New to Reloading. About to "Pull the Trigger"

So, I'm totally excited to start reloading. Did my homework, read two books, watched videos, bought Lyman's Reloading Manual, and not comes time for the gear.

I was going to buy a progressive kit until I talked to a man that had been reloading for 30 years. He told me to go with the single stage instead. He said it will be less frustrating for me to use until I learn the art of reloading enough to graduate to a progressive press.

Is that sound advice? The single stage is a lot cheaper........seems like a bit more work though?

In not sure why the SS would be so much "easier" than the progressive.....?

your top precision rifle shooters use single stage presses. Progressive is best for AR or Pistol ammo that you need a high quantity of.

New to reloading listened to the advice bought RCBS Rock Chucker and recently a Horanday Lock n Load Progressive. Havn't used the LNL yet to many things going on at once with progressive as a "mentor" has stated repeatedly to me you are creating a controlled explosion 3-4" from your face. Having cut my teeth a little I would say until you can maintain quality control on one process at a time you shouldn't jump to 5 hence I am still using single stage. Also I have not talk to a single person that has a progressive press and doesn't have a single stage, but many only have a single stage or have both, but primarily use the single.

Whoever told you to start with a single stage and work your way up gave you good information. Start with what you can afford and start slow. I guarantee by the end of the first year of you new reloading addiction, you'll have 20 - 30 lbs. of assorted propellants on hand along with numerous bullet types for you reloading pleasure.

It's happened to all of us. Now, it's your time.

Welcome to your new addiction. Won't be long and you'll be asking where you can find a good used barrel nut wrench and an action wrench.
AND...
As my esteemed fellow Floridian mentioned (I hope that saying lives forever) - Note: You are about to begin assembling the components to create a controlled explosion 3" from your face. Start of LOW & SLOW....
(That means don't take any load info from a guy named Dean / Scope Eye)

Good luck. Group Therapy for Chronic Reoccurring Reloaders OCD is held on Thursdays.

lol I wasn't going to mention any names but since you did.....Thanks for the good advice and Dean thanks for the Vmax .223.

Awesome. Thanks guys. The single stage will cost a heck of a lot less. Money to be spent on other add-ons and power, etc....

unless you do high volume pistol or AR reloading you would be best off with a single stage press. it may take you 3-4 minutes a shell your first couple hundred rounds while your figuring it out, but you will get the hang after no time and cut that time in half. when i first started reloading about 12 years ago it would take an hour per 20 round box for the first 6 months or so, now its about 20 min a box.

seriously though get a rcbs rockchucker reloading kit or something along those lines, 300ish$ and it has everything you need and alot of stuff you dont need.

Can't wait to tell the new guy:

"We Told You So..."

Don't forget this very important information-
You want to shoot but ammo is expensive. Soooooo..
You make your own ammo. Now you have more ammo sooooooo...
You can shoot more. Now you want to shoot even more, soooo...
You make more ammo AND get another rifle of a different caliber.
BUT, you have no ammo for the new caliber, soooooo...
On and on it goes.
Don't try to pull this off on the wife. They never buy it.


PS - A lot of us started here. I still use mine to this day along with a Lee Turret. The price is right for the beginner and you get enough stuff to get going:
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/121...ProductFinding

I think I paid $79 for mine when I got it.

All excellent advice. Back in the 'stone' age, when I upgraded from a Lee Loader (you know the ones you need a hammer for!), I bought a RCBS RockChucker. I also bought a Lee Challenger press a few years back and gave it to a buddy who wanted to get into reloading.....
A few years ago, I bought a Dillon 650XL and it's excellent. I have all the dies and turret heads for a LOT of pistol/rifle calibers. Unfortunately, due to 'magnumitus' through the years, I can't (and don't) shoot big bore hand guns any more. Wrist problem caused by a lot of IHMSA shooting an XP-100 in 7mm-08.....I'll probably sell all the Dillon stuff.
I only use the 'chucker now. I measure powder with the RCBS 1500 and have given up on the measure/trickling methods. But a good scale is a must.
The 'only' advise I wish to give concerns case lube.... I started with the old RCBS 'STP' type lube. Awful. Lee makes a wax-based lube that is OK.
For straight walled pistol cases, buy Carbide dies. Clean your cases. For bottle neck ctg, or without Carbide dies, spend a couple of bucks for Imperial sizing lube. Just a tiny bit on your fingers, and the cases will resize like magic. I mostly neck size my rifle ctgs, and use the Imperial 'dry' stuff there. Although cheap white mica from Midway works just as well.

