Reloading

Entry-level equipment can cost as little as 25-50 bucks or as much as your pockets are deep. Depends on just what you want to get into. Will you save any $$? NO! But, you will be able to shoot a helluva lot more for the same $.

Right up there with fun is accuracy. If you spend time tuning your loads, you can achieve much greater accuracy then you can with off the shelf loads. When I was rolling my own 30-06 the resulting 100 yd group size was pretty amazing after I found my 'ideal'...

: a guy need to buy when starting reloading and how much for those : items?

: I have never reloaded myself but am considering it. Is it any : cheaper to reload rather than buy off the shelf? I guess in : order to answer that you would need to know the calibre. It will : be mainly .307 Win. as well as a few .303 british.

: Good Hunting : Trevor

The biggest myth about reloading is the money saving's aspect. If you've spent $20 per trip at the range, you'll probably still spend $20 per trip. BUT you will be shooting a lot more ammunition each trip. Not only will you be able to tune the load to your rifle for maximum accuracy, but with all that extra ammo to practice with, you'll become a much better shot.

RCBS (probably others) sells everything you need to start in two packages. One is the press, and one set of dies (your choice) and two, the starter package that includes powder scale, funnels, loading block, information manual, etc. You can (and will) buy other stuff, but this will get you started. Oh, it doesn't include brass, primers, bullets, and powder, but every thing else.

I bought all my stuff eons ago, but I'd guess you could start for about $250, depending on what extras you want. Talk to the sales person at the reloading shop. Most are reloader and are there to help. If he says you need something really odd, like an $800 fully automatic case trimmer, tell him you'll get back to him and go somewhere else.

samg

i really like my RCBS strip primer tool...it is worth every penny.

Start up would be about $250 if you have to buy retail, but you can do much better buying used, maybe as low as $50 if your timing is right. The first thing you need is a reloading manual, I'm familiar with Speer and Lyman, others are probably equally good. This doesn't need to be the latest edition, but it needs to be followed religously. You'll want a good press that takes standard 7/8X14 thread size dies. Some older presses take smaller dies, avoid these like the plague. Mine's an RCBS, very common and reliable, but almost all popular brands are good. Figure about $50 bucks for a good used press. You'll want dies, and the proper shell holder to fit your press and caliber of shell. Most companies make very good dies, but make sure they're the 7/8X14 thread size. Figure ten to twenty bucks for good used dies in the popular calibers, way more or way less for the oddball ones, depending on how motivated the seller is. A powder scales is a must, and a good powder measure will be wanted very soon, but you can reload only using the scales, it's very slow to do it that way though. Figure about $20 bucks for a used scales, ditto for measures. You want a loading block to set the charged shells in before the bullet is seated, this can be store bought or easily improvised as a block of wood with holes drilled in it. You'll want a case lube pad to lube cases prior to resizing, they are cheap, but a stamp pad works too. Before too long you'll want a case trimmer to restore the case length, figure another twenty bucks. Shop at gunshops and gunshows, or you might get lucky and catch a guy selling his whole setup at a garage sale for a rediculusly low price. Usually with a half a can of powder, primers bullets, empty cases, etc. This is how you can get started for $50 bucks, but you may have to wait a long time. Ebay offers alot of this stuff that generally goes at the high end of used equipment prices, but it's easy to find that way. In fact, (warning! shameless plug comming) I have a powder measure and case trimmer on there now If your talking shotgun reloading, all you really need is the press and a good reloading reference book, a powder scales it a good idea too, to verify powder weights.

wish I could find a used press for 50 bucks. at local auctions here they go for 180 bucks and more.

Quatre wrote:

Entry-level equipment can cost as little as 25-50 bucks or as much as your pockets are deep. Depends on just what you want to get into. Will you save any $$? NO! But, you will be able to shoot a helluva lot more for the same $.

If you can shoot a lot more for the same money, then you ARE saving money.

Atomic Mojo wrote:

wish I could find a used press for 50 bucks. at local auctions here they go for 180 bucks and more.

EBAY

I buy most of all my reloading stuff on Ebay.......you can get pretty good deals most of the time. Don't screw yourself though.