Brand New To Reloading, My Friend That Is In To Reloading Has Me Paranoid? What To Buy And Do?

I think his friend was spot on except maybe lubing pistol cases cus of carbide dies . Let me tell you why I think this .

I once was watching my buddy years ago teach his son how to do the family business . What he was teaching was every trick and corner to cut to adequately get the job done . I'm normally the kind of guy that stays out of others parenting but this was my best friend from middle school I I care about his son . So later that day I pulled my buddy aside and quite aggressively gave my opinion on how he should teach his son to do a job . That was to teach them the correct way to get the job done perfectly with out exception . Then explaining that gives him the foundation to get the job done correctly and he later with experience can choose some short cuts we all need to do from time to time to get the job done on time while still having the final results be expectable . I told him by teaching him all the shot cuts infers that's the best way to do it and when his son needs to cut corners later what corners will he cut and still end up with an expectable result .

Although not exactly the same here I feel some are suggesting he not worry about things he should . I know as a new reloader I needed my cases to be clean to inspect them . I think he should trim his cases at first to help understand why it's important and see how much they vary and grow after sizing .

I just think he should learn the best way then later remove or add steps as needed . He should get a manual like Lymans 50th and read it from start to load data . That will help his foundation , once he has that baked in maybe we give helpful pointers then of what may not be needed because he will have some foundational knowledge to work with and compare are answers to .


Edit, I was just reading this post and noticed that Siri got a lot of stuff wrong oh well I don’t feel like going back and fixing it all right now maybe I’ll do it later
 
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At your expected volume, there is nothing wrong with starting off with a turret or single stage press. You could start off progressive, but those presses are much less flexible. It is probably better to start off slower.

The Hornady LNL will last forever...had mine since like 2003, I think. Even converted to the new priming, ejection and powder throw. A single stage kit will be cheaper and more complete than starting progressive.

I would get a good powder measure and priming tool. Some priming methods are pretty slow. As bench primer is a bit more, but pretty fast, IMO. Also, a case prep center adds a lot of speed to trimming, primer pocket clean/uniform, deburring and chamfering. As you can see, I do those mostly for rifle, but they caa as n be done on pistol.

I would recommend some cleaning method...dry tumbling works for me.

RELOADING MANUAL
 
I am still using a single stage after many years. I will however, process 1-2,000 pieces of brass at each stage, so I am not resetting the dies more than I would with a turret press. It's basically once per stage while processing all of that brass into finished cartridges. I do have a number of reloading trays. Just another thought.

Jack
 
As others have mentioned, pistol brass doesn’t need trimmed, however I lube all my cases and only because it makes things run smoother. I load everything I shoot, but I mostly shoot 45, 40 and 9mm…all my brass is tumbled before loading…way before loading. I have plastic shoe boxes with spent brass; once they get full they get tumbled and dumped into a 5 gallon bucket. When I start to load I just take a couple handfuls out and place them in a Milk-Bone jug…couple squirts of Dillon lube and tumble them and drop into case feeder. I load everything on a Dillon XL-650…

Station 1 - Decap and size
Station 2 - Powder, primer and bell case
Station 3 - Empty, but a powder level alarm can be used
Station 4 – Seat bullet
Station 5 – final crimp

With each stroke of the handle a new case is dropped into station 1 and a loaded cartridge is dropped into an ammo can as well. I can only speak to the Dillon and with everything in reach (powder, primer, bullets) I can and have loaded 3k worth of 9mm in just under 3 hours…the biggest bottle neck is the primer capacity (100) and powder capacity (1lb approx..), however that can be fixed with an aftermarket extended powder tube from UniqueTek.
 
I'll weigh in with my $.02

First, I'd suggest the OP read this sticky thread:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230171

Forget what anyone here says and pick up a couple of those reloading manuals and read them. That's not because I think you are getting bad advice, its just that I think you should put away any pre-conceived ideas about how this should work and read about how the experts say it should be done. THEN start gathering the stuff to reload.

As has been stated, you are going to have a hard time finding components. Gunbroker.com will have listings for components at outrageous prices due to the current shortage. You'll have to decide if paying those prices is worth the ability to start loading and shooting now, or will you decide to wait out the storm and start stocking up later?

I went through pretty much exactly what you are going through during the Obama panic, and I ponied up and paid outrageous prices to start loading then.

I bought a reloading kit for the Lee 4 hole turret classic press. LOVE it. Great press. And I did what a lot of people are saying and ran it as a single stage press following the reloading manual step by step for a while before I started trying to increase volume.
 
Tumble and clean your brass so you don't scratch your dies. I shoot outdoors and pick up dirty cases.

