Advice on reloading press kit for beginner

[Lineman North Florida]

Does anyone have a Lee turret style press or have any knowledge about them?

 

[jaydee325]

I worked at a local sporting goods shop when I was in high school back in the early '70s! The store sold Mec reloaders. I am curious why Mec has not been mentioned? Have they fallen out of favor?

 

[Bearsixty7]

I worked at a local sporting goods shop when I was in high school back in the early '70s! The store sold Mec reloaders. I am curious why Mec has not been mentioned? Have they fallen out of favor?

Many others that are better, Lee, Hornady, Dillon.

Mec was a budget oriented, starter press for shotgun reloading only decades ago.

 

[k0ua]

I worked at a local sporting goods shop when I was in high school back in the early '70s! The store sold Mec reloaders. I am curious why Mec has not been mentioned? Have they fallen out of favor?

MEC makes shotgun reloading presses. I have one. I never saw a metallic reloading press from them.

 

[Bearsixty7]

I致e owned a Dillon 550 for about 25 years. I don稚 think it痴 any harder to learn on a progressive than a single stage. It痴 doing the same thing, just all the steps at one pull of the handle.View attachment 678455

I fully agree! If you can change a tire and oil and filter on a vehicle, you can handle a progressive press. ( I do know a couple guys who can't do the mentioned tasks!).

I got in to Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) years ago and would go through a lot of .38 special rounds for pistols and rifles so I did a lot of research and the Dillon 650 was the best choice for me. I haven't been active shooting the last few years (Son was in sports, I coached some) but It seemed like I could reload about 600-800 rounds an hour (Having primer tubes prefilled gets the higher number).
It wasn't hard to setup the press and dial everything in. I have probably reloaded 15-20k loads of .38 special.

I got a great deal then from Grafs & Sons The Reloading Authority - Graf & Sons.

As others have said, get a reloading book or two or three, plus look at all the ammo manufacturer websites, Winchester, Hodgon Hodgdon – The Brand That's True, Hornady, etc and they will have current loads for almost any load you want.

Many in CAS use powders that can be used in pistol/rifle and shotgun, Clays or Clay Dot is my main powder.

I also have an older Ponsness Warren 12ga progressive press I bought from a friend 3-4 years ago. Back in the 90's, A few of us that shot skeet league together chipped in and helped him pay for it so we could use it. We all moved to different states and I contacted him about getting a similar one and he just sold that one to me. Said he doesn't use it enough.

 

[dodge man]

I will share 2 of my reloading mistakes.

I’m using a Dillon 550 which is a progressive machine but you have to manually advance the shell plate each time. Once in a while I will have a problem with a primer going in upside down. I have figured out it is from not pulling the handle down smoothly and the primer flips over when jerking the handle. I’m pretty sure going back and forth with the shell plate I skipped powder in a 9mm case. I did this twice, several years apart. The primer will launch the bullet down the barrel a little ways. I caught the problem since the pistol jammed. The worse case is you fire another round with a bullet stuck in the barrel. I have since learned to check visually for a powder charge before seating a bullet.

The second one was using crap 223 brass. I had the neck break off and jamb the rifle. In this case it is not really a safety issue. I had several rounds that showed corroded cases that I had reloaded several years ago.

 

[Bearsixty7]

I will share 2 of my reloading mistakes.

I’m using a Dillon 550 which is a progressive machine but you have to manually advance the shell plate each time. Once in a while I will have a problem with a primer going in upside down. I have figured out it is from not pulling the handle down smoothly and the primer flips over when jerking the handle. I’m pretty sure going back and forth with the shell plate I skipped powder in a 9mm case. I did this twice, several years apart. The primer will launch the bullet down the barrel a little ways. I caught the problem since the pistol jammed. The worse case is you fire another round with a bullet stuck in the barrel. I have since learned to check visually for a powder charge before seating a bullet.

Another good reason to go with a Dillon 650 (now a 750) or similar, so you can run a powder check station in the extra hole. I have never had a .38 special squib round.
I also run 10 rounds minimum out of every 100 through a case checker to make sure they are good and won't have any feeding problems during competition.

