Help A New Guy Get Started?

[Daddymac]

I have two singles, one turret, and three progressive presses, yes three, two of the progressives were purchased very cheaply on eBay from someone that had too much press for their skill level and had lost interest. Even if you have a good mechanical background I would have to recommend a single stage to start, and yes, it's a bummer for pistol or plinker rounds, but it certainly gave me an understanding of what needs to happen at each step. There is a lot happening with each stroke of a progressive press, if you don't have a good grip on what is supposed to be going on at each position, it will be difficult at best.

 

[Fliers]

I started learning on a Dillon 650 loading 45 rounds. Luckily, it also included a powder check station. I think my only real mistake when starting was not realizing my crimp die wasn't down far enough and my bullets were getting pushed back when shooting. I think there is plenty of information on the internet now to know what is needed at each step, with videos and everything.
I'm glad I started with the 650 because it rocks as does Dillon support.

I did pick up a cheap Lee single stage now for depriming as I didn't like my press getting so dirty. I've also loaded and measured 0 runout for my 6.5CM rounds all on the Dillon. Although, I do the powder manually on a beam scale.

 

[Bojo]

Best advice I can give to a beginner is stay away from redheads....
Super sexy but most seem to have bad wiring.

 

[JFrank]

Best advice I can give to a beginner is stay away from redheads....
Super sexy but most seem to have bad wiring.

^^^Totally Agee on this very important life lesson!
My first wife was the BOMB!
Red hair and a full sweater

 

[Bojo]

^^^Totally Agee on this very important life lesson!
My first wife was the BOMB!
Red hair and a full sweater

Going thru the big D myself right now.
Definitely not how I seen my life going.

 

[Bc'z]

^^^Totally Agee on this very important life lesson!
My first wife was the BOMB!
Red hair and a full sweater

You too!

 

[JFrank]

You too!

I’ll tell ya about it sometime
Do you remember Peggy Bundy

 

[spclark]

Best advice I can give to a beginner is stay away from redheads...

I dunno... I like my Hornady L’n’L!

Super sexy but most seem to have bad wiring.

It’s in their genes.

 

[Flouncer]

Great advice for you here. I second the recommendation to acquire and read a reloading manual. Speer, Hornady, Sierra, Nosler, Berger (no pistol) etc. Go slow. Be in a quiet unfettered place and state of mind. Check, hand check all that you load. Feel, touch, see the rounds. You may be amazed and glad at what you catch this way Good luck and enjoy.

Edit: a search here will lead you to some other threads and quests like yours.

 

[BoydAllen]

IMO you need to learn how to load on a single stage press. You don't know what you don't know.

 

[Fliers]

As stated above, you can remove a pin in the Dillon's slot 3 or 4 and easily use it as a single stage.

 

[Whisky Tahoe Foxtrot]

I've been saving multi caliber pistol and rifle brass for awhile. I'd like to start buying reloading equipment and take the plunge. I don't really want to start small with a beginner setup and was thinking about purchasing a Hornady Lock-N-Load AP. I also thought I'd start by reloading 9 mm ammo and then expand. But now I realize I have some questions about reloading procedures and how to best use a progressive press.... This is a little confusing. Any advice or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum Doc! I can remember saving brass for that day when I would start reloading. You did the most important thing and that was joining this forum. I joined only a little while before you and have learned so much from everyone and their generous knowledge sharing.

When I was considering my 1st press, I splurged and went with a used Redding T25 6 station turret press. I still do things by hand one pull at a time, but can save time as well by having several stations prepped. Not the same thing as a progressive setup, but suits my need to be hands on as the feel of everything is important for knowing when something isn't right.

Regarding your pistol dies, consider getting carbide dies. You can resize without case lube.
It's a real time saver

Regarding sizing and decapping, there are many ways you can go about this. You received feedback about the Lee decapping die. It's a great accessory to have and usually is one of the dies in my press that stays put. You may not realize that the decapping/expanding rod in most sizing dies can be tweaked to suit your needs. You can pull the pin out for just expanding or in some cases replace the expander with just a pin holder for just decapping. In some dies, you can pull the whole thing out and only resize with basically a body die.

Finally, don't worry too much about buying something then wanting something better later.
The classifieds at the forum is a great way to pass along your items you no longer need. Stuff seems to sell pretty quickly. Cheers!

 

[XrayDoc88]

So this could be a borderline stupid question, but I'm taking the plunge anyway!

I've read how many people that wet tumble their brass use a little dawn dishwashing soap and some Lemi Shine or citric acid and get nice shiny brass. Does that brass stay shiny in storage, or does it tarnish by oxidation with time? Does anyone add some wax or polish to their wet tumble to prevent that? Or would any type of brass coating on the inside mess with the future powder explosion?

 

[CarlGeorge]

In my experience my brass tends to dull a little over time after I take it out of the tumbler. For what it's worth - I'm not using Dawn. I use Armor All Wash & Wax. I went to it because someone on a board said they thought it kept the brass shinier longer. But frankly, I didn't pay any attention to whether that was the case. For me the value in clean shiny brass is for the loading process (easier to inspect internally for pistol cases, etc.) and my brass tends to get loaded pretty quickly after I clean it.

 

[AJC]

So this could be a borderline stupid question, but I'm taking the plunge anyway!

I've read how many people that wet tumble their brass use a little dawn dishwashing soap and some Lemi Shine or citric acid and get nice shiny brass. Does that brass stay shiny in storage, or does it tarnish by oxidation with time? Does anyone add some wax or polish to their wet tumble to prevent that? Or would any type of brass coating on the inside mess with the future powder explosion?

