Thread: Looking at learning to reload, cost effective or better to keep buying cheap ammo

If you are going single stage or turret press personally from my limited experience I think Lee is great value, then maybe spend the savings on high quality dies. If you can afford festol of course, well f*ck it yeah buy hornady, though Ive not seen anyone rave about their dies. Redding competition, now yes worth considering by all accounts, Im ordering some.


LOL I need a pick of my workshop by comparison....bomb site....I tend to mix tools, bosche, makita, dewalt. I have some AEG, their drill batteries suck BTW dont buy AEG.


If you are going progressive then dont buy a lee loadmaster unless its very cheap, I got my one for $200 so it was very cheap, but its indexing mechanism is a dog, as an engineer it grates on me....I wouldnt have paid the $550 list price, or been really pissed if I had.

Originally Posted by ebf

Sweet, our club ammo is a bit cheaper, and my calcs were done using NRA prices for components & consumables.

is your club ammo hand loaded by members? or what?

Can you PM me the NRA cost of the powder and projectiles? or is $75 for 500g of 2208 and 42cents for the nosslers about right?

Originally Posted by Chupacabra

If you are looking at a cheap way to get started, I aquired one of those archaic Lee hammer kits (303) in my dealings. Surprisingly it actually works, the priming system seams a bit sus though.

I mate of mine reloads his 54R with one, he says its cheap but good.

Originally Posted by steven

I mate of mine reloads his 54R with one, he says its cheap but good.

And you don't need a loading bench set up

Lee Loader 303 British - Lee Precision

Originally Posted by steven

Can you PM me the NRA cost of the powder and projectiles? or is $75 for 500g of 2208 and 42cents for the nosslers about right?

sounds like retail + 10% to me...

I was going to wait until next month, but shit happens

Hornady Classic press ordered along with
Hornady Cam lock trimmer
Hornady Tumbler , media and polish (can't afford a stainless steel tumbler at the moment)
223 full length Dies and shell holder
Hornady Bullet puller
Hornady Primer Cleaner
Some more MTM 223 Cases
a reloading logbook, some ADI brass and federal primers, (couldn't get any AR Federal primers)

Got through Workshop Innovations, thanks Hunter308 for the link,

And got some more stuff through Hunting and outdoors supplies,

Hornady Universal Decapping pin. (want to deprime without sizing before cleaning, plan on getting a sonic cleaner, then tumbler after sonic for a clean inside and polish on the the outside)
Dust covers for power measure and press
Bench bracket for power measure and some cases for dies and other bits

Now to wait for the postie

Still looking at getting a:

Hornady Curved O.A.L gauge
Hornady Bullet Comparator Set (to check over, all the bullets)
Hornady Headspace Gauge set
Hornady Concentricity Gauge, read a review on this in NZ guns & Hunting
Hornady 1.2Ltr Sonic cleaner
Hornady Stuck Case Remover Die set

Still need to get some projectiles and powder, anyone know and places that sell projectiles and powder in Hamilton?, as i'm heading that way next week i think.

Your bench is going to be a sea of red! Awesome mate.

Originally Posted by Bryan

Your bench is going to be a sea of red! Awesome mate.

cheers, can't wait to set it up.

Originally Posted by The Jackel

cheers, can't wait to set it up.

Definitely post some pictures up of your man bench once you have all your RED gear setup.

Originally Posted by The Jackel

Still looking at getting a:

Hornady Curved O.A.L gauge
Hornady Bullet Comparator Set (to check over, all the bullets)
Hornady Headspace Gauge set
Hornady Concentricity Gauge, read a review on this in NZ guns & Hunting
Hornady 1.2Ltr Sonic cleaner
Hornady Stuck Case Remover Die set

Still need to get some projectiles and powder, anyone know and places that sell projectiles and powder in Hamilton?, as i'm heading that way next week i think.

Cleland Gunsmithing and Engineering he is Awesome

Cheers Mucko

Go and check out Jaycar or trademe for a ultrasonic cleaner you may get one cheaper than a hornady one and they are pretty much the same I got a small one from Jaycar and it does a good job but have to do brass in small batches. Forlongs has the hornady comparator insert set for $80 and the caliper base for $32 but in saying that Ebay might be your freind on those other bits except the ultrasonic cleaner

Originally Posted by hunter308

Go and check out Jaycar or trademe for a ultrasonic cleaner you may get one cheaper than a hornady one and they are pretty much the same I got a small one from Jaycar and it does a good job but have to do brass in small batches. Forlongs has the hornady comparator insert set for $80 and the caliper base for $32 but in saying that Ebay might be your freind on those other bits except the ultrasonic cleaner

thats not a bad idea, as I'm running low on funds after buying the initial gear but i got funds for a box of projectiles and powder

i got my new copy of hornady reloading manual today, very interesting, can't wait to set up the gear, it should be here tomorrow or saturday.

and with the hornady gear you will have to buy hornady shell holders sadly as the case trimmer won't let you use other branded shell holders which I found out when I bought one and could not use the RCBS shell holder in it, got put right off hornady after that, oh and whatever you do for the love of god DO NOT use the hornady one shot spray lube or you will have one really stuck case I found out the hard way when I first started and lost a FL die because it was stuck solid to the point the stuck case remover ripped out of the bottom of the case and totally wrecked my first press in the process which was a cast alloy lee c-frame, had hornady up about it and they said they would replace the die and never did.