 

[GaryM]

I'd like to suggest Inline fabrication for mounts and accessories. They make a mount with quick change top plates so it's easy to swap to a different press or other accessory such as a case trimmer or vice.

The Dillon strong mount is nice, but the interchangeable top plates are handy because you'll end up with more that one press. I have 4.

 

[3gunr]

I have 2 dillon 550s an mec and a lee turret press the lee would be a good starter press but i agree with others that the dillon is the way to go. I also shot cowboy action and currently shoot 3 gun .I have saved tons of money over the yrs reloading. My wife and son also shot and i would load 4 or 5 hundred rnds for a match and we werte shooting some 15 to 20 matches a yr. I sold lead bullets for a long time and still have a pile of them. Primers are the tough thing to get now. Just take it slow and watch some video on reloading. Graf and sons is down the road from me. they used to give classes on reloading but not sure now.

 

[GaryM]

I have 2 dillon 550s an mec and a lee turret press the lee would be a good starter press but i agree with others that the dillon is the way to go. I also shot cowboy action and currently shoot 3 gun .I have saved tons of money over the yrs reloading. My wife and son also shot and i would load 4 or 5 hundred rnds for a match and we werte shooting some 15 to 20 matches a yr. I sold lead bullets for a long time and still have a pile of them. Primers are the tough thing to get now. Just take it slow and watch some video on reloading. Graf and sons is down the road from me. they used to give classes on reloading but not sure now.

You know Grafs is now "Full Circle Reloading". A fellow from my club, Allen Bennett, bought it about 2 months ago. Still the same employees though.

 

[shooterdon]

First, check into the availability of primers and powder in your area. There are no primers in many places. What normally used to sell for $25-40 per thousand are currently at over $150/1000 on GunBroker. A press without components is a poor and expensive boat anchor. I expect components to be limited and/or costly for at least another six months.

I would suggest starting with a single stage press as you will always need/want one. I have owned about 10 progressive presses and still have my original SS press. It is a Co-Ax and I use it for rifle rounds as I do not shoot a lot of rifle but I am an **** accuracy nut. I also have a Rock Chucker and use it for heavy work like sizing brass from machine guns. It is set up only for sizing and depriming. It is a PITA to change out and reset dies on the RC. I like the Co-Ax as I can leave dies set up and slide them into place. I understand both Lee and Hornady have systems that use bushings to do the same thing.

If you do any amount of pistol shooting you will want a progressive or at the least a turret press.

Most of my shooting is with pistols and shotguns so they are loaded on progressives. In my opinion, the Dillon 550 is the best option for most users unless they shoot a lot. I have owned about 10 progressive machines and currently am down to three. A Dillon 550, Dillon 1050 and PW 800+ with AutoDrive for 12 ga.

The other progressive metallic reloaders have mixed reviews and those who love them the most have never used a Dillon. They will work but require more tinkering and tuning. Some, like the early Lee Pro1000's are just junk.

Like a tractor, whatever you buy will last a very long time. My Co-Ax is almost 50 years old and works like new. I have loaded about 150k rounds on the Dillon 1050 without a failure.

If I was starting out, this is what I would buy:
Lee Classic Cast Press

It is good machine with plenty of strength, and accepts the Lee Breech Lock quick change bushings.

 

[RobertN]

Joining conversation late...

Start with a couple good reloading books. Read thru the process. Speer, Lyman, Sierra are all good books.
When I learned that was all we had; the WWW and Youtube weren't a thing back then

I like my trusty Rock Chucker. Worked well for over 35 years. The only caveat is the old Rock Chuckers are known to spit primers here and there

A Dillon 550C is on my list. for volume cartridges, especially 45acp.

Besides 223, for rifle I prefer to stick with the single stage press.

 

[Rich B1]

Does anyone have a Lee turret style press or have any knowledge about them?

