Which Reloading Kit Should I Get?

togmaster · Oct 29, 2020

Finding reloading components will be just as hard as finding ammunition.

nortatoga · Oct 29, 2020

I'm just getting myself set up to start reloading as I am going to be retired soon. I have a RCBS Rock Chucker kit (single stag)I bought years ago and never set up and I also got a Dillon XL750 (progressive) I have been lucky finding the components I need for 9mm and 5.56..

nortatoga · Oct 29, 2020

DrBleachCocktail said:
Hmm I’ll look into that kit. Thanks!

Dillon seems to be what most of the guys at my Club use.

MilesTeg · Oct 29, 2020

I always suggest starting with a single stage press kit. I prefer RCBS, but any kit from one of the big manufacturers will do. One of the main reasons I suggest that over getting a progressive right away, is simple. Everyone I know that runs a progressive still uses their single stage.

I have yet to make the jump to a progressive press but when I do it will be a dillon 100%.

MilesTeg · Oct 29, 2020

There have been millions of rounds made by Lee equipment. To be honest they are considered the low end. Lee is great for dipping your toes in to see if you even like to reload and is very budget friendly.

JamieZ · Oct 29, 2020

If you decide on a Lee, buy the classic. Its made from better materials. Ive had mine for 25 years and have reloaded thousands of rounds. I would also buy a good digital scale,,,much faster. As far as a primer, I would go with a hand primer,,,much faster. This is what I have

Lee Classic Cast Single Stage Press Breech Lock Update Kit

The Lee Classic Cast single stage press has a rigid, cast iron "O" frame with an attractive baked powder finish, large opening and 4" ram...

www.midwayusa.com

Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Perfect Seat Hand Priming Tool

The Frankford Arsenal Perfect Seat Hand Primer will make sure you don’t over seat and crush a primer again. It features a dial that adjusts...

www.midwayusa.com

Hornady Lock-N-Load Case Prep Trio

The Hornady Lock-N-Load Case Prep Trio helps to make case prep faster and easier without taking up valuable real estate on your reloading bench. This US...

www.midwayusa.com

Little Crow Gunworks World's Finest Trimmer 6mm XC

Little Crow Gunworks developed the World's Finest Trimmer as a precision tool that will last a lifetime. One of the unique features is that the ...

www.midwayusa.com

Lyman Turbo Twin Case Tumbler

The Turbo Twin Tumbler features the Lyman Turbo 1200 Tumbler with an additional Turbo 600 Tumbler bowl. The Turbo 1200 Series Tumbler feature a...

www.midwayusa.com

I dipped my toes and continue dipping them with the same equipment that never fails

Deplorable Me · Oct 29, 2020

togmaster said:
Finding reloading components will be just as hard as finding ammunition.

Never tell the guy he's not going to get laid on the first date.

This is a good time to learn reloading. During the materials slow down of past I spent a lot of time reading, reading, reading on reloading and when I did get supplies I was able to apply it. Lots of people are impatient in getting going. (RTFM)!

As a start I'd do single station reloading. Learn to understand every step of the process before going to a progressive. You'll always find a use for a single station press even if you upgrade to a progressive.

I learned on a RCBS Rockchucker kit about 20 years ago. Speer Manual #13 was the edition. A good book (Speer, Hornady, Sierra) is a good place to start. You can save a few bucks and buy a past edition.

RCBS has lots of factory videos at their web site and supplemental instructions. The reloading concepts can be extrapolated to other manufacturer's equipment.

Videos From RCBS

RCBS instructional videos about our products and how to learn handloading.

www.rcbs.com

For equipment Redding is a notch above RCBS but pricy. RCBS is good, good customer support. Hornady is nice, I've seen no issues there. Lee gear is light weight and value engineered to a minimum but will produce good ammo if you keep your eye on things.

RCBS makes a good kit, Rockchucker press at a minimum. I got several upgrades right away.

A good stainless steel dial caliper. Mine has lasted 20 years. I don't like digital equipment with batteries. You can get 3 decimal accuracy easy with the mechanical dial caliper. Once you master it you'll be plenty speedy.

A good digital scale w/120volt transformer. A modest powder trickler. I still have my mechanical beam scale as a backup but the digital scale really increased my speed.

I try to keep my reloading electric free (prepper mentality.)

I dry vibratory clean my brass. I built an auto timer so I can run batches overnight. I clean brass, put in back in the box-can and it may sit there for years but at least it's clean and ready to start the non-electric parts of reloading.

I'm an RCBS fan and start looking through their catalog when I'm shopping. My exception is the LEE factory crimp and final sizing die. My reloading mentor was a Dillion/RCBS guy and he introduced me to the LEE final step. Basically it takes a finished pistol round, rifle round and sizes/crimps it with the bullet in one last time. It cleared up all my 9mm and .45 feed problems. I factory crimp my .223, .308, .30-30, .35 Rem and .444 ammo.

