Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best reloading investments

Be hard to call that a wrong answer! I use different tools at different times but some are always on the bench and this would be one. Can't imagine being a serious reloader without a good set of calipers.

No, she doesn't like my shop, guns and gun parts everywhere, cleaning rods and chemicals, pounds and pounds of powder and shelves of bullets, cigar smoke [when not reloading of course] dead animals heads, icebox of cold beer, saddles and tack, scotch whiskey and even a Keith Black blown alcohol hemi 69' Plymouth RR on jack stands, you need a sack of nuts to even want to go in there.

Forgot to mention the Lee powder thrower. It says it's the most accurate powder throw in the world and I believe it. Not bad for a $20 ish dollar tool



Trystan

Yame to but if you read them in time it can save you money in the long run
They have saved me a butt load over the years by not really purchasing stuff that I out grow or would have been a bad move

Common sense, and good data

any tool u need or want is allways the best

A lathe and a milling machine. Now I don't have to wait three days for a part to come in.

Sounds like an interesting place...

I like it already...

DF

Bought an Aussie O-Frame press used, for $50, 40 something years ago and bolted it to a slab of 6x2 hardwood which I G-Clamp to a bench.
Worn out several sets of priming tools and the affixed priming arm is a long ago forgotten memory.

Oil and tightening any leverage points is the key. The most important aspect is whether the die hole was bored straight before tapping.
After reviewing a lot of presses, there are actually some out of plumb.

The other item I like, is a digital caliper which I was given by Keith Herron, the Hornady Distributor in Oz quite some years back.

Although I have and have had all the trickle and thrower devises, I still use the same Tea Spoon and plastic cup I pinched from my mothers kitchen to hand weight every powder charge.

48 lbs of powder for $10 a pound from Pats before the 2012 Scool shooting

Comparator and run-out gauge.

John,
Respectfully a few thoughts...

If there is a difference in precision between these two I can't tell. Other than one is doing three things at one time AND still doing it in a fraction of the time. Though my Wilsons work perfectly at getting the Carpal Tunnel off...;-) (Allowing bad jokes to pass..) That being said it all depends on technique, simplistic but still repetitive technique, and the Giraud delivers +/- .001" with beautifully trimmed, chamfered, and deburred cases resulting. I should also note the machine is MUCH cheaper than the Wilson Tools. I hate having to reset them for each cartridge I shoot, hence, I wind up with a Wilson Micrometer Trimmer with Sinclair Base, for each cartridge, and a Wilson Ti plated cutter(w/originals held in reserve). $200 is an easy expenditure per trimmer... The .50 BMG Super Trimmer, when I bought it in 08', was about $550. I've been offered twice that for it from a couple of guys who process ammunition. The only difference from the standard unit that I am aware of is the 1/4th HP motor versus the standard 1/8 HP motor, and corresponding heavier frame, and the pulley system. Understand the market has dried up for the .50 BMG Super Trimmers per Mrs. Giraud. Looks like I have another collectors item. The only thing I have added that did not come from Giraud is a Forster Aluminum lock ring on each case holder. Their new website, which I believe went up last night, shows a similar lock ring...fwiw


My German Sartorius 64-1S Analytical Labratory Balance weighs to four places behind the decimal in grams and three in grains. Resolves down to .002 thousandths of a grain. Typical granule of H4350 is roughly .026 thousandths of a grain(from .020-.030 for outliers). Hence said H4350 stick makes a rather large impact on the readout. The problem can be information overload. Many choose the South Korean A&D 120i which goes to two digits behind the decimal in grains at a little more than half the price. I've run both and don't regret the Sartorius. A piece of tape over the third digit makes it a A&D 120i...



Very intelligent, and savvy, young Canuck who is making both the Sartorius and the A&D 120i into a dispensing analytical balances. Will likely become fiscally comfortable in the process within reason. Has also come up with his own "two box chronograph" for better or worse... www.autotrickler.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ngvVDS9kc

Hope it makes for interesting viewing...

It is amazing

Best Regards, Matt.

Holy smokes do I love factory ammo....that's a lot of stuff.

Matt in VA... that's some serious precision you're talking there! Certainly far more than I "need" in my reloading ops, but if it makes you happy, more power to ya!

I have spent a good half hour reading thru this thread this morning. Partly for plain old interest sake, but also because I'm getting ready to tool up my reloading operation after several years of (mostly) downtime. This past fall I purchased a shack from Home Depot, which I had installed in my back yard, and I've been puttering around getting it insulated and wired for 110 AC, and now that it's got air conditioning I'm starting to work on the shelves, benches, etc, to set up my various presses and tools to get back to regular reloading and hand loading.

So I'm looking at this thread with keen self-interest. What new tools do I "need" to get my shop up and running to where I want it to be? Seems I'll probably be buying a WFT case trimmer, as I'm dissatisfied with the various trimmers I've tried so far (thanks for the explication of differences between Gracie and the WFT, JB!). And I definitely need new runout/comparator equipment. Curiously, I've determined in the sporadic reloading sessions I've had since 2013 that my electronic powder dispensers (yes, plural... I've tried PACT and Lyman, both) are not what I need, at all... and I've gone back to my old green RCBS powder thrower, although I'm keeping the PACT electronic scale.

Thankfully, I'm happy with my press selection. The Redding T7 is the best rifle ammunition press in existence, IMHO, and will be permanently mounted on the bench. Likewise, Dillon's 650 is my production press par excellence for all but 9mm, which is the caliber de las casa at my house, and we go through it like sch!t thru a goose, so it has its own dedicated Dillon Square Deal press. I still use my Lee Classic Turret press for quick loading of short runs of pistol ammo as needed. It's a quick-change marvel, once you invest in the turrets and Lee dies, which was cheap and easy when I lived down the road from the Lee factory in Hartford, WI. An old MEC Gabber 12-gauge rounds out the presses on my bench.

But the other tools, as I said, are going to be revamped considerably. Which will be a lot easier to make decisions on after reading this thread. So thanks, boys.

Sharpie pens

Ziplock freezer bags

Dillon tumbler

Quickload

Labradar

Co-Ax press

Harrell's powder thrower

Dillon Super Swage

Dillon 550

Akrobins

Pretty bad ass.

1.) Co-Ax Press
2.) Powder measure/thrower
3.) Chronographs
4.) Calipers and micrometers
5.) The Internet (have picked up a lot of helpful tips/tricks that have sped up/simplified my reloading via the web that I otherwise would have never learned, or taken years to do so)

Jeff

Components, I listened to the old guys saying "buy it cheap stack it deep" and I am still shooting rounds of 30-06 I put together for less than 6 dollars a box of twenty.

Didn't read all the replies but rcbs collet bullet puller is up there for me!

Lee collet die has made things simpler for me no sorting or nothing other than trim and load and usually they are as good as the case will get. Usually no need to even check for run out unless the loads just won't shoot which hasn't happened so far.

Yes bullet puller has prevented me from shooting mistake loads and possibly saved my hide by making it easy to dismantle the bad boys.