Need advice on equipment.

[D3lta58]

Hey guys, It will be my birthday tomorrow, on the 8th, and I will be getting some funds to hopefully start reloading. I've read all the stickies and I've been doing research on reloading for the last 4 months. The more I read on it the more I feel like I have to learn. I'll have 400$ to use to start reloading. I'm hesitant to buy Lee, please don't flame me for saying that, because I've been told by numerous sources that they are just lacking in quality. I looked into the RCBS starting kit, but if I get that then wouldn't I still need to get a case trimmer, calipers, a tumbler, primer pocket cleaners, powder trickler, a bullet puller, not to mention dies.

Is there a way I can start reloading with quality equipment in my price range? Should I put it off til I have more funds?

Thanks for the help.

[WILDMAN442]

what cartridges are you planning on reloading>

[kmca]

Why do you want to reload? How much do you shoot? It's hard to advise without knowing your requirements.

[D3lta58]

I'm planning on reloading .308 for my m1a and soon 9mm. I'm just a weekend shooter. I go through 100 rounds of 308 every other weekend, and when I pick up my first pistol probably around 200 9mm.

[yakmon]

lee equipment is serviceable, just not the best available. if you got this kit from midway yes, you'd still need a tumbler, calipers and some form of trimmer. you can probably find the kit cheaper, i just didn't want to search a bunch of sites for something im not buying. use a possom hollow trimmer, they're around $30. you may not need a trimmer right away, as long as you measure your cases, and separate the one that are over the trim length. with a harbor freight set of calipers, your budget can be achieved using the rcbs kit. assuming you wait on the trimmer until you really need it. primer pocket cleaning is overrated, unless your going for sub-moa match type ammo. a bullet puller, while not absolutely required, are nice to have to save components from oops'ed ammo. you can either discard incorrect rounds, (i did this before i got a puller, and i dented the cases badly so i know that they were not to be shot), or put them in a box labeled DO NOT USE!!!, and save them untill you get enough of em to justify a puller.

[kmca]

In that case, I'd go with a quality single stage, like a Rock Chucker. You'll probably keep that one even after you get a progressive.
A quality beam scale is a "forever" purchase. Possum Hollow makes a good inexpensive trimmer. Harbor freight has a decent set of calipers for less than $10. Frankfort Arsenal sells a decent tumbler/media separator set for not much money.

[1Fastrider]

Find a used Dillon 550 for sale. If it doesn't come with the caliber you want sell it and get a conversion for what you want to load. I found a used one for around $350 or so a while back. Or if you just want a turret type get whatever is in the budget. Before my Dillon I had a Lee 1000 that I loaded a few hundred rounds with. It "worked" but I would rather load than tinker with a press.

[XDRoX]

A bunch of great advice so far.
My opinion, Lee is not as crappy as a lot of people think. They make some nice dies, single stage presses, and a great turret. I wouldn't take their scale for free, and I wouldn't recommend thier progressives unless you like to tinker more than load.

You can't go wrong with any brand cast single stage. Lee, RCBS, whatever....

Because of the low amount of rounds that you require a single stage is really all you need.

A couple presses I think you should consider. The Lee cast single stage, the RCBS Rock Chucker, or the Hornady. The Dillon beam scale isn't a recommendation, but a must. You'd be silly to buy anything else. Made by Ohaus, and at $55 is a steal. No other scale compares in that price range.

As far as buying a kit, you sound like you already have a pretty good idea of what you want. I'd just piece a kit together yourself and buy exactly what you'll need.

Hope this helps.

[rsrocket1]

$400 will not buy you very much if you go with new non-Lee equipment. For less than $100 (plus dies), you could have the essentials to start loading with a Lee kit, but you would have nothing more than a used rock chucker if you insisted on non-Lee. While a lot of people sneer at Lee equipment, I know of a lot of people (me included) who can load with the best using just the components in a Breechlock Challenger Kit.

While it may seem to be a waste to spend $100 for a kit with "adequate" quality, it would be more of a waste to spend $400 on a "quality" single stage kit and then long for a progressive within 3 months of starting or worse, spend $1200 on a full house progressive set up and find out you hardly use it or don't care for reloading.

Don't worry about a trickler, you can use a spent rifle case loaded with powder to trickle up. Just twirl the case as you pour out the powder into the pan.

Yes, get an RCBS bullet puller for <$20
You don't have to have a primer pocket cleaner, use a screwdriver or just leave it alone.
You don't have to have a tumbler for now, wipe your shells with a towel or clean shells with a bucket of soapy water or LemiShine.
Harbor Freight sell decent calipers for <$20. They just had a clearance of a discontinued model that some found for under $5.
Very few Lee detractors can say that Lee makes inferior dies, so figure $20-$40 for a set of Lee dies, depending on whether you get the 2, 3 or 4 die sets.


For just about $400, you could have a Lee Classic Cast turret press kit with just about everything else you need ($200 for the kit and $200 left for all the other stuff). This will increase your output to handle 100 rifle and 200 pistol rounds every other week and you will avoid spending all your non-shooting time reloading. Figure 1-1.5 hours for 100 pistol and 1.5-2 hours for 100 rifle rounds with a single stage press and about double that with a turret press.

If you said you will always only do rifle rounds, I wouldn't hesitate to stay buy a single stage press and never look back, but you'll see that once you get the hang of it with pistol rounds, you'll want to move up to a turret or progressive.

Remember you will have to spring for primers, powder, and projectiles and those prices fall dramatically when you buy in larger quantity so if the $400 is for everything, you'll have to budget for that too.

[mjsweims]

+1 on the RCBS kit. It has the Ohaus beam scale that DIllon also markets. For 308 you will need to lube and the pad that comes with the kit is good. The powder thrower is fine as well and you won't need a trickler unless you use extruded powders. It has everything you will need to get started except calipers, die set and shell holder. Later if you want you can add a tumber, pocket cleaner etc. Make sure you use a solid lube for bottleneck cases, otherwise you will find that you need a stuck case extractor kit very quickly. You can use the single stage for 9mm but it will be slower than a progressive. You will always use the single stage for rifle rounds. A case trimmer is nice after a while but again not absolutely necessary.

[D3lta58]

Thanks for all the advice so far guys, but if you were in my shoes, what would you do? Also, I know dillon make some of the best presses, I just don't think that would be a great press for a beginner reloader.

[kmca]

When I started, I had a Rock Chucker. When I moved on to a progressive, I gave it to a friend who was starting out. I soon decided I needed the single stage, so I bought another one. Shortly, a friend gave me a Lyman turret press. I now have 2 progressives, a single stage and a turret press mounted on my bench. Of course that doesn't include presses for shotshells. The beam scale is on my bench alongside a digital. I use the turret for some rifle cartridges and use the single stage for pulling bullets, swaging primer pockets, universal decapping, etc. If I could have only one press, it would probably be a good turret.

[Bongos]

I just sent you a PM, I just upgraded my Reloading EQ to a Dillon 550B so I was planning to sale my Rockchucker II (had for about two years) as well as duplicate EQ such as electronic scale, caliber, tumbler, etc..pretty much what you need for a starting reloader.. it's actually better then the "RCBS Kit".. I will hold off a few days until I here back from you before releasig it to the Classifieds..

[Sunday]

I bought a Dillon 550 in 1991 and I have been 100% satisfied. Their dies are the best. I have their smaller tumbler and it works well. Great service and warranty as well.

[SASchnell]

Happy Birthday, mine is also tomorrow.