First press for new reloader

[Animal.]

Looking to buy a reloading kit. This will be my first setup. Just ordered Lymans manual and plan to read that before I make a purchase in the next week or two. I am planning on starting out with reloading mainly 223/556 and 9mm. Possibly some 30-06.. This will mainly be for plinking for the time being until I have a better understanding before I attempt what I think are called precision loads?? I was hoping to maybe get some suggestions on a decent stater set up. I am currently looking into the classic lee turret press kit. Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks.

[Divernhunter]

Where are you located? If near me you are welcome to come and see/test/use my loaders. I load for the cartridges you state and many more. Been loading for a very long time.
I batch process my brass and find no need for a turret press. I am not a big lee fan as some are because of the poor war service I have had and the lower quality of the lee equipment. But to each his own.

[JackEllis]

I load .223, .243 and .30-06 on an RCBS single-stage press and a single-stage press is what I'd recommend you start with. Progressives allow you to work faster but they also allow you to compound mistakes faster, they're more expensive, and *I* don't think they're necessary or worth the added cost unless you're shooting hundreds of rounds per month. I don't have anything against progressive presses, but I've determined that a single stage does the job for me.

[JackEllis]

Another plug for starting small: http://www.mobile.calguns.net/calgun....php?t=1471254

[NorCalFocus]

[Oldmandan]

Looking to buy a reloading kit. I am currently looking into the classic lee turret press kit. Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks.

I have a classic lee turret for sale in the sor sale section

[Animal.]

Hey divernhunter I am located in the L.A area. So unfortunately not to close.

[Animal.]

Yea I was at first looking at a single stage but I thought I could operate a turret as a single stage if needed. Yea and I have been holding off on the lee for some time because I felt I might be wanting more pretty quickly.

[Animal.]

And yea makes sense on the 9mm it is fairly cheap.

[superdave50]

sometimes the kits aren't a bargain. One brand will have a better scale, while another has a better powder drop, etc.

[Discogodfather]

The $30 Lee on amazon is pretty hard to beat. It's not at all great quality and it won't give you the most accurate loads but it's hard to argue with the price.

Most presses, even more expensive stuff, has a critical design flaw in that it ejects primers down through the middle of the ram. It's a problem on all of my RCBS presses and it's basically universally true. You have a precision ground ram riding in a precision bored piece of cast iron and the last thing you want to do is put dirt (primers have ground glass in them) and wear that precision surface.

The Lee is no different. When I started using it years ago I realized right away it was basically a POS. The way to rate any single stage press is to operate the ram up to it's highest position and then wiggle the top of it. If you feel any play the press is basically not worth it for actual precision work. Throwing lead down range, sure.

So when I upgraded to RCBS presses I kept the Lee to use as a depriming setup. That solves the problem of "crapping where we eat" that almost all presses have. Everything is clean and the press can maintain it's precision practically forever.

The nicest press for my money is the RCBS rock chucker supreme for $150. It's got the best ram, best handle, best casting compared to others and it's a life long investment if you take care of it. It's kind of the gold standard and a no-brainer. If another press was on sale and you could beat it for $20-30 then maybe that's worth it.

Everything is made in China.

The Forster co-ax is the one press that does things differently. It uses a floating design, it's weird but pretty cool. It also is the one press in the world that seems to eject primers without flooding the ram with dirt.

If you are serious about precision it's worth mentioning that most high precision benchrest people don't use screw dies at all. They use arbor press type reloading tools like the LE Wilson. Many companies make arbor presses (check out 21st century) and they offer the ability to quantify seating pressure with hydraulic gauges. It requires special dies practically no one makes and it's a different concept, but hey these are the guys shooting 3" groups at 1000 yards so they must know something. Never gone down that route personally but I have always wanted to give it a try.

If you are close to a store that sells presses go ahead and do the ram fully up wiggle test and see for yourself- it's not rocket science. The Lee wiggles around badly and the RCBS has zero movement. I could pick up my entire reloading bench by the tip of the ram and it would not budge.

The rock chucker supreme's combo of price and performance is pretty much unbeatable. I do up to .375 Cheytac on it (you do have to sneak the bullet into the bottom of the die) but it works just fine. The Ammomaster 2 does the 50 bmg. They both can take 1.25" and 1.5" dies which is a big plus too.

[IMG][/IMG]

[NorCalFocus]

If you are serious about precision it's worth mentioning that most high precision benchrest people don't use screw dies at all. They use arbor press type reloading tools like the LE Wilson. Many companies make arbor presses (check out 21st century) and they offer the ability to quantify seating pressure with hydraulic gauges. It requires special dies practically no one makes and it's a different concept, but hey these are the guys shooting 3" groups at 1000 yards so they must know something. Never gone down that route personally but I have always wanted to give it a try.

Have you never seen a Forster Die? It uses the same concept as the Wilson dies but on a normal press. It has a chamber that supports the case and another that supports the bullet as the two are seated together.

[NorCalFocus]

Yea I was at first looking at a single stage but I thought I could operate a turret as a single stage if needed. Yea and I have been holding off on the lee for some time because I felt I might be wanting more pretty quickly.

[Discogodfather]

Have you never seen a Forster Die? It uses the same concept as the Wilson dies but on a normal press. It has a chamber that supports the case and another that supports the bullet as the two are seated together.

Yeah I have one in 6x47 Lapua, I like it. Most of my dies from Redding and Whidden use the same concept- a sleave riding in the body of the die. Great concept.

[mmlook]

And yea makes sense on the 9mm it is fairly cheap.

how many rounds of 9mm do you plan to reload a month?
more than 500/month?

you plan to load to factory specs? +P? +P+? minor PF?
if factory, buy it by the case when it's on sale.
anything else, maybe reload.


if you have the funds, and plan to reload a lot(more than 1000/month).
Might have a case to looking into something like an XL650

you can use it for rifle rounds, but, you'll still likely want a single stage to prep.

it really depends on your volume,
if you are reloading more than 1000 rounds/month, a progressive setup will pay for itself in about a year or so