Wanting to get into reloading. Need advice and help.

[OpenSightsOnly]

Another factor is age. A young guy can use good equipment for 30 years and will recover capital costs many times over.

30 years

Depreciate that asset in 18 months so you can go for an equipment upgrade.

More importantly, you will be helping another guy get into reloading!

[Rusty Scabbard]

Recommend the Lee Classic Turret. be sure to go for Classic (cast steel0 instead of the slightly lower cost Aluminum Lee Turret. It's inexpensive but good quality and will have a use even if you upgrade to a progressive or other. As others noted I would not start with a progressive. Read up a lot and pay attention to details if you have not done it before.

[Victor Cachat]

Just don't plan on saving money.
You can, in the long run, but you're better off reloading for quality control and the fun of it.

[GILMORE619]

Hold off on casting. It's a whole other monster.
Once you get reloading down casting will supplement your hobby.
Then you'll read Stillys guide on Powder coating your cast boolits and find the rabbit hole never ends

[GovGeek]

The Calguns handloading community has some great people and good advice. FS section is good also to find used equipment.

I'll be posting up a Hornady LNL with case feeder soon actually. I don't need two after all.[emoji6]

Sent from my pocket computer via Tapatalk

[GovGeek]

Well, if you are patient and buy components on sale, you can reload 9mm for cheap. I load mine for just under .07/Rd

This. I only load 9mm 115/124gr so far. It's an enjoyable hobby that will eventually reward you if you buy others' excess they sell here. But for me, it's all about the joy of tinkering, and then shooting something I made.

Sent from my pocket computer via Tapatalk

[Mac Attack]

Will you be loading for pistols or rifles? Do you need to load in bulk or for accuracy? I started on a RCBS Rock chucked Supreme kit that has almost everything you need and cost ~$280 -$300. I still have it and load on it periodically. It was the perfect kit for a beginner and just requires a few extra items to have a full reloading kit.

Learn the basics on the single stage first before moving on to a progressive press. With that said, you will eventually want to move to a progressI've press. I added a RCBS Piggyback II to my RC which turned it into a progressive press. I used it for 20+ years before I finally got tired of its quirks.

If you are a detail oriented person who follows repeating steps to the T, then I would feel good about recommending a Dillon 550 or better yet a 650. The 550 has a manual indexing shell plate while the 650 is automatic. If I was starting from scratch, I would buy a 650 and learn how to load....SLOWLY and Rythmically. Cost is significantly more but you will have a press that you will never outgrow.

[KC001]

+1 for the RCBS Rock Chucker. Learn the basics first then move up. That was my first press. I have both the RCBS single stage and a Dillion 550B progressive re-loader. For pistol reloading (mostly .45, .38/.357, and .44 magnum) I use the 550 but for loading rifles (and now .50 AE ) I strictly use the single stage. The single stage is much more precise. Dillion only recommends loading up to .308 on a progressive loader.

If you want to get into reloading, the BEST place to start is setting up away from as many distractions as possible. Keep the Wife, the TV, and the cell phone away when reloading. That is how accidents happen and how I have one less .38 special.

As far as casting, it depends on what gun you want to cast for. You talked about reloading for a 9mm. If the 9mm happens to be a Glock, lead bullets are a big no no. Honestly the best way to go for cheapo bullets is either buying cast bullets or plated bullets. I am not advertising, but Berry's bullets sells both. Plated bullets are cheaper than jacketed bullets and don't have the clean up of lead.

The best part of reloading is knowing exactly what is going into your guns and saving money. For example, 30-06's going rate is around $1.25 a round (and that's the cheapest price) for HXP or M2 ball equivalent for the M1 Garand. Now that I reload I pay .39 cents a round and I know that it's going to go bang every time I pull the trigger. Plus my reloads will out shoot surplus all day of the week.

The worst part of reloading is the initial cost. It is going to sway the amount you actually end up saving ($300 for a press, $40ish per set of dies, $40 for primers, $100 for bullets, $30 for a reloading book, etc.) but if you are in it for the long haul you will save money for life.

