Ammunition & Hand Loading > General Ammunition Discussion
OAL on .40 Reloads
unfy:
Suggesting a reloading press can be quite difficult.
I happen to own progressives and single stage presses and they both have their benefit and place.
Hard to argue with a rock chucker. Granted, I'm a fan of big iron :D
If you're only planning on pistol rounds, or not doing any benchrest shooting, a progressive might be a proper place to start.
But the most important thing is what are YOU comfortable with using. There is a lot going on during a true progressive press - which you might not be comfortable with at first. etc etc etc.
There are plenty of threads in the hand loaded ammo thing that discuss press options, do some reading.
Watch a bunch of youtube videos.
Edumicate uresalf
SemperFiGuy:
--- Quote ---Reccomend me a GOOD quality reloader
--- End quote ---
Guess I'd recommend unfy. He's Pretty Good.
All right. Settle down. Actually, I'd recommend starting with a single stage press. Because it helps the Newby Reloader to get a feel for the reloading process, stage-by-stage, before going on strong with a progressive. Having made that statement, nevertheless I know that a number of guys on this Forum have bought progressives as their starter reloading devices and survived.
Single-Stage:
Let's start here. You can reload a ton of ammo on a single stage press. Actually, a reloading press doesn't have to be a Monster to work well for you. For example, the dinky little aluminum body Lee #90045 Reloading Press ($27 @ Midway) will grind out a lot of reloads for you. Or you can go to the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme for about $130. (I've owned and used both; prefer the latter. But it's nice to have the Lee press mounted at the end of the reloading table as an auxiliary device.)
And that's just the press. A new reloader needs a ton of other stuff to go with the press. And never quits buying just one more reloading thing because the market is always coming out with just One More Reloading Thing.
And which extras? Depends. For example, there are at least three major ways to polish brass. And if you use a vibratory tumbler for cleaning and polishing, should you use walnut or corncob media? Or a mixture of both? Or stainless steel rods? Should you use an additive in the media for supershine? Which one?
Progressives:
Now there's a whole dissertation for you. Dillon 550s and 650s. Hornady Lock 'N Loads. Lee Progressive 1000s. On and on. Best thing when you are considering a progressive press is to spend 6 months Googling each press and reading the pros and cons. Plenty of pros and cons for each progressive press on the market. Good idea to buddy up to someone or several someones with progressive presses and watch them use theirs. And maybe load some of your own stuff on them.
Some folks swear by and most folks swear at some aspect of their progressive presses. All progressives require extensive tinkering and tweaking to keep them running smoothly.
In The End
You will have at least $500-1000 or more invested in your never-ending reloading setup. And when you compute the cost of reloading you will ignore that equipment investment and also the cost of your time. Otherwise, you would realize that you don't really save money when you reload; you just shoot a whole lot more rounds downrange and make a lot more noise.
And learn a great deal about cartridge powders and reloading components.
And then you may take up trapshooting and shotshell reloading. Hardly any of your metallic cartridge equipment can be used for shotshell reloading. So you have to buy all new reloading stuff. Plus you can make some Really Big Messes with shot, which is round and spills in large quantities and rolls all over the reloading area into dark areas and under all the stuff that's Too Big to Move.
But Wait, There's More........... But you'll find all of that as you get into it. Please note that reloading is (a) science, (b) art, and (c) a practice. You'll have Great Times with all three.
sfg{You asked about a reloading scale. That little MTM digital scale for about $35 Buck$ is just peachy. But...what if you need to cross-check it for accuracy? Gotta have a balance beam scale for about $60-80 Buck$. Hornady, RCBS, etc. all work fine.)
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shooter:
In The End
You will have at least $500-1000 or more invested in your never-ending reloading setup. And when you compute the cost of reloading you will ignore that equipment investment and also the cost of your time. Otherwise, you would realize that you don't really save money when you reload; you just shoot a whole lot more rounds downrange and make a lot more noise.
$1,000. LOL now that's funny, when I get my new set of 450 marlin dies, it will be the 74th cartridge that I load. plus casting around 40 different bullets, and all shotgun sizes, reloading is as bad a habit as drugs, every gun show, its another set of dies, in some oddball cal that I don't have,
unfy:
--- Quote from: shooter on February 21, 2014, 08:35:52 PM --- $1,000. LOL now that's funny, when I get my new set of 450 marlin dies, it will be the 74th cartridge that I load. plus casting around 40 different bullets, and all shotgun sizes, reloading is as bad a habit as drugs, every gun show, its another set of dies, in some oddball cal that I don't have,
--- End quote ---
ONE OF US
ONE OF US
ONE OF US
:D
SS_N_NE:
Just a thought. Lee and Hornady have "breech lock" or "lock n load" features where the die is put into an adapter that allows die settings to be retained when changed in/out of the press. The adapter drops into place and locks with a slight turn making for fairly repeatable die settings one change to the next. Really saves a lot of time for batch work where dies are changed frequently. I have a Lee cast iron Classic breech lock press that is a very decent machine for the money.
In that same respect, a progressive press can have dies set up on plates that change out and the press can still be used as a single stage and is ready to go progressive anytime you are ready to step things up.
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