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Need opinions on Equipment for new guy.
- Thread starter sgtb
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stans
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I am not a big fan of Lee products, they are the least expensive and that is what I started with, but if I had to do it again, I would pick what I really wanted and make it a one time investment.
Sheldon
Member
I like Dillon and RCBS a lot. They have excellent lifetime warranties on most of their products. You have to decide what type of press you want. Do you want a single stage, progressive, or possibly a turret style? If you shoot a lot of pistol ammo you would benifit from a progressive in my opinion. You have anyone nearby who reloads? Someone local can really help a lot by letting you watch them reload and showing you how their setup works.
Once you decide what style of press you want you can either buy new or used, if you're lucky enough to find a local deal. I am fortunate to find local deals now and then and am always keeping an eye out. RCBS and Dillon will honor their warranties no matter if you bought the equipment from them or used from a garage sale, so they are a pretty safe bet in that regard. That also helps in selling the stuff off if you choose to upgrade or get out of reloading yourself. Ebay is a great place to sell, but there is so much competition there it is hard to get a "deal" when there are so many who would consider it a relative bargain to even save $3 on a $35 item. That is not to say a bargain cannot be found there, but it is tough and more a matter of luck it seems. I saw a guy use the " buy it now" auction feature to get a very nice Star Lube-sizer for $100.....I'de have gotten that too if I had seen it first....... as is I am still keeping an eye out for one.
You can get just about any brand reloading manual from any gunshop and it will go over the basics of reloading. I like the Speer, Hornady, Lyman, and Sierra manuals.
Once you decide what style of press you want you can either buy new or used, if you're lucky enough to find a local deal. I am fortunate to find local deals now and then and am always keeping an eye out. RCBS and Dillon will honor their warranties no matter if you bought the equipment from them or used from a garage sale, so they are a pretty safe bet in that regard. That also helps in selling the stuff off if you choose to upgrade or get out of reloading yourself. Ebay is a great place to sell, but there is so much competition there it is hard to get a "deal" when there are so many who would consider it a relative bargain to even save $3 on a $35 item. That is not to say a bargain cannot be found there, but it is tough and more a matter of luck it seems. I saw a guy use the " buy it now" auction feature to get a very nice Star Lube-sizer for $100.....I'de have gotten that too if I had seen it first....... as is I am still keeping an eye out for one.
You can get just about any brand reloading manual from any gunshop and it will go over the basics of reloading. I like the Speer, Hornady, Lyman, and Sierra manuals.
Black Snowman
Member
You will get three types of answers other than the ones telling you to do a search on the forum.
All of the answers are based on projection and anecdotal experience.
type one:
Buy a single stage thats what I did! The poster feels that reloading is complicated and dangerous to get started in. When the poster started reloading the concepts and procedures provided them a steep learning curve. This type of responder naturally assumes you are in the same boat.
That may be true, or it may be way off the mark. For Gods sake BUY TEN RELOADING MANUALS AND MEMORIZE them before you start. Never mind that EVERY thing you need to know to make a safe reload can be written on a single 3x5 card and in fact is in boxed sets of most dies. What ever you do don't buy a more complex press to start out than I did or you will kill yourself.
Type two:
Brand loyalty until death, and defying all logic, are the hall marks of the this type of responder. They honestly feel one brand or another is better than the other. Some how the carbide ring in the metal tube of this brand of die is much better than any other!! They will babble about red... green .... blue... and Orange colors and other sillyness with great emotion.
Type three:
The grumpy old bastard. Why in my day we would ram a hot poker up our rear ends to make ourselves cross eyed before loading just for the added challenge. What do you need all this modern crap for anyways.... Progressive!!! BAHH! I do fine on my Lee hand press. If you shoot more than 25 rounds in shooting session your wasting time any way.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And then there is MY OPINION which according to the only person I need to convince is the RIGHT one you should.....
1. Sit quietly and watch somebody else reload for a while.
2. When that person is done reloading ask a few questions about what you saw. Heck you might not have any... Its just not that hard.
3. Do some thinking about what kind of rounds you want to make and know exactly which calibers you want to reload for. Be able to say.... I want to make and shoot 500 rounds for 45 acp and 250 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of 308 Winchester each month for example.