Just know that it is an expensive and an unforgiving hobby. But websites like calguns makes it easy to get pointers and to keep yourself safe.

Good luck

[stilly]

I want to start reloading and I have no clue on where to start. I have looked at presses, but I don't know what would be a good beginners press. I have also looked into casting projectiles and wanted to know if that is too much for a beginner?

Any and all info would be greatly appreciated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A GOOD beginner's press is the Lee Classic Turret because it is a turret that will allow you to go as fast as you can while still NOT being a progressive. It auto indexes so that saves you time, no other turret that is available currently allows you to do that. It seems that the other turrets all have manual indexing.
The Lee Classic Turret (LCT) is also only going to cost you about $115 base price. Tack on a DECENT powder Hopper (LNL DROPPER or RCBS QC Uniflow) + case activated linkage and you are going to tack on about $130 or so more. Then get the on board press priming for the Classic Turret (because it works VERY well) and that is another $30, then you will need your DIE sets, those will run you about $30 each for Lee 3 die carbide sets.

If you plan on doing pistol loads or rifle like .223 or .308 then this is a decent setup. Once you have made several ladders for pistol and rifles though, you might look to get a progressive so you can effectively shift into a faster speed. OR be content with about 200-300 RPH on the LCT.

The LCT is very good at being versatile. HOWEVER.

If you are going to cast, then you might want to get TWO presses. When you have to resize boolits I think it is a good idea to buy a $55 RCBS JRC3 or SPARTAN or something like that that will allow you to resize. PLUS the single stage press is very simple as well and 96% of them are built stout.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=rcbs+jrc3&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=rcbs+jr3&_sacat=0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RCBS-JR2-RELOADING-PRESS-/131775885008?hash=item1eae746ed0:g:ZTwAAOSwq19XCEjZ

(they are all over ebay, just pick one and go with it...)

Casting is fun, but you will need two pots to be on top of the game, one pot just melts the garbage and you make ingots out of it, the other pot melts your ingots and you make your boolits from it. Good starter molds are made by Lee at a decent price of about $18 each for 2 cavity "sample" molds. I call them sample molds because for $18 you get a decent mold made of aluminum that has handles and you can make a small amount of boolits and test them out, then if you are ready to go for the gold you can send in that mold to Lee and UPGRADE it to a 6 cavity production mold for about $32 more or you can buy a new mold for about $38 or so AND you will still need handles for either of the 6 cavity molds. Then on top of that you will need sizers for your caliber, Lee will run you $16 or so and NOE will run you around, hmm, I forgot. It is a bit more but it is a different setup too. Not much more though, maybe about $20 more.

If I may, please start with a LCT and get a decent reloading setup. Buy PLATED ammo from Xtreme bullets and save some money, then when you are ready to save more money and you want to start casting, maybe 4+ months down the line, start putting together your casting rig. Start cheap if you want, I started with a Palmer's HOT POT II and then got the Lee bottom pour furnace with a custom PID added on. There ya have it.

[Eljay]

I usually recommend the same turret press everybody else is recommending unless somebody has some unusual need (they just want to crank out 2K of 9mm a month because they're a USPSA shooter). As noted above you can pop out the indexing rod and use it as a single stage to start.

I cast but it would just be a distraction for a new person, especially with bullets being very available and pretty cheap in 9mm. If you don't already have a source of great lead, you'll be buying it for just a couple of cents a round less than it costs to just buy it in bullet form.

[popeye4]

You can't go wrong starting with a high quality single stage press (Rock Chucker is the one I started with). You'll always have it and you'll always find a use for it, even if you end up with several progressive presses. Remember, in the case of handloading equipment, you may not always get what you pay for but you'll always pay for what you get (buy once, cry once). Buy good stuff and you won't be disappointed.

I'd suggest picking up a reloading manual and read through the introduction stage. There are several out there. Read through it a couple of times. This is a fun hobby, it isn't really hard, but you CAN blow yourself up if you are careless.

In this internet age, there are also many videos on Youtube as well. Ask questions here, there are many helpful people and we like having new people come on board. It's a lifetime hobby and you can take it as far as you want.