How to value reloading equipment.

ballman6711 said:
I'm in the camp of "hang on to it awhile". You may change your mind in a month or two, and wish you hadn't sold it. And replacement cost will certainly be more than you get for your current equipment.

So rather than selling it, sit on it and re-evaluate your current loading procedure to figure out why you are making "bad" ammo.

Write down step-by-step how to load xx cartridge. Every step from tumbling to shooting. Laminate it, and keep it on your bench. Then walk away from it all for awhile.

If, after a period of time, you still want to sell your equipment, see if your LGS will sell it for you on consignment. They'll get a lot more potential buyers than you will.

chris
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About my suggestion as well. We've all made mistakes and such. I've made some where I've just stepped back for a bit and reevaluated the situation. Lay off it for a bit, then start over, taking it slow. Handloading and reloading can give you fits at times, but sometimes a little layoff will get you back on track
 
Thank you all so very, very much for all that information. I will start researching what I paid for things when I started and gathered since then. I've let things sit for about 3 months now. Last month because of a bad case of tennis elbow and repetitive movement was contraindicated. All the dies for everything are RCBS Carbide dies. I didn't want to scrimp there. Somehow I ended up with 3 balance scales and 2 digital. .303 British is all but impossible to find. I know it's at least 6 boxes of primers. About 40 pounds of powder. Plenty of accessories. Collet bullet puller, which has been very helpful. Yesterday I pulled every round I made for the last year that I had. I would have hated to that with a kinetic hammer. How I ended up with two collet pullers, I don't know that either. I found many empty cases that I had rolled up as test bullets without powder mixed in with the loaded. A fair amount of under load and some over. I knew before I bought the Loadmaster that you had better like to fiddle with things. I do, and that's always been part of the joy. I've had about 8 squibs in the 3 months before quitting last fall. One of them was a .38 double squib. Thank goodness it was in a .357 pistol. Gunsmith says it's still good. Most of the squibs were 9 mm. I'm giving serious thought to rolling up some .38 for my wife to break in her new .357. Starting from scratch and going through the current Speer manual, page by page. That double squib really scared me.

I bought most everything hardware about 8 years ago. I bought the primers and most of the powder within the last 6 months. I have an acquaintance who has expressed an interest in reloading. He might be a "worthy" person to donate too. I haven't been able to find a mentor so that option is out. I'm on good terms with my Gunsmith. I thought, maybe asking him to take a look. I'm also on good terms with the local pawn shop owner. I was thinking of asking him to come take a look and see what he says. 50% of what he figures he could sell it for. I know I'm not going to make a fortune off this. I figured maybe $400.00 or $500.00. Mostly because of the powder and primers. I'll dump whatever I get out of it into commercial ammo if I do decide to sell.

Avix.
 
Captain Quack said:
I know it's at least 6 boxes of primers. About 40 pounds of powder
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Captain Quack said:
I figured maybe $400.00 or $500.00. Mostly because of the powder and primers
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6K primers and 40# of unopened powder will bring well over your estimate. 20# of unopened powder at just $20 per lb is $400.

I wish you the best in your decision.

chris
 
If any of us are close to you , we might want to buy some stuff from you and you would probably get a better price for it . You probably have $1000 to $1200 dollars in powder and $420 in primers .
 
You better think it through because you will never be able to replace what you have for the price you paid or the price you could sell it for. I have been like that before, just take a few months away from reloading & when you come back start off slow to get the safety worked into your process.
 
Peruse the reloading tool listings on eBay. Except primers and powder, you will find dozens of reloading tools and accesseries, which give you a realstic apprasial of what prices are being asked and what they are actually selling for.
 
I'll do that Litetrigger. I just went through and decapped and hand primed. I have a head set up just for decapping and a collet bullet puller on the same one. I have a head set up for each caliber. I just went to look at the .38 head and realized, for some stupid reason, I had pulled all the dies and I lost track of which ones are which. I don't have a decaping pin in the sizing die. I know the powder die because I have the extension. I can't identify the others. I took a picture and sent it off to Lee. I read they get this a lot. I've decided I'm going to do a couple of hundred .38 and see how that goes. If it goes well. Then I'll try some 9 mm. I also need to go through what I have duplicates of. Like the Collet bullet puller and the scales. I understand there is a place here to list them.

Captain Quack.
 
