New Reloaders..Did you start out cheap?

[RandyC]

I started really cheap. I got all my stuff used/mismatched from a guy that ran a gun store out of his garage that also did a lot of gun shows. Lee Challenger press, RCBS powder measure and trickler, set of vintage Lyman bench rest .308 dies and a few other things. Loaded a lot of good ammo with that stuff.

I'm a tool junkie and reloading tools are another part of the addiction.

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[Midoio]

I started with a Dillon XL650 right from the start after doing a lot of research. It worked great, since I am still using it. The cheap, crappy stuff will take the fun out it pretty fast.

 

[OkieStubble]

I started with a Dillon XL650 right from the start after doing a lot of research. It worked great, since I am still using it. The cheap, crappy stuff will take the fun out it pretty fast.

This is the one I have been considering starting my reloading journey with. A little over $600 is quite the starting investment. Very doable, I just have to get the voice out of my head that says, "but that's the price of another gun."

 

[nortac]

This is the one I have been considering starting my reloading journey with. A little over $600 is quite the starting investment. Very doable, I just have to get the voice out of my head that says, "but that's the price of another gun."

Buy once, cry once. When I bought my Dillon 550, they hadn't come out with the 650 yet. I have so much invested in my 550 in the way of extra tool heads, powder measures and cartridge conversion units, that it wouldn't be practical for me to change out to the 650, although it is a wonderful machine. Also, I don't reload and shoot enough volume of cartridges to justify the expense and I don't have room for a 650 with all the add-ons of case feeder, bullet feeders, etc.
If I was a high volume shooter competing most weekends, it would certainly be a worth while investment. Plus, I have a tendency to resize and prime off the press. That kind of defeats the whole high production rate thing. If I have a bunch of dirty range brass, even my own, not that scrounged from the range and of unknown provenance, that is full of mud and sand, I don't want to run that through my machine. I will deprime only on a single stage press, run the dirty brass through my vibratory case cleaner, then resize. This gets the primer pockets relatively clean, but if I'm really anal about it, I'll use a primer pocket cleaning tool. I'll then prime the brass with either a Sinclair hand tool or my RCBS bench mounted priming tool. So then with clean, resized and primed cases, I feed those into my progressive press for powder charging, bullet seating and crimping, thus only utilizing three of the available four stations of my 550. I never really liked to prime on my 550, it can be finicky at times, but it does work and speeds up the process greatly, but if there is an issue with an improperly seated primer, it either brings the whole process to a screaming halt, or you don't notice the problem until you collect the finished rounds from the bin and have to deal with it after the fact. Given my methods, getting a higher rate production machine doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
With most of my auto pistol brass, I don't do the vibratory cleaning or primer pocket cleaning each time, if at all. But I still prefer to resize and prime before going to the progressive press. But there are times I decide to use the 550 as intended and deal with the short comings of a finicky priming system. I keep going back and forth. It all depends on how much time I have and if the highest production rate is the most important goal vs. slowing the process down and doing it "my way". Either way it is a great reloading set up and infinitely faster than doing it all on a single stage press.

 

[OkieStubble]

Buy once, cry once. When I bought my Dillon 550, they hadn't come out with the 650 yet. I have so much invested in my 550 in the way of extra tool heads, powder measures and cartridge conversion units, that it wouldn't be practical for me to change out to the 650, although it is a wonderful machine. Also, I don't reload and shoot enough volume of cartridges to justify the expense and I don't have room for a 650 with all the add-ons of case feeder, bullet feeders, etc.
If I was a high volume shooter competing most weekends, it would certainly be a worth while investment. Plus, I have a tendency to resize and prime off the press. That kind of defeats the whole high production rate thing. If I have a bunch of dirty range brass, even my own, not that scrounged from the range and of unknown provenance, that is full of mud and sand, I don't want to run that through my machine. I will deprime only on a single stage press, run the dirty brass through my vibratory case cleaner, then resize. This gets the primer pockets relatively clean, but if I'm really anal about it, I'll use a primer pocket cleaning tool. I'll then prime the brass with either a Sinclair hand tool or my RCBS bench mounted priming tool. So then with clean, resized and primed cases, I feed those into my progressive press for powder charging, bullet seating and crimping, thus only utilizing three of the available four stations of my 550. I never really liked to prime on my 550, it can be finicky at times, but it does work and speeds up the process greatly, but if there is an issue with an improperly seated primer, it either brings the whole process to a screaming halt, or you don't notice the problem until you collect the finished rounds from the bin and have to deal with it after the fact. Given my methods, getting a higher rate production machine doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
With most of my auto pistol brass, I don't do the vibratory cleaning or primer pocket cleaning each time, if at all. But I still prefer to resize and prime before going to the progressive press. But there are times I decide to use the 550 as intended and deal with the short comings of a finicky priming system. I keep going back and forth. It all depends on how much time I have and if the highest production rate is the most important goal vs. slowing the process down and doing it "my way". Either way it is a great reloading set up and infinitely faster than doing it all on a single stage press.

