Considering getting into reloading

[Capybara]

Appreciate all of the input from everyone. I know I wont be shooting thousands of rounds of ammo. So perhaps, especially starting out, there is benefit to a single stage. This could still be used if I decide to upgrade to a progressive system to handle 7mm rem mag for hunting loads.

I see myself likely reloading 5.56, 300 BO, and 9mm. I have other caliber needs in the handgun, rifle, and shotgun camp. But these would be the ones I likely would want to reload most. I also will want to reload sub rounds, and those get pricey.

Perhaps these are good options to consider starting out:

Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic Reloading Kit
or
RCBS Rebel Master Reloading Kit

Then the remaining amount of my giftcards could be used for the expensive powder, dies, components needed (primers, cases, etc), and perhaps other tools.

I'm more so doing a feel for this, and will do more research before deciding if this is what I want to do. I just thought it would be a good idea to get into it now before the next run.

.300 BO definitely makes reloading worth it. .223 and 9mm, meh, I agree, break even with the cost of components now versus retail ammo prices.

The real question is time. Do you have small kids? Do you and your family go out all of the time, family activities, etc.? IMHO, you need long periods of uninterrupted silence and you need the ability to concentrate. Reloading is not for ADD people. Reloading is not for distracted people, it's actually more dangerous for people like that. A lot of my friends and relatives, before the plague, wanted to get into it and I would always look at their situation. My little brother has three girls, one a high attention needing teen, wife, three dogs, new project house and I flat out told him, "Dude, you cannot get into reloading, you simply don't have the bandwidth."

A good gauge is probably how often do you go shooting? If you regularly go shooting, if worse came to worse, you can sacrifice some of your range time for reloading. If you never can make it to the range, you probably will never find the time to reload. The best reloaders, I have often found, are usually retired and have the free time to delve deep into it and go into all of the minutae of refining loads, making range trips just to check loads, annealing, optimizing and refining their reloading process. Not to say you can't have fun just doing it casually here and there either, you don't have to be a guru at it. For your budget , I would start with a basic single stage. I would skip the kits, the kits always have a bunch of crap that either you don't need or you do need but the accessories aren't very good. YouTube and buying a reloading manual or two should be your first stops before buying ANY gear, seriously. Watch videos, talk to reloaders and find out what brands and models of things they use and why. The good news is, there isn't that much reloading gear on the market that is truly bad. There is a lot of personal preference. Like I have two Lee presses, a single stage and a turret. If you talk to reloaders, many will put down or bad mouth Lee gear because its cheap. But it's actually pretty good, completely usable and I've reloaded many thousands of rounds on both and they all worked well if I did my part.

I've reloaded on many different brands of presses and yes, some are better than others and we all have our favorites but buying what the crowd tells you to buy isn't always the best way either. Sometimes the crowd is wrong (not always). Hornady and RCBS are both good presses. But so is the Forster Co-Ax, which isn't nearly as popular and there are a few reasons the Forster is better for some situations and preferences. For your budget, I would agree, a single stage is a great place to begin and even if you move to progressive later, as others have said, there is always a reason for any reloader to have a single stage press. But I would do some self reflection about how much time you can devote to learning and reloading.

[USMCmatt]

.300 BO definitely makes reloading worth it. .223 and 9mm, meh, I agree, break even with the cost of components now versus retail ammo prices.

The real question is time. Do you have small kids? Do you and your family go out all of the time, family activities, etc.? IMHO, you need long periods of uninterrupted silence and you need the ability to concentrate. Reloading is not for ADD people. Reloading is not for distracted people, it's actually more dangerous for people like that.

A lot of my friends and relatives, before the plague, wanted to get into it and I would always look at their situation. My little brother has three girls, one a high attention needing teen, wife, three dogs, new project house and I flat out told him, "Dude, you cannot get into reloading, you simply sdon't have the bandwidth."

A good gauge is probably how often do you go shooting? If you regularly go shooting, if worse came to worse, you can sacrifice some of your range time for reloading. If you never can make it to the range, you probably will never find the time to reload. The best reloaders, I have often found, are usually retired and have the free time to delve deep into it and go into all of the minutae of refining loads, making range trips just to check loads, annealing, optimizing and refining their reloading process. Not to say you can't have fun just doing it casually here and there either, you don't have to be a guru at it.

All good things to consider. I definitely have ADHD, though, can focus when need be based on my 4.0 in both my undergrad and now graduate school. We have a baby girl that will be our first that can come at any point between now and her due date May 2nd. Not a regular shooter, though I would like to change that. I'm doing graduate school online now and only taking one course at a time, so I have more free time than in the last two years. I prefer to shoot outdoors, and the snow this season has been crazy. I also have a new suppressed build I want to take out, so I anticipate shooting a little more. But it will be challenging regardless. I'm lucky to work remote from home for the time.

