Best reloading set for beginner

[John Browning]

I love my Rock Chucker. I know lots of people who are still using the one they bought 20 years ago, including my own father.

[EL_NinO619]

Hornady LnL, 369 at midway with free shipping. Then buy a Cheap LEE SS for prepping. Plus you will get 500 free bullets from Hornady to get you started.

[Endofcomment]

Good idea would be look at the hornady single stage press kit when you order that you get a rebate for 500 bullets might help one less component to purchase. If I had it to do over again that is what I would have done as I just purchased the LnL AP and it would have been nice to not have so many lee breech lock bushings.. With that my lee kit was less than $100 then I spent about $190 on a good powder measure and digital scale. The hornady powder measure is better than the rcbs quick change in my opinion it seems to charge a lot more consistent which from a noob reloaded standpoint I was worried about that .1-.2 grains thinking I might be blowing my gun up but once you press out some ammo you gain some feel for the variances.

Summary
Start with a single stage.
If you get a kit make sure it has a good powder measure and a good beam scale, not lee!
Get a digital scale they are faster, Brian enos sells a good one on his site.
Don't buy powder in bulk to save right away, I have 7lb of lil gun I don't know what to do with.
Of it all enjoy the process!

[Coyotegunner]

I started 38 years(12 years old) ago with a Lee handloader.We were poor as dirt.Bullets and stuff were a long ways away.I was killing deer with a M1 carbine and needed soft bullets,not hardball.Things change.I load quite a bit of different rifle and love the RCBS Rockchucker.The kit they have is almost all useful.The Dillon and Hornady progressives are great for loading lots of ammo.I just refuse to load precision ammo on anything that is not single stage.The RCBS piggyback I have makes the Rockchucker progressive,but it is expensive.Someone mentioned the Dillon 550,that is a nice press and has a lot of potential.Keep in mind progressives have a lot going on all at once.As my older brother taught me to reload,he said the hand you lose is one of only 2 GOD gave you.

[DoubleB]

I just started reloading last month. After a ton of research, I finally decided on a Lee Classic Turret Press. I currently only reload .45 and 9mm. I have one turret setup for each caliber with its own powder measure. So far, I have loaded & fired about 600 rounds and all is well.

[bubbapug1]

dillon 550

[stand125]

IMHO, I do not believe it is as well made as some others (entry level) and I tried to avoid having to move up to better equipment. I use RCBS and Lyman,with the exception of my Redding .22BR type S bushing dies, as they have great equipment and customer service and I need no other. A Dillon has crossed my mind lately, but whatever equipment you use, at least you are out there reloading.

So no personal experience with LEE?

Remaxman, I can only comment on LEE Single Stage and the LEE Classic Turret press since that is all I have used in Presses. Both do the job very well and will cost you well under $400.00 after you include a Tumbler ( optional ), bullets, powder and primers. The problem with the LEE scale is that it is overly sensitive. You can drop just a few flakes of powder and the scale looks like it is faulty when in fact, it is just super sensitive. I use a Hornandy electronic scale.

You could start how I did and spend a whole $35.00 after shipping, a mallet and a slide caliber for the LEE CLASSIC LOADER that will load one caliber ( check Youtube ). I bought one in 45ACP and still use it when I load develop at the range. It does take about 1 minute per round, but you can get the feel if you want to even start reloading for very little. On really cold days I will load 45ACP in front of the fire place with my LEE CLASSIC LOADER. My daughter likes to punch out the old primers, I resize and set the primers, load the powder with my Lee dipper ( as accurate as any powder drop ) and then my daughter drops in the bullet and I seat the bullet. My daughter evens grins every time I seat a primer to see if Daddy is going to set one off. I have set off 1 large primer and 1 small primer in hundreds of rounds and all it does is make a loud pop sound.

[EL_NinO619]

DO NOT WASTE MONEY ON A LEE CLASSIC LOADER. Unless you want to physically load at the range, your just going to be frustrated. If you must go LEE get the classic SS or Turret.

[stand125]

DO NOT WASTE MONEY ON A LEE CLASSIC LOADER. Unless you want to physically load at the range, your just going to be frustrated. If you must go LEE get the classic SS or Turret.

It was alot of fun learning how to load at a nice relaxing pace in the living room with the LEE Classic Loader. It is a simple as you can get, pretty much impossible to make a mistake and you get to learn and understand every step individually. I admit that I now load 99% of my ammo on my Turret press, but it is nice to once and a while go back to the old school way of loading. It also fits very nicely into my ZOMBIE Pack.

[EL_NinO619]

It was alot of fun learning how to load at a nice relaxing pace in the living room with the LEE Classic Loader. It is a simple as you can get, pretty much impossible to make a mistake and you get to learn and understand every step individually. I admit that I now load 99% of my ammo on my Turret press, but it is nice to once and a while go back to the old school way of loading. It also fits very nicely into my ZOMBIE Pack.

I hear ya, but its better to just put it towards a SS, ya know

[stand125]

I hear ya, but its better to just put it towards a SS, ya know

You could look at it like that, or you could look at it as not spending 4X as much and find out that you don't really reload enough to make it worth your while, and you will always have the classic loader as back up for when the ZOMBIES TAKE OVER.

[freonr22]

The lee scale I had was crap

[Dark Mod]

The lee scale I had was crap

Its worse than crap, but it will do the job. Protip: go to the nearest head shop and pick up one of the cheap digital scales there for $20, make sure you can switch it to grains (99% of them will be able to). They work fine, theyre tiny, and they are dirt cheap. Mine hasnt failed me yet

[Lead Waster]

I would suggest going to the Lee Classic Turret press. It can be used as a single stage press, but since you are reloading pistol rounds, it will be less tedious than a single stage for higher volumes. It's hard to beat a Dillon 550b though (well, except with the 650 )

[BigStein]

I love my Rock Chucker. I know lots of people who are still using the one they bought 20 years ago, including my own father.

+1, I use a Rock Chucker, as does my father, and several other very serious shooters in my family. That said, I do not have much experience with other systems, save an old Lee press that was my grandfathers. The big part of accurate reloading is in the scales... get a quality set of scales. I use these http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct...607&cm_vc=S016 and they are great. Good scales are spendy, but will make life much easier and safer. Although reloading is cheaper in the long run, unless you are a competition shooter, or plan to shoot several thousand rounds, factory ammo might be a better choice.

Keep in mind the little things that increase the cost of reloading, like a powder trickle, primer pocket cleaner, primer insert tool, case trimmer, brass tumbler, etc... not to mention the time you invest in finding loads that work for your guns and in loading enough to make it worth it, as well as a bench in the house or garage (I usually use my dad's setup, he built a room just for reloading and cleaning his guns!)

Some advice for a beginner: find the bullet you want to shoot, then work your way to a powder measure that groups well. .223 and the pistols are pretty easy to load for, but when working with big calibers (.300 win mag or larger) it can be difficult getting them to group with hunting loads. I went through this with the Barnes-X bullets, and ended up using Sierra Match Kings because they grouped much better.

Patience is the key to this. Write everything you do down, that way you get it right the next time. Double and triple check your scales. Keep different loads in separate boxes. This may seem like common sense, but you would probably be surprised how many people don't do simple things like this, and wonder why they are getting 15" groups at 100 yds, when they should be shooting 1" or less.

Good luck, and have fun!