Have good lighting, a decently solid work surface and tell the cat to stay off the reloading bench....

Speed and proficiency come with applied patience and experience.

Robin · Oct 29, 2020

I took up reloading again after about a forty year lay off. I had given all my equipment to my kids, so I bought what I had been familiar with, a Rock Chucker, as I only planned on reloading three rifle calibers. To say I have experienced 'mission creep' would be a severe understatement, as now I am doing pistol as well as five rifle calibers. If I were a young man I would be looking for a progressive reloader like the Hornady or Dillon, you should slowly, thoroughly, and seriously assess how your plan might to reload might evolve and if something like that would be suitable and fit in with your plans. If you want to get your feet wet with a single stage press to see if indeed you want to do this, you cannot go wrong with the Rock Chucker, a solid, precise machine that will last a life time and then some.
Robin

cgrutt · Oct 29, 2020

Not a reloader but after unSAFE was shoved down our throats I did a lot of research and actually bought a complete setup with progressive and single station press. I was set up for 9mm, 40S&W, 357SIG, 45ACP, 5.56 and 308. Spent a small fortune lol. I went with a Redding Big Boss press and Dillon Super 1050 progressive press. I also went with Dillon dies and RCBS powder scale. Both Redding and Dillon have excellent resources on line and in print catalog. Dillon also had excellent customer service. Unfortunately wound up selling it all before ever using it but can say it was all very well made equipment. Would probably buy same again if I ever get back into it.

Shoots100 · Oct 29, 2020

DrBleachCocktail said:
I was thinking about getting one of these. Don’t know if I should or not. View attachment 93564

That is the kit that I would recommend for loading rifle cartridges, as it's easy to change calibers with the breech lok adapters and lee is close by and priced fairly.
I have loaded many thousand's of rounds a year with one of those lee presses.
I still use the lyman spartan turret press my father bought in 1964.
I've been loading with that press for 42 years.
For a semi progressive rifle and pistol press, I would suggest the dillon 550b.
As you progress in your reloading skills, and if you shoot more pistol rounds, you can move onto a real progressive press from dillon and really crank out the rounds.
Becoming less dependent for someone else supplying your ammo is always a good thing to strive for, especially in these crazy times.

Acer-m14 · Oct 30, 2020

i think my press is a old lee classic 3 die manual .. and my 12ga press is a old 60's era Redding press .. have a single lee press which is used most for making 223 into 300BO now .. the best thing i think i added was a digital scale to measure powder ..

with what i have and have dies for .. can do pistol 380cal to 357.. 9mm and 10mm in there too .. rifle 223 .. 270win .. .. bought dies for 243 and 6.5cred for friends Christmas gifts but we haven't used them yet .. its not fast .. but its fun making your own ..

far right lee single .. to the left the Redding press and left again the lee classic .. to the far far right you see a red handle .. thats the MAC 12ga brass resizer

..

Acer-m14 · Oct 30, 2020

you see the Drill in the center .. that used to do all case prep .. now its just for case triming ..

Lyman case prep ..

Mosinitis · Oct 30, 2020

Get RCBS Rockchucker kit. All of its components are very popular on their own. If you stick with reloading you will still use them if you upgrade. Unlike Lee, RCBS is made to last a lifetime.

fresch · Oct 30, 2020

My RCBS single stage is from 1976 and still going. My dies are carbide where possible, I added a digital scale but think you need a manual scale too. I have a powder thrower and trickler. Lee hand primer, bullet puller, case vibrator (don't mix brass that fits into each other, 9 mm and 45 ), made my own reloading blocks ( you need them), log book for load testing. When I work up a load I weigh everything and pick bullets from the middle of the weight. After having a load worked up I then just use the powder thrower and check weight every ~10 rounds or so. I use old Tupperware, plastic containers, coffee cans, etc. for storage. Case preparation is all manual, might go auto.
Then you can get into casting bullets!

holdover · Oct 30, 2020

I haven't started to reload yet, but from my observations so far the majority of the work comes from case preparation, Cleaning , de- priming, sizing chamfering, trimming, de-burring.

fresch · Oct 30, 2020

Well yes and no.
Cleaning when needed, deprime yes every time,chamfer/deburr once unless trimming, trimming as needed;
Goes like this:
Used brass, clean if needed, trim if needed, chamfer/ deburr, deprime/resize, clean or size primer hole (may not be needed), expand, reprime, add powder, add bullet , seat bullet/crimp, or seat bullet, crimp,

Mosinitis · Oct 30, 2020

There is no reloading routine set in stone. Find out the specifics for the caliber you are going to reload and for what purpose; plinking ammo, hunting ammo or target shooting. Straight wall (pistol) cases will have a different routine than bottleneck (rifle) cases. Crimping most rifle rounds is unnecessary and can negatively effect accuracy.