Resize with carbide dies. In the old days you had to lube your pistol cases and the sticky stuff picked up dirt and took more time. Yes, there's Hornady One-Shot but I don't use it with my carbide dies. I just resize. I decap when I resize because I don't want the walnut shells stuck in my flash hole. The cheapest tumber I've found is at Harbor Freight with one of their coupons. I buy crushed walnut shells at the Feed Store. I save the dirty crushed walnut shells sometimes to soak up spilled oil from a bad oil change before tossing it.

I don't clean my primer pockets unless its for my rifles. If the flashole is clear, the flame will go through.

Buy a Lee Factory Crimp die and use it. I use to call it the "fix-it" die because the cases would bulge for some bullet/case combinations every so often and your reloaded cartridge wouldn't chamber. What a hassle. The Lee factory crimp dies resizes the whole cartridge case diameter.

If you're going to reload a high-power rifle cartridge, start with a single stage press. I never heard of anyone that took accurate rifle reloading seriously using anything else. You have to take your time and make consistent/accurate loads. No mistakes. I think a progressive is fine. The Hornady Lock-and-Load is a good alternative.

Take your time and focus on your reloading. Don't get distracted.. I've picked up discarded reloads at the range, pulled them apart, and found some with no powder or very little or variances in the load. You can't afford a squib load with a bullet stuck in your barrel. Yes, you can find a wooden dowel to hammer it out but what a hassle. And, hopefully you're not shooting fast. So, before you seat your bullets, look into every case to make sure there's powder in it! I always do this.

Besides that, start simple since you're a beginner. Clean the cases, resize, prime, charge the cases with powder, seat the bullet ( start with a factory size to set your dies to ), resize and crimp, and shoot.

Oh, and if your worried about case length, just find cardstock and make a go/no-go gauge for the longest acceptable length. I personally have never resized pistol casings. You will be picking up so many at the range left by other shooters, you won't have to worry about it.
 
Go buy a copy of The ABC's of Reloading. About $30 on Amazon or your local gun shop. It's a beginner's How to.
"...Pistol cases don't need to be lubed, ever..." That depends entirely on what sizer die you have. Not all of 'em are carbide.
"...not cleaning primer pockets is DANGEROUS..." Um, no. The pockets will get cleaned enough when you tumble anyway.
"...some people NEVER have trimmed their 45ACP and similar pistol calibers..." Isn't necessary. Pistol cases, either rimmed or rimless, rarely stretch, so trimming just isn't required.
Bottle necked rifle cases only get trimmed when they get longer than the Max Case length given in your manual. Trimming is only done when necessary. It is not something that's done every time.
 
Thank you all so much for the help! I think I'm going to get the Lee Class Turret Press with the 4 holes for 4 dies. That press seems like a good middle ground for paying attention to 1 round at a time, but not taking it too far.

Obviously ammo prices and components right now are INSANELY expensive and hard to come by. The price on the Lee though seems quite decent too, and it sounds like I could load 10s of thousands of rounds before it breaks?
 
adn258 said:
Thank you all so much for the help! I think I'm going to get the Lee Class Turret Press with the 4 holes for 4 dies. That press seems like a good middle ground for paying attention to 1 round at a time, but not taking it too far.

Obviously ammo prices and components right now are INSANELY expensive and hard to come by. The price on the Lee though seems quite decent too, and it sounds like I could load 10s of thousands of rounds before it breaks?
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You’ll never regret getting the Lee Classic Cast turret. Starting out by deleting the advance function is fine, but I recommend leaving it in. By automatically advancing each stage you eliminate the possibility of dropping a double charge from your powder drop. It’s not a complicated mechanism and is a very simple process to use safely. You always know what stage your in, all you have to do is look at which die is positioned above the ram and your good in case of interruption or any confusion. Here is my setup, stage one size and deprime on the up stroke and prime on the down stroke, stage two bell case mouth and drop powder, stage three seat bullet, and stage four remove bell from case mouth or crimp depending on what your loading. On my .38sp wadcutter target loads I just remove the bell, all other loads are crimped to varying degrees depending on requirements.
 
adn258 said:
Thank you all so much for the help! I think I'm going to get the Lee Class Turret Press with the 4 holes for 4 dies. That press seems like a good middle ground for paying attention to 1 round at a time, but not taking it too far.

Obviously ammo prices and components right now are INSANELY expensive and hard to come by. The price on the Lee though seems quite decent too, and it sounds like I could load 10s of thousands of rounds before it breaks?
Click to expand...
Buddy, you could probably load 100,000s of rounds on that thing. Maybe millions. More rounds than you'll ever reload in your lifetime.
 
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