Thinking of trying reloading

[paintballdad]

Not that I need another hobby but have been thinking of taking up reloading my own ammo.

Can some of the experienced reloaders recommend a starter setup for a noob?
Mainly shoot 9mm & 5.56/.223 and some .45acp. Want to start slow & easy then go from there.
Not sure if $200-$300 is an adequate budget to start. Any advice is appreciated.

[Bill Steele]

This is what I recommend to start: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...roductId/23840

It will let you operate in "single stage" mode while learning and yet provide reasonable output (120-150 hr for handgun) once you gain confidence.

You will have to buy dies for each caliber and some odds and ends, but $300 should get you going.

Good luck, have fun.

[alfred1222]

This is what I recommend to start: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...roductId/23840

It will let you operate in "single stage" mode while learning and yet provide reasonable output (120-150 hr for handgun) once you gain confidence.

You will have to buy dies for each caliber and some odds and ends, but $300 should get you going.

Good luck, have fun.

Lee turret, Hornady LNL, or dillon 550/650. They all work well for what you want without breaking the bank

[koehn,jim]

Bill steele makes an excellent recommendation, if you can afford it go with the Dillon 550 and you will not regret it. reloading can be very addicting and is not for everyone. You can save money doing it but wont, you will shoot more instead. If you have a son or daughter do it with them and its rewarding.

[emptybottle151]

+1 for the lee classic turret, I'm also loading .223, 9mm, and some day 45acp.

[Justintoxicated]

for handgun I would just grab a hornady LNL progressive if money allows, I think it offers way more than the 550 for the money. You can always use it as if it were a single stage for your first loads. A single stage works fine, but once you start loading pistol you will start longing for a progressive. I load my rifle rounds on my progressive too I take my time though I'm not sitting there cranking them out.

The only thing I really use my single stage for is my 7.62x54r because I'm too lazy to buy a shell plate, and swaging brass. The dillon super swager is better at swaging than my press though IMO. You can also get a bullet puller for a single stage press, so if you starter there you may still find it useful later when you upgrade to a progressive.

[damndave]

Get a Lee Classic Turret setup. For 3 calibers, it is definitely going to run a lot more than $200-300 though. About $200 will get you setup for 1 caliber, but you will still need things like a tumbler, calibers, loading trays, case trimmer, components etc. AR15BARRELS has a good writeup stickied in this forum.

When initially getting setup, expect to spend in the $500 range at least...not including components.

[firebert]

I was in the same boat a while back. Ended up with a Lee classic turret press and dies to do 9mm, 223, and 308. Great setup but it got expensive after buying extras to make preping easier for rifle brass. If you want to keep cost low start off with pistol loads and move to rifle after you decide if you want to keep the hobby going.

[Justintoxicated]

Get a Lee Classic Turret setup. For 3 calibers, it is definitely going to run a lot more than $200-300 though. About $200 will get you setup for 1 caliber, but you will still need things like a tumbler, calibers, loading trays, case trimmer, components etc. AR15BARRELS has a good writeup stickied in this forum.

When initially getting setup, expect to spend in the $500 range at least...not including components.

Thats true, I never saw much advantage in a turret style press compared to a single stage with quick change bushings. IF you get a Hornady Kit you get 500 free bullets so that would help to reduce the cost.

[Bill Steele]

Thats true, I never saw much advantage in a turret style press compared to a single stage with quick change bushings..

About 80+ rounds an hour difference when using the auto indexing of the Lee Turret when loading handgun. I would agree with rifle, no advantage.

[Darklyte27]

There is no try, only do or do not.

order your components now in case this stupid 5cent tax per bullet per brass case goes in to effect.

[slixx1320]

As Bill mentions, the Lee Classic turret press is hard to beat. I've got one and load basically 7-8 calibers ranging from pistols to rifles without much issues. Maybe in the future I will upgrade to a progressive but I don't really see a need for one. Load's all my rounds and produces just as good of quality rounds as the top tier presses. If your main concern will be producing high volumn rds, get the dillion or hornady and learn off of that. If you're like me and shoot occasionally, Lee's turret will suffice.

[stilly]

Not that I need another hobby but have been thinking of taking up reloading my own ammo.

Can some of the experienced reloaders recommend a starter setup for a noob?
Mainly shoot 9mm & 5.56/.223 and some .45acp. Want to start slow & easy then go from there.
Not sure if $200-$300 is an adequate budget to start. Any advice is appreciated.

Here is the Deal, Bill beat me to it. Lee Classic CAST turret just flat out RULES. IT is like taking a Henry's .22lr lever action to a .22lr single shot bolt gun fight. (did that make sense?) Sure it aint as fast as a SEMI (progressive) but it is faster then the single stages and built decently enough to get rave reviews. I am glad that I came across it and decided to get it as well. I might have even asked here when I first was going to get into reloading back around oct/dec of 2011. Here I am, 3k 44 mag shells later...

Try not, DO or DO NOT; there is no try. Now go and buy a Lee CLassic- and NOT the aluminum one, get the Classic Cast. You will be happy you did.

Also, since primers seem to pop up every 3 weeks at PVI, just wait for approx 3 weeks from today and they will offer up another 10 million or 100 million or whatever they will have and you can get some then, as for powder and projectiles, they can be found from various calgunners and lgs alike. Bullets/projectiles have about a month wait or so but you can get them online.

Expect about an initial startup cost of around $400+ but once you get your material and you are all setup, it totally pays for itself. Damn, one bottle of HS-6 gives you what? about 1500+ 45 or about 2000+ 9mm ? that is only about $25 from a lgs or other reloader. They also have a calguns reloading club they just started here. Check it out if you can if you do not have another reloader to show you the ropes. What do I know though, I am just an expert noob.

[kylednf]

Lee classic turret press. Lee makes a kit that comes with a lot of stuff but some of it like the scale should e immediately replaced. Kempf gun shop sells a kit that they throw together themselves. It includes dies and you can upgrade to the pro-auto disc measure. Somethings the lee kit doesn't come with. I got mine from kempfgunshop.com and I couldn't be more happier. All you'll need to buy are calipers an a scale. There is a long waiting period but you can use that time getting bullets, powder, primers, and picking up brass from the range.
Kempf Gun Shop also has a rifle specific and handgun specific kit so you'll need to choose which you'd like to start off with.

[ricemanff]

If you were near Ripon, Barnwood arms has everything you need in stock and ready to go. They have a bunch of Dillon, but that is a little more than the budget you stated. I will say reloading is fun and relaxing. Good luck but my vote is a RL550B by Dillon