Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rethinking your reloading area - tight spaces - picture rich

Reloading seems to be primarily a man thing. As a group, men are bad for clutter. I am too. I wanted to show you what I did with an approximate 8 ft area of wall space in my office. This made better use of the room. This works for me, and may provide a few ideas for people who are looking to reduce clutter, add to an office or upstairs area of their house, or might have limited space to set up a reloading area. Obviously, this set up is not for volume ammunition production, but most reloaders do not require a progressive press in a large production room.

This first picture is a 2.5 ft long by 2 ft deep table located beside my desk. I use it primarily for load development where small runs of ammunition are required. I threw some stuff on it so that you can judge the size. The table top is an old school desk top salvaged from when I was teaching, but plywood can just as easily be used. It can be left against the wall, or pulled out. It is difficult to see, but I have an MTM Maintenance Centre underneath the table. It holds rifles when I am changing scopes, using an OAL gauge, etc.

I have four presses in my office. A Rock Chucker, Redding Boss, Lee 2001, a Lee C press.

It is important to note that I do not store all my reloading equipment in the office. Bullets, primers, cases, rifles, cleaning equipment, bullet making equipment, etc are kept in my workshop downstairs.



I use a cheap - and I mean cheap - tool box to keep some of my reloading tools and accessories in. I bought this at Walmart for less than $100. The idea was to find something that could hold things I would use when reloading at my little table. It is much more efficient than having shelves, and is portable. Note that I said it is portable. The tool chest is two pces. An upper and lower section. The lower section has wheels so it can be moved around.



Here is some of the stuff I keep in the tool chest.





I also use a bench grinder stand that I can place beside the table. Generally, I resize with the Rock Chucker and seat bullets with the Boss. I deprime with the Lee 2001 (O press) and crimp, flare and add powder using the Lee C press. These smaller jobs do not require an expensive press.

Having this set up lets me try different techniques or experiments with bullets, new equipment, small batches of new powder or bullets, etc. I will rpeat, this set up works for my needs, and might give you a few useful tips on ways to make things easier at the bench.

Of all the things I have bought over the yrs, the tool chest was the smartest thing I have done. The large amount of storage in a compact space, and its portability, make it a must have, in my view.