As with any hobby there's always the case of "wish I had known that" to save time/money/& effort. So I'd like to hear from you guys on equipment recommendations so that I avoid having to buy things twice or over buying for my needs.

My current goals are to reload: M2 ball spec rounds for my garand, a wide range of plinking/hunting ammo for 30-06 remington bolt action, and ammo for my .44 mag Dan Wesson. So far the only thing I have bought is the Lee breach lock classic cast single stage press.

Originally I was just going to order up the Lee 4 die set till I discovered the die sets with the micrometer on top to seat the bullets. These seam like they would be way more efficient when switching between different projectiles. But are those die sets complete or do you start mixing and matching dies to get a nice working system? For dealing with powder is there any advantage to a balance scale and powder drop + trickler vs an electronic like the rcbs chargemaster lite? Any other miscellaneous tools to consider?

The micrometer would be nice, but do you need that much precision?
the chargemaster makes it way easier vs drop +trickler. Trickler is kind of a pain. It is a lot cheaper though.
It also depends on the powder you are going to use. Stick powders tend to need more trickling, such as imr 4064, varget, etc. Ball powders are easier with just a powder drop, like AA2520.

The Lee (or RCBS) standard die sets will work just fine. Especially for just hunting/garand/44mag type ammo where you arent going for super small groups.

Changing the bullet seating depth for different bullets is quick so i wouldnt get a micrometer die just for that. If you reload mostly the same bullets (say a hunting bullet and a plinking bullet) just make dummy rounds set to your desired OAL. Then when switching just back the seating die off, run your dummy round up, then bring the seating die down till it lightly touches. Load a real round and adjust if needed. Once you do it a few times youll be swapping OAL's just as fast as if you were using a different setup.


As for powder drop methods....like Duke said, ball powders are great for a powder drop. Stick powders dont meter well and require more trickling. A chargemaster (i dont know about the lite) works quite well for stick powders. I actually have two (i got tired of waiting lol) and on a 44.5gr charge they will get it anywhere from 44.3-44.7gr which is easy enough to get a grain picked up to reduce the charge or tap the portion that the powder comes out of to get another grain of powder.

I like the micrometer dies, but necessary? No. Convenient? Yes.
I think another important question is your overall volume, and how many different variations you want to do in say 30-06.

Are you looking to reload to save money on run of the mill plinking ammo or are you looking to load precision rounds in small quanities/loads you cant necessarily buy?

I do both - volume for pistol/223 for AR on a Dillon 550 and use ball powders in the 223 for more consistent metering. I might load several hundred rounds in a session using the dillon. For rifle cases an X-Die is a HUGE time saver here, or a nice trimmer like a Giraud.

I have an Xdie now but if I did it over I would get the trimmer so I wouldn't have to worry about what cases are xdie and which aren't. I'd just run them all through the trimmer each time and not worry about it.

I load precision rounds on a rock chucker for my 6.5 creedmore and 223 bolt guns, 458 etc. I hand weigh these ones on a 10-10 scale and use better dies, better brass etc for these loads. I load maybe 50 to 100 at a time and often use different bullets/charges etc where the single stage really makes changes easy. These loads take more time but they do shoot better.


I think you'll want different stuff depending on what your intended volume is so really think about that before you go buy a bunch of equipment. If you're only loading a thousand rounds a year you dont need a bunch of fancy stuff like a chargemaster or Giraud. I can hand measure and trickle rounds pretty quickly once I get into a routine, and trimming 100 by hand is no big deal.

If you're thinking of loading 1000 per month you'll want a lot more automation and fancy toys.

Kgbsucka has the best first question. Planned volume of loading will need to be determined first.
The next thing to determine is precision or plinking.
When you know what you want, equipment needs can be focused further.

That’s all great advice.

Having loaded pistol and rifle calibers on a single stage with a powder thrower, and a analog scale for 3 years, I’ll tell you that loading pistol rounds and four pulls per round sure sucks after the first 20 rounds. Measuring every charge with the same setup for rifle rounds got old real quick too.

I recently bought a Dillon and with the amount of time I spend now making pistol is much less. You can also load rifle rounds in a semi auto manner to still get precise measures.

When you start looking at how much your time is worth per hour and how much time you spend prepping and loading, you might see that your money is well spent on gear that will hasten the process.

I've been thinking about production volume today based on how often I get to shoot plus the cost per round, and I'll never be in the 1k round a month club. Realistically I'd like to have 200-500 rounds of garand plinking (90%), precision (10%), ammo ready at any given time. In the 30-06 bolt gun I could see having 200 rounds total of plinking=100rnds/ precision=50rnds/ hunting=50rnds ammo. For the .44 mag I am thinking 500 rounds and I would like to go for all out precision once I get a new barrel tube from EWK. So realistically I would be loading 900-1200 rounds a year to start.

Now when I say precision rounds for the rifles I would like to think 2" groups out of the garand, and 1" groups out of the bolt action at 100 yards should doable. My plinking ammo should be able to hit a clay pigeon at 100 yards.

I've also been thinking about where I'll be making these rounds and it will be out in the shop where the source of heat is a wood stove. Because of this I think a electronic scale/dispenser would become a head ache?

Great plan.



Oops. Too late!

In my 1st defense I blame ebay.
Secondly I feel fairly confident that a single stage would meet my goals.

I'm in Arlington, you can come over and try my reloading equipment and do some loading. I have a bunch of dies set up for a lot of calibers. I generally load on friday & saturday late afternoons. I have everyting you will need for what you wamt to load so you won't have to buy anything until you get serious.

One word of advice...

Get an RCBS Small Base sizer die for that .30-06. Your Garand will thank you, and the Remington will like them as well.

Take him up on the offer and use his equipment.

You do not need digital scales to do reloading. I was the lab tech for Biology and Chemistry at a four year college for four years. My lab partners and I had time to do out experiments twice simply because we were the only two that used an aniltical grade rong balance scale that I calibrated. The rest of the students just had to use digital scales. A beam scale is all you will ever need. technique will make you more efficient and ergonomics will make your reloading faster. For what you have in mind an O frame scale will be fine. After you use Dove Release's equipment then buy but you can be thinking about it and keep your eyes open because you never know what you may stumble into. Those micrometer die sets.......all those dies have is finer threads on the adjustment screws. Most people can not measure closer then a few thousands any way. Where you save time is with an accurate powder drop that will drop with speed. RCBS and Lee make good powder drops BUT the Lyman 55 / Ideal #5 has been around for more then 70 years and the stair step design of the perpendicular to the drop tube meter chamber will adjust with practice to accurately drop charges for rifle and pistol. I have only used mine down to 1.6 grains so I can not attest as to how well it does below that.

I started with a Lee Loader, advanced to a Lee single stage, then a Lyman turret, and finally a Dillon 550. I don’t feel like any of the money was wasted and learned important lessons at every stage of my reloading journey....lessons I feel are learned best through experience. I still use all my presses, as each has its uses. Admittedly though, I use my Dillon most often. All that being said, determining your volume and precision needs will be important in choosing equipment. Passable plinking ammo can be made on a single stage with a powder scoop, but your accuracy will suffer.

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I have the Hornady.lock n load single stage system.
One set up for rifle & one set up for pistol.