Need Help with first reloading setup

[M14AMU]

RedT7 by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

 

[savagedasher]

Myself self I would get a forester press and dies. And a charge master . Larry

Buy the press and the charge master . You will never have to look back . Larry

 

[chadwickz71]

Ok

going with:

Forrester press
RCBS Chargemaster

Im still having little trouble with the dies.

I don't know the difference here and for what im doing and see you guys mentioning the type S more. My dad just used standard RCBS dies back in the day. I see competition sets and Type S sets.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/59...n-bushing-3-die-neck-sizer-set-284-Winchester
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/34...h-bushing-3-die-neck-sizer-set-284-Winchester

Same thing for the 7mm rem mag.

Which is gonna do the better job? Or why do you use one or the other.....

spending that kind of money on a die set I dang sure only want to buy once.

 

[chadwickz71]

would like to also address a chronograph. They're a wide range of cost on midway but see decent reviews on 100-$300 units like the magneto speed or Competition Electronics ProChrono Digital Chronograph http://www.midwayusa.com/product/852429/competition-electronics-prochrono-digital-chronograph

Has lots of good reviews. etc. What do you guys use.

 

[savagedasher]

Ok

going with:

Forrester press
RCBS Chargemaster

Im still having little trouble with the dies.

I don't know the difference here and for what im doing and see you guys mentioning the type S more. My dad just used standard RCBS dies back in the day. I see competition sets and Type S sets.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/59...n-bushing-3-die-neck-sizer-set-284-Winchester
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/34...h-bushing-3-die-neck-sizer-set-284-Winchester

Same thing for the 7mm rem mag.

Which is gonna do the better job? Or why do you use one or the other.....

spending that kind of money on a die set I dang sure only want to buy once.

I like Forster dies and the have the locking made for the press. Larry

 

[rayjay]

Go over to the other side of the site and start reading. Read the 6 BR stuff. Read the 6 PPC stuff. Read the 30BR stuff. All the articles. By the time you have read it you will have a good idea what top level shooters use for reloading. You will also know how to measure the shoulder bump, bullet ogive measuring for OAL / seating depth / distance to lands, etc. Then read the articles about long range competition and the articles about your specific cartridges. Then you will know what different ideas the long range guys have versus the short range BR guys. Then you can fit your purchases to match what you come away with as your ideal set up. You never go wrong copying what winning shooters are doing.

I would NOT buy the kit. If it was me I would buy the Rock Chucker press, an electronic scale that gets high reviews on the other side of this site, a Wilson case trimmer and appropriate case holders, Redding or Forrester FULL LENGTH sizing die and micrometer seater die [ neck sizing is an outmoded method not used by top comp shooters ]. If you don't want to mess with neck bushings you can get the Forrester [sp?] honed to only size the neck the needed amount. buy some decent dial calipers. Buy some Case Guards for toting your ammo and make some rayjay special music wire clips for holding them open . Neck deburring tool. Primer pocket cleaning tool. Set of reloading bench allen wrenches. Case tumbler. You really need to anneal your cases regularly but most here don't . A tool for measuring shoulder bump. Ditto for measuring OAL to the ogive of the bullet. Imperial sizing lube. Some sort of decent handheld primer tool. I used to use Lee but I think their quality has maybe fallen off from reports.

I've had fun spending all your money but you prolly won't read it all.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Sheldon N]

I don't know the difference here and for what im doing and see you guys mentioning the type S more. My dad just used standard RCBS dies back in the day. I see competition sets and Type S sets.

Go with the simpler 2 die version of that set. It combines full length sizing with your bushing neck sizing into one die. You don't need a micrometer to control how much of the neck you size, but you DO want the micrometer for your bullet seating die. I use this die set in multiple calibers....

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/265652/redding-type-s-match-bushing-2-die-set-284-winchester

You will need a bushing to size the neck down and you choose those in specific size increments. You want to load a bullet in your specific brass type, measure the case at the neck, and choose a bushing that is .001 or .002 smaller than the size of the loaded round. So for example, if your loaded round measured .312 at the neck, you would use a .310 or .311 bushing like this. (Titanium or steel)

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/270049/redding-neck-sizer-die-bushing-310-diameter-steel
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/888310/redding-neck-sizer-die-bushing-310-diameter-titanium-nitride

One of the upsides of this die set is that it gives you flexibility. You can change out bushings to control how much neck tension you have. You can either use, or not use, the expander ball that pulls back through the neck when sizing. And you can even upgrade the expander ball to a carbide version like this...

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/150931/redding-carbide-size-button-kit-284-caliber-7mm

Lots of other die sets out there too, Forsters are well regarded as well.

For a chrono, I'd recommend this one, simple to use and very accurate.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/896627/magnetospeed-sporter-chronograph

 

[Mozella]

Buy the press and the charge master . You will never have to look back . Larry

I happen to own a Chargemaster, but I would not recommend it for someone on a budget, especially for making cartridges intended for shooting at 1000 yards. Here's why:

The Chargemaster will take some of the tedium out of hand loading and it will will greatly speed up making plinking ammo. But when it comes to making competition loads for long range shooting, it simply can't be trusted. It's just not accurate enough. I check and correct each and every Chargemaster load for 600 yard F class competition. A few out of a batch of 70 rounds are right on the money, but most require a minor adjustment to be good enough.

