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+1. I can't get excited about a trimmer because I don't use one that much and having the "best" or the fastest doesn't matter to me. If I have to do a bunch of cases I just chuck up an electric drill to my Forster trimmer. To each his own.

Rockchucker, Redding T7, precision die sets with micrometer seaters, Lee crimp dies, good calipers, chronograph and a 10-10 scale.

Precision is the goal. Handgun mostly and rifle.

A chronograph.

The Little Crow Trimmer I bought about a month ago for 223 and 20 Practical.It is super fast and you don`t have to deburr the lip.

Old rcbs special at least 30 years old good as new. But probably the best value for the $$ bought a set of Lee powder scoops 2nd hand for $4. Very handy and I got rid of my powder measure. Once you get the hang of it you can scoop very consistent charges certainly as consistent as a powder measure probably better.. I also like the Lee priming tool.

Reloading is a hobby and becomes expensive if you like all the bells and whistles. Years ago a friend made very good ammo with a basic Lee set up. I have a
Chargemaster for rifles
Harrell pistol measure/ RCBS 2000 for pistols
All loading on a Co Ax.
Also use a Trim Mate for case prep.
Thumbler's tumbler
I'm sure interested in a SS cleaning media system and
Frankfort Arsenal trimmer. Hasbeen

I forgot the RCBS Little Dandy . Over the years I have accumulated almost all the rotors. A few duplicates that I modified for an exact pet load.

Always +/- .1gr with most powders. Speeds up things a lot. I might spring for a Redding Benchrest powder measure one of these days. But I really don't need it.

Interesting you mention that. I've been using the same RCBS RS (Reloader Special) since 1978. I wanted a Rock Chucker but was fresh out of college and scrimping pennies. Except for a fling for a couple years with a Dillon 550 in the mid-90's it's the only metallic press I've ever had. Have thought of upgrading numerous times but it's never let me down so it keeps on keeping on.

And on that theme I was looking at the reloading bench, and that got me to thinking about the workbench in the garage and I realized a lot of my stuff can be divided into tools and toys. Toys come and go, that would include most (but not all) of my firearms. Tools get bought once and kept forever. Still using the same RCBS Uniflow measure bought in 1976, same trickler I got in 1968, same Craftsman dial caliper my father got me for Christmas in 1980, even still using the same bent paper clip incipient separation gauge I made around that same time period. Some of the tools in the garage date back to 1968, a pair of vise grips still has paint on them from a 1965 BSA 250 we put together back then.

When it comes to toys, I always want to play with the latest thing. When it comes to tools, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is the motto. Don't know if this makes me faithful, thrifty or just cheap.

Jim my first press was an old spartan c press that I bought from a guy in my dorm while in college. His mom had painted the workbench so it too had matching red paint job. Never the less it worked fine for the $15 I gave for it . It too is still in service as I gave it to my brother when I bought my special I will say the compound leverage over the c press was an improvement. Like you I sort of coveted a rock chucker but in hind sight I don't know if I would have improved my lot in life. Maybe if I was reforming 22 hornet brass out of 375 h&h or something but for just reloading the special is plenty and then some. If the old spartan press had any advantage it was the ram had a open primer channel instead of the hollow center like the junior. I've had primers bridge up and it can be a pain to dig them out with a pipe cleaner or wire.

+1

Forster Co-Ax press and dies AND chronograph

Lee Collet Dies

The chargemaster pan with the built in funnel. I don't know why it doesn't come standard with chargemaster.

https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-Scale-P...fkmr0&keywords=rcbs+scale+pan+fullne

In all honesty the best value for loading and mucking about with forearms has been a 6" mitutoyo digital caliper.

For me a chronograph.

I remember my first piece of reloading equipment.....a Lee handloading set for a 243. I bought the set, a can of powder, a box of bullets, and a 100 primers for about what a couple of boxes of ammo would cost. Life was simple then, and so was reloading. I couldn't believe how accurate a round I could make myself, and as I aquired more rifles, I also bought more reloading equipment. Today, I've got so much stuff that I don't know where it all is. I just wonder what kinds of advances we'll see over the next 40 or 50 years.

the lee case trimmers and a cordless drill.

I think lots of this boils down to choices made for either precision or for speed (or convenience), with cost lurking in the background.

The other day I saw a post elsewhere talking about a new annealing machine that was digitally controlled and costs around $700, IIRC. I know darned good and well that a few probably went to the website and bought one right away because having "the best is always the way to go." But, really? I've shopped for hammers before, and they are really simple devices that will last forever if they're made even just half-assed and do the job they were meant to do well. Fifteen bucks oughta do it, but I'll bet I could shop around and find one that costs fifty or sixty bucks, or maybe even a gold plated hammer costing much more. And it would not drive nails any better than a fifteen-dollar hammer. I don't see an annealing machine as being much different from a hammer because the task is so simple. All the machine does is apply a flame to a case neck for some duration, and hopefully runs the cases through the process automatically...and that can be done for a lot less than $700. I paid around $300 for an Annealeez because I liked the fact that I could load it up with fifty .223 cases and just watch it run, and I didn't have to scrounge a bunch of parts and fiddle with assembling it for several evenings. If the Annealeez holds one in the flame for a 2/10 of a second longer now and then, I cannot imagine any real difference in the ultimate outcome---even if making ammo for a top grade benchrest rifle. On the other hand, I see annealing cases without an annealing machine of some kind a lot like pounding nails with a rock. You can do it, but it's just no damned fun at all.

Where precision is mandatory, I think it's a different story. It just depends on how much precision is needed and where the point of diminishing returns happens to be...but paying more does not always get you more.

Lee crimping dies are handy

Be careful sir entering uncharted waters, with that common sense again. Shortly one of the wind bags will be along to knock that common sense outa ya.




Take care, Willie