Enjoy and be safe. I've been reloading for 40 years and NEVER had an issue. Knock on wood! ha ha

ron

I think a lyman or redding turret would be worth the extra dough. I started with the rockchucker and it is an awesome press. But find myself spending a lot of time with setup. With the turret you can go back and forth with dies remaining setup exactly the same. Pretty sure a Lyman turret will be my next.piece of reloading equipment.

What are you going to start with? Pistol or rifle? Precision, plinking, type of competition?

Manual index and turret presses have the added advantage that they can be used as single stage presses as well as progressive presses.

Everyone has preferences. By way of confession, I drink blue koolaid. I started out with a Lee single stage, which I still have and still use fairly often, especially in rifle brass prep. Once I started down the path with my Dillon 550, it clearly came to dominate my bench. While I've used 650s and 1050s, I don't have the room or need to own one. The 550 has been a great press for producing .223, .38 Spl, and .40 S&W, which is about 90% of what I shoot.

Some other things to consider; bench space and reloading area. Many people do not have the luxury of a dedicated space and bench for a press. I sometimes still use my Lee hand press and dippers if I want to make adjustments to a load at the range.

You will never regret having a single stage press. Find one that works for you and your situation. Welcome to the secondary addiction of shooters everywhere.

Be safe.

Can't go wrong with a single stage....I have several presses including two Dillon's 650 progressives, that hardly ever get used except for some pistol food now and then...I reload all my rifle stuff, including piles of 223 on 40 year old single stage CH presses still.

I started with a LEE hand press - loaded many thousand rounds of .38 Special for Cowboy Action Shooting with that.

Then I went to an older RCBS JR single stage press - loaded a couple thousand rounds on that. And I still use it for loading my hunting rifle ammo - very low volume work.

Now I have two Dillon 550s, but only one is set up and used predominantly for .38 Special cowboy loads. I have spare tool heads set up for 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .233 Rem. As mentioned, it can be used as a manually indexed progressive or as a single stage.

I would still like to replace my RCBS JR with a turret (Redding T-7 preferably, but maybe the RCBS Turret) just so I won't have to worry about changing the die settings every time I change processes.

And I also use a LEE hand priming tool for all my hunting rifle ammo.

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Originally Posted by Rick_W

I started with a LEE hand press - loaded many thousand rounds of .38 Special for Cowboy Action Shooting with that.

Then I went to an older RCBS JR single stage press - loaded a couple thousand rounds on that. And I still use it for loading my hunting rifle ammo - very low volume work.

Now I have two Dillon 550s, but only one is set up and used predominantly for .38 Special cowboy loads. I have spare tool heads set up for 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .233 Rem. As mentioned, it can be used as a manually indexed progressive or as a single stage.

I would still like to replace my RCBS JR with a turret (Redding T-7 preferably, but maybe the RCBS Turret) just so I won't have to worry about changing the die settings every time I change processes.

And I also use a LEE hand priming tool for all my hunting rifle ammo.

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I also started with a lee hand press, still use it.
Forster benchrest 260 rem seating die looks funny on it but it works well.

I think starting with a SS is a good idea, forces you to not turn into a speed demon and gives you plenty of practice at setup.

Main press is a lee classic turret.

Single Stage is slower than a progressive, but as the boys told you; just depends upon what you want.
I bought the Lee anniversary kit a decade or so ago, and STILL use the thing.
When I load, I typically load a few hundred rounds at a go. To my way of thinking, if being bothered to take a tad more time to swap out dies is an inconvience, then precision isn't your goal. But that's just me.

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Originally Posted by SteelerNation

So, I'm totally excited to start reloading. Did my homework, read two books, watched videos, bought Lyman's Reloading Manual, and not comes time for the gear.

I was going to buy a progressive kit until I talked to a man that had been reloading for 30 years. He told me to go with the single stage instead. He said it will be less frustrating for me to use until I learn the art of reloading enough to graduate to a progressive press.

Is that sound advice? The single stage is a lot cheaper........seems like a bit more work though?

In not sure why the SS would be so much "easier" than the progressive.....?

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everybody here has given you excellant advice...including the person who gave you the 1st advice. single stage is going to teach you some of thee most important aspects of reloading.....from correct height to properly presse,d primers to correct load charges to roll crimp/taper crimp....the list goes on and on.
IMO......You need to learn the who/what/when/where/why,s and the single stage as everybody has stated is the way to go....you,ll need to know the mechanics of reloading like the back of your hand. Its always nice to have somebody whos been reloading for 30 plus yrs by your side when you get started.
One peace of advice I will give you is to leave "nothing" to chance.

