What equipment to start with as a beginner reloader.

Friend of mine loads for 30-30 and 308 Win.
Has a Lee single arm press he got for $49.95, 2 die sets, the Lee arbor case trimmers for both calibers, chamfering tool, primer pocket cleaner, balance powder scale, Lee hand primer with trays and appropriate shell holders and a few other tools.
You don't need much when your only loading a couple of boxes at a time.
I watched him load.
He can turn out 2 or 3 boxes of quality ammo while watching a TV show or hockey game.
He's a hunter not a weekend warrior who blasts 400 rounds a day down range.
 
MTM-Primer Flipper
DILLON XL650 RELOADING PRESS
DILLON RIFLE DIES (THREE-DIE SETS) for 223 Rem
Dillon Case Gage-223
Frankford Arsenal Digital Calipers with case
Frankford Arsenal Reloading Scale

Do you guys think this will get me started? obviously I need powder, bullets, primers, and a tumbler with some wood media.
 
TheCircle said:
MTM-Primer Flipper
DILLON XL650 RELOADING PRESS
DILLON RIFLE DIES (THREE-DIE SETS) for 223 Rem
Dillon Case Gage-223
Frankford Arsenal Digital Calipers with case
Frankford Arsenal Reloading Scale

Do you guys think this will get me started? obviously I need powder, bullets, primers, and a tumbler with some wood media.
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You'll need a trimmer as well. IMO, a powered trimmer is the way to go if you're going to be doing lots of .223.

I bought stainless media and regular media tumblers. Having used both now I'd say I wasted the money spent on the regular media tumbler.
 
Stevo said:
You'll need a trimmer as well. IMO, a powered trimmer is the way to go if you're going to be doing lots of .223.

I bought stainless media and regular media tumblers. Having used both now I'd say I wasted the money spent on the regular media tumbler.
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What brand of trimmer and tumbler would you recommend?
 
jethunter said:
I started out slow as well, loading on a single stage and then a turret press. I spent a LOT of time reloading 9mm on the turret press back then. If I had it to do over, I would still start with a single stage but I would have got a progressive much sooner.
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Echo that I did everything on a Forster press in the beginning it teaches you very well what to do and how to fix it, before moving up to my Dillon
 
You don't need a dryer if you have enough brass. If you lay it out on a towel, it's dry in a few days as long as the primers are out. In the oven at 200 for an hour works if you're in a hurry.
 
Markit said:
A lot of people, myself included, start out with cheaper presses. Some have good luck with them, others, like myself, buy progressively more expensive presses before they settle on one that meets their needs.

Years back when I shot precision rifle I had a good single stage press. It produced amazingly consistent ammo but was time consuming.

I used it for pistol for a little while and then started looking for a progressive.

I started out with a Lee Loadmaster, it was an exercise in frustration. I spent more tine fiddling with it and watching "how to fix it videos on you tube" than I did reloading, and I was loading for two IPSC shooters (myself and my wife) going through around 1000 rounds per month minimum for a few years. The loadmaster works well for some, for me it sucked. When I had a massive primer detonation it was the last straw. After loading about 50k rounds on it I sold it on EE for about $100 with a full disclaimer that it sucked. I sold it with a bunch of spare parts.

My next progressive was a Hornady Lock n Load AP progressive. I knew as soon as I bought it I should have spent more money and gone a different route. It works, but still requires some fiddling. I am again looking at how to fix it videos on you tube. Little annoying things like the shell plate loosening off after reloading 300 rounds or so, or getting the auto case feeder to work reliably. Again, for some it works but for me it is starting to again become an exercise in frustration.

I hate reloading but do it because it is cost effective (for now at least) and I have found I can produce better quality ammo for the type of shooting I do.

My next press will be one that they make an auto drive for. I figure if an autodrive has been commercially developed for a press it must be pretty reliable. SO I am going blue, a Dillon 650.

There are those that say for a beginner reloader go to a single stage. If you have any mechanical ability and are able to watch setup videos on youtube I don't think it is necessary to go that route. Reloading is not rocket science as some would have you beleive.

I wish I had searched youtube for these how to fix it videos before I purchased. Any product that has a ton of DIY fixes for any product is a warning to me now, and I wont buy any product that is the subject of these videos.

My advice is spend as much as you can afford to get the best press you are able to, then save up for a few more months and buy an even more expensive one.

My 2 cents.
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Excellent advice . It really comes down to how much a person wants to spend ; and the return on their investment . Some folks enjoy reloading , but I find it to be a very tedious process .
 
Here's a good question. So, I've been collecting my once fired brass and I bought an older RCBS single stage press with dies in the calibers I have.... is there a tool I should be getting to take out the primers of the casings? Also, I have been collecting brass of mine in calibers I DON'T YET have dies for... is a depriming tool able to pop primers out of those too, or is it case size specific?