Buying a Chargemaster isn't a bad thing, but someone just starting out and not wanting to spend a ton of money would be better served spending that $360 on some other piece of gear. With a good scale, a cheap trickler, and some time on your hands, you can produce more precise loads than the Chargemaster will make, at least if you're not allergic to tedium.

Of course, when the reloading disease progresses further, we reloaders will spend unlimited amounts of money in a desperate attempt to speed things up and/or reduce group size. But I would suggest the OP hold off on a Chargemaster until he's hopelessly hooked.

 

[savagedasher]

I guess found the charge master won't work in F class . The short game benchrest sure seen many green machines Several of us shoot 600and 1000 and we all have green on the bench Larry

 

[WindSurgeon]

I have read two recommendations I don't agree with.

1. Get a chargemaster - I purchased one and decided it was a mistake. It is not accurate enough to throw the exact same charge every time. At best it is a luxury to the reloader who competes at long range or desires competitive accuracy. It is only good for under charging and then trickling up. Not any faster than using a manual powder thrower and trickling up. In fact it is slower.

2. Buy an electronic scale: Unless you buy a scientific grade Sartorius magnetic scale and spend way over a $1000 on it, you will find yourself re-zeroing every time results in a lack of confidence in what the scale is telling you each time. There are so many variables in an electronic scale (air flow, magnetic fields from light, ghosts and goblins) accuracy and drift to manage. Again, this slows you down. Get a high quality beam scale.

As far as the dies, you can't go wrong with either Forster for full length sizing or the Redding competition dies (with seating micrometer). They both make very strait ammo and are precision tools.

 

[Tommie]

I'd buy the kit with the intention of replacing some of the components in the future. Waste of money? Hardly!

As you can see, there's a considerable amount of opinion involved in the responses to your question. Individual experiences and preferences come into play. It's like asking "What's the best car?". There's really no such thing as the universally accepted perfect reloading setup.

Start with the kit, begin reloading and get plenty of sandbox time in. As time goes on you may (or may not) start to notice how one or more components in the kit aren't meeting your needs. At that point you'll know what particular features are important to YOU and then you can start making purchasing decisions based upon what will work best for YOU. Sell the replaced kit component to recoup a few bucks.

Is this an expensive approach to building the "perfect" reloading setup? Heck no by a long shot. Any replaced components paid their rent by teaching you something. Knowledge and experience are the most valuable "components" in reloading.

 

[chadwickz71]

yes I can see the opinions and agree with just about all of them.

KNOWING MYSELF, I am that kind of person that regardless if im never gonna shoot a comp match, I won't sleep at night wondering if my charges are on point. I unfortunately am just one of those people Its a hobby for my dad and I but we do want to try to do the best we can.

I know I won't be shooting 1000's of rounds a year, my business both mine and my dads just won't allow it.

Therefore if this helps this is how i'd narrow it down for you guys to help me. No doubt the press and dies will be top quality. The powder loading scale seems to be the most important just in my eye. I don't care if it takes a little more time to load say 50 rounds before we go shoot, but I want my loads to be as consistent as possible. I do tend to cringe a bit on the $1200 scale. I don't mind doing it by hand if there is a beam scale balance that can be close to the Sartorius electronic and check it every time I load with a known weight.

If the Sartorius was ~500 i'd just buy it.

 

[savagedasher]

Do you not get any sleep worrying about putting a 1 tenth of a grain of powder in a case that has 1/2 of grain of capacity difference . I would Larry

 

[Sheldon N]

yes I can see the opinions and agree with just about all of them.

KNOWING MYSELF, I am that kind of person that regardless if im never gonna shoot a comp match, I won't sleep at night wondering if my charges are on point. I unfortunately am just one of those people Its a hobby for my dad and I but we do want to try to do the best we can.

I know I won't be shooting 1000's of rounds a year, my business both mine and my dads just won't allow it.

Therefore if this helps this is how i'd narrow it down for you guys to help me. No doubt the press and dies will be top quality. The powder loading scale seems to be the most important just in my eye. I don't care if it takes a little more time to load say 50 rounds before we go shoot, but I want my loads to be as consistent as possible. I do tend to cringe a bit on the $1200 scale. I don't mind doing it by hand if there is a beam scale balance that can be close to the Sartorius electronic and check it every time I load with a known weight.

If the Sartorius was ~500 i'd just buy it.

Then there's no question.... buy the A&D FX120i scale from Cambridge Enviro (located in Canada) for around $430 depending on the exchange rate. It's a great buy and will perform extremely well. Because it uses magnetic force restoration as the scale technology (rather than a simply strain gauge like all the cheap scales out there) it's free from the drifting/inaccuracy complaints of cheaper scales. It's capable of weighing accurately down to a single kernel of gunpowder. I don't think there's much difference between this and the Sartorius.

You'll want an Omega powered trickler to go with it. Your initial charges can come either from a powder drop measure, or if you want to be fancy and speed things up a bit you can use a Chargemaster to make the initial throw then trickle up to the final charge weight.