Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Your First Reloading Setup

^^^This^^^

77-78, used RCBS Jr.
Gave it to a friend at work a few years ago. He was setting off primers with a old Lee hammer tool. I figure I saved at least one eye.....

1965, a Lee Loader in 32 SPL for an 1894 Winchester rifle. Still have the loader and the rifle and still use both.

Started loading 12ga in 1967 with a lee loader
Then 25/06 and 38/357 mag in 1974, also with lee loaders
Then got a Rockchucker in 1975, for the above metallics
Stopped reloading shotguns for about 20 years, then stated again with a 12 ga MEC Sizemaster. Now I have Sizemasters in 12, 16, 20, and 28 ga.
And still use the Rockchucker with 25 or so sets of RCBS and Redding dies.

A LEE Loader in.30-06, only recently @ 2005.

1988, 18 years old no one in my family would consider using reloads.

I bought a Super Blackhawk, and couldn't afford to shoot it much on farm hand wages.

Rockchucker and the Master Reloaded kit.
Dies, measure, 5-10 scales, lube kit, deburring tool.

I was into that for around $170.
Mickles Sporting goods. I miss that place and the owner, Terry.

Started with the old Lee Loading kit for 12ga when I was a poor skeeter wing private.

Started on a Lee kit pounding 30-30 brass into the sizing die with a plastic hammer. Primed them by pounding the case down on the tool with a punch and a plastic hammer. Charged the case with a level scoop of the appropriate powder and seated the bullet with the plastic hammer.
This was about '73 or so.

Still got the kit somewhere but nowadays the job gets done on a 550

My first reloading setup was for shotgun. A Ponsness Warren Duomatic in 12 ga. I bought in 1978.

1969, Lee loader, used good ole steel hammer for sizing and depriming. Loaded for 12 gauge and a .45 colt. Made my own scoops from various pistol cases cut down to hold correct weight then twisted baling wire around extractor groove to use as a handle.

Started off in 1980 with the RCBS Big Max press. Still use it to this day. The one in the photo is not mine I still ue my RCBS 10-10 scale as a back up and to confirm what my dig scale is telling me. I use a Wilson case trimmer and I'v always been partial to Redding dies and Rose of Alabama...

Started loading shotshells on a Mec super 250 my Grandfather gave me. I went up from there to a Rockchucker for centerfire and progressed to a 600 jr then a 650 to a 9000. I still have them all

Ditto on the RCBS 10-10 scale.
In fact just yesterday I verified it against my Lyman digital scale and found the Lyman was 1.6grs low. My RCBS 10-10 scale was spot on for a 6mm 100gr bullet.
That is a significant error when I built a max load with 104.0 grs of powder using the old RCBS 10-10 scale. Glad I checked that digital scale prior to reloading max load ammo.
Every load in my logbook, 45 yrs of reloading, was developed using my old RCBS scale. To throw out 45 yrs of reloading history is something I will never do.
I have lost faith in my new fangled digital scale.

I fooled around a little with a 12 ga Lee Loader in 1974, but then got away from it until 1996 when I bought a Lee Anniversary kit and started reloading metallic. Added a lot more equipment in the next 24 years. Still learning too.

Jerry

Your digital scale doesn't have check weights or calibration feature?

I started with a Lyman nutcracker tool which belonged to Dad. Got my own Lee Loader in 1964, I think. Bought my first press, the RCBS Jr., in 1971, along with a 505 Scale. A couple years later, I added a RCBS powder measure. I still have and use both. I have purchased other presses but never kept them. The old Jr. works fine. I also still use Lee Loaders, and still have the old Lyman nutcracker (tong) tool and some dies for it. GD

Mine does but I likes to check a few loads during the case charging process with my 10-10 anyway only takes a second. Adams, is that you?

KYHillChick was looking for a Christmas present for me in 2000. I'd been toying with the idea for years, and finally asked the fellows on shooters.com what their recommendations were. I took the mainstream advice and ordered the RCBS Rockchucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit from Natchez Shooting Supply. This was the best deal at the time, and the last time I checked it still was.

Original RCBS die sets:

44 Magnum
357 Magnum
45 ACP
30-06
223 Rem

I'd been saving my brass since Reagan's first term. I had piles of it. Powder, bullets, primers and a good deal of the rest of it came from RELO, a LGS just up the road. It had a monster reloading section. It closed down a year or so later. I still miss that place.

My first load was a complete disaster. I tried to do 44 Mag and I was under the impression that one needed to run the expander die all the way into the case. The results were crooked and grotesque. I took them up to the LGS; there was a guy there that was sort of tutoring me. He took one look at the rounds and burst out laughing. I still have them on the shelf as a reminder. I also still have bullets left from RELO. They sold bullets by the pound.

Lol, That's a hellofa fish trap.

As kids in the 60s dad had us reload shotgun shells for him on the MEC, before we were able to shoot doves we were his bird dogs and shell loaders. I had my own kids do it, my daughter was reminiscing with her cousin, one of the things her cousin remembers is reloading shells at our house. I've loaded 10s of thousands of 12ga, still do, still have paper hulls and some old alcan card wads.

In the 90s I found a dusty box with a Herters press and a 3006 die set in dad's barn, he said a friend gave it to him years ago. So I took it and reloaded for my '06. Started buying guns just to reload for. Got over that phase, trimmed the stable down to about 10 guns, reload for hunting only now.

Kent