Thanks, sorry for the dumb question.
 
DRE369 said:
is there a tool I should be getting to take out the primers of the casings? Also, I have been collecting brass of mine in calibers I DON'T YET have dies for... is a depriming tool able to pop primers out of those too, or is it case size specific?
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Only been reloading for a few months, mostly with rifle brass, I have been using the lee universal decapping die. Works great with my crimped 5.56, 308, and large 45-70 cases. Picked up a few different cases from the range as well, no issues.
 
Spare pins for the Lee decapping die. Crimped primers on 5.56 aren't too bad but there is some military 9mm that has little teeny tiny flash holes that the pin simply doesn't fit through.
And no matter how hard you whack them, the primers don't come out and the pins get wrecked.
 
Now I'm normally one of the guys saying to get a decent single stage up front to start out with. But in your case and needs the only real answer is the progressive press.

From the amount of ammo you posted that you're shooting monthly clearly you'll end up with a progressive at some point. Especially as you add another handgun in some other caliber to your collection. Starting with a single stage would only serve you for about a month worth of reloading before you were pulling your hair out and buying a progressive press. So you may as well start there. Or if you can swing the cash outlay I'd say buy a decent but not top end single stage at the same time.

You asked about an in between option of something like a Lee turret press. I'd say that would be a bad move since the numbers you want to run are really in the range that fully supports a proper progressive setup. Remember, the whole jump in speed arises with the situation where it's "one pull, one round". And a turret press is still a three or four pulls per round produced. To my mind they are "neither beast nor fowl" and the only real advantage they have over a single stage is that the dies are always mounted. Other than die swapping and saving you handling the cases three or four times each they really don't save a whole lot of time. And your arm is still more tired from all the lever pulling.

Now here's something for you to consider for learning.

A progressive CAN be used in a turret style single stage mode. In particular a hand indexed model like the Dillon 550 is perfect for this. A 650 would also work well at this if the auto indexing is bypassed or removed for the time being to put it into this hand indexed turret mode.

To use the press in this way leave out some or all of the case retainer buttons so you can access any position on the shell plate. What you have then is a multi position press that can be used in single stage mode at any of the positions. And as you become comfy with it in that mode you can move on to a "single round turret mode" by putting all the case retainer buttons in place. At that point you are still focused on the one round and you move it manually from position to position so if something isn't right you can re-do the lever pull or otherwise fix what you don't like. But it's still a pull of the lever for each operation. So it's not all that fast. But you can focus on doing each operation correctly. In this mode it's just like the Lee turret press but without the auto indexing. But unlike the Lee when you are ready to jump to "one pull, one round" fully progressive it's ready for you.


You can also use the progressive press for accuracy rifle loading simply by not dispensing powder on the press. Leave the measure empty and in the case of the Dillon just leave the retainer button out at that position. Size and prime on Position 1, index manually to the powder station and remove the casing to powder up externally. Or if you have a set of the Lee dies with the screw in retainer buy the Lee funnel that force fits into that die. Now you can pour in your weighed charge through the funnel. Index to the bullet seating stage and seat the bullet. Crimp if desired at the next spot using a separate crimp die and you're done. Single stage control on a progressive press being used in manually indexed "turret" mode.

In time as your shooting hobby grows you would likely find that a single stage is a handy item to have. My 550 is still my main press. But I do a few other calibers in smaller amounts that are simply not worth buying the cartridge conversion kits (shell plate, buttons and flaring core for the powder die) for the Dillon. For that I went with a Hornady "hoop" style press. But in some ways I wish I had treated myself to either a Forster or perhaps the new more rigid presses from either Hornady or RCBS that have good front access compared to the "hoop" style frame presses. The Hornady does what I want it to do. But sometimes the more clear frontal access of these new style presses would be nice. The closed hoop style frames do get in the way now and then.


And finally one more thing for later when you shift to fully progressive. NEVER do a double pull of the lever FOR ANY REASON when in fully progressive mode. If something goes wrong it's just better to unload all the positions and deal with each of the rounds as needed separately. When that is finished only THEN go back to starting out again in full progressive. Doing it this way will avoid a lot of confusion and possible squib or double charging.

If you trust yourself to take the time to learn all this stuff correctly and at a proper pace so you don't skip things then there's no reason you cannot use a progressive press in these "single stage" and "one round turret" modes and learn all the stuff you need to know just fine.
 
Thanks A lot BCRider and everyone else that has helped me through this tough process, haha. I have decided to go with a Dillon XL 650! So now I can pump out rounds at a decent rate!
I still have way to much to learn but I am totally up for it as I am a gun nut! I think the last thing I am looking for would be a good book. So I can learn powder charges and sizes and what ever I haven't considered yet.

