Reloading Greenhorn

[Cowboy T]

+1 for the Lee Classic Turret Press, especially for rifle ammo. When a company does it right, the company does it right, and Lee did this one really right.

[Mrskylinetou]

If yr reloading for accuracy I can help, if yr going for bulk there are many who have more experience than me but I'm happy to help with whatever u need

[BigBronco]

Progressives and rookies

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=344479

[Mac Attack]

Progressives and rookies

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=344479

In reference to the post by BigBronco. I am no rookie although after my mental mistake I sure feel like one. . I say this in jest BB. It's all good.

[BigBronco]

LOL See you soon!

[Lead Waster]

My observations (Hey look I have 3 posts! Maybe I'm a noob too!)

With a single stage press, you make ammo in batches. So you insert one die, then do that operation (resizing, depriming, etc) on say ... 20 cases, or 50, or 100. Then you perform the next step (priming) on all the cases, then onto the next stage. So you sit down and only at the end of your reloading session will you have all the rounds you wanted to make. The advantage is that you can concentrate on what you are doing during that stage.

With a turret press, you take a case, and perform all the stages on it in sequence before you start on the next case. This is a nice way to do it because you are still concentrating on one ROUND at a time, though different stages of that one round. You make one fully loaded cartridge at a time.

With a progressive press, you "pipeline" ( as we say in the computer industry!) so as a case finishes one stage, it moves onto the next and you start a new case in the first stage. After the first 3 pulls, you produce one round, and another pull of the handle produces another. Way fewer pulls of the handle. Like an assembly line. This is great for loading a lot of pistol rounds because generally you load up way more pistol than rifle rounds.

NOTE: With a progressive, there is no rule that says you HAVE TO load in a progressive/assembly line manner. You can move one case through all the stations WITHOUT putting a new case into the assembly line. In this way, it works like the turret press. Work on one loaded round at a time.

Ditto with the turret, you can do just one stage if you wanted to.

FWIW, I started with the single stage rockchucker because I was loading rifle rounds and made them in batches (I didn't have that much brass to reload anyway) And it let me learn the ropes. I could have happily stuck with it to do pistol, but I'm easily swayed by peer pressure so I bought the 500B, which is great for pistol and saves a lot of time. I'm not a huge volume shooter, but I am lazy

Oh, and I got a lee press for free once when I bought a lee reloading manual! It's nice to have a spare little press, even if it's not built like a tank (rockchucker!) because you can dedicate it to say ... depriming or something.

Cheapest is the single stage, because you may need to do more die changes, but caliber changes are as simple as changing the die and shell holder.

Hope that helps! Woohoo, I now have 4 posts! I'll be an expert soon!

[Lead Waster]

Oh I should also mention there is equipment you will have to buy aside from the press and dies, like a powder measure, bullet puller, primer flip tray, reloading manual, etc.
Some kits come with the basics.

[sequoia_nomad]

I recommend a quality single-stage press, like a Redding. With such a device you get near perfect alignment between the die and the shell holder, greater leverage for easier sizing, and simplicity that forces you to pay attention to each step of the reloaqding process. You'll make better quality ammo that way.

+1 I'm with J-cat. Five guys of unknown aptitude are going to be using this setup, according to OP. Five shooters X who knows how many calibers = A lot of time dealing with setup and adjustment, especially for novices. I'd say simplicity trumps volume, in this case.

[Fjold]

Five people changing dies all the time will screw up something fierce.

[Lead Waster]

Hey, maybe look into those little Lee hand loaders, the ones you hit with a hammer and stuff. Might be a good (slow) way to keep the calibers seperated and different people can take home the equipment and reload at home with the community equipment.

Alternatively, pick up 2 or 3 of the Lee Reloading Press ($30 for a press!) They also have a hand press kit that's like $40!

Seriously, look into what Lee has to offer before going nuts on a big press.

[rockdogz]

I started with a 550 - I love it. For bulk pistol reloading I'm glad I didn't start with a single stage.

[zeke2517]

Thank you to all who have given thier .02 so far. Lead Waster was saying that there are 2 ways to do this. . .one operation at a time (ie sizing, priming, etc) then there is one round at a time. I have used a reloading press that does 12guage and its one round at time, size, punch primer, new primer, powder-wad-shot, then crimp. This is a turrent style, right?
more questions to follow.

[rsrocket1]

I have used a reloading press that does 12guage and its one round at time, size, punch primer, new primer, powder-wad-shot, then crimp. This is a turrent style, right?
more questions to follow.

What you are describing here is a single stage shotgun reloader that loads shells on different stations in a line like this or you move the shell around to each station in a circle like this like this
.

With a turret press, you keep the bullet case in one place and the stations rotate on the head as shown in this video. A progressive bullet press moves the bullets from station to station and each pull of the handle performs 3, 4 or 5 operations at once as seen in this Hornady Lock n Load video.

Note that this guy deprimed, sized and primed his shells before hand AND that he has a powder check station to verify his powder drops.

There is a ton of information here and elsewhere on the net about single stage, turret and progressive presses and it is strongly recommended that you do as much research as possible before buying. You will always want to have a single stage press available and you will never regret having one around even if you primarily use a top of the line progressive.

[J-cat]

I use this:

[xrMike]

I was looking to PM someone who had the most posts on the Reloading thread, but it seems that "ar15barrels" has the most and he has been banned.

If "ar15barrels" were here, he'd tell you to buy Lee presses and dies, and that all other brands were crap. He'd say that Lee was the one true path to precision handloads. He's a big, big Lee fan-boi.

That's what he'd say, I'm pretty sure of it.