wanna get my feet wet/looking to start reloading

[yuppiejr]

Welcome to the club, looks like most of the good advice has been covered so far - a trip to Gunstop to talk with John and pick up some books (another nod for Lymann 49th and Hornady 8th edition) is a great first step.

Respect what you are doing, take your time and you will do fine. I would suggest NOT reloading for other people yet and focus on one of the 3 pistol calibers you own... I started with .45 auto based on the cost of factory ammo, particularly defensive stuff. Get a good scale, the $50 Dillon Eliminator 3-poise 500 grain scale is what John @ Gunstop suggested for me and it's probably my favorite piece of reloading equipment.

[Stradawhovious]

what do i need? besides EVERYTHING, what should i look for? i'm planning on reloading my pistols (45, 40, 38spc and 357mag) and possibly my dad's (9mm, 44mag and 380)

Let me know if I can be of assistance. I am set up to load almost all of those calibers, and can help out.

As much as the "doom and gloom " warnings from Seismic Sam should be heeded, if you start with .38 and .45, and can read and comprehend a recipe book, you would have to try pretty hard to hurt yourself.

I would be happy to run you through the motions, let you use my setup to load a few hunded rounds to see if you like it (I have a Dillon 550 and a single stage), and even have a few manuals you can borrow to read through before you get started.

[plblark]

As a noob, I must say I was impressed by John at Gun Stop. HE talked me OUT of several things. Remember, the questions he asks are intended to give him a clue to your experience level and needs. He's very good at that.

My advice: slow down, pay attention, and a couple thousand rounds in, take that advice again. Reloading is not that mentally or physically taxing and is relatively simple but you need to pay attention to each step of the process as you go along. <- that was my experience anyway and where I had trouble. Nothing catastrophic but a reminder to myself to slow down and pay attention.

[Pat Cannon]

I disagree with Dick only in that I'd say straight-walled pistol cartridges, especially the lower pressure rounds, .38 Special and .45 ACP, are easier to reload than any necked-case rifle ammo.

[rukwikenuf]

thanks for the help, guys. i went to GunStop yesterday and i spent a solid 3 minutes talking with John. in that short time he told me what i need and what i don't need. he was also having an indepth discussion with a strange moustached gent about creating various 6.5 wildcat cartridges. then i looked at revolvers!

[EJSG19]

thanks for the help, guys. i went to GunStop yesterday and i spent a solid 3 minutes talking with John. in that short time he told me what i need and what i don't need. he was also having an indepth discussion with a strange moustached gent about creating various 6.5 wildcat cartridges. then i looked at revolvers!

Wait until you are blessed with the opportunity to be there while John gets a phone call from some numb nuts know it all, who stubbornly asks John how or if he can reload something a certain, very stupid, way while John tells him in a nice way that the guy will probably wind up in the hospital. Its worth the price of admission.

[LarryFlew]

Follow all the good advice given plus:

Don't EVER become complacent and start relaxing too much after doing thousands of the same round. That's when mistakes happen. ALWAYS pay attention and don't let your mind start to wander.

[deadarrow]

I just started 2 weeks ago. Loaded 45 and 9. Learned alot from the guys at Gun Stop and Amocraft. Also have been a sponge around the guys I shoot with that also reload. Last saturday I shot an entire 8 stage match with 45's I loaded. The difference from factory stuff in incredible. Much more pleasant to shoot and far more accurate. Not to mention cheaper. Although I figured the 200 rounds I shot last saturday cost me about $500.00 BUT IT'S ALL PURE SAVINGS FROM HERE ON. I went with a Lee classic turret and Lee dies. The price was nice and it still gives you a littlr faster bullit production than a single stage. I did have one squib on me. Fortunatly it was realized before a second round was fired. Lesson learned.....I now have a light positioned directly over the press and I check every round that goes through the process. Reloading is pretty basic stuff, once you figure it out. I now scour the ground for brass, spend my TV time priming nice shinny cases and tell my girlfriend " I'll be right in to bed after I finish these last 200 rounds" All in all it's really the final step in the shooting experience. Although I remember how tense I was when I fired that first round that was made by my rookie hands. After that..... pure shooting pleasure.

[plblark]

I now have a light positioned directly over the press and I check every round that goes through the process.

That's what I did as well.

[OldmanFCSA]

You did GOOD.
Now that you are scrounging the ground for cases to load, you are going to need a good way to clean those cases.
I HIGHLY recommend using the stainless steel pin method over and other process.
I have used ultrasonic - clean but SLOW.
I tumbled in walnut shels or corncob media for 34 years and wore out cement mixers trying to get cases clean.
Since going to "wet" process using SS Pins - I haven't used any of my other tumblers or vibratory cleaners.

http://www.stainlesssteelmedia.com

Other places may be cheaper - but this sites shows all thats needed and has great pictures.

Ask if you have questions.
I do recommend depriming before cleaning (deprime without resizing to protect your sizing die).

[MKearn]

I started about a month and a half ago. I asked everyone I could about it. Guys like Tim Warner had a lot of solid advice on presses and equipment (Thx again for the LnL tip Tim!) There was another thread on this board that had a ton of info on this topic. Anyway, following the advice of that thread I bought The ABC's of reloading, the Lyman, Hornady and Speer reloading manuals and of course all the equipment Midway USA could ship to my door. I like the Lyman manual the best with the Speer being second place. But to other's points read...then re-read. Take your time and per a number of people I talked to, when starting out on a progressive doing 1 rnd at a time (although feeling a little counter intuitive) is a good idea. Finally, I cannot underscore enough the need for a good scale and also, using it regularly. Checking those power drops is critical especially in the beginning.

[OldmanFCSA]

Pictures lost or deleted due to computer crash.

[OldmanFCSA]

To help prevent "squib" loads from getting to your gun, weigh each loaded case as it comes off your press.
You will find that this one added step will help prevent that low powder load in one case and over-load in next case caused by powder bridging in the powder dump. Cases weigh a consistent amount, Primers weigh a consistent amount, bullets weigh a consistent amount, only thing that may change is powder weight. Remember using total weight will reflect back to each component weight. This works great for all pistol and most rifle rounds.
Modify your procedure to point that it doesn't affect your overall loading time.
The slight additional time it takes will be compensated by the known quality of your reloaded ammo.
When my daughter loads 38 or 357 in my progressive, she MUST do this, because she is trying to also sing along with her I-pod or phone music and sometimes gets distracted. But she can load more ammo in an hour than I ever could.
Use an electronic scale for fastest results.

[Pat Cannon]

Cases weigh a consistent amount

This is only true if you sort your brass by brand (and I don't know how true it is then). The I tried weighing finished cartridges with a charge of 3 grains of Titegroup, I quickly learned that unsorted brass .38 cases vary in weight. I don't remember how much, but it was significantly more than than 3 grains.

Doing, say, .357 Magnum loads with 20 grains of H110, then I believe you could detect empties this way.

[OldmanFCSA]

Cases weigh a consistent amount

This is only true if you sort your brass by brand (and I don't know how true it is then). The I tried weighing finished cartridges with a charge of 3 grains of Titegroup, I quickly learned that unsorted brass .38 cases vary in weight. I don't remember how much, but it was significantly more than than 3 grains.

Doing, say, .357 Magnum loads with 20 grains of H110, then I believe you could detect empties this way.

I stand corrected !!!
Cases do vary in weight accross brands and within brands.
Weighing completed rounds will only work on cases with larger powder charges than normal weight variance of cases. (Which is "most of the time".)