Guess I'm wondering why OP started loading in the first place......and do those same reasons still apply? If yes, then start over with process to get the wrinkles ironed out. If not, then has to decide if he wants to get as much of his investment back as he can, or if he just wants it gone. Strategies for both methods.
 
Primers and powder should move quickly if priced at 90% of present retail.

Used equipment: don't overlook the possibility of trades. If a friend has something you like, offer to swap your equipment and maybe even a little cash to boot. Worst he can say is "No".
 
Captain Quack said:
I'll do that Litetrigger. I just went through and decapped and hand primed. I have a head set up just for decapping and a collet bullet puller on the same one. I have a head set up for each caliber. I just went to look at the .38 head and realized, for some stupid reason, I had pulled all the dies and I lost track of which ones are which. I don't have a decaping pin in the sizing die. I know the powder die because I have the extension. I can't identify the others. I took a picture and sent it off to Lee. I read they get this a lot. I've decided I'm going to do a couple of hundred .38 and see how that goes. If it goes well. Then I'll try some 9 mm. I also need to go through what I have duplicates of. Like the Collet bullet puller and the scales. I understand there is a place here to list them.

Captain Quack.
Click to expand...
I understand the concern. I pulled most of the reloads my father in law made since about 2015 and could see his decline in the loads. Not just the consistency - or lack of - but the lack of quality. That was a big shock for me. Pops was a perfectionist.

I found more than one primer inside a loaded .45 ACP. More than a dozen no powder loads. More than a dozen double powder loads. A few scattered no primer loads. Seating depths were consistent but that’s about it.

If you decide you can’t trust your memory anymore, stop. It’s not worth a blowup.
 
About 13 years ago, my Much Better Half got into cowboy action. And if any of you shoot that, you know commercial cowboy loads are expensive. Most of the shooters in our group did reload. I had also just quit smoking (successfully this time) and decided I deserved a present. Initially, the basic things. Press. (Lee Loadmaster). Dies. Scales. Powder. Bullets. I have a good bullet maker 35 miles away, and we drive right past their factory every month, and they do sell out the door. Rocky Mountain Bullets out of Lewiston, Idaho. It pretty much paid for all the basics in about 4 months in savings for all our rounds.

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When things went to heck with the group, she lost interest. I reloaded .38/.357. 9 mm and .45 for a while (Yes, yes. I know, liking both is a cardinal sin, LOL). Then just sort of left everything sitting there for a couple of years. When we had to move very suddenly, all the accumulated reloading stuff ended up in 5 boxes. In about half an hour. A real mess. They sat in our shed for about 8 years, and we decided we wanted to get back into shooting and 2nd A activities. Dug all the stuff out. Sorted it out. Got my turret press working with the help of many people here. And then discovered the prices had gone into High Earth Orbit. We're both retired and on the fixed incomes. I still had a bunch of powder and primers from before we moved. I slowly got back to where I had what I needed (I scored 6 boxes of primers at the height of the shortage. You don't want to know what I paid for them. Ramen for a month, lol). Since I got everything up and running, I was mostly loading 9 mm. That was a disaster. I couldn't get the Lee auto measure to throw consistent loads. Replaced it. I was unable to get the seater to seat consistently. Replaced that. I was unable to get a round to feed in my wife's new Tarurus G3C even when I copied the Blazers that did work. When my Wife had the double squib, I decided it was best to stop for a while. That was the 8th squib I had had in a couple of months. I knew I had been doing something wrong, but even with all the help I got here (and a phone call from the owner of RMR trying to help) It just wasn't working. A friend did build me a much better bench. Still no luck. That all added up to taking a break. I'm now at the do I sell it all or start fresh point? Set the press up from scratch (again). Read all the manuals and all the YouTube and web pages. Pulling and depriming all the .38 and 9 mm I had already loaded went very smooth. If you own a Lee Loadmast you know what that means lol. Now I'm just trying to identify all the .38/.357 dies that I pulled out of the head for some stupid reason. Photo off to Lee. I'm going to roll up 100 rds of .38. If that goes well. Then 100 rds of 9 mm and see how that goes. I'll still be checking the used prices on things. That's where I am right now. I'll get the .38 dies sorted out. Load them up. Range day when it gets warm enough and no one else will be there. (Benefit of being retired). I will keep the group updated. I'm also going through things and seeing what I have duplicates of. I still don't know why I have 2 collet pullers in .30. If anyone is interested, drop me a message.

