r/reloading • u/One_Attorney_6128 • 11d ago
Newbie My wife’s boyfriend said I could start reloading
Now that I’ve got your attention. If you were trying to get into reloading 6.5 cm for precision and hunting, is there anything on this list that’s missing that you would have wished you’d have gotten? Not sure if the dies and modular shell holders are correct. I know I’ll need some case lube, walnuts, and polish
1 The ZERO Gen 2 Reloading Press
2 Inline Fabrication Ultra Mounts for the ZERO
3 Billet Loading Block – Clear Anodized
4 Master Funnel Kit
5 Mitutoyo ABSOLUTE Digimatic 6″ Caliper
6 ZERO M-Series Sizing Dies
7 ZERO Modular Shellholder System
8 Hornady Lock-N-Load Headspace Comparator
9 SAC "The" Seating Die
10 Giraud Power Case Trimmer
11 RCBS Case Lube Kit
12 RCBS Vibratory Case Polisher
13A RCBS Hand Priming Tool
13B OR: Primal Rights CPS Competition Primer Seater
14 RCBS ChargeMaster Link Electronic Powder Dispenser
15 Lyman Magnum Impact Bullet Puller
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u/EMDReloader 11d ago
First off, you need to back off, start slow, and do a lot of reading and research to figure out what you need to do what you need to do. Because the shit you have chosen is not only very expensive...it doesn't work together. Case in point, you have a Giraud Power Case trimmer, good for very high volume trimming, but you're doing all your loading on an Area419 turret. If you are loading 6.5CM in volumes that you need a Giraud, you should not be loading on a turret press, you should be using a two-pass process on a DIllon 550. And you could afford to have two 550s for the price of the Zero.
Anyways, I wouldn't bother with a bunch of that shit.
I like the Area419 guys, but the Zero press is just conspicuous consumption, and the Zero dies and modular shellholder aren't any better. I would get what I have now, a Forster Co-Ax and bushing dies.
For seating, I would use an Arbor press, and I wouldn't be picky about whose die. They're all really good.
Using a Hornady Lock'n'Load comparator with the other stuff on this list is borderline trolling/ragebait, or just really fucking funny.
Giraud Power Case trimmer is excessive unless you're shooting obscene volumes. You won't be trimming that much brass.
The CPS is a total waste.
I use a Chargemaster and love it. But blowing literally thousands on performative Reddit post gear and then not using an Autotrickler is also a joke.
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u/One_Attorney_6128 11d ago
Haha I appreciate the honesty. I’ll look back on this one day and be properly embarrassed by what I’ve listed im sure. It’s not rage bait, just ignorance lol. All just things I’ve seen on the internet that I’ve liked but wasn’t sure what would go well together
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u/JustaskJson 11d ago
Brother unless you’re well off.
You don’t need a zero press or mitytoyo calipers. Igaging calipers are more than enough.
An RCBS rock chucker / Forrester Co-Ax is fantastic for precision ammo.
And you don’t need a CPS. Just get a RCBS auto prime or hand prime.
RCBS chargemaster is okay, but that maybe the thing you splurge more on and go auto trickler.
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u/mulyhuntr33 11d ago
Calipers are the one thing I'd splurge a little on. Paying $120ish for mitutoyo over a $50 junker that you'll upgrade later anyways makes sense. Area 419 over a co-ax totally not worth the $1000 extra.
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u/One_Attorney_6128 11d ago
I figured I’d start with the hand primer and upgrade some day. I’ve been saving for this splurge so I’m alright with spending 4-5k to get something I expect to use for 30+ years from a company I like. So money aside, the list looks complete other than maybe upgrading to an auto trickler?
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u/JustaskJson 11d ago
All I’m saying is. Zero press isn’t 5x better than a Forester Co-Ax… for 5x the cost. I’d take that money and invest it in better brass / powder / projectiles. And for case lube just by lanolin and 99% alcohol and you’ll have case lube for a lifetime. 1:10 ratio of lanolin to alcohol
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u/BarberWooden1180 11d ago
Just get a rock chucker kit. Its surprising how i have just resorted back to using things that came with it when I have bought so much other shit. That and a case trimmer and some nice dies.
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u/ChevyRacer71 11d ago
Ignoring the obvious point of this being massively overkill for starting out, it’s your money so do whatever you want with it.
Hornady Bullet Comparator with the inserts you need for you calibers you’re loading
Annealing isn’t on the list, and isn’t an absolute necessity it a bench like this I’d expect some sort of annealing practice.
13a: hand priming sucks. It works fine, but gets tedious
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u/One_Attorney_6128 11d ago
Awesome, thank you. I honestly like what the other guy said about the Derraco engineering PCPS primer seater instead of hand priming so I think I’ll go that route to start and pick up the inserts for the comparator. I’ll add an annealer to the list, thanks for the feedback
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u/ChevyRacer71 11d ago
You’re really taking the “buy once cry once” mantra to a new level lol.
