Reloading advice

[Mandingo27]

Once you start reloading you will *never* do that again. Learning reloading process will provide the explanation why.

Cliffs notes version is that you don't know which powder is inside, how much, what pressure it's set up for or even what type of bullet it is (you can see the outside, but you don't know the weight or how deep it's seated). The stamp on the brass is valid only if it's a factory round, which you don't know just by looking at it.

As an example, "9 Major" is the dominant caliber for USPSA Open. It looks like any other 9mm, but if you fire it in a regular 9mm you'll be lucky if you don't damage it.

Yea probably not i gambled by doing that

[Mandingo27]

All I ever see are shotgun cases and steel AK. Seems everyone around here figured out that brass is worth $.

I pick up everything, steel and .22LR. I leave only footprints.

Yea I pick up everybody's brass and they look at me strange haha

[Mandingo27]

Yes and no.

Get something that is cheap (not just inexpensive) and you can sour on the whole process without giving it a chance. I would say find someone with a really nice setup, see how it works, see how much it costs, then decide what you're willing to trade to get to your own price point.

Yea I don't want to be sour towards it haha I rather pay and have a smooth process if possible

[Mandingo27]

Nobody "needs" a progressive starting out. Maybe ever unless you're an aspiring USPSA Grand Master and shoot a thousand rounds a week. I reloaded for 15 years before I got a progressive. OP sounds like he's got more time than money, the last thing he needs is to spend 500 bucks on a progressive and lots of gadgets to hang on it.

I have time after work and on the weekends I'm just low on funds at the moment because of the house u just bought but im willing to spend to get some good equipment

[Mandingo27]

They are quite different calibers. Pistol and .223 for action shooting are great on a progressive press, but 6.5 is usually loaded for precision which might require a different setup. I don't doubt that some PRS guys load their 6.5s on a progressive, but I'm not sure it's the norm.

I just want to do target shooting. Im not planning on doing matches or stuff like that I just want to get better without having to pay the current insane prices that people and shops are asking

[Mandingo27]

I tried looking for the RCBS and can't seem to find them new or used

[AGGRO]

pull em, dump powder and keep moving.

[JoyfulJoker]

I’m new , but I’m fortunate to have a good community of shooters and reloaders at the Action Range at my gun club. The advice was to get a progressive because that’s what I’m going to end up with anyway. Guess what? You can use a progressive like a single stage . You can do one at a time ... Caliper your flare ... weigh your charge... check if your primer is fully seated. Read the books , ask the pros, and learn from your mistakes . It’s time consuming . I don’t load fast but I’ve found most of my mistakes and corrected them. I’m sure there will be more. I mostly load 10-20 at a time and random check powder weight and case flare. I have found primers and powders at normal prices with little effort. Just scored 7500 SPP’s and 5000 SRP’s in the last two weeks. Gunpowder is also around . Found an 8lb jug today. I started getting components in August and was able to get nearly 3 years of supplies with a little effort.

[sigstroker]

Know where I can find the manuals? Tried looking online but to no avail. Book stores are obsolete around here. Ill try yard sales but there's a very slim chance I'll find 1 around here

Books are becoming obsolete I guess.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hornady-Reloading/23235383

Well sonuvabitch (I can say that now), I guess you can find a manual online.

https://www.academia.edu/39526357/Hornady_10th_Edition_Handbook_of_Cartridge_Reloading_English_Edition

[kcheung2]

I usually always go with quality over cost when I get into something that way I won't have to spend again later on down the road but seems like with reloading thats not going to happen

The saying that time = money is very true with reloading equipment. They're mostly all quality stuff, but people who spend more do so so that they can reload faster. A basic single stage press is about $150-$250 but only loads about 50-100 rounds per hour. A turret press goes up in price a bit and increases output a bit. A progressive press setup is $500-$900 and one can do many hundreds of rounds an hour. All of them are quality presses in that they will all last for decades and can produce quality ammo. (if the user knows what they're doing) Spending more simply means saving time making the ammo.

Time is all we have in this world but money is another story haha. Just recently closed on a house so im a little on the tight side at the moment

Which do you have more of, time or money? That will guide your equipment purchases. Every extra little random gadget will speed up your workflow, but you gotta pay.

Know where I can find the manuals? Tried looking online but to no avail. Book stores are obsolete around here. Ill try yard sales but there's a very slim chance I'll find 1 around here

Midway or Brownells. Just type in "reloading manual" The Modern Reloading book from Lee (aka Book of Lee) is well regarded. If you buy the RCBS single stage kit, it comes with the Speer manual. It worked for me. I was actually disappointed in the Sierra 6th edition, mainly because the revised load data wasn't helpful & they relegated "obsolete" data to it's own section. Also, older editions of manuals are perfectly fine. The instructions are the same. They won't have load data for the really new powders, but most powders have been around for a while so the load data section is still useful.

Post 51, 2 para, makes a good point. But I'll approach it from a different angle. A progressive press allows one to make ammo faster, but it also allows one to make a bunch of mistakes faster. If your setup is wrong but you don't realize that, instead of making 500 rounds an hour, you've made 500 duds an hour. And that's if you're lucky and caught it, if you're unlucky then it's 500 chances to lose a finger. And with components so expensive nowadays that's an expensive mistake. A single stage is much slower, but in that same hypothetical hour you've only made 50 mistakes. Still sucks but it's a lot easier to pull apart 50 rounds than 500.

[sigstroker]

Single stage usually makes better quality ammo too. There's no shellplate flex, which can be pretty bad even with 9mm. I can't imagine what it would be like on bottleneck rifle cases. I have two Dillons but I do all my resizing on a single stage.

[bergmen]

I loaded for many years before I got a brass polisher. Paper towels and household cleanser gets brass clean enough to run through dies. Not shiny, but clean.

I've done that also but it gets old pretty fast especially if you have buckets of brass to go through. Also, the cleaner the brass, the easier it is on your resizing dies.

Dan