Eddie makes a good point when he says leave nothing to chance.

Another important tid-bit is to check and double check every thing. I had an incident where the wife or one of the grandkids came in the room and distracted me. I double charged a rifle case. Fortunately, there was no way that amount of powder would have fit in a .308 case. Stay focused.

I won't tell you about the day I looked at the can of RL19 and grabbed the can of RL15.

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Originally Posted by fgw_in_fla

Eddie makes a good point when he says leave nothing to chance.

Another important tid-bit is to check and double check every thing. I had an incident where the wife or one of the grandkids came in the room and distracted me. I double charged a rifle case. Fortunately, there was no way that amount of powder would have fit in a .308 case. Stay focused.

I won't tell you about the day I looked at the can of RL19 and grabbed the can of RL15.

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And this is why I only use one powder now. No matter what I am sure I don't screw up the powder, might be a little warm once and a while but never way over pressure. I choose IMR 4895 and work on my loads for every caliber I shoot, 22hornet thru 7mm rem mag. I found many years ago speed is nice but accuracy is better.

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Originally Posted by rjtfroggy

And this is why I only use one powder now. No matter what I am sure I don't screw up the powder, might be a little warm once and a while but never way over pressure. I choose IMR 4895 and work on my loads for every caliber I shoot, 22hornet thru 7mm rem mag. I found many years ago speed is nice but accuracy is better.

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Depending on your goals, you sometimes need a fast accurate load!

Or sometimes even accurate fast load, too.

I never went in for fast. Accurate was always good enough.

Just had to aim a little higher.

My first press about 6 years ago was the Lee 4 Hole turret press. Got it in a kit with dies, powder drop etc etc. At first I really liked the auto index feature, especially for 223 and pistol ammo. When I began reloading 30-06 I had to remove the auto index rod (one single philips screw) to get clearance and manually index.

Whats great about a turret, as stated previously, is you can have 4 dies set up at once and still use it as a single stage if you choose. I chose Lee because of cost, I was poor and loved to shoot but could barely afford even the lee equipment. Looking back I am glad I did, its not the most sophisticated equipment, but it is intelligently engineered so it can be very cost effective. Other than the case feeder on the Load master loading 223 I have had zero issues with any of my Lee presses, Load Master, Breech Lock single state or my 4 hole turret.

Turret press is a great start, begin slow as a single stage and then you can begin to add features like the auto index when you are comfortable and want to increase capacity. you can buy an auto shell ejector for the Lee index rod too so you only touch the case once to put it on. I have one, but since I have bought the load master I rarely use it.

One last point that I have learned from reloading 38 different ctg.......I ALWAYS use a Lee hand priming tool for seating primers. I took the priming arm off the Rock Chucker 40 years ago. When I use the Dillon 650, I don't use the Dillon mechanism, I have the brass preprimed.
Why? I found some real loose primer pockets in the past with the hand tool. On a press, you just don't have any 'feel' how the primer is seating.
You can watch tv and prime 500 to 1000 cases before you know it...... Some of the best $ I have spent in this hobby....

ron

Quote:

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Originally Posted by n4ue

One last point that I have learned from reloading 38 different ctg.......I ALWAYS use a Lee hand priming tool for seating primers. I took the priming arm off the Rock Chucker 40 years ago. When I use the Dillon 650, I don't use the Dillon mechanism, I have the brass preprimed.
Why? I found some real loose primer pockets in the past with the hand tool. On a press, you just don't have any 'feel' how the primer is seating.
You can watch tv and prime 500 to 1000 cases before you know it...... Some of the best $ I have spent in this hobby....

ron

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I hear a lotta guys say they like the hand job primer thing. I got used to priming on the press with the gizmo that hangs off the side of the ram (Lee Classic). It works great and I can feel how they seat. The only problem with them is they're easy to lose or misplace since they don't sit in the press ram all the time.

I keep an extra set around anyway for just such an emergency. Just in case. Most of you probably know as long as you have an extra, you'll never lose the original.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fgw_in_fla

I keep an extra set around anyway for just such an emergency. Just in case. Most of you probably know as long as you have an extra, you'll never lose the original.

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HAHA, its so true. I have two sets myself and so far havn't even come close to losing either primer arm. I do have the lee hand prime tool, It was nice to sit with the Fam and watch Tv while priming all my 30-06 cases. I'll try it this week with about 500 or so 223 and see how it goes.

After you reach a certain age and after you've been married a few times and the kids are grown, you look forward to being at the opposite end of the house from the 'lil woman. Especially after she reaches a certain point in her hormonal cycle.
The door on my reload room locks from the inside, too.