Nice post John. I might just start out with the basic BL550, and just get good at doing each single stage at a time. It's only $289 bucks and can load over 160 different handgun and rifle loads. It would be easy enough to upgrade to something more progressive once I know what I'm doing. Probably better to learn and see how much I will want to even actually reload in the first place. Bigger isn't always better if you don't even know if you will use it or not.

 

[nortac]

I don't think you can go wrong with the 550 basic model. The main issue will be how you prime and how you measure and dispense your powder until you upgrade it to the full 550. Dillon equipment supposedly holds it's resale value pretty good should you decide to get rid of it. There are options to do both priming and powder dispensing, but then the question becomes, how do you avoid duplicating equipment when it comes to upgrading to the full 550? But duplicating equipment is not necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, you could just get the fully equipped 550 from the beginning, if money is not the issue.

 

[nortac]

No matter what press set up you decide on, you'll need a scale to measure and confirm powder charges. If you have a volumetric powder measure, either the one for the Dillon press or a stand alone unit, you still need a scale, either digital or balance beam, to check and confirm settings of the volumetric dispenser.

 

[nortac]

The priming on the full 550 is not bad if you are slow and take your time, it's when you try to ramp up to full production speed that it can be temperamental. A good hand primer is something you can use on already resized cases as you sit in front of TV. Or an RCBS bench mounted priming tool works great for quickly priming a bunch of cases, but that's about a $100.00, and worth every penny. The very best hand priming tool is the Sinclair, but it is pricy and requires you to handle each primer one at a time. But it has absolutely the best feel for seating a primer that there is. Like Winston Churchill said "I'm easily satisfied with the very best!" I love mine.

 

[nortac]

https://www.brownells.com/reloading...y&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=749-007-603
Sinclair priming tool

RCBS Automatic Bench Priming Tool - MPN: 9460

 

[nortac]

Another nifty hand tool, the Harvey deprimer
https://harveydeprimer.com/

 

[OkieStubble]

Another nifty hand tool, the Harvey deprimer
https://harveydeprimer.com/

Sort cases while depriming


Freedom from the reloading bench depriming.


This makes sense to me.

 

[nortac]

Yup, another activity you can do while watching TV at your leisure.

 

[jkingrph]

When I started reloading back in 1963 there were not any cheap options that I could find, at least in NE Louisiana. I got set up with a basic Redding c press , scale, and a set of CH Dies in 30-06. It was not too long that I started reading and got a 200 gr bullet mold, and a sizer/lubricater, all Lyman and a Lyman expander die to give a little bell to the cartridge case to load cast bullets. A few years later, about the time I finished college I picked up a 38 revolver and discovered that the little 158 semi wadcutters would work fine in dad's 35 Rem. Marlin so ended up with a set of dies for it also

 

[fastback]

When I started out it didn't feel cheap. RCBS press with scale, powder measure, trimmer, dies etc. I learned the process and how to setup dies etc on the RCBS. I also realized that packing 500-1000 rounds for a day at the range would take a lot of time if I had to handle each round so many times. I got a great buy on a used 550 progressive and still have both in service today.

The single stage gets used for decapping, siziing 223, and bulge busting - plus it's nice when working up a new load and I've only got 10-20 rounds to make. All the volume work is saved for the 550.

 

[simon1]

Nice post John. I might just start out with the basic BL550, and just get good at doing each single stage at a time. It's only $289 bucks and can load over 160 different handgun and rifle loads. It would be easy enough to upgrade to something more progressive once I know what I'm doing. Probably better to learn and see how much I will want to even actually reload in the first place. Bigger isn't always better if you don't even know if you will use it or not.

A wise man here. Single stage gets you familiar with each step.

No matter what press set up you decide on, you'll need a scale to measure and confirm powder charges. If you have a volumetric powder measure, either the one for the Dillon press or a stand alone unit, you still need a scale, either digital or balance beam, to check and confirm settings of the volumetric dispenser.

I can't agree with this more...a good scale is definitely needed.