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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To the Board of Directors,
Gentlemen I`am writing to present you with an idea that i think you may possibly find advantageous to your company. As i`am sure you are aware there is a great interest in whats called "Cowboy Action" shooting in this country and more and more guns of yesteryear are being resurected by the companies that make reproduction firearms.
The sport is growing constantly and the gun makers are constantly looking for ways to take even more advantage of this ever growing market. Guns like the Henry rifle,Spencer carbine, Colt and Remington conversion revolvers and the Colt 1872 Open Top and others are on the market and doudtless other guns of history will be made in the future.
The arms makers try to be as authenic as possible in their copies but one thing keeps them from being "true" copies.The majority of these guns are being made in calibers that the original guns were never made in.The Henry, Spencer,the majority of early Colts were made in rimfire calibers. Ammunition that has`nt been made by American companies since the 1920`s and early 30`s.But with the resurgence in interest in the old guns of our history and boost in ammo sales that go along with it i think it is time to resurect the original ammo these guns used as well. I ask you to think about it and concider this.
The new guns are generally offered in 2 and sometimes 3 caliber options, none of which were ever used in the originals to begin with. If the original rimfire calibers were offered as an addtional caliber option and the ammo for those calibers were available i believe both the guns and ammo sales would skyrocket.
Authenticity is what it is all about with the cowboy action crowd and the collectors and other shooters of these guns.What could be more "authenic" that having a repro in it`s original
chambering rather than a caliber that never was used in the original? Not to mention the fact that if ammo were available once again people that own originals like myself would love to be able to shoot them as well.
i believe that if arrangements could be reached between the gun makers and your company in that they would make the guns with their original calibers as options and you in turn make the ammo available i think it would be a boost in sales for both. I ask both of you to do this.
The gun makers offer the guns in their original calibers as a limited trial. You in turn make a limited run of the ammo. you both market the availablity of guns and ammo and see how it works. I believe you will find a gold mine has been discovered.
About 20 yrs ago i wrote a letter to your company asking that you concider making various rimfire ammo available again for people like myself who own antiques and would love to shoot them if ammo were available.My letter made it into the hands of someone { can`t recall who}
but he was a higher up in the company at the time.
He wrote me back saying he personally thought i had a good idea and he had presented my idea before the board and they turned it down saying they did`nt believe there was enouht of a market out there
Well things have changed quite a lot since then and i think that my idea might be worth concideration once again. I hope you agree as well.
Sincerely,
Robert Heins