just started reloading

[realmswalker]

I just picked up and RCBS single stage reloading press. Im getting some carbide dies for .44 mag, and plan on reloading for various calibers when I get money for more dies. I just wanted to get some advice from people who have been reloading for years and if you could start all over, what they would do, would not do, would not buy, or buy. I have a powder scale, tons of brass, a speer reloading manual, a hand operated primer seater, and thats about it. And I am also in the process of puchasing a workbench.

Thank you for any and all advice.


Adam

 

[esheato]

You can never have enough manuals

Ed

 

[tbeb]

I'd say you need a bullet puller, a dial caliper that measures to the thousandth of an inch, and a tumbler (to clean cases). I use is a rock tumbler which I picked up at a garage sale for ten bucks.

 

[FJC]

I'd recommend you get some test weights so that you can verify your scale is correct on a regular basis.

Also, my favorite book to recommend to those new to reloading is "The ABC's of Reloading". Check amazon.com for it.

Other than that, the name of the game is safety! Wear safety glasses, and check, recheck, and check again your powder loads (both in the manuals, on the scale, and in the cases).

 

[SASS#23149]

Is your brass 'range brass'?that is,mixed headstamps,odd lots?
If so a trimmer could come in handy so that the bullets all look the same when crimped.Odd lots of brass can easily be .010 variance,and althought yoiu can use it this way for the most part,it's nice to know they are all the same length.One thing you will find is that even new brass can be UNDER the trim to length spec'd in the books.They work too.Never figured out how new brass could be .005 under,but it happens.
What I do is size and deprim them,then measure em all and sort 'em into bins while finding out the 'average' of the bunch and trimming 'em to that length.You'll only have to do it once in a while(read almost never) after the initial run .you'll need a de-burring tool to deburr after trimmin.
don't get real hung up on the oal...a couple thousandths here or there is good enough for plininking and probalby for serious stuf too.

 

[armoredman]

Some wonderful people decided it was time for me to reload, so they sent my everything I needed except powder and primers! The only things I miss are the bullet puller, and the tumbler. A kinetic bullet puller is pretty cheap, $10 or so, and an old ice cream maker can be the tumbler. A powder measure is a very good thing, easier to dump the bang dust by far!. The dial calipers, ($20 or so) is a very handy tool for OAL checks.
More loading data, available free from the powder companies, is a very very good idea. A couple of loading blocks, though they don't sound important, are a BIG help.
Have fun!

 

[taliv]

i'd recommend a chrony. chrono a bunch of different brands of factory loads, target, self-defense, and match grades, and then chrono a bunch of your handloads. you may be very surprised with the results.

 

[Waitone]

Keep a notebook of dates, receipes, weights, products, etc.

Safety equipment includes safety glasses and check weights.

Two or more different reloading manuals.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Records

First of all, welcome to the club! Reloading is a magnificent obsession if you want it to be; a handy way to whip up a couple boxes of cheap ammo if that's what you want it to be. Most people seem to end up somewhere in between.

Waitone has it right--Write down everything you did, label the batches of ammo, keep different stuff separate. Reloading is all about being able to repeat what you did before, with each round, so the more you know about the brass, past performance with a give weapon, powder weight, etc, etc, etc, the better off you are. You almost can't do too much in the area of keeping records on your reloads, nor in the area of keeping different lots of brass separate.

Free range brass is very nice for $$. You may end up buying brass if "nobody" leaves your desired empties @ your local range, or if you want some REALLY uniform brass. Norma and Lapua are the 2 most expensive and best makers of rifle brass. Here again the name of the game is uniformity and repeatability.

Agree on ABC's of Reloading. Agree on buying every different manual you can get, and look up a prospective loading in each one. You may find a disagreement or 2 between the manuals. You can't read up too much on what you propose to do. Why re-invent the wheel?

Agree on the niceness of having a chronograph, but IMHO it is not needed in the first flush of reloading, but rather something you get once you have gotten good at the basics.

Ask other reloaders--They are generally very helpful and sharing with info about a particular procedure, what works or what doesn't.

DO NOT believe any source that reccommends juicing up a load considerably more than everybody else. No matter what the source. If you think you need the very hottest load a given cartridge is capable of using, what you really need is a different cartridge/weapon, where that level of hotness is midrange, not pushing the envelope.