New to reloading, starter kit recommendations?

[JDHasty]

piggybacking on this topic, I'm also new to reloading; have everything I need to reload 30-06 (eventually 9mm & 223 but no hurry), but the scale I've got is a super old balance beam scale that my dad just had, he didn't know how he got it, it was in a pile of reloading junk from when he was going to reload 44 mag but then didn't (the 44 die and a big box of bullets are still here)...

Thinking of getting a nice electronic scale that would hopefully be reliable in the budget range of $150? Just want to buy once cry once rather than getting some cheapo electronic scale that I can't trust. Any expensive scales to avoid? Horror stories? Anecdotes? Lay em on me!

i have heard mixed reviews on the electronic scales.  i would like one for working up loads out while i'm shooting to save time, but every time i read the reviews on most of them i see the same complaints(the zero wanders, accuracy concerns etc).  you don't see that much with a quality balance scale.  i definitely would not want to be without mine.

I have given thought to an electronic scale for speeding up measuring powder charges, but accuracy concerns have kept me away. The electronic scale thoughts have pretty much gone away since I bough the Lee dippers.  The Lee dippers/scoops help weigh out each load much faster on the balance scale. I sure enjoy reloading, and there is a good deal of pride taking animals for the freezer with ammo you put together yourself.

I have Chargemaster combos, but still keep my Ohaus 1010

I don't use the 1010 at all, the Chargemasters are really pretty reliable... but they are not in the $150 range either

I don't know anything about the Chargemaster Lite that they are selling now. 

[Evil_EdwardO]

I hate the balance scales. I bought a Franklin electronic scale for $30 and it's worked great for me. My rifle loads are chronoing -/+ 5 fps. Just check and recheck the weight. If the weight is different dump a re-weigh.

Another friend of mine that reloads for distance shooting suggested converting the grains to mgs and use a mg electronic scale that reads to the thousandths.

Also a good powder trickler is a good purchase too if you are reloading rifle.

[bobcat]

Yes, gotta have a trickler, no doubt about that. And they're cheap so no reason not to.

[Hilltop123]

piggybacking on this topic, I'm also new to reloading; have everything I need to reload 30-06 (eventually 9mm & 223 but no hurry), but the scale I've got is a super old balance beam scale that my dad just had, he didn't know how he got it, it was in a pile of reloading junk from when he was going to reload 44 mag but then didn't (the 44 die and a big box of bullets are still here)...

Thinking of getting a nice electronic scale that would hopefully be reliable in the budget range of $150? Just want to buy once cry once rather than getting some cheapo electronic scale that I can't trust. Any expensive scales to avoid? Horror stories? Anecdotes? Lay em on me!

i have heard mixed reviews on the electronic scales.  i would like one for working up loads out while i'm shooting to save time, but every time i read the reviews on most of them i see the same complaints(the zero wanders, accuracy concerns etc).  you don't see that much with a quality balance scale.  i definitely would not want to be without mine.

I have given thought to an electronic scale for speeding up measuring powder charges, but accuracy concerns have kept me away. The electronic scale thoughts have pretty much gone away since I bough the Lee dippers.  The Lee dippers/scoops help weigh out each load much faster on the balance scale. I sure enjoy reloading, and there is a good deal of pride taking animals for the freezer with ammo you put together yourself.

I have Chargemaster combos, but still keep my Ohaus 1010

I don't use the 1010 at all, the Chargemasters are really pretty reliable... but they are not in the $150 range either

I don't know anything about the Chargemaster Lite that they are selling now. 

I have had a Chargemaster for about 14 years, last year I bought a jewelers scale that would measure a grain down to a thousandths. Thinking I could get my SD's a little tighter, well that was the hope.
After two weeks of drawing charges from the Chargemaster and remeasuring on the jewelers scale, I learned one thing. What I learned was, that the money I spent on the jewelers scale was a waste of money. The Chargemaster was always nuts on!   Always the difference was just a couple kernels of powder. Two kernels of powder, don't do squat for your SD's either. JMTCW

[Mossy]

Only have experience with rcbs but what I can say is their customer service is better than any company I've dealt with. I have a new drop tube coming in the mail thanks to the kiddos; rcbs said no charge.....along with other parts to my uniflow that found feet and walked away.

