Bad Luck with RCBS??

[Nuevo]

I apologize if this comes off as a hijack, but I was on the verge of pulling the trigger on the RCBS kit. I don’t know very much about reloading at all, and it’s something my wife is actually pushing for.

What kit would you guys recommend for an absolute beginner reloading rifle and pistol rounds?

 

[TRICER]

Don’t buy a kit. Buy it piece by piece if you get a kit you won’t use over half the stuff in a month.

For a press RCBS rock chucker they are work horses.

On the cheap. I recommend a digital jewel scale off amazon something around $20-40, a powder tray, and lee powder measure cups for your powder. Depending on what you want to spend you can get an auto charger but they cost anywhere from $250 to $4k I use a Hornady and it was $250.

Case trimming there are a few different ways you can go but I love my Wilson car trimmer. You don’t necessarily need a trimmer yet.

Get a digital pair of calipers again like $20 on amazon.

You will need a primer poket brush and a neck reamer you can do this by hand or you can get a rcbs or similar power case prep station.

Some sort of a brass tumbler will be needed as well.

Side note RCBS makes great stuff every company has a bad day.

This scale was $20 Amazon I was able to get great standard deviation with it.

 

[Bowman]

Don’t buy a kit. Buy it piece by piece if you get a kit you won’t use over half the stuff in a month.

For a press RCBS rock chucker they are work horses.

On the cheap. I recommend a digital jewel scale off amazon something around $20-40, a powder tray, and lee powder measure cups for your powder. Depending on what you want to spend you can get an auto charger but they cost anywhere from $250 to $4k I use a Hornady and it was $250.

Case trimming there are a few different ways you can go but I love my Wilson car trimmer. You don’t necessarily need a trimmer yet.

Get a digital pair of calipers again like $20 on amazon.

You will need a primer poket brush and a neck reamer you can do this by hand or you can get a rcbs or similar power case prep station.

Some sort of a brass tumbler will be needed as well.

Side note RCBS makes great stuff every company has a bad day.

This scale was $20 Amazon I was able to get great standard deviation with it.

View attachment 43575View attachment 43576

wonderful recommendations Drew, however as an ex-fabricator / machinist, and mechanical inspector,
Please kindly take this as constructive advice.
I have a recommendation, there is a calibration of the tools. in other words, verifying
the inspection tools are measuring correctly. normally gages blocks that have been certified by the manufacture the specification standards. which is the proper way to do it.
but the cheap way is to buy certified grounds pins of at least minimum 2 different sizes. bigger the better to the overall length of the of case and the assembled. cartridge.
they are relatively cheap , $20 or less. purchasing $20 digital calipers are normally junk. and are used for ref. quality tools will be a lot more. however based on entry low budget use gage pins to calibrate the calipers. compensate for accuracy. as long as it can check +/- .001 for this type work. as you can see I very anal about measurement.

problem with cheap inspection tools are not made accurate, don't repeat, and are made of cheap material.
I have calipers made by Starret I had since I started in the business and still work but a little wear,

Starrett 3202-6 0-6" Dial Caliper W/White Dial

Starrett 3202-6 0-6" Dial Caliper W/White Dial. Buy it and Save at GlobalIndustrial.com

www.globalindustrial.com

same goes for digital scale it may or may not be accurate. again a beam style weight scale rarely goes out of calibration, but if it is accidently damage it can.

 

[TRICER]

This is what works for me, and what I would recommend to get into reloading. Do with it what you will.

 

[Nuevo]

This is what works for me, and what I would recommend to get into reloading. Do with it what you will.

View attachment 43577View attachment 43578View attachment 43579View attachment 43580View attachment 43581

Pics 1,2, and 5, what is that? Keep in mind, I’m very new to this. My only reloading experience is helping reload shot shells as a kid, and all I did then was pull a lever down.

 

[Bowman]

My apologies Drew, just trying to give newbies help. if it works well then

 

[Nuevo]

I’ll take all the advice I can get! Ammunition isn’t something I want an oops from.

 

[TheGDog]

Forgive me if I didn't see it said already... make sure you also buy those certified/verified weights you can use to verify what your scale is telling you is correct. And use them to double check your scale everytime you begin again. (Example: you grab the one that says it's 20grains, you put it on your scale and verify your scale tells you its 20grains, if your scale barfs up some whack number, abort mission until you get the scale replaced/fixed)

 

[TRICER]

Pics 1,2, and 5, what is that? Keep in mind, I’m very new to this. My only reloading experience is helping reload shot shells as a kid, and all I did then was pull a lever down.

Those are my velocities and the the average velocity. The standard deviation or S-D in the corner is how consistent the load is shooting. A low SD is crucial to consistency especially when you start stretching them out. Again this is what works for me I am probably in the mid range of how hardcore I am when it comes to reloading. There are a lot more guys in here that are way more precise than me.

 

[Bowman]

Forgive me if I didn't see it said already... make sure you also buy those certified/verified weights you can use to verify what your scale is telling you is correct. And use them to double check your scale everytime you begin again. (Example: you grab the one that says it's 20grains, you put it on your scale and verify your scale tells you its 20grains, if your scale barfs up some whack number, abort mission until you get the scale replaced/fixed)

yes it's very important to get the correct measurement of powder, measure twice or more and cut once.

 

[Nuevo]

Would anyone mind putting a detailed list together for me? This way I can order what I need. I have about a grand to play with.

pm me if you prefer to keep the thread light of from too much of a hijack. Thanks!

