how hard is it to reload?

[darkknight]

How hard is it to begin reloading? whats the initial cost to get started? Im looking to reload for pistols, rifles at first, maybe shotguns eventually. the calibers would be 9mm, 40 S&W, .45 acp, .357 magnum, .308, .223, .30-06, .270 win, and maybe .22-250 or .25-06. how long does it take to relaod. im sure as i become more effecient ill become faster but i want to stay safe. has anyone ever had any unsafe expirence with reloads or while reloading? how much room is needed. is thier any aspects im not thinking about?

with the cost of ammo going up i just cant see why reloading doesnt make sense?

i did a lot of research into this topic last night and i read the post For the New Reloader: Equipment Basics -- READ THIS FIRST ( gonna need to read it again but im not in a rush). I looked at the diffrent kits and i was looking at supreme rock chucker presses and Lee Deluxe Turret Press Kit (question about the turrent presses can they reload rifle rounds like 7.62x 51, 7.62x 54R and 30.06) or would i need a second press for those. Are brass tumblers neccessary or what else can you use to clean the brass. What about saftey primers (are they a worthwhile investment)? this is an investment between me and 3 of my friends so we can shoot more often. also i live in PRK is thier any legal implications that i will need to be aware off.

 

[mscott]

With that many calibers listed, you'd be crazy to not re-load them. Reloading is like anything else, you just got to do it and get used to the processes involved. You will pay for the equipment very quickly. You'll need to decide what to start loading first and progress from there. Rather than listening to a couple of guys on here, do a lot of searching on the various forums and the web for articles and such to form your own ideas. It would be even better if you could find someone locally to help you out. Why not have you location in your member title?

 

[rantingredneck]

There is not much room required. I have a very small 4x8 "shed" built into the back of my house. I have a small 2.5x3.5 work bench built on one side of it. My reloading equipment occupies about 60% of that bench space plus some shelving over the back of it.

It's not terribly difficult to do, but it is important that you read the manuals and understand the principles involved and how different variables (powder charge, bullet weight/type, and over all length) interplay. Basically if you check, re-check, re-read, then check again you'll be fine.

I haven't been doing it long myself so I am still probably more cautious than some of the old timers in that I check my powder drops pretty frequently and I check and recheck the manuals on the particular powder and bullet combination I've selected.

I started with .45ACP for a few reasons. It's a very commonly reloaded caliber and components are everywhere. It's a relatively low pressure round so theoretically you're at lower risk of making something that will go catastrophically "Boom". And last but not least, I shoot a lot of it!

Best of luck in your search and research. I bought my Lee 4-hole turret press kit from Midway for 85.00 a few months ago. Has served me well so far.

 

[Walkalong]

Not hard, if you read up and ask questions. Not much space needed and not very expensive, unless you go hog wild and buy everything everyone suggests. Get the basics (a Lee kit) for one caliber. As far as hazards, it's no more hazardous than many things we do (driving for instance) and if we pay attention to what we do (NO DISTRACTIONS WHILE RELOADING) we will be fine. Just "get started"

 

[jmorris]

It’s not very difficult, but you have to pay attention to what you are doing. The equipment you should get will depend on a few things. How much do you shoot? How often are you going to switch between calibers? How valuable is your time? If your got a lot of time, no room and no $ http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1189341670.5503=/html/catalog/cleeloader.html will get you going for less than $25 (cheaper than a regular die set) and would fit in your pocket. I can’t imagine how long it takes to reload with one of those, but I bet it seems like forever. Up from there is your classic single stage presses your changing dies for each operation. Various types of turret presses exist that allow you to have a set of dies installed and ready to go. With all of the above you have to deprime/size the case in one step, then fill the case with powder (and bell if needed) in another step, then seat the bullet and crimp adding another 1 or 2 steps. Then there are several different progressive presses that do all of that and rotate a shell plate indexing for you and make a round with each pull of the handle. If you go bucks up you can even get one that will put the empty cases and bullets in for you. But for that set up, for just the pistol calibers listed you would have to add a couple of zeros to the price of the lee.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Go down to your local gun/reloading supplier and spend $20 for a Lyman 48th Edition and read the first half of the manual and you will have some idea where to start...No...It's not advance science, but you can make it advance if you progress into the competion areas...Read the manual and get a starter kit. Lee has a good one, but don't get the one with the "C" press. Get the one with the "O" press.You might even consider one of the Turret kits...Remember (and this is very important)...This is a very addictive hab...Aah...Hobby...