Shoots100 · Oct 30, 2020

Mosinitis said:
Unlike Lee, RCBS is made to last a lifetime.

With the advent of the Lee Breech lock design, the other screw in die presses were left in the dust.
Especially after Lee came out with the Lock ring eliminator adapter.
You can literally change calibers to load in seconds.
No die adjustment fiddling, tools needed and as many know, it'll use any 7/8" brand die, not just lee die.

Jump to the 3:40 mark to see the benefits of the adapter.
I also own a rock chucker press and prefer to use RCBS Die + shell holders.
The RCBS "original owner" lifetime warranty is great and I've never needed to use it.
But RCBS, as well as almost every type of press manufacturer have their issues too.
I own corbin, hollywood, dillon, RCBS, Lee, lyman and MEC presses.
For the last 10 years, after checking the presses for cartridge consistency, I've primarily used my Lee breech lock presses for loading my precision and hunting rifle rounds.
I've loaded more rounds on those presses than the vast majority of loaders will ever load in a lifetime, without issue.
So with all due respect, I think the statement saying Lee "not being made to last a lifetime", is incorrect.
SJC

Mosinitis · Oct 30, 2020

Shoots100 said:
With the advent of the Lee Breech lock design, the other screw in die presses were left in the dust.
Especially after Lee came out with the Lock ring eliminator adapter.
You can literally change calibers to load in seconds.
No die adjustment fiddling, tools needed and as many know, it'll use any 7/8" brand die, not just lee die.

Jump to the 3:40 mark to see the benefits of the adapter.
I also own a rock chucker press and prefer to use RCBS Die + shell holders.
The RCBS "original owner" lifetime warranty is great and I've never needed to use it.
But RCBS, as well as almost every type of press manufacturer have their issues too.
I own corbin, hollywood, dillon, RCBS, Lee, lyman and MEC presses.
For the last 10 years, after checking the presses for cartridge consistency, I've primarily used my Lee breech lock presses for loading my precision and hunting rifle rounds.
I've loaded more rounds on those presses than the vast majority of loaders will ever load in a lifetime, without issue.
So with all due respect, I think the statement saying Lee "not being made to last a lifetime", is incorrect.
SJC

With all due respect, I know of a few instances when linkage on Lee presses wore out, I never heard of Rockchucker wearing out. In the last 25 years I loaded close to 80,000 rifle rounds. That's 160,000 times the press was cycled and I still have plenty to go. That's typical among my shooting colleagues. I am a competitive shooter. While Lee does make some good tools, the quality of the materials is subpar.

Phauxtoe · Oct 30, 2020

i am now an old guy and i have my Dads RCBS Rockchucker

71velle · Oct 30, 2020

What calibers are you looking to reload?

The only way I would recommend a single stage is if your going to load precision rifle loads. It is just too slow to load anything else on. The Lee classic turret press would be easy to learn on but also fast enough to make a supply of ammo.

Primers seem to be the component that is the hardest to get. Large pistol primers seem to have the best availability.

Shoots100 · Oct 31, 2020

Mosinitis said:
With all due respect, I know of a few instances when linkage on Lee presses wore out, I never heard of Rockchucker wearing out. In the last 25 years I loaded close to 80,000 rifle rounds. That's 160,000 times the press was cycled and I still have plenty to go. That's typical among my shooting colleagues. I am a competitive shooter. While Lee does make some good tools, the quality of the materials is subpar.

With proper maintenance, most presses will last a lifetime.
Imagine how many more rounds you could've loaded in less time using a Lee breech lock press ?
Rock chucker presses aren't infallible either, especially the Gen 2 presses.
I'm not knocking the rock chucker, but after getting my first, then second breech lock press, my rock chucker has been only used for sizing wildcat brass.
The rock chucker press is a tank, but a tank isn't always needed to do a job.

CzechFan · Nov 1, 2020

I'd buy Dillon. Which press depends on what you want to reload (pistol only? buy a Square deal). Dillon 550 was my choice - you rotate the plate that the rounds sit on by hand from one station to the next. More expensive models auto-index every time you pull the handle, and you buy optional case feeders so you can crank out rounds faster. They make quality equipment and have an awesome warranty.

Which Reloading Kit Should I Get?

.44 mag

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.44 mag

.338 Win Mag

.44 mag

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.44 mag

.338 Win Mag

6.5 Creedmoor

.700 Nitro Express

.475 A&M Magnum

.338 Win Mag

.357 mag

20×102mm Vulcan

20×102mm Vulcan

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.475 A&M Magnum

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.357 mag

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.223 Rem

.357 mag

.40 S&W