Wanting to Start reloading need advice

[Yonic]

Hi All.

 

I want to start reloading but don't at the moment have much idea of where to start. I've seen the Lee aniversary kit which seams to have most of what I'd need and I've seen tham on US sites where they work out at less than £50 with the exchange rate as it is at the moment but not 100% if this is the way to go.( Can they be imported?) Somebody told me that a turret press woul be a good idea as it would mean having each die already set up wheni'm loading rounds. I'm sure that there a lot of post on here in the same vain, but haven't managed to find any with the look through I've had.

I'm looking at reloading for both my 6.5 and the .223. Got a lot of empty cases already as I don't tend to get rid of them after they've been shot.

 

All advise welcome.

 

Cheers Jon

[Dunkield]

Jon,

 

Of course the very first thing you will need is a set of RCBS 10-10 scales

Old but still spot on accurate, they can be delivered to that person you work with this coming Thursday.

 

 

 

 

They are about £85 delivered these days, mine can be yours for £45 and I will even chuck in the spare £8.50 powder scoop FOC

 

He bought my Lee turret press, but says he wants to stick with his current model now, so that is also available

 

And I have a Lee Autoprime as well plus the .223 and 6.5 shell holders, which you can have for 15 quid.

 

As they used to say . . .

 

"This could be your lucky day"

 

Let me know asap.

[Yonic]

Jon,

 

Of course the very first thing you will need is a set of RCBS 10-10 scales

Old but still spot on accurate, they can be delivered to that person you work with this coming Thursday.

 

 

 

 

They are about £85 delivered these days, mine can be yours for £45 and I will even chuck in the spare £8.50 powder scoop FOC

 

He bought my Lee turret press, but says he wants to stick with his current model now, so that is also available

 

And I have a Lee Autoprime as well plus the .223 and 6.5 shell holders, which you can have for 15 quid.

 

As they used to say . . .

 

"This could be your lucky day"

 

Let me know asap.

 

Stu.

 

I am interested in these, At this second I don't have the funds but will at the end of the month, I was trying to work out what I'm going to need to get, so once I have the funds I could go ahead.

 

Cheers Jon

[deadeye ive]

Jon

 

I was fortunate to have hands on demomstrations .I'm pretty sure that you can pick up the basic idea from books and the net but there is no substitute for hands on so I would look around you to see who homeloads and who is local .

I got my gear from these...........NO IMPORT TAX!!!

http://www.smartreloader.com/

There is nowt wrong with the Lee Anniversary Kit and I use this myself ,although I prefer digital scales .

[fortune]

I can’t make my mind up about Lee stuff. A friend of mine bought the whole kit recently and asked me how to set it up and how to use it. I thought that it was a bit Mickey Mouse in comparison to RCBS and the like but then it’s not as expensive. I liked the auto prime unit, which had a nice feel to it. The powder measure was smother to use than my RCBS unit but the stand is a poor wobbly pressed tin thing and I found it a bit of a job to get the pan under the tube when checking the dispensed charge. I thought that the turret arrangement was a good idea allowing a quick caliber change or weapon-to-weapon die sets change. The sizing and de-priming die was poor, needing so much force and lubricant to full length resize the 243 cases that it was stressing the bench that the press was bolted to and this had to be reinforced. When the ram was reversed it pulled the de-prime rod out of the collet holder even though the collet nut was tightened up really hard. I suspect that this die and / or rod might have a size problem and may have to be replaced. Hornady have had a similar problem with their sizing rods and have had to machine a kind of tread onto the rod and collet holder so that when clamped up it becomes like a bolt inside of a nut.

The other two dies seemed to work ok and I quite liked the idea of the factory crimp die. The balance scale was consistent when charges were checked against another scale. but the charge weight setting scale was a poor effort which wasn’t a positive hold and was very small to see the tenths accurately.

So my opinion of Lee stuff is 50/50. It did work, it did produce accurate ammo and its cheapness keeps the other brands prices down to be competitive.

It is lightweight and cheap in comparison to other major brands. It feels flimsy in operation. This set had what I recon is a faulty die. The wooden ball is just pushed onto the end of the ram lever and has no feeling of security when you are pushing hard on it. I don’t think that anyone would wear the stuff out loading the quantities of ammo that we use in this country but it isn’t the same quality as the other major producers of this sort of kit.

I hope this is read as a balanced opinion of what I saw with the kit that this friend bought. It's your money.

[BigGun1]

 

I have the Aniversary kit and find it OK for the relatively small quantity of ammo that I reload (50 at a time) and it does load ammo that is better/more accurate than shop brought, however I did not realise the amount of equipment/research involved! soooooo much loading small batches of different loads and bullet weights to see what gives the best group and different ranges/wind conditions and what will be more suitable for your chosen quarry. I have however tries an RCBS rock chucker kit and openly admit that whilst it is very expensive compared to the Lee gear it oozes quality and feels very solid. I think if I were to reload more than one caliber on a regular basis I would upgrade but for now I'm gonna stick with what I have. PS don't always belive what the man in the shop tells you! I have found from experience that what he has in stock on the shelf is what he would like to sell you! not necessarily what is best for you! research throughly before handing over cash!