Equipment Needed For Reloading

My reloading bench.



What you need to reload
To have a good set up for reloading you need a good sturdy table in a room with good light. A new reloader needs a press s which should hbe a single stage. The reason for that is a new reloader needs to study and learn each step in the process. If you do something wrong your ammo won’t work. Do not have anything in the loading room that will distract you such as a TV or a cell phone that you are going to text on. You need 100% of your attention on the job at hand. After mount your press which will require you to drill holes in the table to mount it. It needs to be very tight and no rocking or other movemnent should occur. As for investment you are looking at about $400 to get started. If you seldom shoot or don’t pay attention to detail then you probably should not get into reloading. It does save money but you have to do enough shooting to make up for the cost of the equipment. Then you need supplies which we will go into later.
Other equipment is dies for the caliber you intend to load for. You need a scales and powder measure which also has to be mounted on your bench. You need a lube pad especially for rifle calibers. If you load handgun ammo and buy tungston carbide dies you won’t need to lube them. I highly recommend those types of dies even though they cost a little more. You need a few hand tools such as screwdriver and Allen wrenches. Rifle cases tend to stretch so you need a venier to measure for length and a case trimmer for that. Handgun cases seldom stretch so a trimmer might not be needed. If I run across some 9 mm cases that are too long I will chuck them rather then trim them as it is time consuning to trim cases. If you trim cases you need a chamfer tool to take off the excess brass. You need at least one good reloading manual preferbly several. Companies such as Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, Barnes and Speer produce good reloading manuals. I strongly recommend that you read them as they have a lot of good info on reloading plus the reccomended powder charges and loaded length among other good info. Read, read and read some more. I have all of those mnuals plus others such as Lyman. You have quite a few choices in brands for presses and dies plus other reloading equipment. Companies such as RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Redding and Lee all make reloading equipment. I personaly use a RCBS Rockchucker press and dies because I am familiar with that equioment but any other brand is fine. You can shop around for a good deal.. Some companies offer a kit which has most of what you need to start and it would be a good idea to check those out as it will save bucks as compared to buying one piece at a time.