[RNE228]

I got in to it partly for cost, partly for accurate ammo, and partly because I enjoy the process.

I like cooking to, and making my own recipes, dinking around with the smoker etc. Reloading is similar to those processes

My 223 rounds are all more accurate than most plain ball ammo and make shooting more enjoyable

While I think every shooter should reload, it is time consuming to do it well. Also, in 2023, as you noted, the savings will vary widely with the type of ammo you want to reload. The more exotic, powerful, larger or more obscure the cartridge, the more reloading becomes essential and not just for cost.

If you're only going to reload 9mm and .223, not sure if I would bother. A lot of reloaders say you don't get into reloading to save money, you get into it to make better, more accurate ammo and to shoot more.

[tabascoz28]

Shotgun is a whole different process/rig. I only shoot 7/8 lead 2.75 so that makes things simple as far as never changing the machine. I started out with a $40 Lee Load all. 6 pulls for 1 complete round, after a year of that I ditched it. Now my problem is I don't have enough primers to shoot as much as I want to. Ha ha Shotshells also required adherence to known recipes for hulls/wads/primers/powder combos. You can't mix and match like metal cartridges. (you can but do so at your own risk).

Based on what I've read here, you're better off starting with a good progressive press that can handle a large rifle round. I now have 2 progressives, a turret for the odds and ends and a single for like 3 accurate rounds. The progressive will be a larger investment but more enjoyable and productive for 9mm/556/300. Nothing worse than spending a solid hour making 100 rounds when you can make 4-500 in the same time and more time studying, taking care of the kid and shooting. Which at this point in life maybe the "specialize and trade strategy" might push you back into working more at a higher paying job and just pay for ammo in bulk.

[Capybara]

All good things to consider. I definitely have ADHD, though, can focus when need be based on my 4.0 in both my undergrad and now graduate school. We have a baby girl that will be our first that can come at any point between now and her due date May 2nd. Not a regular shooter, though I would like to change that. I'm doing graduate school online now and only taking one course at a time, so I have more free time than in the last two years. I prefer to shoot outdoors, and the snow this season has been crazy. I also have a new suppressed build I want to take out, so I anticipate shooting a little more. But it will be challenging regardless. I'm lucky to work remote from home for the time.

Well, I don't know your day to day life/schedule but you sound as if you might purchase all of the stuff and it might just sit there. Your money/gift cards but if it was me in your position, I would just buy ammo with them and go shooting. Let us know how it goes. And you'll get plenty of solid reloading advice here if you do decide to go for it.

[Che762x39]

I got my RCBS Rockchucker in 1982. I started with 38 Special and 45 ACP and added many other calibers over the years. Also had a progressive for 20 years but I do not shoot competition anymore. A Single Stage is a good starter especially if you are undecided that you will enjoy "The Hobby of Reloading". Lot of people reload to safe money or they have ammo for shooting. They burn out quickly because reloading becomes a chore and not a fun hobby in itself.

7.62x39 has always been available as cheap surplus ammunition.

[Che762x39]

RCBS Rebel Master Reloading Kit

Then the remaining amount of my giftcards could be used for the expensive powder, dies, components needed (primers, cases, etc), and perhaps other tools.

I'm more so doing a feel for this, and will do more research before deciding if this is what I want to do. I just thought it would be a good idea to get into it now before the next run.

I started with an RCBS kit.

[bruce381]

single stage is ok still need things like scale, dies, cleaning tumbler etc no matter what press u use. Get a dillion 550 is a SLOW progressive so can load faster than a single and still keep eyes on everything whatch some videos about it. Yeah I started with and still use for evaluating a small lots of my RCBS JR press got as a kit 35 years ago. Reloading press's never go down in value and most supplier will warrant forever.

[kcheung2]

A few considerations most people new to reloading don't consider:

The "buy once cry once" idea doesn't really work here. More money doesn't equal better quality. A $150 single stage press is just as well built and will last just as long as a $700 progressive press. The price difference means more speed or convenience, which depending on your goals may or may not be needed. You'd think that faster is always better, but that's only true if you really know what you're doing. A fast progressive press in the wrong hands just means someone can make a lot of mistakes faster.