Scotty.
 
It sounds like you need to weigh every charge and do a visual double check with a flashlight to check the level of each charge .

On your 9mm , remove the barrel and use it as a gauge to test if your seated and crimped round will go all the way into your barrel ( plunk ) . The plunk and spin test . You want it to go all the way into your barrel and spin when you turn it . Start with a dummy round without a primer and powder . Also pull the bullet to see if you are crimping it too much .

You did the right thing reevaluating your reloading process with having 8 squib loads in 2 months. Thanks for being so honest , someone else can learn from this . I don’t know if you are there yet , but there is going to be a point when all of us will or should stop reloading .
 
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Does sound like OP has a desire to keep loading. If shooting much at all, with all those components already paid for, why not? BUT......something does sound amiss in the setup. If I'm reading this right, there are actually 2 presses..........a Lee Loadmaster and a Lee Turret. I'd focus on the simpler of the two.......the turret.......and load for whichever caliber you plan to use the most. Start at the beginning with the setup..........get it setup right and working.........and working well. Then when all the kinks are worked out, move on to the next one to do the same.

If all else fails, drop back to a single stage. I have both single stage and progressives in shotgun and metalica.......and the single stages make very good ammo......and no moving parts to keep track of. What you lose in speed, you gain in accuracy.
 
The turret is a Lyman that I have been using for loading for rifle when I can get .303 British. I've got enough 30'06 for my Wife's Garand to last her 2 years. That is a good idea, though. Both of them are. For this batch of .38 it's going to be look, weigh and measure each one. I would like to keep reloading. With the fixed budget and the cost of ammo, that would really eliminate us from getting out there and practicing on the 20 yard steel for "Uncivilized Encounters". We have a couple of feral dog packs and some people who are credible have reported wolf sightings. And we had those hellacious murders of those 4 students. As the town keeps getting bigger, the radio scanner and Police say we're getting more and more significant trouble. And shooting is just plain fun Last time we were out I took both my 9 mm and just went all John Woo on the target. I actually managed to hit it 6 times out of 29 shots lol. I just found 2 boxes of .22 in the back of the closet, so the 10/22 is going out with us next time too.

Thanks for all this help, guys. With getting older, I'm not sure if what's left of my mind is going, and it's time to stop. Like driving. Sometimes you may just have to stop driving. That's crossed my mind too. But my reflexes and Situational Awareness are still excellent, so I'll be out terrorizing other drivers and pedestrians for a while yet, lol.

Scotty.
 
I'm just breaking into turret with powder drop and bullet feed after 30+ years of single stage. There's a lot more going on with progressive. My suggestion would be to pick up an inexpensive Lee single stage (or use the turret in that configuration) and go back to batch loading one step at a time. Quite honestly, it's hard to mess up a batch of single stage ammo done in phases if you monitor primer depth, powder level (with a flashlight) and bullet depth and inspect each completed cart after crimping. I also recommend using a Lyman cartridge gauge...if it fits, it chambers. Easy peasy.
 
Captain Quack said:
Thank you all so very, very much for all that information. I will start researching what I paid for things when I started and gathered since then. I've let things sit for about 3 months now. Last month because of a bad case of tennis elbow and repetitive movement was contraindicated. All the dies for everything are RCBS Carbide dies. I didn't want to scrimp there. Somehow I ended up with 3 balance scales and 2 digital. .303 British is all but impossible to find. I know it's at least 6 boxes of primers. About 40 pounds of powder. Plenty of accessories. Collet bullet puller, which has been very helpful. Yesterday I pulled every round I made for the last year that I had. I would have hated to that with a kinetic hammer. How I ended up with two collet pullers, I don't know that either. I found many empty cases that I had rolled up as test bullets without powder mixed in with the loaded. A fair amount of under load and some over. I knew before I bought the Loadmaster that you had better like to fiddle with things. I do, and that's always been part of the joy. I've had about 8 squibs in the 3 months before quitting last fall. One of them was a .38 double squib. Thank goodness it was in a .357 pistol. Gunsmith says it's still good. Most of the squibs were 9 mm. I'm giving serious thought to rolling up some .38 for my wife to break in her new .357. Starting from scratch and going through the current Speer manual, page by page. That double squib really scared me.