 

[Grumulkin]

Q: How hard is it to begin reloading?

A: It couldn't be that hard. I started as an unsupervised teenager on the kitchen table with a Lee Loader.

Q: Whats the initial cost to get started?

A: If you start with a Lee Loader, about $50 for powder, bullets and everything. It's very slow though. I'd get one of the reloading kits with a single stage press. Once you add powder, bullets, dies, primers and case trimmer, you'll probably spend $350. If you shoot a lot, you'll soon save the price of your equipment in ammo savings.

Q: How long does it take to relaod?

A: That would depend on your equipment. A progressive press is the fastest but also more expensive than a single stage press. I would recommend a single stage press to get started. Once you've reloaded for a time, you'll have more knowledge to help you decide what reloading equipment/style best fits you. I loaded on an RCBS single stage press for years and only within the last year upgraded to a Redding T-7 turret press. I load for quite a few more cartridges than you mention and have no plans to use a progressive press.

Q: Has anyone ever had any unsafe expirence with reloads or while reloading?

A: When I was an inexperienced unsupervised teenager, I didn't know about case trimming. My over length cases were a bit hard to chamber but since my loads were conservative, I didnt' blow myself up. I also once loaded a 375 H&H Mag. cartridge without any powder. The primer powered bullet lodged in the throat of the barrel. Fortunately, I was able to load a case with a light load of powder and shot it out without problem. I now check the cases compulsively to make sure there is powder in them. I also have several other rules. I never have more than one type of powder and primer on the reloading table at one time. I prefer powders that almost fill a case since then I'll never be able to double charge a case, etc.

Q: How much room is needed.

A: Very little. You need shelf space for components and equipment. A 2X4 foot table or thereabouts that you can attach your press, powder measure, etc. to is sufficient but a bit bigger is nicer.

Q: Is thier any aspects im not thinking about?

A: I'm sure there are. You'll learn as you read a couple of reloading books and get started. One thing, use Imperial Sizing wax rather than the usual messy case lube and you'll be ahead of many. Also, for straight walled cases, get carbide dies since they require no lube at least in pistol length cases.

 

[Wandering Man]

I started reloading in July. With the help and advice of friends I bought a Dillon XL650 reloader. It is a progressive machine and a little toward the high end.

You might check out this site, and the forum associated with it: http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillon.html


My costs for set up came to around $2200, but that includes the price of the reloader, three sets of dies, scale, calipers, a Sears workbench I bought as a reloading table, manuals, and miscellaneous other items. Oh yeah, don't forget the bullet puller.

I have reloaded 1460 rounds of .380, 1200 rounds of 9mm, and 1183 rounds of .45ACP.

Including the costs of the bullets, casings, powder, and primer, I figure each round is costing me 32 cents. If I add in the cost of equipment, each round is now costing me 89 cents.

I expect that I will reach the break-even point on my equipment somewhere during my 6,000th round, which should happen within the next two months.

So, while it seems expensive, I figure I will have paid for my equipment in something less than 5 months. Investment-wise, not a bad deal.

Enjoyment-wise, the equipment started paying for itself on day one!

Difficulty? Read the reloading manuals. Read the manuals that come with your equipment. Don't expect to be perfect. Go slowly. And have a lot of fun (telling you to have a blast probably wouldn't be the right phrasing here ).

