error that is likely running through the case body. Try to start with "good brass". Loading "straight" is next most important - that is minimal run-out of bullet tip when loaded round rolled on a flat surface. So, in my mind, next most important tool to get is something that can measure case neck thickness (to be able to reject "poor" brass) and to measure loaded round run-out. A "straight" full length sized cartridge will perform quite well in your off-the-shelf factory rifle - expect it to be as least as good as the economy stuff that you can buy at Canadian Tire and similar. Don't expect to be producing Gold Medal or Norma Match quality stuff when you are starting out, but with even neck thickness and straight cartridges, you are started on the correct path.

I recently went through the exercise of pricing out what to buy from Cabela's.ca and Amazon.ca on-line. I was kind of surprised to see that $500 is the sort of budget to think about for tooling for loading one cartridge. As well, the consumables - primers, powder and bullets. If you do not have previously fired brass, then need brass as well.
 
bearhunter said:
Higginson's Powders used to sell a complete line of LEE reloading paraphernalia. I haven't checked lately. Have a look. Lee isn't my first choice, especially if you plan on reloading mass quantities, but it all serviceable and produces some accurate ammo.
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Higginsons still does sell lee products. They generally carry at least one of everything. When I spoke with Andrew a while back, he indicated that they were a distributor. If I understood him correctly, there are a few "distributors" in Canada.
 
Higginsons are great to deal with.

I prefer Lee stuff as it is great value and has made very accurate ammo for me. Also a big fan of the factory crimp die.

9MM reloading to me is about getting better accuracy out of a carbine etc. It really is questionable whether it is worth it given ammo is so cheap.

I do reload it but honestly just looking for best accuracy out of a JR.

The other rifle cals that is another story. I only use a single stage press. I don’t care about speed as I do it for precision and repeatability.

It really is something to take an animal with ammo you have loaded or bullets you have made.


ABC of reloading is a good read. Then any manual is good as stated above.

Most importantly - find a mentor!

Someone was kind enough to show me the ropes years ago and I do the same for others when possible.
 
Domino2013 said:
I am looking at getting started with reloading. Currently mainly shoot 9mm, 223,308 and 6.5CM. I’ve looked at lee single stage press kits but everything seem sold or over priced compared to each other. Looked at different powders and bullets also but no idea where to start. Only good thing is that I always save my brass don’t know why just always done it.
Any help in the right direction as in is it worth it it reload. Have trouble getting Ammo I like around here in the places I have available. Or is everything going to priced higher because of the virus scare.

Thoughts on any of the above, limited budget also.
Click to expand...

Price out your equipment and then look at the volume you shoot and decide if it's worth it to you. If you shoot enough it will pay for itself quickly. To get started with the most basic/starter reloading set up, you will need this:

1. Press (single stage) O frame
2. Scale (beam scale) for weighing powder charges and bullets.
3. Priming tool (some presses come with a priming tool, LEE for example)
4. reloading die set for your chosen cartridge AND shell holder (LEE dies come with shell holder)
5. trimmer (not needed for most handgun cartridges) use the LEE handheld trimmers for about $15
6. powder funnel
7. loading block (easy to make it yourself with a piece of 2x4 and a drill)
8. case preparation tools (inside/outside neck chamfer, large and small primer pocket cleaners)
9. caliper (digital or dial)
10. bullet puller, because you will need one eventually
11. Components: bullets, brass, powder, primers

This is a basic setup that will make good ammunition and it's all many shooters will ever need. Later you may want to add a powder measure and some kind of brass cleaning machine but you don't need it right away.

A basic set of gear will cost at least $400 for tooling plus the cost of components. For instance - If you shoot 200 rounds of factory a year at $30 per box of 20, that's $300 per year, so it would take a couple years to get the payback. If you shoot 400 rounds of factory ammo / year, reloading would pay for itself in the first year and you'd be money ahead after that. So it depends on how much you shoot and the cost of the factory ammo you're using now.

Good books are : ABCs of Reloading, Lyman Reloading Manual

Online resources: search "reloading basics" or "learning to reload". Or check out this search page: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=reloading+basics&qpvt=reloading+basics&FORM=VDRE

Gun Digest made some good vids:
Learn The Basics Of Reloading Ammo: GUN DIGEST Videos


CGN member Greenbob maintains a huge online source of free reloading resources, contact him by PM for the link.
 
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You can reload all of those with a single stage. But if you shoot higher volumes of 9mm and perhaps .223 from semi auto guns you'll soon want to get a progressive press more than likely.

Some numbers I found seem to hold.... Once you're comfy with the single stage you can load roughly 130 to 150 rounds per hour doing them on a single stage in batches of 50 at a time. That includes sizing and flaring the mouths, priming the brass, adding powder with some manner of measure then seating and crimping the bullets. The downside is that every round takes three or four pulls on the lever. Tennis elbow might be in your future... .:d Kidding aside it is doable if you feel that you can find the time to reload at 150/hr and not use them up faster than you load them.

For precision shooting ammo for the .223, .308 and 6.5 from bolt action rifles I feel that a single stage is the only way to go. Or a progressive that can be tricked into thinking it is a single stage. For precision distance loads you will want to weigh each charge separately. And that's where a single or progressive that can be "opened up" to let you do one or two steps then remove the sized and primed casing for powdering works for you. This is a pretty slow process when you have to weigh everything. I find I'm doing well to produce 50 rounds an hour when weighing my charges.

If you are looking at this you will want a GOOD scale a cheap basic powder measure or even a set of Lee dippers. But most of all a trickler to "drip" the last few flakes of powder into the pan with the charge. The trickler makes all the difference.

I had a bit of trouble with a couple of Lee presses I was given. To be fair I suspect the single stage one was driven over or had some other abuse. The ram did not point or move axially to the die station. And that's never a good thing. I actually robbed that for parts to give to my buddy that got my other Lee stuff and threw the bent or badly made mainframe away. I opted for a Hornady single stage for my rifle loading and years ago I found a Dillon 550b used. I'm extremely happy with both presses. The Dillon in particular. The 550 isn't cheap but it let's me run off around 350 to 400 rounds an hour of handgun ammo.

And by far the most important thing for me is the four die stations in the die plate. This lets me seat the bullets in one position and crimp them in the last. This proved to be a major point. I managed with the Lee three position Pro 1000 for a while but it was always needing a tweak or two every couple of hundred rounds or it would start having issues because with only three positions the seating and crimping has to be done at one time. This really showed up on the cast lead bullets I have to use for cowboy action where if the crimp occurred too soon it would "plow" lead up ahead of the casing lip when it was crimped inwards and dug in too soon. I know you're going with a single stage just now. But for later on when you decide to go with a progressive keep the idea in mind of at least four die positions so you can split up the seating and crimping steps.

Some of this may not make sense just now but it IS important for later. But hopefully most of it helps instead of confusing you.
 
You have received lots of good info here, I have been reloading for 44 years with my brother I would never go back to factory loads. Being able to find tune loads for all you firearms less expensively and for more accuracy is part of the fun and logic of it.
Cheers
 
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