I am very excited to be able to finally get a set up going! I will be posting pictures in the Reloading thread! (once I received it).

Thank you all again for the information. I may start a new thread with some questions as they come.
 
[Ooops. Did not see your message about having gone with the Dillon. Oh well. Hope the below is helpful to someone.]

In another thread someone asked about a progressive set up. I created a list of how one might get started with a Lee Turret. What I wrote there may be helpful here.

I load 223 on a Lee Classic Turret with the Lee Auto Drum powder measure on the turret. I verify every 10th powder charge on an RCBS M500 beam scale. All my case prep work is done with the Lee trimming tools and it's the only part of the process that I really dislike. I prime off the press with an RCBS hand primer just because I like doing it that way. I could certainly prime on the press but I just prefer hand priming.

It works well. It's not as automated as a full-blown Dillon set up but it works well for me. I recommend it if you just want to try progressive-like reloading on the cheap to see if it's for you. You can always upgrade to a better system and sell some of your experimental stuff on the EE.

Just for fun, here's a list of the tools and prices for all the stuff that should get you started with turret press semi-progressive loading. Other than the specific digital calipers listed below, I have everything here and find that everything here works. For prices I looked up everything at X-Reload, just for convenience. I've ordered from them in the past and they are good to deal with, but here I just used their site for convenience. The links below go to the manufacturers' websites for each item.

So, here we go:

Lee 223 Case Gauge: for case trimming.
http://leeprecision.com/gage-holder-223-rem.html
$8.31 at X-Reload

Lee Case Conditioning Kit: used with the gauge for case trimming and prep work.
http://leeprecision.com/case-condtioning-combo.html
$15.89 at X-Reload

Lee Classic Turret Press: for sizing and loading operations.
http://leeprecision.com/4-hole-classic-turret-press.html
$177.58 at X-Reload

Lee Auto Drum: on-press powder dispensing.
http://leeprecision.com/auto-drum-powder-measure.html
$55.67 at X-Reload

Lee Auto Disk Riser: for raising the Auto Drum to clear the dies. May not be needed with 223 but my Auto Drum is always set up with it.
http://leeprecision.com/auto-disk-riser.html
$12.38 at X-Reload

Lee 223 Dies: sizing, bullet seating, crimping.
http://leeprecision.com/pacesetter-dies-223-rem.html
$47.71 at X-Reload

RCBS M500 Scale: to verify powder charges by weight; used to set up and verify the Auto Drum.
http://rcbs.com/Products/Powder-Measures-and-Scales/Scales/Mechanical/M500-Mechanical-Scale.aspx
$125.78 at X-Reload

Digital Calipers: for measuring case length to determine if you need to trim, for measuring cartridge overall length, and for other measuring tasks.
https://x-reload.com/caliper-stlss-elec-lcd-eng-or-met-001-acc.html
$33.28 at X-Reload

Hornady Handbook: reloading reference and data. I use a lot of Hornady bullets so I like this one. I also have the Lyman and Lee books. You can never have too many of these books.
https://www.hornady.com/reloading/handbook
$49.93 at X-Reload

Total: $526.53

I make a few assumptions with this list and there are a few omissions.

I assume that priming is done on the press using the primer arms included with the Lee Classic Turret. I've not included the Lee Safety Prime kit ( http://leeprecision.com/safety-primer-feed-small-and-large.html ) in this list. People use the Safety Prime things and they work, but I've not included them here as I don't think they are absolutely necessary.

I've not included a case tumbler or washer or cleaner. When I started out, I just cleaned my fired cases with a cloth dampened with methyl hydrate. This gets particulate crap off the brass but does not make make them shiny. I now use a case tumbler but I don't think you need one to start.

I've not included a case lube product. Any of the common commercial products will work. I've always used a lanolin-based leather conditioner that I just happened to have on hand. I apply it with my fingers and consider this "feeling up" of the brass to be part of the inspection process.

Hope this helps.
 
bigedp51 said:
I'm sill using the RCBS Rockchucker press I bought in 1973 upgrading from a Lee loader. The Rockchucker press is the only press I have ever owned and I'm still happy with its performance.

Therefore my recommendation for starters is a good single stage press and after mastering reloading on it then move up to a progressive press.

Bottom line, start "slow" learning the basics and work on making quality ammunition, better than factory. Then if you want you can get a progressive press and speed things up.

Get as many manuals as you can get and "READ" the front part of the manuals. And never forget the importance of making workup loads starting at the suggested start loads and reading your fired primers and brass.
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Two thumbs up.
 
Howse said:
Only been reloading for a few months, mostly with rifle brass, I have been using the lee universal decapping die. Works great with my crimped 5.56, 308, and large 45-70 cases. Picked up a few different cases from the range as well, no issues.
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Is it a standalone device or does it go on the press? Thanks for the answer.
 
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