reloading

[Guest pete evans]

Any of you guys reload?

im thinking of getting started. Is there any good web sites or information available so i dont make any begginers errors in terms of buying equipment. Ive been told to avoid the lee gear as its quality reflects its price. I want reasonable gear but im doing this mainly to save money rather than to spend night after night trying to work up a wonder load.

 

pete

[Guest foxkiller]

you are better off gettin rcbs any good gun shop should stock them you can get a full starters kit for around £300 but might have to try a few difffrent powders to find one that siuts ur rifle you get a loaders manual with the loading kit so you cant go wrong its quite easy

[rifleshooter 0]

all my equipment is rcbs i got a second hand single stage press from my local gun club for 30 quid so if you shop about you may get a good setup quite cheap ,pay as much as you can possibly afford ,i use rcbs comp dies for my 223 ,and rcbs dies for my 243 there is a wealth of realoading manuals on the market , you haven't stated what caliber you are going to reload .I started of using h4895 for my 223 but after trying benchmark i found this to be a better powder for my remi ,started with 10 rounds of 24 grains ,10 24.5gr,10 25gr then finaly 25.5gr all these were shot at target's and through a chronograph the results showed 25.5 the best load/ the average deviation for h4895 was 22.8 fps where as benchmark was 15.5 fps so i now use 25.5 gr benchmark / 55 gr v-max heads /cci benchrest primers / and lapua brass . the 243 is next for this treatment ,the accuracy using h4895 and 90 gr nosler balistic tip is quite good but i hope to improve on it / also i have 2 dvd's LEARN HANDGUN AND RIFLE REALOADING AND PRECISION LOADING USING RCBS EQUIPMENT these are good for someone just starting off if you are intrested pete evens pm me and i will try and get some copy's for you

[Guest baldie]

It all depends on what you want to spend, and how many calibre,s/ amounts of ammo you are gonna reload. There is nothing wrong with lee gear, its just snobbery against it because its cheap. The lee collet dies are one of the best sets on the market for a sporting ammo reloader.The only thing i would not buy of lee,s , is their powder scale, its very difficult to read, and mistakes can be made with it. Hornady, and rcbs make good scales, i,ve got one of each.Lee do a kit designed for starters, it has everything you need in, apart from bullets , powder, and scales, i still use the little challenger press from it now, and i,ve also got an rcbs rockchucka, and a dillon, which will reload around 400 rounds an hour. The very first thing to buy, is a reloading manual, i bought the lee, 2nd edition, and its idiot proof, as is all the lee stuff, it explains in laymans terms how to reload, and its really that simple.

[Guest baldie]

Here ya go pete, this is my bench up in the loft, the lee press is waiting to be re fitted, as the big blue dillon is now where it was.

 

 

[rifleshooter 0]

nice setup there baldie i have to settle with the kitchen table

[Guest pete evans]

im reloading .243. initially to get cheaper ammo, ultimatly to improve accuracy. Assuming I have all the other gear what die sets do i need?

[Guest baldie]

Lee collet die sets are very good , and unless you need match grade ammo, perfectly adequate, i use them in .243, and get 1/2" groups with them out of my sako.

[IanB 0]

Nice setup baldie

[Guest EWOK]

Nice and neat setup Baldie, would be ashamed to show all the junk collected in my gunroom, got to get around to cleaning it up some day, and like you I think the Lee dies are ok and have several, if it's a bolt action all you need is to size the neck and maybe bump the should back now and then. I've never used the Lee press but the auto primer saves time. I have 3 RCBS Rockchuckers and they have served me well, but the dillion will do everything the single stages do but faster. I load all my AR and pistol stuff on them and if you can get the right type powder, they are just as accurate, I think some get carried away with the accuracy and if you can get it under 3/4 inch that will be far better than most can hold in the field. But if I had to start over today I'd go with a dillion 550, think they sell a kit with the AT model.

[cramp 4]

im reloading .243. initially to get cheaper ammo, ultimatly to improve accuracy. Assuming I have all the other gear what die sets do i need?

iam useing a r.c.bs set up loading .243 i had some powder cheap £22.50 a LB

accurate 4350 36.5grn with 95grn noslers the results are spot on

 

 

 

[rifleshooter 0]

can see that cramp by the look's of those head's nice shooting

[cramp 4]

can see that cramp by the look's of those head's nice shooting

thanks mate

 

and this one

Edited June 26, 2006 by cramp

[Guest Corkonian]

There's new legislation supposed to be going through here soon that will allow us to reload - getting powder here legally is next to impossible at the moment.

Been looking around a bit and wikipedia has a good overview if you haven't much of a clue about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reloading

 

Best site for reloading stuff in Europe has to be:

http://www.smartreloader.com/

Good postage costs too and no fear of customs.

 

Would this be everything I need to get started apart from powder, brass etc.:

RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press Master Kit

Lee Universal Shellholders Set of 11

Lee Deluxe Rifle 3-Die Set 6.5x55 Mauser

 

These look good for the price €14.99:

[Guest .30-06 man]

i use a lee hand loader for .30-06 and .243. it is fine, accurate and cheap. it is a bit on the slow side but you can live with that.