Reloading General?!
What is the best single stage press you can buy? Im leaning towards a RCBS Summit or even a Dillon 550 even though its a turret.
Also, any recommendations on a powered case trimmer?
If you are made of money, a giraud would be nice. "The world's finest trimmer" is probably the best value.
See if you can find aforester coax press...
>>29257275
They have the forester coax press on cabelas website and they did catch my eye. I am never buying another Lee press thats for sure.
>this happened
>>29257290
Whoops... Yeah the small ones are really only good for depriming or other low stress applications. I just use mine with the lee quick trim die for trimming 223. My lee breech lock is a lot stronger and provides a lot more mechanical advantage.
>>29257290
The hell did you do? Normal operation or went retard strength on it.
I just bought the breech lock challenge kit. Want to learn on it.
>>29257346
>>29257385
Probably trying to resize a case without enough lube. Still, the case should fail long before the press does.
>>29257229
I have a rock chucker and it's great, but if I could do it over again I would go progressive. Unless you LOVE reloading and enjoy the extra time you'll spend with the single stage.
>>29257524
Thats exactly what happened. Stuck case and the press failed. I enjoy reloading and am trying to make highly consistant ammo for my M1A, I just hate case prep.
>>29257229
>best single stage press you can buy
Forster Co-Ax by a large margin.
>dillon 550
>turret
That's a progressive
>recommendations on powered case trimmer
If you have a drill press, the Little Crow Gun Works WFT is pretty nice. I personally prefer my Giraud
>yes the Giraud is $500
>yes it was absolutely worth it
>>29257290
And this is why I keep telling people the only Lee product that isn't absolute shit is their line of pistol dies. Even their rifle dies are fucking awful.
>>29257229
WFT2(worlds finest trimmer 2) is pretty nice if you have a drill. Not bad to set up either if you have a case that is already the correct size.
I had a 550 and sold it to get a 650. I do a lot of pistol reloading and getting something that auto indexed nearly tripled my hourly production rate. The 650 was not without its faults - I had to drop about 250 bucks on after market parts to get it running the way I wanted it too with super low tolerances on OALs. Uniquetek makes some great aftermarket products for presses. They have a single stage conversion kit for the 550 I would suggest picking up if you go that route.
For rifle I have the shitty red lee press featured above. Have yet to break it but when resizing my cast bullets I swear the handle is on the verge of snapping sometimes. I'm probably going to pick up a single stage kit down the road from unique.
I don't do much precision rifle load developement, only for a 30-06 Tikka T3 lite for fun. I can tell you trickling in powder on a beam scale takes a long ass time and if I shot rifle as much as I did pistol I would definitely be dropping 200-350 bucks on one of the chargemaster style products.
Whatever you do, don't rush it. If you need too. Wait a little longer and save up to get the nicer product. I can't imagine how much more money I'd have saved if I just 'Buy once, cry onced.'
>>29257594
I have their die set and it works pretty good aside from not being able to fix the seat depth adjustment so it has to be readjusted and checked every few rounds
>>29257677
Thats kind of where I am at. I want to biy something that will last and after buying a case trimmer and a bette press I will be purchasing a chargemaster or similiar. Right now I am using a Lee hand press for everything and it blows.
>>29257688
>works pretty good
>basically unusable and definitely can't be trusted
Your definition sucks
Was saving the $3 over the Hornady American set really worth that?
>>29257721
No, but they were given to me as part of christmas gift. I will be upgrading my die set as well, but until I get a good press they are not a priority
>>29257748
eh I guess it's hard to argue with free.
>>29257753
I geuss its better to say that they are adequate for now. Do you think its econmical to reload 5.56 for plinking?
>>29257290
I can see it now:
>$40 press clearly designed for reloading handgun ammo on a razor thin budget
>let's full length resize some military surplus once fired .308 which was probably fired through a machine gun
>don't use enough lube
>derp
>blame it on Lee
Honestly, never heard of the right tool for the right job?
Sure, Lee equipment has some failings, but it works as intended in the envelope of operation intended, and costs less than other manufacturers for an equivalent piece of equipment. I say that owning a Dillon press, Forster Co-Ax and an Lee Classic Turret, having started on the Lee Classic, and generally having no regrets about it.
>>29257229
The Forster Co-Ax is widely considered to make the best ammo of any single stage press. If you want you could use an arbor press as well.
