What reloading press would you recommend for a person who is going to be constantly reloading sensitive rounds?

1. Press: Either a single stage, turret, and fully progressive presses. The main difference between these types is the speed in which ammunition can be reloaded. (Some people prefer single stage for precision rifle ammo)

Kits below contain almost all of everything you need to reload.

The Lee Challenger Single Stage Press Anniversary Kit is a good start for $69.99

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/149097/lee-challe...

Around $30 for the caliber-specific Lee dies and case trimmer pilot and you’ll have what you need. The equipment is not optimum for long term use, but it is a good starting kit. This will allow you to reload at roughly 50 rounds an hour.

The RCBS Rock Chucker Master Supreme Single Stage Press Kit is $319.99 at Midway

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/937051/rcbs-rock-...

This will last you a lifetime.

I'm not going to tell you about more expensive single stage presses, if your going spend more money you might as well go with a progressive press. (If you end up doing a lot of reloading you'll most likely get one anyway).

I recommend a Dillon 550B press. It will load both rifle or pistol ammo and is very versatile. 400 to 600 rounds per hour. $429.95. Can be used as a single stage press

You can get less expensive progressive presses, but this is the best bang for your buck.

http://www.dillonprecision.com/content/p/9/pid/235...

2. Dies: The dies are inserted into the press and are what allows the reloader to resize the brass, remove the spent primer, flare the case mouth, seat the bullet, and place a crimp around the bullet. Quality reloading dies include RCBS, Lee, Hornady, and Redding.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=.338...

3. Case Tumbler: A case tumbler, along with brass cleaning media (usually ground corncob or walnut shells), offers an easy, effective way to clean brass prior to putting it through the reloading process. Some rifle reloaders don't do this but I recommend it.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=tumb...

4. Case Trimmer: Generally, this applies mainly to rifle brass. Most handgun reloaders don't trim brass.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?&sortby=1&itemsperpa...

5. Powder Measure: either stand alone units or units that attach to the press and are actuated by the case. In general, any quality powder measure will provide acceptable results with a wide range of powders.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?&usersearchquery=pow...

7. Calipers: for various measurements, including case trim length and overall cartridge length.

8. Case Lubricant: Bottleneck cases must be lubed prior to resizing in order to avoid the case becoming stuck in the die under the pressure of the resizing process. Straight walled cases generally do not need to be lubed.

9. Case Preparation Tools: After trimming, case mouths need to be deburred and chamfered. There are hand tools for this.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?&newcategorydimensio...

Or a RCBS Trim Mate Case Prep Center is nice.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=RCBS...

Some other tools that can be added to your collection include a primer pocket cleaner, flash hole uniformer, and primer pocket uniformer. Generally these aren't needed but when used properly can aid in producing the most accurate ammunition possible.

10. RELOADING MANUAL(S): This is VERY important. It is vital for any reloader, especially a beginner, to own and read a quality reloading manual. It is beneficial to own at least two, in order to compare load data from one to the other. The reloading manual will generally be used to look up load data for your caliber including powder charge, overall cartridge length, case trim length, etc. Reloading manuals are also full of various other useful pieces of information. It is a good idea to cross reference load data from at least two different manuals before beginning the process of reloading.

Buy powder and primers locally if possible. Hazardous material shipping charges can get expensive quickly for mail order.

Hello!

You have received many good answers. However ...

On average, I tended to reload about 2500 match grade rifle rounds a year before my accident (motor vehicle) took me temporarily out of the shooting game. That was on top of about 1000 handgun rounds a year for fun and general plinking! Because of the high volume of reloading, and the need to maintain critical dimensions on the reloads, I had to avoid the potential of "press stretch" ... a problem that virtually all of the reloader manufacturers avoided ... except Lee. Lee's single stage press was made from aluminum, which did not take much to stretch.

Personally, I use an RCBS Jr press (my single stage for precision rifle ammo and BPCR black powder ammo) and a Dillon 550B (my progressive reloader for handgun and practice rifle ammo). Presses made by Hornady, Pacific, and Lyman are also a good buy.

since you are young and willing to admit what you don't know, you can sometimes pick up bargains on quality reloading equipment if you do your homework! Check the classifieds in your local paper, along with the classifieds in "Shotgun News" and haunt the local yard sales! You can even drop in at a local gun club when they have open houses or open to the public shoots!

Equipment you will need:

a) A quality reloading manual ... I rely on the Sierra manual.

b) A quality press ... best to start with a single stage press.

c) Quality reloading dies ... I use RCBS dies almost exclusively.

d) A case tumbler, for cleaning your brass of range dirt and spent powder ... lay in a supply of either crushed corn cob or rice as your cleaning media.

e) A quality case trimmer.

f) A powder scale, either an old triple balance beam or a digital unit.

g) A powder thrower with an adjustable diapram.

h) A case neck trimmer/deburring tool.

i) A primer pocket brush.

j) For convenience, a primer seating tool.

