Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Reloading Presses ?
bk09:
--- Quote from: unfy on December 12, 2011, 03:46:35 PM ---I have no idea of the quality of it.... but....
the lee 50th anniversary single stage kit comes with just about everything ya might need, and goes for $90-$120 ? i think ?
cabella's has them too.
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Equipment ya don't like ....
The Hornady 38 special / 357 mag / 357 max three die set is... a tad annoying. The bullet seater lacks any kind of crimp (not even taper). So if ya bell the case mouth too much, you have to crimp everything. I picked up a taper crimp die for cheap plated bullets and a roll / factory crimp die as well for the fancier bullets. $10-$15 for each type of crimp die. The Hornady dies not offering a crimp on seat in this particular set is REALLY annoying. Otherwise, they're fine dies. (Their 41mag dies do offer a roll crimp however).
The RCBS 40 s&w dies were almost too short for my press somehow. They feel more loose than the hornady ones as well (they are NOT loose though). I've produced thousands of rounds through them and they perform great though. They're precise and function wonderfully, they're just "weird" in how they sit in my press for some reason.
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I've got an electric caliper set. Batteries dying on those are really annoying. I'm real tempted to pick up an analog dial based one. If your eyes are troublesome, the digital might be a better idea though.
Some of the smaller hand tools (dechamfer/deburr, primer pocket etc) are.. a tad tedious. I think Lyman makes an easy to grip screwdriver sized all in one set thing that is probably a lot more ergonomic. I'll be picking up a powered case prep center when I get into rifle reloading... and will be using the hand tools as back up or whatever. But -- yeah -- get something more ergonomic than tiny little things.
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I've got a Mec 600 or 650 jr simple 12ga shotshell press that seems alright, but I've not done much with it. Then again, I don't load for trap / skeet.
--- End quote ---
My first press (only about a year ago) was that 50th anniversary breech lock package. I give the press 9.5/10 and think for the money the package costs I would pay that alone for the press, can't say enough about the breech lock system. However the powder dispenser and scale are complete junk and would rate them both 2/10, scale never holds its zero and dispenser jams with extruded gun powders and doesn't throw anything remotely consistent. I like the hand primer system since you can feel when it is seating properly and is easy to change from small primer tray to large primer tray and I give it 8/10. The chamfer/deburr tool is small and cramps up your fingers (especially after doing hundreds of rounds), but it does an ok job and I give it a 6/10.
After upgrading several things in this kit I love my setup.
Current setup:
Breech Lock Press
Lee Hand Primer
RCBS Chargemaster 1500 dispenser/scale combo
Lyman case prep set
Hornady M2 Tumbler
If I would start again I would buy everything separate. Chargemaster isn't necessary for a first time reloader but I'm glad I bought it early before I bought any other dispensers or scales so I feel no need to ever upgrade. The Lyman case prep tools save saved my hands a lot of aching and strongly advise getting some case prep tools that have comfortable handles. And for making brass nice and shiny I like my Hornady tumbler, to make sure you don't burn out a tumbler put it on a surface that allows it to get fresh air flow to the fan.
PS Lee's universal decapping die works great for depriming large amounts of brass of varying sizes, or when you don't want to go through the hassle of lubing cases and just want to clean the primer pockets
Mudinyeri:
Here's a great primer (pun intended) from a good friend of mine on reloading inexpensively: http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=776404
JimP:
The only thing I have that I did not like was the cheap aluminum press that came with my Lee Challenger kit ....... they have since stopped selling that press, and replaced it with their Classic Cast Press ..... which is a good one, as I have used y brother's ......
Chris Z:
I bought a Lee Turret Press which has worked for MANY rounds, and still gets use for occasional .223 and Revolver ammo.
Bought a Dillon 550 and Hands down runs circles around the Lee for reloading a good amount of ammo. The first time I was preparing for a big match and had to do 900 rounds on the Lee turret, was the last time!!!!!
If you have plenty of time and only loading 2k rounds a year, the inexpensive Lee Turret is good
unfy:
Thought I'd throw this out there.
Some people have done some basic swaging (lead forming and make your own jackets) stuff on Rock Chuckers. The older ones with the bigger ram seem to be darn near godly.
Not too sure if I'd trust doing any of that really high pressure swaging stuff on anything other than a Rock Chucker (or custom press for it).
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