I'm looking to get a complete soup-to-nuts reloading setup when I get back to the states, or at least buy it, then set it up when I get back.

I plan to get some reloading books and read while I'm over here, so I'm more well prepared when I get back. What are some good books to start with?

I'd like to talk about set-ups though:

I'm looking for something that I can use that has ultra-precision for cooking up loads, is reliable to where I don't NEED to be spot-checking every other round for a good powder throw, (but will be periodically checking), and is fast: IE, once I get a selected load "dialed-in", I can just start cranking the lever and get 600-800 rounds per hour, as long as I keep feeding it bullets, brass, primers and powder. HUGE volume to drive down prices is my end goal. Cha-chunk, cha-chunk, cha-chunk...

I'm thinking of the Dillon 650 with all kinds of bells and whistles. Thoughts on a good set-up?

I'm sick of paying out the ass for factory ammo, so I figure rolling my own will start paying for itself soon.

Intended calibers:

.357 Magnum/.38 SPL
.44 Magnum/ .44 SPL
7.62 NATO Milspec
5.56 NATO Milspec
7.5 Swiss
500 S&W (if I get one)

That's all I can think of now. The rifle calibers are mostly just gonna be regular milspec loads because I'm tired of the high prices of surplus military ammo. The only loads I would be "cooking" with are the sixgun loads, since my firearm passion is sixguns.

I know a lot of folks say start with a single-stage like a Rockchucker, but other folks say to start with a good progressive since you'll be upgrading later anyway.

Thoughts?

With the criteria you have given it seems like you have done some homework. By the way, where in the world are you? Or is that top secret? If you are there serving Uncle Sam I just wanted to say thanks for your service.

Back to your hand loading criteria. It sounds like you are already convinced on a progressive, "HUGE", so lets look at things from that avenue.

There may be more but, the only two real choices you have are Hornady and Dillon for presses that will give that kind of volume. I'm a little leery of really trying to get to the level of 600-800 rounds p/hr. There are primer tubes to fill and weights to check and.... yada, yada, yada. Neglecting those safety checks can lead to a short lived hand loading career.

Another item in your criteria is that you want to load for both rifle and pistol cartridges so that narrows your choices a bunch. If you HAVE TO get to the round count per hour you are talking about then the XL650 or XL1050 are about your only real choices, that is unless you go completely commercial in nature. Like this:

Of course you will have to slow this one down as it cranks out 5000 rounds per hour! Oh, by the way, it costs over the $10,000 mark too! I found a used one once that went for about that!

But then again, cost wasn't part of your criteria!
Maybe it doesn't matter.


As to your money storage practices, I'd like to suggest a wallet instead.

I'm in Iraq right now and wanna get back to shooting when I get home.

Yeah, volume is a big deal, but MASSIVE commercial set-ups is a little much, though that one pictured is amazing!!!

I'm debating on the rifle calibers because I hear you have to measure and trim each piece of brass every time it's loaded, plus loading for semi-autos is finicky I hear. Pain in the ass. So mostly revolver rounds.

The price of factory plinking ammo is just too insane. Whatever happened to 10 cents per round .38? And now that I'm getting into .44s, prices are completely out of control.

75% of my intended loading will be soft-shooting "plinking" loads in 38/357 and 44, with the remainder full-house OH-MY-GOD-HANG-ON-FOR-DEAR-LIFE loads.

I do plan to make the spot checks and be safe, even at high volume, but I literally haven't shot my personally owned guns in over a year, due solely to ammo prices. It's just too expensive to shoot factory stuff. I'm trying to remedy that. Under normal circumstances I shoot a LOT and I need to be able to feed my habit.

Is a budget of 1500-2000 for an initial set-up a reasonable amount? That is only 3-4 cases of ammo, which when I start loading, should pay for itself.

You can be in business with a Hornady LnL for about $600 for the two calibers, plus you get 1000 free bullets. Speed is essentially the same as a 650. Add $100 for two RCBS Lock-Out dies. The advantage in your application is that the change from large to small primers only takes a minute. Not so with the Dillon. I have yet to see the LnL powder measure vary a tenth. I check every hundred rounds or so, whether I need to or not.

