Portable loading bench

Long story short i used to have a 100 and 200 yard range in my front yard, and i could do load development in an afternoon, go inside, just load some, shoot and repeat till i got it right. I now do not have that option, and making multiple trips to the range to tweak handloads is getting old!

Has anyone done a homeade travel reloading station that fits in a tool box or anything? something you could bring to the range to load ammo with ?

Seems like you could show up to the range with a bag of primed and sized cases and knock some load development out pretty fast. I wonder if a range would have problems with you doing that as well?

I've seen them set up on the tail gate of a pick up. Just hope there is no wind when pouring/weighing powder.

I have seen them on the tailgate of a pickup as well...but make sure the range allows loading onsite, my club recently changed the rules because someone did something stupid (always the case, right?) and they no longer allow loading on the grounds.

I use to have those diamond plate tool boxes on my pickup truck, not only the one that goes across the box, but also the ones that go along the sides, I use to be a rolling gun shop, with spare ammo, scopes, gun parts, dies, and every thing I needed to reload even a vise, I use to hold the press with two giant C clamp vise grips on the bumper, and everything else was on the tailgate, I would probably be detain by a swat team if ever I got pulled over with that setup nowadays here in MA, god I can't wait to get out of here.

Dean

Thanks guys! this will be my next project definitly.

And dean i know the feeling, i got pulled over while moving once, had all my belonging as well as over 10 guns in the cab of my pickup, but the Cop commented on how he liked my collection and he let me off with a warning, could have gone the other way really easily though!

A bit of welding and a nice plank will get you a very nice on location reloading bench... I use the receiver hitch in my pickup with a box tubing arm that comes up to tailgate height and an oak board bolted to the tubing... My press and powder measure are from harrells so they come with their own clamping setup but you could certainly either bolt or clamp a regular press to the board.

For weighing charges I made a small plexiglass box with an open bottom that sits over top the scale when weighing ... All my supplies and reloading tools get put in a Stanley FatMax toolbox that is on wheels , carries easy and I just roll it to wherever I need it placed..

I've also just used my portable shooting bench as a reloading bench but found it to get a bit cluttered so I opted for the hitch mount setup , makes for a lot of room if you make it so it sits flush with the tailgate when down.

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Originally Posted by Patch700

A bit of welding and a nice plank will get you a very nice on location reloading bench... I use the receiver hitch in my pickup with a box tubing arm that comes up to tailgate height and an oak board bolted to the tubing... My press and powder measure are from harrells so they come with their own clamping setup but you could certainly either bolt or clamp a regular press to the board.

For weighing charges I made a small plexiglass box with an open bottom that sits over top the scale when weighing ... All my supplies and reloading tools get put in a Stanley FatMax toolbox that is on wheels , carries easy and I just roll it to wherever I need it placed..

I've also just used my portable shooting bench as a reloading bench but found it to get a bit cluttered so I opted for the hitch mount setup , makes for a lot of room if you make it so it sits flush with the tailgate when down.

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I really like the sound of that

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patch700

A bit of welding and a nice plank will get you a very nice on location reloading bench... I use the receiver hitch in my pickup with a box tubing arm that comes up to tailgate height and an oak board bolted to the tubing... My press and powder measure are from harrells so they come with their own clamping setup but you could certainly either bolt or clamp a regular press to the board.

For weighing charges I made a small plexiglass box with an open bottom that sits over top the scale when weighing ... All my supplies and reloading tools get put in a Stanley FatMax toolbox that is on wheels , carries easy and I just roll it to wherever I need it placed..

I've also just used my portable shooting bench as a reloading bench but found it to get a bit cluttered so I opted for the hitch mount setup , makes for a lot of room if you make it so it sits flush with the tailgate when down.

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I've been planning something similar but haven't gotten around to it. I like what you described. I did buy an inexpensive Lee press for about 30 bucks for that use. I figure if the brass is already prepped all I would need the press for is seating. A scale and powder trickled is about the only other equipment I would need. I currently use this press for seating only on my bench. It saves switching dies back and forth.

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Originally Posted by NVBighorn

I've been planning something similar but haven't gotten around to it. I like what you described. I did buy an inexpensive Lee press for about 30 bucks for that use. I figure if the brass is already prepped all I would need the press for is seating. A scale and powder trickled is about the only other equipment I would need. I currently use this press for seating only on my bench. It saves switching dies back and forth.

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Should work just fine... For myself I do not use regular type sizing dies , I use a couple different dies during the process (separate de-capping die then switch to either a F\L bushing or else a neck- bushing\bump die) these are very easy to re-size , I have had friends come along and also do their reloading using my bench setup and from what I've noticed if you are F\L resizing using a standard die with an expander ball etc on larger calibers (belted stuff etc) I found it to put the reloading bench to the test but it still performs fine lol.

On days that I know are not going to be optimum for weighing charges outside (drizzling rain etc) I will throw and weigh all my charges the night before whether they are all the same or in increments for load testing .. I've found test tubes to work nicely but you could also use pill bottles labeled with the appropriate charge. If I find a load without having to use some of the pre-charges they simply get dumped back in the bottle for another day , saves a lot of time as I've found that to be the most time consuming when I'm loading in the field (weighing charges).

I use a black & decker work mate folding work bench