reloading equipment

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

gibson_es

Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
204
Location
tampa bay
I looked at a "kit" last night. Looked back to day and its $13 cheaper. They put it on sale.

Anyway. Its the lee challenger breech lock single stage press kit. Found here:


http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=121744?cm_cat=Cart&cm_pla=ProductDesc

I like the press. However, being a newbie, i dobt know if the kit is worth it or not. My bidget is $200. My cart right now (just looking at prices) is $205 with a shipping estimate of $26. Thats $30 over my budget, and theres no powder yet.

The cart has the kit, 100 brass, 100 bullets, 1000 primers, one die set (though i need two)

So this ends up way over budget. Add the powder and its fonne be $50. And lets face it, 100 rounds wont take long, and i back to needing more bullets at least.

Whas your opinion here? I like the press its self, a lot of features i like so i wont go into detail on it, i like the 4 stage turret even better, but with my budget, unless someone here is a magician... Lol. Im hoping to stay away from the hand presses, but may have to get the breech lock hand press do to budget.

Can anyone here "put togeather" a kit for less?

Im doing .32 acp and .380 acp. Whats "in cart" is for .32 acp. Its for my nagant revolver with the .32 acp cylinder, i figure this is much easier to keep the brass, walk away with all of them that you use. Plus this is more a range toy. The other is for my lcp. So the brwss may not all get found. And it may not see quite as much range time as the nagant. So if i have to choose just one to start with. I choose .32 acp for the reasons above. Plus its more expensive ammo in town.


Note that the budget is for everything. Not just the kit.


EDIT:
Another option is to get the kit now, with both dies. Take the left over budget money and buy ammo ready to shoot. Thelater buy the components. This breaks it down making it easier to digest financially, and the ammo with give me brass to start with, if i pick some up from the rsnge i may not need to buy brass at all. This would be $165 after shipping.
 
Last edited:
You will eventually be well over your target of a two-hundred dollar budget. Trust me, reloading will grow on you and you will buy more and more equipment and components.
 
Last edited:
The Lee Breech lock press is a good, budget priced press. Lee dies are good except for the lock rings. But, with extra breech lock bushings, the lock rings are a non issue, To maintain your die setting, there needs to be a positive lock of the ring on the die. Either with a clamping lock ring or a lock ring jammed against a bushing of some kind.

In my opinion, Lee scales and powder measures leave something to be desired but lots of folks use them successfully. But, they are a place to start.

The Lee Auto Prime hand primer is top drawer particularly when you figure in the low price. In my opinion, press mounted priming tools leave something to be desired. But again, lots of folks do press mounted priming.

Unless you buy used reloading equipment, you will not get anything less expensive than Lee equipment. Shop used and you can do better and for the most part, the stuff is just fine. The press manufacturers are pretty good at supplying missing or broken parts and often at a very attractive price, like $0.

Dies, for the most part are interchangeable between manufacturers' presses these days so as long as the dies are less than 15 or 20 years old there won't be a problem. Dillon SDB dies will fit only the Dillon SDB press but I doubt you see them used without a press to go with them.

Ditto with press shell holders. Note that some hand priming tools like the Lee Auto Prime use special shell holders that will not work in a press.

Just remember, things are used for a reason. It may not be a bad reason, but there is a reason.

If you are on a budget, you will just have to decide on what needs to wait until the coffers are recharged.
 
The kit you're looking at is decent.
It was exactly the same kit I bought when I started.

I'm not using the powder measure because it leaked & wasn't throwing consistent charges.
I'm not using thew scale because it's painfully slow.

If I were starting now, I'd look at a Classic Turret Press. It's $5 cheaper at graf's than at midwayusa
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/7555

This is great for a newbie & when you figure out what you're doing, it'll be MUCH faster than a single stage.
Plus you're not paying for parts that don't work very well.

Just my 2¢
 
whether you spend over the $200 or not it's well worth it....not sure what you're shooting but for example, I reload 9mm alot and a box of 50 cost $16and change at wal-mart, and I can reload 50 rounds for about $5.50(around $3 if I use my own cast bullets). Also reloading .270 and .300 mag for around $7 for 20 rounds vs. $23 for 20. BTW, I started with the lee single stage press and it's a real good sturdy press, a little slow compared to my turret and pro100 I have now but it's still worth it.

Also check prices at www.natchezss.com I get all my reloading stuff from them and it's alot cheaper. You also may want to get primers and powder locally if possible, they charge an additional $25 for hazmat fees on those items.
 
also you can get brass CHEAP at www.kensbrass.com it's not new but i have ordered from him many times and there may be a few shells that are no good but I've always gotten 5 or 6 extra in the order anyway.
 
Hazmat shipping fee

You might be better off getting primers and powder at a local shop.
The $20.00 or more fees will eat into your budget.
For .380 you might consider a smaller press and use some hand tools. The small press will still be good for a variety of uses if you opt for a big press later on.
 
Abracadabra

i like the 4 stage turret even better, but with my budget, unless someone here is a magician... Lol
Click to expand...
Presto!

However, you will have to make some compromises (as with any of the suggestions you have received prior to mine).

The reason I put my suggestion forth is that you mentioned you wanted a Turret, and my plan allows you that, while compromising in other areas. You can make up the compromises I suggest later. I don't claim my suggestion is "better" than any other. Just a different option. You decide which is better for you.

Don't compromise on any single component. Get the press you want. Compromise by delaying on the other equipment.

You can get by without a premium scale by going with Lee Dippers ($15) or the least expensive adequately accurate powder scale (again, Lee,) for about $25) The Lee dippers are accurate enough, but you should stay in mid-power levels and limit yourself to powders that have a tolerance for under-charging until you get a decently accurate scale).