I have the Dillon 550B. It is a great press but not for the volume you want to try and produce. My next press is going to be a Dillon 1050 commerial grade press. This is a good one and one you should also consider. As for loading rifle ammo I have a single stage RCBS Rockchucker that I use to produce rifle ammo, slow but it is very good for this purpose.

pinky has some good information for you on the L-N-L. I am thinking of getting one for myself and will if I sell a Square Deal or two.

I just started loading for rifle cartridges, in volume and need a progressive that will handle them.

The XL650 would be my other choice as I want it to be auto indexing. No offense to you fine 550 owners out there but, I don't want to HAVE to think about advancing the shell plate, I want it automated. I'm all about automation!

The Hornady is a quality machine that's for sure. How do you like the die changing ability of it, pinky? The Dillon's have a nice setup in that area.

From what I have heard, and it is only hearsay, stay away from the Lee progressives. Not that they are bad just finicky.


I think you ought to buy one of the AmmoLoad machines.

Hey, Skip. You'll love the LnL. The dies snap-in/snap-out in seconds, and you'd have to be slow to spend two minutes changing primer sizes. In the 10K rounds I've done since I got things adjusted and organized I've never had a primer flip or misfeed. My only current operating glitch is the 10mm powder-thru, which is eating the occasional case. Don't know why.

Sgt Preston here. First things first: Thanks for your service to your country! Regarding reloading manuals, I like the following 3: "Reloading Manual Number 10" by Speer; "Modern Relaoding, 2nd edition by Richard Lee, and "48th Edition, Reloading Handbook" by Lyman. Any or all of these will serve you well. Be sure to take your time & read carefully thru the detailed descriptions of the steps involved in "working" the brass & pay close attention to the photos & descriptions of damaged or over worked brass that may be too dangerous to reload. From my viewpoint, reloading machines get more & more complicated & take more "conversion" time as you go from 4 stations to 5 station machines. Also adding enhancements such as "auto advance" & case feeders complicate the machines. I load on a simple basic workhorse: the Dillon 550. I tend to like working on "simple farm tractors better than working on more complicated aircraft". I must add that Dillons service is extremely first rate & beyond comparison & that their no "B.S. Warranty" means just that. Their staff are experienced reloaders themselves they & can talk you thru any qusetions or problems that might come up on their 800 number. By the way, I load 5000 9mm, 5000 38 Specials & 5000 45ACP's each year & still work full time. Hope this helps. Sgt Preston USMC LLA

In regards to the 7.62 NATO and 5.56 NATO you may want to consider a powered trimmer for case preparation:

http://www.matchprep.com/

http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm

If your going to utilize military cartridge cases a primer pocket swage tool would be a good item to have. Dillon has a tool for that application. Some people may say that a swage is not necessary. I use a swage on Military cartridge cases.

For certain types of projectiles, cartridge cases and powders

http://www.gibrass.com/

For National Match shooting, equipment, rifle types, and hand loading

http://www.nationalmatch.us/

First, Thanks for taking care of us, by serving your country. If you are going to load bottle necks you will do better with the Dillon 550. Since you need to lube the case, it will be the lease mess.It will last a life time and put out almost as the 650 does. Take care of yourself and when you start, we will help if we can. Later - John

I used to REALLY load volume (15,000 rounds of .45 ACP alone per year plus a variety of other calibers including .222, .223, .308 (combat rifle with the H&K 91) and LOTS of .44 magnums.

My tool of choice is the 550B Dillon. I can load 500 .45 ACP rounds per hour. I am more relaxed now (retired and have more time) so am more apt to run 400+ and hour. Rifle cases are some slower, but still can do a decent job. Quality of the ammo is MATCH quality (got the awards to prove it).