WM

 

[sam700]

The first step is to get a good manual. The Lyman Manual is a good one. If you know some people who reload, use them as a mentor. There is a learning curve like anything else, but anything that’s too easy isn’t worth doing.

 

[sam700]

As for cost, I think I spent $400 when all was said and done. I found a store that was having a moving sale and everything was 20% off. That timed out well with my starting to reload.

 

[trueblue1776]

How hard is it to begin reloading?

I find it more diffucult to make a good sandwich. Seriously, I need a sandwich manual, mine are no good.

Costwise, I have less than 200$ in mine and have a formidable setup.

Manual? Lee dies come with mini manuals, Hodgdon puts their data on the web.

 

[Never No More]

My Father had me reloaded when I was 9 years old.
By the time I was 15, I had reloaded 1000s of rounds.

So easy a kid can do it

 

[snuffy]

Here's a newbie guide myself and other members at the NAHC forum developed. Hope this helps!

BASIC RELOADER RULES & REQUIREMENTS

1. Do you have the patience to do detailed work away from distractions, (TV, Children, guests)?
2. Do you have a secure area that can be dedicated strictly to a loading bench?
3. Do you thoroughly understand what goes on inside a cartridge when you pull the trigger?
4. Are you mechanically inclined? In other words can you understand and follow instructions exactly, to make needed adjustments to equipment? Do you know how to use measurement tools such as calipers and micrometers?
5. Read the front sections of several reloading manuals. I suggest one manual, printed by a company that sells reloading equipment AND bullets. The other one should be by a company that sells only powder. Case in point Hornady then Hodgdon. After reading and understanding the “HOW TO” section in those manuals, find someone who already loads to show you how and talk you through a box of shells. Better yet find a NRA Metallic/Shotshell Reloading instructor and take a basic reloading class. See links below for locating an instructor.
6. Never be in a hurry. If you are pressed for time, this is when a mistake will be made.
7. Do not under any circumstances smoke, eat or drink, especially alcoholic beverages. The reasons are obvious, but I’ll state them anyway. Smokeless powder burns at a very high temperature; it makes a dandy accelerant to start a fire. Drinking causes loss of motor skills and judgment.
8. Wash hands thoroughly when you are through. You are dealing with lead in many forms when handling bullets and primers.
9. Walk before you run. Buy a single stage press to start out with. The progressives are neat and useful when doing large quantities of ammo. You will always have uses for the single stage loader for special loads later.
10. Stay with the basics at first. The tools for neck turning, flash hole uniforming, primer pocket uniforming and checking concentricity will be useful after you get some experience.
11. To start with, stay in the mid-range of the suggested loads for medium power levels. Save the maximum loads for when you have more experience.
12. Buy the best equipment you can afford. It will last a lifetime; the cheap stuff will wear out and need replacing.
13. Have ONLY the bullets, powder, primers and empties on the table that you are loading at that time. Put everything away as soon as you are done, in a separate place.
14. The only stupid question is one that doesn’t get asked. If you’re not sure, ask somebody. Use common sense, logic is a great tool for a Reloader.
15. Maintain a log of all loads developed with the test results. Label all boxes with the load data and date of the load.
16. Every Step is an inspection point.
17. The last thing you do before the bullet goes in " Look in every case to verify the powder charge".
18. Get a good pair of shooting/safety glasses and wear them whenever in the loading room.
Links for Reloading help and instructors

http://www.sierrabullets.com/ Bullet company, very good ballistic support group.
http://www.speer-bullets.com Bullet company
http://www.nosler.com/ Bullet company
http://www.hornady.com/ Bullet company
http://www.barnesbullets.com Bullet company
http://www.hodgdon.com Powder company
http://www.lapua.com VihtaVuori Powders
http://www.bluepress.com Dillon Loaders
http://www.mayvl.com/ Mec loaders
http://ww.sinclairintl.com/ Precision Reloading and Shooting specialist
http://www.lymanproducts.com All Lyman Products.
http://www.shooting-hunting.com Great hunting and shooting site with list of instructors
http://www.mynra.com/ NRA with links to NRA certified instructors








Basic steps to reloading. This is a short edited version from the "NRA GUIDE TO RELOADING".