I bought most everything hardware about 8 years ago. I bought the primers and most of the powder within the last 6 months. I have an acquaintance who has expressed an interest in reloading. He might be a "worthy" person to donate too. I haven't been able to find a mentor so that option is out. I'm on good terms with my Gunsmith. I thought, maybe asking him to take a look. I'm also on good terms with the local pawn shop owner. I was thinking of asking him to come take a look and see what he says. 50% of what he figures he could sell it for. I know I'm not going to make a fortune off this. I figured maybe $400.00 or $500.00. Mostly because of the powder and primers. I'll dump whatever I get out of it into commercial ammo if I do decide to sell.

Avix.
Click to expand...
If you want really good to great 303 ammo you'll have to load your own.
 
Captain Quack said:
Based on how many bad loads I've done in the last 6 months, I'm giving serious though to selling off my press and all the fixins. It's a safety thing. I just have no idea how to price things. It's a lee Loadmaster and a turret press. Dies for .38/.357. 9 mm. 30-06. .303 British. Plenty of powders unopened. About 6000 primers. Hundreds of cases for the .38/9 mm/'06. Lots of accessories. I just don't know where to start figuring out what it's worth. And one here have any advice on looking at this?

Captain Quack.
Click to expand...


CQ it sounds like your major issue is failure to operate the automatic powder drop correctly.

Figure out what you are doing wrong with the automatic powder drop, and you’re right back in the saddle.

No quitting.

All you gotta do is pay closer attention.
 
Captain Quack said:
I found many empty cases that I had rolled up as test bullets without powder mixed in with the loaded. A fair amount of under load and some over. I knew before I bought the Loadmaster that you had better like to fiddle with things. I do, and that's always been part of the joy. I've had about 8 squibs in the 3 months before quitting last fall. One of them was a .38 double squib.
Click to expand...

That is just the worst of a lot of scary stuff.
What is a "double squib?" Do you mean a double CHARGE of powder?

If you want to keep loading, get all your components and dies straightened out and operate in batch mode on the turret. Don't twirl the turret in operation, just use it to store dies. Sell, give away, or attack the Loadmaster with a sledgehammer, you are not safe with it.
 
A DOUBLE squib....................

They way it reads is 1 squib........................................followed by with a 2nd squib................

1 bullet didn't get out of the barrel.........................followed by a 2nd bullet that doesn't clear the barrel because the 1st squib was still in there...............................

TWO separate bullets that did not have enough powder to clear themselves out of the barrel....................

Probably good the 2nd squib was a squib, since it did not have the power to really blow things up by hitting the 1st squib..........................

SQUIB, SQUIb, SQUib, SQuib, Squib, squib................................in itself means 1...........................a DOUBLE means 2.......................................maybe a squibbed squib...........?

That's how I read it anyhoos...............................................................

Maybe Mr. @Captain Quack will clarify this event for all of us......................................................................
 
N555. I've found exactly 83 .303 British cases in the last year, and they are once shot. I haven't been able to find any bullets around here. Seems no one is making what I want. I didn't want to pay $1.20 a round off the shelf 14 or so years ago, and I had what I needed to reload it. There used to be a place down in the Lewiston Valley where I could buy the bullets by weight, and cases were easy to find. By double squib I mean the first round squibed and neither of us noticed. She squeezed again, and that first squib apparently blocked the second one. To the best of my knowledge, the second one was not a squib. It appeared to be right up against the first round. I wasn't able to rotate the cylinder, as the second bullet was just back enough to block it. Even my 'smith had a hard time getting it clear. He was surprised to find a second round. She was firing .38 light loads in a .357 pistol, and the smith said it was still good to go. I'm using a brand-new replacement Lee auto disk powder measure with the charge block. I've checked it every way I could think of. I even put a piece of duct tape across the hopper so it couldn't rotate with the vibrations of the press and start doing reduced charges. New bench. Half the dies are new. New digital scale. New micrometer. I tried to eliminate every mechanical error. Leaving only problem between chair and press. Currently, I'm halfway between loading the next hundred .38 on the progressive or on the turret press.

And the weather is getting nice, and I have to lengthen my Flag pole. My POW-MIA flag keeps catching on my deck roof at half staff.

You guys have convinced me to give it another try. I'll roll up 100 .38 and if that goes well, then roll up 100 9 mm and see where things are then. The 9 mm was where most of the squibs were.

Scotty.
 
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