As >>29257586 said, a Giraurd would be the best powered trimmer.
>>29257840
They were once fired commercial remington brass that I had bought from walmart. I had resized about 200 rounds before that one without a hitch. I learned my lesson about cheaping out.
>>29257773
hoo that's a tough one.
If you already have a progressive press, yes. There are a few reloading accessories that are VERY expensive that greatly speed it up that are absolutely worth it if you shoot a lot.
If you're stuck with a single stage, no. If you've got an auto-indexing turret press, maybe.
All this is predicated on you either wanting accuracy or being significantly averse to steel-cased ammo. I can beat the cost of even the cheapest of the cheapshit Tula by a few cents (Tulammo is currently ~23cpr, my handloads are 16.8cpr so I'm saving a bit over a nickel), but with how much money I have tied up in reloading specifically 5.56 I'd have to shoot a couple tens of thousands for it to be worth it.
I already had a progressive press because I'm a competition handgun shooter. I had the bare basics for rifle brass prep due to shooting a few other calibers in low volume, but getting into 5.56 reloading really opened my eyes.
>first time I'd fucked with crimped primer pockets
Sitting there reaming every pocket by hand SUCKED, so I bought the Dillon pocket swager ($120).
>trimming the brass on a lathe-type case trimmer damn near gave me carpal tunnel
So I bought my Giraud ($460 with 1 caliber of cutter)
>debur/chamfer same deal as trimming
Giraud does that all in one step, so at least that was easy (if not cheap)
>depriming crimped primers and hitting the occasional random-assed berdan case, I was breaking decapping pins left and right
Got a Lyman Universal decapping die ($23)
>my RCBS green-box .223rem dies were giving me neck tension all over the fucking place and were wearing out rapidly
Bought RCBS black-box "MSR" small-base carbide dies ($47)
So on top of the essentials for reloading I'm into 5.56 specifically for about $750 in equipment.
>>29257541
>>29257524
>>29257385
>>29257290
>not fucking using a D press
>getting mad when your press breaks
>>29257942
Wow after reading all of that I think ill just stick to reloading .308 for now. I usually only shoot steel case 5.56 anyways so i guess its not worth it.
>>29257290
send it to lee years ago my dad broke a c frame like that and they sent him a o frame challenger in return
>>29257688
Change the oring to a larger one, and voila.
I have no seating depth problems.
I do like that it seats off the ogive, which some older ones did not do.
>>29258790
I never thought about that. I just threw it out after I managed to get the die out of it. I had to mangle it further so the ram would drop feely.
I have a really old RCBS press that I've been using.
I got some cheap lee dies, but since I'm using Imperial lubricants I don't have any issues.
>>29258158
Yeah, and you have to factor in your time too. Time is valuable and you should add it into the equation for reloading.
Usually by the time you have enough money to buy a really nice reloading setup your time will be more valuable than the savings you'll get from reloading. It's a good skill to have, but in my opinion it should be treated as a hobby.
>>29260052
Right now it is strictly a hobby. The ammo I am making is pretty pricey to buy commercially. With all the .308 I have loaded with my poverty setup I have paid off what I have bought. Now that I have a new job I have more time and money to devote to shooting and reloading.
I got an RCBS Rockchucker and it's a great press. Big enough to handle my 577/450.
Took a look at my die collection the other day and damn do I load a lot of different cartridges. And I'm still missing a few, like 8mm Nambu. Milsurp collecting is a disease.
>>29260052
>Yeah, and you have to factor in your time too.
no you don't if you are spending your time on here, it is worthless... I can watch netflix and reload just as well as I can watch netflix with my thumb up my butt...
>>29262696
what kind of guns do these go with?
I really need to clean my garage and consolidate all my reloading crap into just my office and the garage...
>>29262774
You asked a huge question there: M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, M1872 Remington Rolling block, Berthier rifle, Martini Henry, 71/84 Mauser, Type 38 Arisaka, P08 Luger, 1898 Krag, Henry Rifle, Moist Nugget, P14 Enfield, SMLE, Trapdoor Springfield, 450 Black Powder express double rifle, the list can go on.
>>29262931
I was going to say... I don't recognize half of those die sets so they must be pretty unique.
>>29263026
It's pretty much all old military calibers except the 44-40 and 450x3-1/4 for the 450 BP Express.
The dies I still need to get are 8mm Nambu, 9mm Jap Revolver, and 7.7 Jap.
