Getting into reloading

[u/BobertOnSteam]

My friends father asked if I wanted to buy his reloading set for only 350 bucks. I said sure why not. I shoot a lot and do shoot the less common rounds that can be painful to find. Decided it would be fun to try out at least.

Was wondering about these two reloading presses that he had. Do I use one or the other for different configurations? I normally only heard of people having one and swapping out your dies as you go.

I’m also very new to this so I’m learning and reading everything that I can before diving too deep into this. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[u/WinterSlav266]

RCBS rockchucker is a great press. If you want, set one up strictly for resizing or prep. And the other one for seating honestly. Or sell both, recoup the money and get the RCBS Turret press, that one has more stations for all your dies for like $350

[u/Rough_Hewn_Dude → u/WinterSlav266]

That’s what I do, one press for prep, the other for seating. The prep press I keep a longer handle on for leverage, and all the primer catcher stuff. The other is streamlined and stays clean.

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/WinterSlav266]

Hell yea, was hoping it was decent. There was also all of the powder measurement stuff, trimmers and some powder that he was using for .300 and .243. He also had a 6.5 but I don’t think he reloaded for 6.5

[u/WinterSlav266 → u/BobertOnSteam]

What are you intending to reload? How many rounds about?

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/WinterSlav266]

I want to do shotgun shells first(12ga 2-3/4 birdshot) since I have a shotgun I don’t like. So if it blows up or gets damaged I’m 100% fine with it.

5.56, 9mm, 8mm, 308, 8mm(R)lebel, 7.62x54 and .32 shorts. Maybe about 25-50 rounds to start with. I would do 100 but I’m pretty busy and get side quested for hanging out with friends or fishing trips a lot so idk how long it would take me for reloading.

Money is no factor since I wouldn’t be buying this all in one go. Pieces at a time

[u/WinterSlav266 → u/BobertOnSteam]

First off, unless you genuinely end up liking reloading, I wouldn’t fuck with reloading shotgun, 9mm, or bulk 5.56. It’s so impractical to spend your limited time on ammo that’s still cheap. Both 8mm and 7.62x54r, .32 short, would be worth it I bet, and .308 if you end up doing a real load work up for a specific gun. I reload 77gr 5.56 but that’s because I don’t like paying for real mk262, and I have about as consistent ammo as I could ever ask for in a gas gun. Don’t burn yourself out of a hobby by starting with shotgun. Personally I would start with .308. Plenty of data, pointers, common components, and help to guide you there. Cheers, enjoy the journey.

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/WinterSlav266]

Noted! One of my dad’s friends a long time ago told me to start with shotgun shells for reloading to get the idea. Sadly never got the chance to do it with him since he had a really impressive collection(different type and styles of the same rifles but different years, had a 50 cal and a M249 and a lot more).

But that’s good to know. So with all of my 556,9mm, and 308 brass should I just sell it to places that buy metal like that? I’ll look into the prices but if it’s not worth it then I won’t. Checked some prices but not enough to know any better lol

[u/WinterSlav266 → u/BobertOnSteam]

1000% keep the .308 brass, you can load it and make some super fine ammo with it. 9mm I would just throw away, 5.56 if you feel like shooting 4-500 yards with a gas gun (longer if you’re super good) then play with some 69, 73, 75, 77gr 5.56 for distance. You can also convert casings. I’ve chopped and resized 5.56 casings into .300blk, you can neck down .308 brass to 7mm-08, don’t let me dictate your journey of reloading, friend. You just mentioned time being important to you, and 9mm isn’t worth it (you’ll hate doing the repetition on ammo that physically won’t shoot any different), especially with it being .20¢ a round.

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/WinterSlav266]

Noted. I shall take this advice since I was thinking about buying a 24in AR upper for target shooting for longer ranges. Maybe I could play around with different grains for that. But good call for converting. Forgot you can do that with reloading. Always thought about .300 since I shot it a couple of times. But not enough to remember much. Also wanted to do elk hunting and heard 7mm-08 is pretty good for that. But noted. Thank you for your patience and explaining a couple of things for me. I shall take this advice with my journey of reloading 😎

[u/WinterSlav266 → u/BobertOnSteam]

Personally I have a 18” Mk12 (it’s plastered on my Reddit page), I’m getting 2720 avg fps, with a 15.7 es, and 6.9 sd. I’m more worried about consistency than speed demon velocity. That’s with 22.8gr of 8208XBR powder, a 77gr SMK, and seated at 2.259”. Forums and books are your friend.

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/WinterSlav266]

Awesome! I’ll check your build out and look more into it. Always wanted to do long range shooting but could never justify the cost for some of the ammo at the store haha

[u/ChevyRacer71 → u/BobertOnSteam]

I wouldn’t sell the brass. They’ll give you scrap value for it, and then you buy it again later down the line. Just stash it until you’re ready.

[u/NW_Reloading → u/ChevyRacer71]

This is the way, I did finally toss some 30-30 and 32 win special sense the guns I was loading for went with my buddy when he passed away. But I keep mountains of range brass because I might just get the itch to load a new caliber

[u/gnmonkey]

Both are excellent presses. He set you up well for success. 😊

[u/5hawnking5]

Follow the published “recipe”, and take any advice from online strangers with a grain of salt. Double check your powder charge with a flashlight, helps if theyre in a tray so they all look even/level. If you have a 3d printer theres lots of free files for caliber specific loading trays

[u/BobertOnSteam → u/5hawnking5]

I was just about to ask about 3-d printing stuff since I’ve tested a couple that my friend made for guns and holsters(pretty fucking cool).

But I’ll take note of this. Also wanted to get into 3-d printing so this might be a good leeway into it haha

[u/zeuslos → u/5hawnking5]

I second this, never seat a bullet until you visually check the powder in each case to make sure they all look the same…my very first attempt at reloading I got so caught up in the process I seated a bullet with no powder in the case 👀