That really depends on where you live, and how its stored. In southern California brass seemed to stay shinny forever. Here in TN the high heat and humidity seems to not help at all, even though i try and keep my safe dry with several dehumidifiers. Like they said earlier the very clean cases for me is to be able to do a very good inspection and see any flaws/cracks. I use any dish soap and some lemishine.

 

[Webphut]

I only own single stage presses. Every cartridge I load is done to as close to exact personal likings as possible, meaning I measure every case base to shoulder tangent, weigh every case powder charge, weigh every case, measure every loaded cartridge base to ogive. If you are going to load nice hand loads, there is no way a progressive press will fit into a hand loaders tool box with the expectation that it will pay for itself. Now if you want to just save money and load 1000 rounds of 308 ammo for your AR10, then yeah that might work out.

 

[spclark]

If you are going to load nice hand loads, there is no way a progressive press will fit into a hand loaders tool box with the expectation that it will pay for itself.

Whoo that's a big statement to make here.

I know US Rifle Team members who load their match rounds on progressives. 3,000 - 5,000 rounds loaded and fired in a season isn't unusual.

Admittedly they don't use them as progressives, but with their methods having been worked out carefully ahead of time a progressive press can be reliably capable of loading high-quality match rounds.

As with shooting, it's "not the arrow, it's the Indian."

(And I by no means intend that to disparage our Native Americans.)

High quality tools are capable of high quality results when used in a manner appropriate to their intended use.

 

[Rsadams]

The work mate or shop mate table conversion to a reloading bench is a very nice way to go with limited space.... Even with alot of space it will never be enough , ask any reloader that built his bench big enough , it doesn't take long for it not to be...

Keep an eye out for the old black and Decker work mate tables that fold up... Many people use them and there's plans easy to find to convert it to a portable reloading bench... I found a nice one at a yard sell last year for $10 bucks... Attaching the press to it using wing nuts makes it easy to set up and tear down , easy to fit in a closet or under a bed...

You can find this setup I am sure on you tube somewhere.... Then with the edition of a folding table to hold the stuff besides the press your in business , all of this stuff can slide under a bed etc... You just need a sturdy table for the press and stable place for the scale , they are very sensitive , the rest is easy.... Good luck and enjoy it....

 

[Toddmack]

I think I'd like to deprime and then tumble brass before resizing. Do you need a die and press to deprime or do they make a hand held device that would work on both pistol and rifle cartridges?

Frankford arsenal depriming tool

This has worked very good for me so far. .243 Win - .223. You can sit and watch TV while de-priming your brass.

 

[divingin]

I've been saving multi caliber pistol and rifle brass for awhile. I'd like to start buying reloading equipment and take the plunge. I don't really want to start small with a beginner setup and was thinking about purchasing a Hornady Lock-N-Load AP.

After a 30 year break from shooting, I jumped back in, and the AP is what I went with. I have had no regrets with the purchase.

That said, there are pluses and minuses to progressives and single stage setups:

Progressives are faster. Hands down you can crank out a lot more ammo on a well-setup progressive than you can on a single stage.

Single stages are [generally, and maybe "can be" would be a better term to use] more precise. For precision rifle ammunition, a single stage press, or/and an arbor press would be the way to go. A single stage press is less complex, so troubleshooting loading problems is a lot simpler.

1. I like the idea of wet tumbling with the primer pockets removed so everything looks shiny. Do people run their dirty brass through the automatic case feeder just to remove the primer before tumbling? Doesn't this step also resize the brass? Resizing dirty brass seems wrong to me.

The advantage of wet tumbling is that it gets the entire case clean: outside, inside and primer pocket. For pistol, I don't worry about the pockets - never seen a difference dirty or clean; for rifle, if not wet tumbled, it gets hit with a manual pocket cleaner, which adds, what, maybe 5 seconds per case?

If you want shiny ammo, once loaded, consider a vibratory tumbler. That will clean the outside to like-new appearance, but doesn't do much for the inside or the pocket. No drying involved. Run time can be as short as 30-45minutes depending on cases and media.

Wet tumbling (in my experience) has a run time of a couple to several hours, takes longer to separate media from cases, and has a drying period afterward.

2. Isn't case length trimming, chamfering and deburring done after a clean case is resized? Wouldn't this step be skipped using a progressive press?

First off, it's not something you need to do every time. Usually every 3 to 10 firings will do OK (you can tell by measuring the cases.)

Ideally, you'd trim after sizing, as the case will grow a bit as it's squeezed. Realistically, either way, as the case growth after trimming will not be enough to cause problems. Dillon's higher end presses have a station that can be devoted to trimming (though I'm not sure about chamfering. I don't use Dillon due to cost.) If you're single-stage, it's an added step in the middle.

3. Is case length trimming, chamfering and deburring only practically done on rifle cartridges? Is a single stage press preferred for rifle reloading?

Yes, and Usually.

Most pistol cases don't lengthen. A test of .45ACP running hot loads and a single case showed that the case actually shortened over time, as the head compressed.

Single stage is preferred for rifle due to the greater inherent precision over a progressive.

4. How does one best use a progressive press to include all the important aspects of reloading? In other words, what is your sequence of reloading steps, including brass preparation, so that you can reload efficiently? It seems to me that a progressive press would be best used with all new brass. Can you add the brass preparation step and still use a progressive press well?

In my case, fired pistol brass gets decapped on a single stage press, wet tumbled, dried, then runs through the AP with standard dies.

Precision rifle ammo gets steel-wooled at firing, neck sized and decapped (arbor press), primer pocket cleaned, checked for length and trimmed if necessary, and then is then considered good to go. Loaded on an arbor press.

AR ammo gets roughly the same treatment as pistol ammo, with the added step of measuring the cases for length and trimming/deburring if necessary. Single stage press with conventional dies. I may move this to the progressive press, if I ever get around to futzing with it to get it working smoothly.