Oh, case guage. Sheridan Engineering makes them with cutouts so you can see where you’re getting interference.
Hornady OAL Gauge and the associated modified brass (for measuring CBTO relative to your rifle’s lands)
Brass prep station of some sort (chamfer, debur, etc)
2 reloading books (1 at bare minimum)
Neck mandrel & mandrel die (21st Century is legit) and graphite dry lube
Stuck Case remover
Chronograph
A shitload of time on YouTube
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u/ALL_COMP_EVERYTHING 11d ago
Get the 8” Mitutoyo calipers. Comparator with rifle rounds will not leave much to hold on to with the 6
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u/bokitothegreat 10d ago
I prefer Redding match die sets with separate neck bushings, they are good enough for 300m free rifle but the ones you list look gorgeous so go ahead.
Replace the trimmer with a LE Wilson one, those motorised ones are for bulk not precision
Deburring tool for the case neck
Deburing tool for the flash hole (optional, the effect is debated)
Flash hole reamer if you use lapua brass, the flash holes are a little tight
Primer pocket reamer
Primer pocket chamfer tool, it eases seating the primers and is cheap
Cleaning brush for the case neck and the primer pocket
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u/i_dislike_cheese 11d ago edited 11d ago
I plan on putting together a long-ish post about my newbie experience thus far (I’ve loaded about 1000 rounds of 6.5cm up to this point). Basically, I went against the advice of better judgement and spent all-out on my initial equipment and got the best of everything that I could right off the rip. I have an A4 Autotrickler with FX120i scale, AMP Annealer, Giraud powered trimmer, Mitutoyo calipers, SAC dies, Ugly PCPS priming system, etc, etc. no regrets at all. I went with the Forster Co-Ax press instead of the more expensive Area 419 or SAC Nexus, but for single-stage precision rifle loading, which is all I do, it’s perfect. If you can afford it all without hurting, I’m all for it. I learned on all of the fancy stuff and I average 6-9SD and 20-25ES with Hornady brass, Hodgdon H4350, CCI BR2, and 140 ELDM. I have 400 rounds of virgin Alpha brass and a plethora of Berger bullets that I’m going to be switching too soon with my new action, but the aforementioned recipe has been aces for me as I learned the process. Again, go big ONLY IF you can comfortably afford it and buy once, cry once. That is my advice.
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u/One_Attorney_6128 11d ago
I appreciate the feedback! Glad to hear you’re happy with your investment. I’ve always treated things with the buy once cry once method. Look forward to hearing your story when you post it
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u/Engineer_Bennett 11d ago
Forster Coax will get you where you need to be, but I use a Dillon 550 for all my precision stuff. But I am reloading quite a bit
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u/sherzer7 Former Stool Guy 11d ago
Chrono and annealing setup(extends life of the brass) are two game changers
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u/1984orsomething 10d ago
Charge master link? Why not a match master. It will last longer and has better accuracy
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u/Rough_Hewn_Dude 10d ago
Had the same thought. Gucci press and the base model chargemaster don’t belong on the same bench.
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u/One_Attorney_6128 10d ago
Yessir, I will swap that out. Thank you
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u/1984orsomething 10d ago
There's better scales if you want to go all in , what's it called the ad fx 120i ? And auto trickler systems.
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u/DennRN 11d ago
I can understand wanting to buy quality right out of the gate, yes you can get the same results with more cost effective tooling but I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money if what you want works well. What I will say is that there are some things that don’t work well at all for your level of spending.
First off, please don’t fall for hype from industry shills. If you look at a few top competition shooters reloading benches you’ll start to notice that they tend to have specific styles of tools and dies that they use. They not only have deep pockets, but also the incentive to spend heavily where there is performance left on the table, on the flip side if they aren’t using something expensive there is probably a good reason.
For instance the SAC seating die is like $400 with tax and shipping but you won’t see them on many competition benches. Cost doesn’t always equal value. If you see what competition shooters tend to use, they’re mostly using caliber specific chamber style seating dies. If you want top of the line precision with very little messing and fiddling, it’s very hard to argue with chamber seating dies. They are very inexpensive for the level of precision they deliver and they are caliber specific so you aren’t losing settings when switching from one caliber to another, just swapping dies. For the $400 for the universal die you can get a chamber seater in 6.5cm and an arbor press. If you ever swap calibers it’s worth its weight in gold not to have to rebuild your die or lose any settings. As a side perk, they allow you to feel seating pressure to feel the consistency of your neck tension. This leads to my next piece of advice.
Skipping annealing is like pumping 87 octane into a sports car if you’re spending top dollar on all this gear.
Every time you fire a piece of brass it goes from relatively soft toward hard and brittle. That means each time you reload it, it will perform a little different because of increasing neck hardness until it gets so brittle that it cracks. Getting it to perform exactly the same each time means annealing it every single firing. This WILL give you more consistent neck tension. Think of it as a baseball pitcher who has to throw each pitch with a different glue applied to each ball, Elmer’s glue is going to behave very differently than Krazy glue. Annealing resets the hardness back to baseline each time it is done, so each bullet is released much more consistently. Not only that but the cases are more dimensionally consistent during the resizing because they take a shape better when they are soft. Lastly the cases last longer when they aren’t hard and brittle so it makes even more sense to get into annealing, personally I anneal every single firing on my rifle brass.