I have one. It has become my only hand gun press. You can set up spare turrets for multiple calibers which saves changing/setting up dies. If you are a bit OCD about each step like I am, you can do your checks easily throughout the process. And still crank out rounds faster than a single stage.

But I also have a single stage for low volume rifle, pocket staging, etc.

Lee makes a quick change bench mount for presses, I kind of borrowed their idea and made my own. I can swap presses in a few minutes.

 

[defranks]

I, too use a Lee turret press quite a bit. The only thing that I dislike about it is that the toothed nylon bushing fails frequently. They're cheap, though, and I keep several on-hand. All one need do is remove the rotating rod and the press can be used as a single-stage unit. I own and use a number of presses, including a progressive, but I spend most of my time on an ancient single-stage, open-front press that I bought used 45 years ago. I've found that there really isn't much difference between the least expensive "C" type presses and the big heavy presses unless one is loading big cases that require a lot of force to resize. And even then, case lube is more important that press design.
One thing that you don't have to buy, but that I find very valuable, is priming tool. You can load primers by hand one-at-a-time, but using a tool that doesn't require touching the primers is a good idea.
And let me parrot the comments on components. Now is NOT the time to buy primers; if you can find any at all the prices are insane. Powders, too, are getting harder to find, particular pistol powders.

 

[Rich B1]

Something I find that improves the life of the plastic ratchet mechanism on the Lee turret press is to use a spray on dry lubricant on the turret where it rides in the press. Also lube the detent ball. You can feel the difference in operation when cycling the handle.

The ratchet parts are cheap. So I also keep some spares handy.

My press came with the primer feed when I bought it. It actually works and I have not been using the RCBS hand priming tool for handgun rounds. But for loading rifle cartridges, I still use the hand primer. Slick tool!

 

[3gunr]

You know Grafs is now "Full Circle Reloading". A fellow from my club, Allen Bennett, bought it about 2 months ago. Still the same employees though.

Went in the other day and picked up some bullets and powder. No primers to be had.

 

[Bearsixty7]

Went in the other day and picked up some bullets and powder. No primers to be had.

They are all on GunBroker.com for 5-8x the normal price! Glad I have a decent stash from years ago to get me through the next couple years. Actually considered selling a case to pay for all of the ones I ever bought!

 

[arizona98tj]

I couldn't help but notice what appeared to be some comments about it being a PITA to set up and/or change dies on the single-stage press, such as the RCBS Rock Chucker. I'm not seeing why it is supposedly a pain. All of my dies have locking rings on them. You set the die up once and then lock the ring in place (typically with a supplied set screw). From that point on, just screw the die into the top of the press until hand tight and you are good to go. I have dies I use in my Rock Chucker that I've not adjusted since the 1970s. How is that a PITA?

I also run a Dillon 650 press. You have to set up those dies too.....once.....just like in a single stage press. And they all have locking rings too!

OK, I'm done with my reloading rant.

 

[3gunr]

They are all on GunBroker.com for 5-8x the normal price! Glad I have a decent stash from years ago to get me through the next couple years. Actually considered selling a case to pay for all of the ones I ever bought!

Yea i saw that also. I have a good supply of large pistol primers but not as many small ones which is mostly what i shoot now.

 

[RobertN]

Reminds me of some of the commercials on TV that make flipping an egg or a pancake look like torture unless you're using their super duper latest gen magic coated pan...

It's really not that hard to set and lock a set of dies.

I couldn't help but notice what appeared to be some comments about it being a PITA to set up and/or change dies on the single-stage press, such as the RCBS Rock Chucker. I'm not seeing why it is supposedly a pain. All of my dies have locking rings on them. You set the die up once and then lock the ring in place (typically with a supplied set screw). From that point on, just screw the die into the top of the press until hand tight and you are good to go. I have dies I use in my Rock Chucker that I've not adjusted since the 1970s. How is that a PITA?

I also run a Dillon 650 press. You have to set up those dies too.....once.....just like in a single stage press. And they all have locking rings too!

OK, I'm done with my reloading rant.