Reloading Ammo

[kcinnick]

You are not going to get a Dillon 650 running for under $500 right now. My price before shipping on a 650 is $480ish, I know other dealers get cheaper prices. This stuff lasts a life time, and resale is very good on it. Even old beat up Dillons will bring 80% of a new machine since you can send it back to Dillon and get it rebuilt for next to nothing if not free.

Oh, and you will need lots and lots of these!

 

[dhebe37]

How much did it cost you to get up and running with all of the dies and knick knacks? I'm looking to reload .223. I will move on to 9mm when I can afford it.

 

[kcinnick]

How much did it cost you to get up and running with all of the dies and knick knacks? I'm looking to reload .223. I will move on to 9mm when I can afford it.

It will be easier to go from 9mm to .223 than the other way around. Just more steps and attention to detail needed for rifle ammo.

 

[Ellis1958]

Reloading is a sub-hobby of the firearms hobby. Working up a load, giving it a try at the range, try something else, shoot some more groups, chono a bit, rinse, repeat, till finally you find THE load. For you. For your gun. Big satisfaction.

Ugly truth is that you won't save a dime reloading. You just shoot more.

Shooting 200 rounds a week x 52 weeks = 10400 rounds a year. You need a progressive. Go Dillon. I bought my Dillon 550B used 10 years ago and the previous owner said he had 30,000 rounds through it. I know I ran another 50,000 rounds through it at least. Worked great with only a minor widget or two wearing out. Not broke. Wore out. Dillon replaced it free. That press got destroyed in hurricane Gustav (more on that later). Really, save the coin and buy once. A single stage will get you started but you'll outgrow it in no time and you'll be buying a progressive anyway.

With a 550B you can realisticaly load 200 round/hour for the first hour and 400 round/hour thereafter of straight wall pistol cartridges. That first half hour is taken up verifying powder throw, seating OAL adjustment, crimp adjustment, etc. .223 is a lot slower. Those skinny cartridges wobble around a lot on the shellplate so you have to take a bit more care on the ram upstroke to ensure they enter the dies properly. Even still I run about 150 rounds/hour or so. .308 having a wider base doesn't have the wobble problem so I run at about 200 rounds/hour with that caliber.

I highly suggest loading straight wall pistol cartridges as your first reloads. It is a LOT simpler than bottleneck rifle. Crawl before you can walk please. My first cartridge was .45ACP. Very fond of that one as it forgave of all my mistakes while I was learning.

Go see Bryan at LA Reloading. Not a suggestion.

Before you use any loading data obtained from the 'Net verify it first with published loading manuals from bullet and powder manufacturers. Also not a suggestion.

---

Hurricane Gustav. Had a big old red oak in the backyard. Gustave came by for a visit and apparently decided he didn't like the way my house and yard looked so that big old tree fell and crashed into the house. Took out the outside storage where the reloading bench was. Also took out half the house. When you have a tree in your kitchen and it's not Christmas you know you have a bad day. Lived in a camper in the back yard for four months while the house was being rebuilt. The tree taking out the outside storage totally destroyed all my reloading equipment. Dillon 550B, dies, conversions. tools, MEC 9000 reloader, etc, etc. Anyhow the contents adjuster was way cool and said to make an inventory of everything that got damagaed. Literally down to the last widget. Did that. Replacement cost? $4000. Had no clue I had that much tied up in reloading equipment. Guess over 10 years you don't notice. Insurance covered all of it. Could have easily upgraded to a 650 but went with a 550B again. I know it and prefer the manual indexing for cartridge loading. You know what? That investment has paid for itself long ago. The only time I buy factory ammo now is for breaking in a new gun and for self defense loads.

 

[bmbrady77]

I think I'm just going to save up for the progressive. I was hoping to spend under $500 for everything, but that doesn't look realistic for the progressive and all of the extra curricular objets. I might just have to save up a few more months and go for something a little nicer unless anyone is trying to sell their progressive. Hornday Lock-N-Load looks nice with the rebate and the money, but after all the dies and everything I know I'm going to be much closer to 1000$. Anyone know how to get any of this stuff wholesale or at least cheaper so I can get a progressive system up and running for under $500?

500 for a progressive setup is just not gonna happen, unless you just strike gold at a yard sale.

 

[dhebe37]

That's what I figured. Time to start saving.

 

[tjnkriss]

lee 4 hole turret press whole kit for around 200 powder primers and one set of dies