WFR:You are more than welcome. Many of the factory loadings are loaded down to compensate for the older military rifles. Hornady has a lite mag loading with is supposed to scoot along at 2,800 or so in the 139 grain offering. If you are trying to build up brass, then I would recommend buying in bulk. I buy Remington basically because it is not too expensive, though the price of brass and other reloading components seems to have hiked considerably in the past couple of years. What you want to try to avoid is mixing brass, say Remington and Winchester, or Hornady and Remington. Different makes have different inside diameters and when put together will react differently in some rifles. To avoid any confusion, just start with a 100 piece bag of brass. I buy my reloading stuff from Graf & Sons in Mexico, Mo., and Midway, in Columbia, Mo., primarily because I used to live in Mexico when I was a newspaper reporter there. As far as dies, I use the Forster Ultra Bench Rest two die set. I have used Hornady dies, Lee dies, RCBS dies, but I like the Forster dies. The seating die has a seating depth guide which makes changing the seating depth as easy as turning a wheel. These will set you back about $80-$85 for the set. There are better dies out there and the prices reflect it too. It sounds like your reloading kit is as good as you will need. Make sure to get at least three reloading manuals. I like Hornady, Lyman and Nosler. I have others too, such as Speer, Lee and even a book by P.O. Ackley with tons of reloading stuff in it, but a lot of that is really hot. You might also get a good dial caliper and a micrometer. Lastly, to really open your eyes at your actual velocities, you might consider getting a refurbished shooting chrony chronograph. These units are about half of the cost of a new one and generally go for about $65. That chrony deal should be down the road a bit until you are completely comfortable with reloading. Well, I'm certain others will have additional comments on equipment such as better brass and the like. I hope this helps ... Tom Purdom