There are 17 steps of which most are for both rifle and pistol and one for pistol only. This is will mark with an * .
1. Inspect cases,
2. Clean Cases
3. Organize cases by batches
4. Select proper shell holder
5. Insert and set up sizing die
6. Lubricate cases
7. Resize and deprime cases
8. Measure case length
9.Tr BASIC RELOADER RULES & REQUIREMENTS

1. Do you have the patience to do detailed work away from distractions, (TV, Children, guests)?
2. Do you have a secure area that can be dedicated strictly to a loading bench?
3. Do you thoroughly understand what goes on inside a cartridge when you pull the trigger?
4. Are you mechanically inclined? In other words can you understand and follow instructions exactly, to make needed adjustments to equipment? Do know how to use measurement tools such as calipers and micrometers?
5. Read the front sections of several reloading manuals. I suggest one manual, printed by a company that sells reloading equipment AND bullets. The other one should be by a company that sells only powder. Case in point Hornady then Hodgdon. After reading and understanding the “HOW TO” section in those manuals, find someone who already loads to show you how and talk you through a box of shells. Better yet find a NRA Metallic/Shotshell Reloading instructor and take a basic reloading class. See links below for locating an instructor.
6. Never be in a hurry. If you are pressed for time, this is when a mistake will be made.
7. Do not under any circumstances smoke, eat or drink, especially alcoholic beverages. The reasons are obvious, but I’ll state them anyway. Smokeless powder burns at a very high temperature; it makes a dandy accelerant to start a fire. Drinking causes loss of motor skills and judgment.
8. Wash hands thoroughly when you are through. You are dealing with lead in many forms when handling bullets and primers.
9. Walk before you run. Buy a single stage press to start out with. The progressives are neat and useful when doing large quantities of ammo. You will always have uses for the single stage loader for special loads later.
10. Stay with the basics at first. The tools for neck turning, flash hole uniforming, primer pocket uniforming and checking concentricity will be useful after you get some experience.
11. To start with, stay in the mid-range of the suggested loads for medium power levels. Save the maximum loads for when you have more experience.
12. Buy the best equipment you can afford. It will last a lifetime; the cheap stuff will wear out and need replacing.
13. Have ONLY the bullets, powder, primers and empties on the table that you are loading at that time. Put everything away as soon as you are done, in a separate place.
14. The only stupid question is one that doesn’t get asked. If you’re not sure, ask somebody. Use common sense, logic is a great tool for a Reloader.
15. Maintain a log of all loads developed with the test results. Label all boxes with the load data and date of the load.
16. Every Step is an inspection point.
17. The last thing you do before the bullet goes in " Look in every case to verify the powder charge".
18. Get a good pair of shooting/safety glasses and wear them whenever in the loading room.
Links for Reloading help and instructors

http://www.sierrabullets.com/ Bullet company, very good ballistic support group.
http://www.speer-bullets.com Bullet company
http://www.nosler.com/ Bullet company
http://www.hornady.com/ Bullet company
http://www.barnesbullets.com Bullet company
http://www.hodgdon.com Powder company
http://www.lapua.com VihtaVuori Powders
http://www.bluepress.com Dillon Loaders
http://www.mayvl.com/ Mec loaders
http://ww.sinclairintl.com/ Precision Reloading and Shooting specialist
http://www.lymanproducts.com All Lyman Products.
http://www.shooting-hunting.com Great hunting and shooting site with list of instructors
http://www.mynra.com/ NRA with links to NRA certified instructors








Basic steps to reloading. This is a short edited version from the "NRA GUIDE TO RELOADING".