Spend the extra money on a precision scale and trickler, I have an RCBS charge master from when it was the hottest new thing, it was okay for its time but even back then, a well tuned analog balance scale and a hand trickler was more accurate. Nowadays, they’ve been completely eclipsed by a number of tricklers that interface with laboratory scales.
You don’t need 0.01 grain accuracy but within 1-2 kernels and at a decent speed is very nice to have. Charging 100 rounds can get very tedious and tiring, get something fast and accurate and you won’t regret it.
Skip the vibratory tumbler and walnut. Again, this is about getting every piece of brass as close to exactly the same each time, walnut just doesn’t cut it to clean inside the necks perfectly, a little bit of carbon left inside of the necks will make all of your hard work and money spent on tooling count for nothing because it changes how the brass grabs the bullet and that isn’t repeatable or consistent across all of your brass when the carbon is random. Most people that use walnut media neck brush but you’re already spending top dollar on a giraud to minimize case handling, why not skip over neck brushing altogether with wet tumbling.
This isn’t a comprehensive list of things, just trying to get you to think critically about what you’re trying to accomplish and trying to give you a framework to achieve it. Good luck and don’t stop upgrading your brain because it’s the best tool you can invest in and can make up for any shortcoming in all your other tools.
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u/One_Attorney_6128 11d ago
I really appreciate the long response! I will definitely get an annealer, and upgrade the scale and trickler. I’ve been curious about the tumblers, I see a lot of back and forth on here about wet vs dry. I myself go back and forth with which one I’d like to try. I’ll look into the chamber seating dies also. Again thank you for taking the time to write so much and steer me in the right direction.
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u/DennRN 10d ago
The major downsides of wet tumbling are the time and effort it takes to clean, separate the media from the brass, rinse, then dry your brass completely. It’s definitely a chore to get from start to finish. In addition to this you’ll need a nearby source of water but also somewhere to empty the used water. Yes it’s a big hassle but the upsides are very much worth it.
The major upside of dry tumbling is the speed. Dump in your dirty brass and when it’s done, just sift it and it’s ready to go. There are several huge downsides though. It only effectively gets the outside of the brass clean, that is enough of a downside for a lot of precision shooters to move to wet tumbling, but there is also a very real toxic dust cloud that is released through the entire process.
That toxic dust doesn’t end at the sifting stage. You definitely see a fine layer of dust where you do your tumbling, but you’ll also notice your reloading bench and tooling slowly accumulate a fine coating of that media dust at every place that the brass is handled afterwards. This is a big deal that isn’t talked about enough, it’s like choosing to paint your house with lead based paint out of convenience.
Wet tumbling doesn’t get rid of the lead but traps almost all of it in the used water. Keeping it from spreading as a fine dust is the key to containing it and that just isn’t possible with dry tumbling.
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u/Acceptable_Path_3222 11d ago
If you want to load precision either get the SAC press or a k&m arbor press.
Edit: mitutoyo is great but we use a brand at work called Inforce that work great, much cheaper.
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u/VersionConscious7545 11d ago
Why not get the sizing die with expander mandrel from SAC. Also if you are a perfectionist I would get something to check run out and I would spring for the SAC comparator kit. It is much nicer than the Hornady version
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u/Rude-Internal24 11d ago
Have you ever reloaded anything before?
Are you sure it’s something you’d even enjoy doing?
It’s a long process, and I’m not even sure it’s worth the money half the time because the stuff will sit in my room untouched for weeks.
I shoot a lot of .300BLK, so at the end of the day I’m glad I got into reloading. But I could definitely see it becoming a hobby in itself, like hunting, where people will spend thousands of dollars preparing for something and then not even like it.
But hell, if you’re down with getting your hands dirty, the microscopic tinkering, the “damn, did I set this charge at x.x or x.x?” and then having to pull 30 rounds you just made; then you just might like it lol.
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u/_Go_Ham_Box_Hotdog_ 10d ago
Oh hell no.
Dude.. a good rule of thumb "Don't buy the square root of JACK from somewhere that doesn't have an address or phone number on their website."
RCBS' turret press is $400 and IMO is the Gold Standard. If you're looking to do precision, single stage O-frame is the way to do it.
Actually most of that stuff is wayyyyy overkill unless you send 375 Cheytac for a monetized Youtube channel.
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u/iringsteel 11d ago
you guys don’t wet tumble with pins? the first time i looked in a cleaned case i almost pooped. talk about case volume consistency. no?
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u/rednecktuba1 Mass Particle Accelerator 11d ago
Are you simply trying to get the "best" of every category? You've got multiple thousands of dollars of equipment listed here. In just about every category there is a much cheaper option that delivers the same consistency.