Reloading thread?

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waiting for my mark 7 to get here

>>33654493
An automated reloading system? Nice. I'm guessing you shoot IPSC?

what's the best place to start to get into reloading?

I got a 45 colt revolver recently, and the cost per round savings are too much to pass up

>>33654595
NOT Lee. Their products are cheap junk, and the only things of theirs worth buying are:
>"unbreakable" universal decapping die.
Buy 2, you WILL break it if you do anything with crimped primers, but they will replace it for free for forever. I say buy 2 because they take about a month to do so, as it's literally slow-boat-from-China replacement and you don't wanna be out of business during that time.
>universal expander die
It's literally a steel cone on the end of a die body, you can't fuck it up and it's half the price of a Lyman and a quarter the price of an RCBS
>maybe possibly a factory crimp die
They're not great but if you shoot a lot of cast bullets they do come in handy, and again they're half the price of Lyman's option.

Their presses fucking suck, their dies fucking suck AND are frequently out-of-spec, their scale is fiddly and needs to be readjusted CONSTANTLY, and both their powder droppers leak like a sieve even with bulky flake powders (and are pretty much worthless with long-stick powders like H1000/Varget).

Starting out for low-volume reloading I recommend a Lyman T-Mag turret press. It's excellent, lasts forever, and is under $200. Get an RCBS 5-0-5 scale and [anybody but Lee and Frankford Arsenal] powder dropper, a good set of digital calipers, and troll the used book stores for older manuals. Current load data is available online through all major powder manufacturers for all but the oddest of oddball rounds, but it's always nice to have a hardcopy to cross-reference.

Just got a lee single stage to get me started. Any tips for a beginner?

>>33655070
Don't expect to save any money. The wicked truth is, you spend the same if not more money, but you shoot more and get more autistic about ammo.

Also, for a beginner, take the reloading manuals as gospel. Seriously, you don't want to be that old reloader with three fingers on his shooting hand.

>>33656347
Average price of .45 LC is about 45-50 cents a round single stage kit woth everything and a set of dies is about 80, a pound of powder is about 20 dollars, 100 bullets are 12 bucks and 1000 primers are 34 dollars

Break that down into intital purchase of 100 rounds of ammo at about 45 dollars.

So one time expenses are at 125 dollars.

Spread that out at savings of 29 dollars per 100 and you'll need to load about 430 rounds to start breaking even.

Assuming you shoot 50 rounds a month you make the savings back in about a year.

But if you honestly care about savings you would have just gotten a Heritiage arms in .22 and be done with it.

>>33656712
Aldo this is assuming you do this during your free time instead of taking a night shift at 7-11 because you can't masturbate in your underwear with a drink while watching Eastwood waste Angle Eyes in the background. In most chains.

I'm drunk watching westerns, what I'm saying is if you want to make money while doing this you're doing it wrong, if you fucking hate it and want to blow your brains out everytime you hit the lever then just buy ammo.

>>33656712
>Assuming you shoot 50 rounds a month you make the savings back in about a year.
Exactly. What I'm saying is that each cartridge costs less money, but you end up shooting more cartridges. What happens to most people is that they used to shoot 100 rounds a month at say .30 a round for a total of $30, then they start reloading, save 50% of the cost per cartridge, but shoot twice as many. Now you're shooting 200 rounds a month at .15 a round for a total of $100. The further down the rabbit hole of reloading you get, the more specialized, precise, and expensive things get. Have fun, but don't expect to be saving a ton of money.

There are probably exceptions out there, but I've never met one. Reload, have fun, shoot more, but don't expect to save a bunch of money.

>>33656865
Yeah, I look at it as you shoot more and that's always a good thing.

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I'm ok with lee...... RCBS dies aren't enough better to justify the price and suck to adjust...

>>33657798
The split bolt holding the decapping is something else though, dunno if it's me or the die but I have to replace the damn thing every year

>>33658267
I've broken a couple pins but I have like one spare for each die and like 3 for the universal decapper after trying to punch new flash holes in some berdain primed 308... Most of their stuff does require a little polish and finish work to really work well, but since I'm already reloading, I love tinkering with crap so that's even more fun. The Lee neck sizing die is pretty awesome too for uniform neck tension and minimal run out...

Do you need gas checks after powder coating? Going to be doing it with 30-30 and trying some heavier loads but want to know if I should spring for one or the other . Or both.

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>>33656865
>100 rounds a month at say .30 a round for a total of $30
>200 rounds a month at .15 a round for a total of $100

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>>33656865
i really hope you dont reload, because if your that bad with simple multiplication, your going to kill yourself reloading.

>>33660660
>inb4 *you're

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>>33660411
>>33660660
I started to get angry then realized I typed $100 and not $30. Oops. I used that specific example because they were supposed to end up being the same amount. I R Genius

I spent a few hours doing .223 brass prep today. I de-primed about 700 pieces, and of those I trimmed and primer swaged exactly 200. It's a lot of work, but all my brass is once fired, so I won't have to primer swage, trim and deburr for a few cycles after this.

>>33660706
i absolutely could not resist the urge to fuck with you, it was too sweet.

if it makes you feel better, you're absolutely right about it costing more because people tend to shoot more.

just be like me guys. i order 1k worth of components for my 9mm every month and i dont really shoot a lot. now i have a surplus of shit.

i also get a bunch of stuff local and save a shit ton because im right next to midsouth shooter supply and dont pay hazmat <3

>>33656865
>shoot twice as much for the same amount of money
hey, sounds like a win to me

>>33660849
What makes it worse is that I teach college math....