There are 17 steps of which most are for both rifle and pistol and one for pistol only. This is will mark with an * .
1. Inspect cases,
2. Clean Cases
3. Organize cases by batches
4. Select proper shell holder
5. Insert and set up sizing die
6. Lubricate cases
7. Resize and deprime cases
8. Measure case length
9. Trim cases
10 Deburr and Chamfering
11. Clean Primer Pocket
12. Expand Case mouth (*)
13. Prime Cases
14. Measure powder charge and charge cases
15. Check powder charge in case
16. Seat bullet in case
17. Identify the reloaded cartridges (Mark the box etc)

 

[XD-40 Shooter]

My start-up cost for reloading was only $160, a Lee 4-hole turret press and two die set's, one for 40 S&W, one for 357 magnum. I've since loaded 2000 rounds of 357 mag and 5000 rounds of 40 S&W. I recouped the cost of the press and dies with my first batch of 1000 rounds. Since then, I've been loading 357 mag for 12 cents/round and 40 S&W for 11 cents/round. Component cost's have recently risen, so no those figures are going up by about a penny. Big deal.

I'm currently loading about 100 rounds/hour, which is plenty fast enough for me. I only shoot about 400 rounds/month, between my 40 caliber pistols and my 357 mag.

I would highly, highly recommend "Modern Reloading, 2nd Edition" by Richard Lee, this is an excellent reloading bible, give it a good thourough read and you will be ready to go. I think you'll find reloading to be fun and addictive, you might not save that much money in the end, because you can shoot twice as much ammo, for the same cost as factory ammo. Its a great past-time.

 

[Outlaws]

RE: $25 Lee kit

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1189341670.5503=/html/catalog/cleeloader.html

I never seen that Lee kit before. Has anyone actually used it? I have a friend who wants me to load him 357 rounds when/if I ever tool up for it, but I don't really like that idea. He basically only needs very low volume hunting rounds. Can you get accurate/powerful hunting loads with just that kit, or with minimal additional supplies? Its not just for cheap plinking on the cheap is it? He has a GP100 so working up to a nice Ruger load would be in order.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Yup...You'll need a hammer with that kit...A single stage press would be better...If you already have a press. Why not buy the dies for .357 magnum. The are usually at or under $25...

 

[Outlaws]

Yup...You'll need a hammer with that kit...A single stage press would be better...If you already have a press. Why not buy the dies for .357 magnum. The are usually at or under $25...

I have a Dillon 550.

 

[fireflyfather]

I've used the Lee Loader for rifle rounds. If you are only going to do batches of 20-50 rounds, the Lee Loader is fine. I'd recommend a scale as well.

Laundry List:
Plastic Mallet
Lee Loader
Scale

Powder, Bullets, Primers. (Brass?)

Not counting the components, you can get it all for under $50 out the door, from Grafs (buy a mallet locally).

 

[Smokey Joe]

Starting reloading...

Darknight--Many good suggestions here. I have to disagree with one comment:

I am still probably more cautious than some of the old timers in that I check my powder drops pretty frequently and I check and recheck the manuals on the particular powder and bullet combination I've selected.

Those of us that are "old timers" and still reloading, are still cautions. To adapt a flying instructors' saying, "There are old reloaders and bold reloaders, but there are no old, bold reloaders." Caution is never wasted.

Would suggest one addition to yr reading list: The ABC's of Reloading put out by Krause Publishing www.krause.com You can get it @ yr local sptg gds sto, gun sho, the I'net, or order from the publisher. It is "The Standard Text" on the subject; belongs on every reloader's bookshelf, well thumbed, IMHO.

 

[Starter52]

+1 to what XD-40 said. Lee makes a good machine at a great price. I've been using my old three-hole Lee press for 15+ years. Tens of thousands of pistol rounds and no problems at all. I recommend it.

 

[jmorris]

FWIW Dillon (bluepress.com) sells a video instruction manual for less than $6, if you don't have anyone to show you how. 10 hours of talk are not as productive as 1 hr of hands on.