 

[Bowman]

Forgive me if I didn't see it said already... make sure you also buy those certified/verified weights you can use to verify what your scale is telling you is correct. And use them to double check your scale everytime you begin again. (Example: you grab the one that says it's 20grains, you put it on your scale and verify your scale tells you its 20grains, if your scale barfs up some whack number, abort mission until you get the scale replaced/fixed)

or have a couple of specimens(sample parts) have them weighed by a certified scale and record the weight and save them to calibrate your scale.

 

[TRICER]

Would anyone mind putting a detailed list together for me? This way I can order what I need. I have about a grand to play with.

pm me if you prefer to keep the thread light of from too much of a hijack. Thanks!

Are you in San Diego?
Set up an appointment with fine firearms in La Mesa. They are appointment only right now. Work our a time to go in and meet with John @NBK they sell everything you need and will come with the knowledge and know how to back it up.

[email protected]

 

[ilovesprig]

OR....For a 1000 bucks, you can go to Fine Firearms...Buy a pretty nice rifle and have more factory ammo than you'll need in a lifetime...

 

[Nuevo]

Are you in San Diego?
Set up an appointment with fine firearms in La Mesa. They are appointment only right now. Work our a time to go in and meet with John @NBK they sell everything you need and will come with the knowledge and know how to back it up.

[email protected]

I’m about 90 miles from San Diego... not out of the question though

 

[Nuevo]

OR....For a 1000 bucks, you can go to Fine Firearms...Buy a pretty nice rifle and more factory ammo than you'll need in a lifetime...

I definitely could... but there’s a reason for reloading

 

[JakeSCH]

I apologize if this comes off as a hijack, but I was on the verge of pulling the trigger on the RCBS kit. I don’t know very much about reloading at all, and it’s something my wife is actually pushing for.

What kit would you guys recommend for an absolute beginner reloading rifle and pistol rounds?

I recommend listening to Drew. The only reason I went with the kit is because some of the individual items i ordered went on backorder after a couple of weeks of impatience I canceled and bought the kit.

 

[JakeSCH]

Don’t buy a kit. Buy it piece by piece if you get a kit you won’t use over half the stuff in a month.

For a press RCBS rock chucker they are work horses.

On the cheap. I recommend a digital jewel scale off amazon something around $20-40, a powder tray, and lee powder measure cups for your powder. Depending on what you want to spend you can get an auto charger but they cost anywhere from $250 to $4k I use a Hornady and it was $250.

Case trimming there are a few different ways you can go but I love my Wilson car trimmer. You don’t necessarily need a trimmer yet.

Get a digital pair of calipers again like $20 on amazon.

You will need a primer poket brush and a neck reamer you can do this by hand or you can get a rcbs or similar power case prep station.

Some sort of a brass tumbler will be needed as well.

Side note RCBS makes great stuff every company has a bad day.

This scale was $20 Amazon I was able to get great standard deviation with it.

Neck reamer vs neck turner? have you used both?

 

[Aeon]

Ok a few things to clean up here.

first the rcbs kit is not a bad investment. i use pretty much everything in that kit besides the dumb lube pad all the time. so nothing in there goes to waste. Yes you can get better made things then what comes in the kit but its not bad.

you can use the harbor freight calipers. they are as accurate as the high dollar ones. i have tested them and so has the interweb. they are straight up copies of the good stuff and work. Your use of them will have more error then the machine will.

YOU DO NOT NEED Certified weights. @Larry Dude where did you even come up with that. Cert weights are freaking expensive and even if you had a scale with the resolution to calibrate it wont help. calibrate your scale with a weight yes but as long as you do not change calibration weights your load is your load. when you work up a load for each gun as long as your scale is calibrated to the same weight the work up its good, right or wrong. keep in mind we are talking about the difference between .01 and .02 gr here. You would be surprised how accurate the cheap weights are. I do still check every 5th to 10th load or so on my beam scale to make sure my 1k$ A/D electronic scale stays sane. you can increase that check if you use a cheaper electronic scale as they sometimes drift.

in terms of accuracy the powder drop is least accurate but still works with smaller powders that meter well. plinking ammo will never know the difference.
next is the cheap electronic scales the best of them being the gempro 250.. ( some love them and some like me hate them) i lump all the reloader made scales like the charge master and so on in the group.
beam scale is next kinda... they can be super accurate to the kernel if used right. they are just slow to use and you need to have them at eye level or parallax can mess you up. my 20 year old beam is still as good as the day it was new.
high end electronic scales. The fx120i being the entry level into that world. its spooky accurate combined with a auto trickle its bad ass

The take away is the beam is GOOD TO GO!!!! you can add more later if you want

so your list

1. a single stage press
2. dies for what you want to reload. ( thats a whole thing on its own )
3. scale, get a beam to start and you will use it to verify for the rest of your life.
4. case trimmer
5. chamfer and debur tool
6. hand primer/ or press with built in primer tool
7. calipers with the hornady comparitor tool / thats a must have for proper seating depth. you do not need the OAL gauge except for ar15s. for bolt actions use the wheeler method ( google that ) for figuring out where the lands are
8. powder throw is nice to short throw then trickle up to your weight
9. a tray to hold brass
10. funnel of the correct size to fill cases with powder
11. a brain to look up stuff and refer to load data guides

pretty much the rcbs kit

 

[Bowman]

actually not that bad Bill, there is more expensive, but not bad for you rich guys.

https://www.grainger.com/product/8DMX3?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkNn9otXZ6AIVBf5kCh3agAA8EAkYASABEgLTKvD_BwE&cm_mmc=PPC:+Google+PLA&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMIkNn9otXZ6AIVBf5kCh3agAA8EAkYASABEgLTKvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!264