Pieces to buy next?

Funny the Lee Safety Scale and my electronic small Lyman don't actually agree (yes the Lyman is zeroed). I wonder which one is off.
Click to expand...

In my world that includes calibrating sensors, that is the $64 question.

How much is it off?

Keeping in mind that 9mm and smaller are indeed dicey cartridges and pressure is a few tenth of a grain away, if they are close it does not matter.

Err on the side of caution when working up loads.

If my CO sensors are within 5 ppm of the base gas, that's more than good enough.

We trigger a CO flush at 30 ppm and that's the low end of recommended (50 ppm for 8 hours is the standard, ie a time based 400 ppm)
 
Trimmer Recommends:

If you go with two or three rifle cartide, then the Tri Trimmer works and works gang buste if you put your drill in a vice upside down and clamp it in (gnely!) You have a motorize fixed base setup.

On the other hand, if you are pushing 4 and may go more, then the motorized Gerard is the better way to go.

The adapsors are low cost, easy to swtich out. And they are aviable in literly any cartdige.

In my case, my 7.5 Swiss is NOT made in a Tri Trimmer, so I had to go with the Trim It II. They do not pre adjust that at the facoylike the Tri Timmer is so its a long process (mostly learning due to the difference in how they adjust, The Tri Trimmer has adjustment as well but from the facotyr it is adjusted and a sample case they did it on and likely will not need any, if it does its the length and that is easier on it)

While the Little Crow does not chamfer and deburr, for lower use cartdige its a good solution (I do have an RCBS prep station so I can do those operation on that if not as consistant as the 3 way trimmers are)

As I am invested already in the to other trimmers the Gerard motorized is off my list, but its worth thinking about as an up front not cheap investment if you plan to expand to over 4 cartridges and for sure if one or more are an odd one like 7.5 Swiss.

With a clamped drill they are all FAST and easy.

And I thank RCBS for their Competition Micrometer Seater in the 7.5 Swiss cartridge as no one else offered one in a micrometer seater I had to wait for it a bit but worth it.
 
I use Loaddata.com and it has EVERYTHING for about $20 per year. Second, get an electronic powder measure/scale. I got the Lyman 1200 (1st Gen), which is now the Gen 5. Absolutely fantastic. Throws everything from Unique to H4831 with ease.
 
GeauxTide-I'm trying to widen my reloading horizons so when you mentioned the Lyman 1200 as being a good powder measure I did a quick search and found out they are up to gen 6. Cabelas has it on sale now (11/30/2017) for $165.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Lyma...VA7bACh3oyQgpEAQYBCABEgLMyfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It looks interesting, thanks for mentioning it.

Oops. It's quite possible I got the wrong measure. Here's a Gen 5 measure. (and I still might be mistaken.)
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/4...creen-powder-scale-and-dispenser-110-220-volt
 
Last edited:
I'm a K.I.S.S. kinda guy. I started with a Lee Loader in '69. My entire reloading inventory consisted of the Lee kit, a yellow mallet, a 24" log, one pound of Bullseye, 250 generic lead bullets, a bunch of scrounged brass, and 100 CCI primers. Of course I had to buy more primers and bullets when the first lot ran out, but this inventory kept me happy and shooting for about a year+.

Some of the suggestions are a plus, but not necessary. In my experience the single most important "tool" is a good reloading manual. I understand some reloaders can't reload without shiny, virgin lookin brass that has pristine, formed and exacting size primer pockets but I can't see suggesting such to a just getting started reloader. I would suggest to the OP to think; "is this tool necessary for safety reasons or just cosmetic foo-foo?". After a bit of basic reloading the OP can decide what's important to him, his ammo and his gun...
 
While the first part is true, the only way you can make some of those decisions is to know what else is out there, how it works, plus and minus to it (if any) cost.

Agreed that the Chronograph is not needed until down the line and you can make do fine without it. Mine died and has yet to be replaced.

I started out whacking 44 magnums into a sizer and quickly decided that was not the way to go.

I ran a RCBS Junior for many years for pistol and that and the basics worked for me.

When I started to load in quantity for rifle, then it set in that processing took a lot of time that I prefer to do other things and or needed faster just to reload so I could go shoot.

With that using ideas built up over the years and a very inter active discussion with my brother I added key equipment.

The digital scales and onto the electronic dispenser was one (when its price point worked for me).

As I was doing quantity, the off the shoulder trimmers even before the dispenser. I can't think of a more annoying job reloading than hand cranking to trim a case (and still have to chamfer and de-buss)

I am trimming 270 on the hand crank as I am not reloading or shooting that a lot.

I did get the Lyman M die for it as I hate those neck yanking sizer thingies.

You can be doing the initial and still get ideas for the future.
 
Last edited:
GeauxTide-I'm trying to widen my reloading horizons so when you mentioned the Lyman 1200 as being a good powder measure I did a quick search and found out they are up to gen 6. Cabelas has it on sale now (11/30/2017) for $165.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Lyman...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

It looks interesting, thanks for mentioning it.
Click to expand...

That is the Lyman I got, its not Gen 6, forget what they call it (I will call it Lyamn Small) (the 1200 is my backup and general bench scale)

The Lyman small works good overall.

The display is touch and I got a stylus to deal with my fat fingers.

The touch can be a bit quirky, I have had mine for 6 months I think and no failure. The ones that are at issue are the zero and calibration, the rest work fine.

If I was doing it I would put more hard buttons on it (the zero would be one, calibrate another

Nice feature is if it gets 3 or 4 tenths off it locks up until you zero it.

Its locked up a couple of time but power down and back up and good.

I keep mine powered up all the time, will see if that works or not. Cooler area so heat is not an issue.

Overall I am good with it and don't plan to replace it until it fails, hopefully 20 years from now!

I did break my Lyman boroscope (USB connector) Lyman just sent me a whole new one, RCBS like in that regard and highly recommend them support wise.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top