Most people plan on reloading 9mm or 556 because that's what they shoot the most. But stop and think about that. Why do they mag dump 9mm but are stingy with 308, for example. Usually because they're, relatively speaking, the cheapest. But if you could drop the price of .308 in half, that could become a high volume round now. So instead of trying to save 10 cents reloading 9mm vs commercial 9mm, consider reloading for an expensive cartridge like 30-30, 45LC, etc. That's where you'll get some real savings, and you could really afford to build up a stash.

On the idea of stashes, new reloaders will need to change their perspectives on quantities. Most commercial ammo is boxed in 20, 50, maybe 100 rd boxes. A bulk buy would be 1000 rounds. In reloading, 100 pieces is the smallest size, and typically stuff is sold in 500 or 1000 piece lots. And you're not buying bulk unless it's at least 3-5 thousand of something, and usually to save on hazmat fees its a few different type of components, each a few thousand pieces

The following numbers are helpful as a general guideline about how much powder gets used.

1 pound = 7000 grains.
A 9mm cartridge takes 4-8 grains, so 1 lb of pistol powder =900-1600 rounds
A 556 cartridge takes 23-25 grains, so 1 lb of rifle powder = 280-300 rounds
A 30-06 cartridge takes 45-55 grains, so 1 lb of rifle powder = 125-150 rounds.

disclaimer: All of these numbers are approximate and vary depending on powder, charge, projectile, etc,

[divingin]

The "buy once cry once" idea doesn't really work here. More money doesn't equal better quality.

Always, No. Generally, though, it is the case, all other things being equal.

A $150 single stage press is just as well built and will last just as long as a $700 progressive press. The price difference means more speed or convenience,

Which, to some extent, is justifying the price difference. Progressives have many more and larger parts. There's the design and engineering that made that possible, and you pay for that as well.

You'd think that faster is always better, but that's only true if you really know what you're doing. A fast progressive press in the wrong hands just means someone can make a lot of mistakes faster.

With reloading, you learn stuff. The goal of anyone getting into reloading is to make suitable, safe, accurate, possibly [hopefully] cheap, ammunition. So buy based on what you're going to do once you do learn what you're doing. The other advantage is better stuff on the second-hand market should they decide it's not for them.

If you steer people away from the process because of what they possibly may end up doing, you might as well advise them not to reload at all.

[USMCmatt]

Lots more good advice here. I have been saying I'd go hunting for years now. Thousands spent on gear, never gone once. Mainly, the tags in Utah are harder to get. When I was in California. I actually had a trip planned to go, then, a large fire broke out the day before opening weekend. Being a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the fire department, meant overtime and needing to be at work.

But, back to reloading. I do like the idea of the 550 as it would be a bridge machine that I could learn slowly on, then upgrade if I felt the desire to do so. I do like cooking and following recipes and such as someone mentioned, so this likely where part of my interest comes from as well. Once we are settled, I can dedicate a space and look into more seriously. So far, I'm not concerned or scared away, but I also have a realistic understanding of what it entails.

[bergmen]

After years of reloading (30 or so as I have mentioned), the most valuable part of reloading is experimenting with components (staying within the parameters of published loads). I can load .38 Special soft for my wife who is recoil sensitive, in the middle of the range for consistent accuracy or up to +P for my CCW renewal course (to replicate factory +P that I carry).

Also, dozens of bullet types, powders, etc. I have mostly moved to plated bullets for the .38, 9mm, .45 acp and .45 Colt. Stay with jacketed for the 454 Casull and most .357 Magnum loads.

It is time consuming but a fun hobby. Being able to know precisely what is in every round is important to me also.

Dan

[stilly]

I remember when I used to fall for these types of threads. It is funny to see folks still willing to help out their fellow calgunner.

Good for yall.

I will only offer this, take from it what you want. 3 things...

1. START SLOW with a SINGLE stage or Lee Classic Cast Turret press so you build GOOD habits and make GOOD ammo and if your ammo is NOT good, at least you only made a few.

2. Start by buying TWO books. The Lyman reloading manual and the Lee reloading manual. And read at least ONE of them. Lee has a ****load of data...

3. Understand that when you reload, you are not racing but rather looking to piss off the govt and make food for your metal babies. Hmm, yeah maybe just 2 things next time...

[broadside]

If you don't shoot a lot then you don't need a progressive press, but that does not mean that you can't use one and still get very consistent ammo by treating it like a single stage. You don't have to use all the stations at the same time. It's just slightly more awkward getting the case in and out of the shell plate as you need to account for the movement.

[Dirtlaw]

Do you have a lot of spare time?

HKAll raises an important point. If you answer yes to his question you should go for it. Not only is it a pleasing experience, but it allows you to do things that couldn't be done otherwise.