4. Decide if you have time and a place to reload. The most important is time. Time is expensive. If you don't have time to shoot 3 or 4 times a month you damn sure don't have time to reload. If I could only spend say two or three evenings a month on the shooting hobby, I would spend it shooting not frustrating the crap out of myself trying "work up a load".
5. Cost may or may not be a factor. If you are shooting 3 or 4 thousand rounds a month then NO AMOUNT of MONEY is to much to spend on a press and goodies. You can pay for your 1000 dollar setup in a few months in savings. But if you shoot just a few times a year to get ready for "hunting' then reloading is a waste of your time. You probably fall in the middle somewhere. Figure it out.
6. Get a good solid roomy bench with lots of light.
7. Use your eyes and your mind. Often the only real difference between cheap useless crap and a good tool is a trivial amount of money. Go to stores that sell this stuff and look at three or for kinds of "what ever it is you are buying" and compare. Price the stuff on the web as well, sometimes you can save money.
8. Don't get to caught up in the fine points right away. If your brass is sized correctly, the powder type, the powder charge, bullet weight, and seating depth are a good match then your done. Every thing else and there is a LOT of everything else, is gravy. Have fun for the rest of your life refining your reloading habits. But don't let some jackass scare the crap out of telling you you need to debur your flash holes or your 45 ACP hard ball reload will just suck. PLEASE!
9. Its important to be safe. Fortunately it is also EASY to be safe.
All of the answers are based on projection and anecdotal experience.
type one:
Buy a single stage thats what I did! The poster feels that reloading is complicated and dangerous to get started in. When the poster started reloading the concepts and procedures provided them a steep learning curve. This type of responder naturally assumes you are in the same boat.
That may be true, or it may be way off the mark. For Gods sake BUY TEN RELOADING MANUALS AND MEMORIZE them before you start. Never mind that EVERY thing you need to know to make a safe reload can be written on a single 3x5 card and in fact is in boxed sets of most dies. What ever you do don't buy a more complex press to start out than I did or you will kill yourself.
Type two:
Brand loyalty until death, and defying all logic, are the hall marks of the this type of responder. They honestly feel one brand or another is better than the other. Some how the carbide ring in the metal tube of this brand of die is much better than any other!! They will babble about red... green .... blue... and Orange colors and other sillyness with great emotion.
Type three:
The grumpy old bastard. Why in my day we would ram a hot poker up our rear ends to make ourselves cross eyed before loading just for the added challenge. What do you need all this modern crap for anyways.... Progressive!!! BAHH! I do fine on my Lee hand press. If you shoot more than 25 rounds in shooting session your wasting time any way.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And then there is MY OPINION which according to the only person I need to convince is the RIGHT one you should.....
1. Sit quietly and watch somebody else reload for a while.
2. When that person is done reloading ask a few questions about what you saw. Heck you might not have any... Its just not that hard.
3. Do some thinking about what kind of rounds you want to make and know exactly which calibers you want to reload for. Be able to say.... I want to make and shoot 500 rounds for 45 acp and 250 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of 308 Winchester each month for example.
4. Decide if you have time and a place to reload. The most important is time. Time is expensive. If you don't have time to shoot 3 or 4 times a month you damn sure don't have time to reload. If I could only spend say two or three evenings a month on the shooting hobby, I would spend it shooting not frustrating the crap out of myself trying "work up a load".
5. Cost may or may not be a factor. If you are shooting 3 or 4 thousand rounds a month then NO AMOUNT of MONEY is to much to spend on a press and goodies. You can pay for your 1000 dollar setup in a few months in savings. But if you shoot just a few times a year to get ready for "hunting' then reloading is a waste of your time. You probably fall in the middle somewhere. Figure it out.
6. Get a good solid roomy bench with lots of light.
7. Use your eyes and your mind. Often the only real difference between cheap useless crap and a good tool is a trivial amount of money. Go to stores that sell this stuff and look at three or for kinds of "what ever it is you are buying" and compare. Price the stuff on the web as well, sometimes you can save money.
8. Don't get to caught up in the fine points right away. If your brass is sized correctly, the powder type, the powder charge, bullet weight, and seating depth are a good match then your done. Every thing else and there is a LOT of everything else, is gravy. Have fun for the rest of your life refining your reloading habits. But don't let some jackass scare the crap out of telling you you need to debur your flash holes or your 45 ACP hard ball reload will just suck. PLEASE!
9. Its important to be safe. Fortunately it is also EASY to be safe.
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