You can get by without a primer tool or even a primer feeder if you are willing to place primers in a priming arm by hand.

You can get by without a powder measure at all. (see the discussion about scales, above).

You can get by without a lot of accessories by using your ingenuity.

All my suggestions for the compromises you may make will cost you in convenience and speed of operation, but waste nothing in budget/money.
To summarize, you only need three things in addition to load recipes, safety glasses (which you probably already have in the form of shooting glasses); a Press, dies and a way to mete powder.

1) A press (because fingers are not strong enough to work metal)
2) Dies (because fingers are not accurate enough to form cartridges)
3) A way to mete powder (becuase eyeballs are not accurate enough to dispense poweder) by dippers, scale or whatever

So, my counsel is, get the press you want. You won't regret it. Peripherals can come later. Don't settle for second best. Delay to when you can afford it to get the other (really good) peripheral equipment you WANT. By going with the bare essential three (press, dies, powder meting) you can afford to get the best of only those essential items and add the other things later as yo can afford them.

Sure, you can get a decent setup within your budget and replace most of the pieces of gear with upgrades as you can afford it, but you will lose money on every trade-up.

Here's my experience that informed this post. After thirty years of reloading, I repopulated my loading bench last July (retiring my two Lee Pro-1000's and semi-retiring my RCBS RockChucker) with a Lee Classic Turret and mostly Lee Die sets and accessories for a (to my mind) no-compromise, best fit for my needs, setup. If I had it to do all over again in 1975, what I suggest to you is what I would do.

Lee Classic Turret, Lee Dies, and a balance beam scale. Everything else can be added on later.

Kempf's Gun Shop sells a nice setup for around $200 that has the Classic Turret, a set of dies, a primer dospenser, a Pro Auto-Disk and lacking only a powder scale. Drop the Auto-Disk and get the powder scale (an even trade) and add a powder trickler and set of Lee dippers and I would be proud to recommend that setup to any medium-volume handloader on a budget. Probably $240.

After I composed most of this post, I looked at the kit offered by Midway, and it looks really good, but the press is aluminum (does not wear as well as cast iron), the Lee Perfect Powder Measure is not nearly as convenient as the Auto-Disk in conjunction with the Turret, the price of three or four bushings is twice the price of a spare turret and the turret press is at least three times as fast as the single stage. For $100 it is a good deal, but not if it isn't your desire for your ultimate setup.

You never regret buying the best but once (when you pay for it). You regret buying second-best every time you use it unhappily. Go for the Turret you desire.

Sorry for being so verbose. But I think you might like to check out these three links. below my signature line.

Lost Sheep

"Budget Beginning bench you will never outgrow for the novice handloader" was informed by my recent (July 2010) repopulation of my loading bench. It is what I would have done 35 years ago if I had known then what I know now.
rugerforum.net/reloading/29385-budget-beginning-bench-you-will-never-outgrow-novice-handloader.html

I have a thread "To Kit or Not to Kit?" that describes different philosophies of buying or assembling a kit one piece at a time.
rugerforum.net/reloading/33660-kit-not-kit.html
 
Last edited:
Just buy what you want. They all work just fine. Start slow, and go crazy later. But be warned, it can make you kind of a junkie until you have all the stuff you want.

I have nearly all the stuff I want now. As your time grows more valuable, move to a progressive of some sort.
 
The kit you're looking at is what I started with (except that they didn't offer breech-lock presses back then - just standard versions of such). I've added some more equipment, but virtually ALL of the kit equipment is still in use 8 years later. To tell the truth I even bought a Redding beam scale when I lost the powder pan to the included Lee scale. Few months later I relocated the Lee pan and truth be told, I'm back to using the Lee scale as I just like it more.

About the only thing you'll "need" to add to this kit (besides dies - and case length gauges for Lee's trimmers if you're doing rifle rounds) is a tumbler and a manual.

As you become more experienced you probably will want to move up to something a bit faster, but for what it is - a single stage loading setup - this kit works very well.

PS: If you're REALLY on a budget - you might check Ebay. You can often find presses, scales, etc for sale on there used for pretty cheap prices. Die sets too (I've gotten dies for $5 per set before). Same with the FS/trade sections on here and a few other forums. It's a bit harder to make sure you grab all your needed parts that way (particularly when you're new and don't necessarily even know what you do need to buy), but you can probably save a bit of money if you're patient. Also, Half.com or Amazon are good places to check for used books - including reloading manuals.
 
Last edited:
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/51 FWIW, this is how I started in '69. I put together many .38 Specials with these tools. I started with the Lee Loader, powder, bullets, primers, and a mallet first, but soon got Lee's dippers and scale. It isn't the fastest, but I was able to reload and shoot quality ammo when I was nearly broke (there's a video on youtube of a guy reloading a bottle necked round in less than 50 seconds). I looked at the tools I already had for "accessories"; I ground a small screwdriver to fit the primer pockets, I used a 60 degree countersink to champher the case mouths (I still use one to remove primer crimps from military brass), crocus cloth to de-burr the case mouths, I made custom dippers from brass tubing/fired cases, etc. I tried an arbor press with the Lee Loader, but that was slower than the mallet. I soon got a single stage Lee, aluminum Challenger I believe (I sincerely doubt if any normal reloading/reloader will ever wear out an aluminum press or use enough force to bow/stretch the frame). I do think my most important purchases were manuals; I now have mebbe a dozen manuals and refer back to many of them occationally...
 
First comes handloading/reloading. Then casting. Then swaging.

I'm still at stage 1 with good plans on stage 2. ;)

The auto-indexing 4-station turret would be an excellent start; if you disengage the indexing rod it's a stable 1-station press.
 
The 4 hole classic turret is a mighty fine press. As was said, just disable the auto index(about 2 seconds) and your now a single stage reloader.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top