One of the major costs of reloading tools is tooling up for another caliber. The Dillon ranks high in that regard, plus they have service second to none. I recently added a second 550B to my reloading stable. I load for over a dozen cartridges, so the ability to inexpensively (relatively) change cartridges is important to me.

When I chose my Dillon the original Hornady progressive was an also ran. I have not tried the Hornady LnL. I understand it is a better tool than the original but I have no reason to change. It would be ideal to try both the Dillon and the Hornady before you make your decision but may not be possible.

I also loaded several thousands of .45 ACP's on another progressive (the C-H Auto Champion Mark IV). However, it wouldn't handle rifle cartridges, so I went to the Dillon.

I, personally, cannot understand ANY real shooter who doesn't reload. You will repay your investment costs in a short time if you shoot much. I also cast my own bullets. After you get up to speed reloading, you might want to try bullet casting. It does require a bit of green to get set up but will soon pay for itself, also. It is some harder to cast good bullets than it is to learn reloading, but if you have "good hands" you can handle it.

Good luck and thanks for your service to our country!

Dale53
Former SFC, heavy weapons, Infantry

1076,

Thank you for you service to this country!!

All the advice in this thread is pretty darn good. My two cents comes for a different angle. You have set the bar high for the number of rounds produced in a specific period of time. I suggest you might want to consider the total cost of componets as it relates to your ability to pay for them. Handloading allows you to shoot more for the same money. I'd listen to the folks who have spoken with their advice. As I said, their advice is sound. Componets are getting more expensive and many who shoot on a limited budget can only shoot so much in a period of time because of cost limitations. Determine your cost threshold and find a system that will work for you. I use a single stage press and load about 1200 rounds a month. It's therapy for me. Others will tell you that a progressive press is the way to go and I agree with them. But that was not my personal choice to do that. If you enjoy shooting rifles and bothered by the additional issues of case preparation, consider finding rifles that shoot straight wall Pistol cartridges. I shoot .41 and .44 mag out of Marlin's 1894's and their fun and accurate and have no problems dropping a deer.

Just my thoughts.

Mark

Great advice here!! Thanks!!

I will certainly look into the Dillons and also some single-stage presses.

For rifles, I mostly own military-style semi autos, so I will use cheap fodder in them, but keep "milspec" stuff around for SHTF. I am having a soup-to-nuts M1 Garand built, so I might do some loading for it, but not for my M14SA or ARs.

90% of the reloading will be straight-wall revolver cartridges and so that is where I will focus my efforts.

As far as volume, the only thing keeping me from shooting 1000 rounds a week is the cost of factory ammo. If I could reload, I would get VERY back into shooting, which I have been away from because of cost.

After the "fun factor" of shooting a lot and all the time wore off, I'm sure I could maintain a decent level of consumption.

Thanks all!!! If I have any more questions, I'll ask. The amount of knowledge here is amazing!

I am very happy with my Dillon, but I still use my Lyman Turret for load development. When I am wanting to run off 50 rd batches of three different loadings, with a 0.1 gn difference I go to the Lyman. Or if I am trying three different powders. I fu=ind my old Lyman 55 powder measure easier easier to make quick changed on.

I suggest that you visit www.reload-nrma.com and read everything there. It is designed to help folks get started in the hobby. They sell for ($5 I think) a set of plans for the BEST reloading bench. I got the plans some 15 yeaars ago, brought the required wood and hardware to a local cabinet maker and had him saw it to spec., then assembled it at home in the basement where it will remain forever. I'd suggest that you put a piece of Masonite on the work surface to make cleanup easier and fasten your presses, sizers, etc. to it using C-clamps. This keeps you from drilling holes in your new bench and allows you to reposition the equipment for various needs. Don't think this bench is too large. You'll soon have more stuff than you ever dreamed of. I reload for a dozen pistol, 6 rifle, and 2 shotgun guages while also casting and sizing bullets in 8 calibers. I have just about run out of room. This also makes a first rate work bench. Good luck! All the other info provided is excellent. One safety point is to follow your manual exactly and select powders that will do the job and overflow the brass should you by accident double-charge a case.