Who makes the best reloading equipment?

tenring! good to see you posting again! don't be such a stranger!

oh yeah, you asked a question....my preference is toward lee. family operation, good folks, good service, fine product. always does exactly waht i need it to do.

others recommend the rockchucker by RCBS, and there is nothing wrong at all with this either.

it is awfully tough to beat an rcbs rockchucker set up. get the kit, add a trickler, some calipers, and take quality notes, and you're on your way.

for the price, redding and rcbs are the best you'll find for dies.

for assorted handtools you may eventually want (primer pocket uniformer, cleaner, chamferring, etc) lyman will probably be your best bet.

for a tumbler, the cabela's house brand is a good one for the money - should you decide you want to tumble brass.

manuals... if you go w/ the rcbs kit, you'll also find a speer reloading manual in it. speer #13 is my favorite, go-to manual. unfortunately, it is getting a little dated (no short mag data, no 480 ruger data, etc), so i also found the lyman manual to be ok, and the sierra manual is nice. i'd rank those 3 as speer, sierra, then lyman. nosler makes a pretty good manual, and that's about the only ones i would buy - sure wouldn't trust a barnes manual...

you may find the nickel cases to be a nuisance... some guys like the stuff, i sure don't.

i wouldn't reccomend you piece your first kit together, especially when the rockchucker kit is top-notch, affordable, and has high-quality stuff in it (everything you need to start reloading, but you'll also benefit by adding calipers and a trickler, maybe a 2nd loading block).

lee:  sure won't find any of that stuff in my reloading area...  don't like it, don't trust it.

tenring: you 'll end up like the rest of us, a little this and that.. i tryed to stay woth rcbs but have a little of all.. if you see something cheap and you want to try it , go ahead.. if it works fine if not try something else...

Buy things that are green, and if items are older, grey and orange will be good. Look on Ebay. You can set up pretty reasonably, with top quality stuff.

Tenring,I use a Rockchucker.Thats all I use.All of my dies are RCBS except for a set of Redding 25-06AI dies.I `ve used a Lyman press and liked it too.But for the money a chucker is hard too beat.

I will not use Lee dies, ever.Lots of folks do, but you get what you pay for.

I use a Sierra Manual,and a Hodgdon manual.When I need more info I bum it off of one of these other fellas around here.My scale is a Hornady Magnetic M.I have no complaints.My trimmer is a RCBS manual trimmer,Trust me get you a lever lock.Nothing fun about sitting down and trimming 500 rounds of brass with a Tbar handle.My brass tumbler looks like an old butter dish on a platform I got from a buddy from Colorado.It is a dinosaur,but it still works so I use it.I think Santa is bringing me a Frankford Arsenal from Midway though.. if the Mrs, keeps looking at my open Midway catalog with a highlighted circle around it and the words."I sure wish I had this for Christmas" written beside it.

I have 2 sets of Calipers.All of mine are commercial machinist stuff,but RCBS,Hornady and a bunch of others have real reasonable stuff in most catalogs.For a primer pocket uniformer ,I have a Lyman LR that I started with ,but now I use a EJS with cutters for both large and small primer pockets.I use a RCBS flashole deburring tool as well .Just buy the different caliber collets and you can interchange it.

Good luck with reloading.It is addictive..

I'll go along with the suggestion you get an RCBS Rockchucker press, either used or new. Beefy enough, you'll never kill it if you keep it clean and lubed.

A turret might be a good idea if you swap around between one or two favorites.

I decided starting out that I was interested in production-type reloading, so right out of the gate I bought a Lee Anniversary Kit and a Dillion XL-650 progressive loader the same day. The next day I bought an RCBS 505 scale and an RCBS trickler, 4000 primers and four pounds of powder, 400 bullets and awaaaaay we went. I've never regretted going kookoo with the checkbook.

The Lee stuff, including the measure, is used for initial load workup, then I throw everything on a Dillon tool head and go from there. One caveat, if you are doing magnums, I don't trust the Dillion measure at all on stick powders like 4350 or 4831, even SC.

Dies: I like RCBS, Redding, and Hornady. I have mixed and matched die sets to get what I want. I think the Hornady decapping rod is marginal, but I think their sleeve bullet seaters are wonderful.

Manual: I won a Hodgdon manual at an egg shoot and it's pretty much all I will ever need, but that's because I shoot Brand H powders exclusively. Get a good manual, ask your friends what they like.

Hornady One Shot is super case lube, by the way. But if you neck size, you don't need lube. And if necking, you should really look at the various neck insert units. I have them on a couple of calibers that I shoot a lot with the titanium nitride coating.  

Waksupi,

Fantastic advise.  Very correct.

BUT IS IS AMAZING AT HOW EFFICIENTLY IT WAS STATED.

Congratulations.

BEAR

Most folks end up with a mix of products on their bench. I've got an RCBS Jr press, a Lee turret, and two Dillon 550Bs. RCBS Uniflow powder measure, a mix of dies... Lee, RCBS, and Lyman. Pact BBK scale, with an old Ohaus as a back up, RCBS trickler, Lee dippers, and two Lyman lubrisizers. Funny how one's experiences color perception...never had a problem with Lee dies, and I have had an RCBS .243 sizer that was too long...wouldn't push the neck back enough to chamber in a correctly headspaced rifle. Didn't send it back, just stoned the bottom to shorten it the corrct amount. By some folk's logic, I should refuse to use RCBS dies, because of one lemon. Any manufactured item can, and sooner or later, will be wrong, doesn't matter whose name is on it!

I have an old Herters press and powder measure. I use RCBS and an old set of Baer dies (RCBS is alot better). I have a Forrester case trimmer I like.

Alot of different stuff but it works for me. Dont forget to look at garage sales.

Wing master

My reloading press is a Dillon RL550B, as are the majority of my dies, shell plates, & conversion kits. I also have one of their electronic powder scales, electric brass polishers, & media separators.

While it is a progressive machine, for each rifle round I put through it I weigh out the powder charge in my electronic scale to keep the powder weight consistent to within .1 grain of weight. On my pistol rounds I weigh every 5th load to make sure it is within .3 grains of what I'm looking to load.

Dillon has the BEST guarantee as far as I'm concerned,... I had in the past bent a primer pin and had 2 different cases stick in the sizing die all of which were replaced at no charge. The Dillon dies have a stuck case remover incorporated in each one of their primer/sizing dies but in those 2 instances the brass would not pop loose. So I called their toll free number and they sent a brand new die to me. I've had this set-up since the middle 80's and just can't say enough GOOD things about their equipment or guarantees!  I have added quite a bit more stuff to my bench since this picture was taken (2000) but you get the general idea of my set up.

My shotshell loader is a MEC 600 JR. and it too is a great press for the money.