A good commercial source of reloading equipment and components is MidwayUSA.

Good luck and good shooting!

Reloading is cheaper if you shoot very much. I got a Lee Breechlock Challenger Kit from Kittery Trading Post for less than $100 shipped. You need a set of dies for each caliber $30. You should have a couple of reloading books. You need a digital caliper $25. You should have a brass tumbler $45. You will need brass, bullets, powder, and primers. I purchase powder and primers locally to avoid the $25 per shipment hazmat fee. I can load premium .30-06 with Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for $9.75/ 20 not counting brass. Around here those factory loads are $30/20 and Rem Core-Lokt is $17,94/20. .308 costs a few cents each less to load since the case is smaller and it takes less powder. Lee equipment is inexpensive, but it does a good job. My oldest son has a Rem 700 SPS Varmint in .308. After he swapped out the stock, he gets touching bullet holes at 100 yds with our handloads using 168 gr Nosler Custom Competition bullets. I doubt that any factory loads would do that. I don't really have any thing to compare it to because he has never shot a factory load in the rifle. I have bought reloading stuff from Midway USA, Kittery Trading Post, and Natchez Shooters Supply. Graf and Sons has free shipping and a flat $4.95 handling fee and appears to be a good source even though I have never bought anything from them.

The top of the line press would be a Forster Co-Ax (aka in days gone by as the Bonanza Co-Ax). The benchrest guys I've known have all pretty much used those.

Quality die set of course. You'll need a benchrest style micrometer seating die. Forget powder measures, you'll be weighing each charge so you'll need the best quality electronic scale you can afford. Powder trickler. Case trimmer. The Lee case trimmer is not precise enough for this, get the bench mounted trimmer. A really good caliper (not the $25 ones, something machinist grade).

And I forgot: a bench mounted priming tool, the press can prime but it's less than ideal. A hand held priming tool can work too.

Make sure that you have a good solid single stage press. The Lee Breechlock will work fine. The cast iron Classic Breechlock would probably work better. The Lee case trimmers work great. One piece of information. Brass is soft. Making it not slide in the chamber will not change bolt stress, it only stretches and thins out the brass. A slightly lubed case or chamber is not a problem. Search for Varmint Al. He has done some high quality FEA on the lubed vs non-lubed cases. The work looks valid to me.

1. Buy yourself a reloading manual and read it ... thoroughly.

There's WAY too much you need to know in there for me to repeat it here.

2. Get over the idea that you can beat modern commercial ammo for consistency

unless you are willing to put in a LOT of work.

(It used to be so 40+ yr.s ago, but it isn't any more.)

3. Get over the idea that you are going to just make up your "own concoctions".

You can safely somewhat reduce published loads, but that's about it.

Even drastically reduced loads can behave strangely in the 'peak pressure' department.

USE ONLY PUBLISHED LOAD DATA until you know a whole lot more about the subject.

Read up on 'internal ballistics and powder data before you go beyond published limits

in either direction.

Learn to 'read' fired cases for pressure signs.

Still interested?

To produce 'premium' ammo, you will need not only the primary equipment

(you will find that in the manual), but calipers,gauges, (O.A.L., concentricity,

case length), and a good scale.

You will need to weight match your bullets, (they DO vary), your cleaned

trimmed and sized cases, (for precise internal volume match),

and hand weigh each charge, (use the powder measure

and then top-up to EXACT charge weight within 1/10 gr.).

Then you need to concentricity check eack round.

Now, just how much spare time have you got?

I agree with the first answer, but I would buy a lee case trimmer, in my opinion it is quicker than using the lathe type trimmer, because you can install it in a drill and trimming cases is a breeze, as well as deburring, I had a lathe type trimmer but it was a hassle setting up lathe trimmer, and it can also be used to polish the cases, very important to keep the cases from exerting too much bolt thrust by removing all traces of case lube, that was one thing he did not mention,(case lube pad) yes you can use the tumbler but it can get expensive buying tumbling media, as he had mentioned "consistency" and this will trim to the same length every time. well it is nice to see another avid shooter who wants to load accurate loads. this will be a hobby that will last a lifetime, I started when I was 16 with just a Lee Loader in a 30-30 caliber, but have since upgraded to the RCBS tools but still use the Lee trimmer, total cost would be around $15.00 just FYI.

Any reloading press from Lee, RCBS, Lyman, Dillon, etc. will be capable of the quality you need. The crucial equipment for accuracy of reloads are an accurate powder scale, a set of good calipers, and a couple of good reloading manuals, I have Nosler, Speer, and Hornady manuals. They are all good. The manuals will be the best source of information for reloading tools and instructions on their proper use.

Additionally, a case trimmer, case tumbler, and bullet puller are extremely useful for consistent ammunition. Consistency is the key to accuracy. As for the bullet puller if you are not certain that you have everything perfect, disassemble the cartridge and start over.

Good luck and Happy New Year to you too.

I would recommend Dillon (with the lifetime no-hassle repair warranty).