[thinkingman]

Lee Classic Turret Press kit. Got mine 10 years ago, still use it today, everything from .380 to 300 WSM. I love that you can leave the dies setup on a disc and change calibers in 1 minute.

Yup.
Sometimes you can get a whole Lee kit.
Good reloading equipment if you're not status-conscious.

[Biggerhammer]

My trickled is my thumb and forefinger. 

[HighlandLofts]

I have the Hornady Lock & Load Classic set up, Hornady has a stand up customer service equal to RCBS.

If you buy a new Hornady Reloading kit you get 500 free bullets, there is a shipping charge involved.
If you buy new Hornady Reloading Dies you get 100  free bullets, There are shipping charge as well.

I like the Lee hand held priming tool, I have one set up for small primers and one set up for large primers.
I bought them used on the gun forums. I also use lee shell holders for the priming tools and for the Hornady press. .

As far as tumblers I have the Hornady Sonic Cleaner that came with the Hornady Lock & Load Classic Kit.

I bought a Frankfort stainless steel needle bearing media tumbler, cleans up the brass the best.

And I have a tumbler I bought out of Harbor Freight along with 25 pounds of the coarse Walnut hull media.
I use this one the most. I cut up dryer sheets to put in it to collect a bunch of the dust produced.
To seperate the brass from the brass from the walnut hull media I bought the black plastic (looks like a gold sifting pan) with slots in the bottom. I set in one of the 3 gallon safeway bakery buckets and dump the brass & media in it, Sift it, Dump the brass in another bucket. The dump it back into the sifting pan over the bucket with the media in it. I do this several times.
Throw the dryer sheets a way.

Once seperated I bought the cheap four piece pick set from Harbor Freight, I use the one that looks like a mini-Ice Pick and with a white lit up back ground I clean any material out of the little hole between the primer pocket and the case.

I like the Lee Universal Depriming Die, I do all of my depriming with it before I tumble the brass. The depriming pin got bent so I bought three extra pins through Walmart.com and picked them up at the local store.

Look on E-Bay for reloading books and start reading reloading material cover to cover, as far as the loading data, just look at the calibers you are interested in. Some manuals are better then others, I found some good reading in several of them. And they can be bought cheap, some with free shipping.

I also bought the lee dippers that I like when making a few rounds.

A trickler is cheap and necessary, I have three different tricklers, the one that came with the Hornady Kit, a RCBS and another one, can't remember what make it is but I like it.
For a few bucks just buy one.

I use 3 gallon plastic buckets from the Safeway Bakery to hold large quanities of dirty brass.
I use the Safeway gallon plastic ice cream containers to hold deprimed brass in.
Then I use Sterilite 11&1/2" x 7&3/8" x 3&1/4" plastic storage containers out of Walmart to hold clean, resized brass in. They cost around $3.

For the loaded bullets I like the plastic ammo cases from Cabelas with the hinge top, caliber specific. Around $3.

For keeping track of everything I bought a Dyno Labeling tool out of Walmart with extra label cartridges. I thing it was like $30 maybe $40, but wort the cost and it's a hell of a lot better then my writing.

For lube I use Hornady One Shot lube.

When the ram on the press starts to bind up from all of the fine particles from depriming I use Hornady One Shot Cleaner & Lube. Spray the ram, wide it down with a paper towel and repeat until all of the gunk is gone and it travels freely again.

Like some one wrote the lock & load adapters cost a few bucks, but once bought you have them. I buy the large ten piece pack for around $40. It take two to three adapters per caliber, sometimes four.
I have dies for close to fifteen calibers. My extra money went it to reloading for a long time, but I have it now and can load anything I could possibly want. I can have a friend come over and we can both load at the same time as I have two complete reloading presses and componets all set up.

How much do I have invested in all of this?

I don't know and I don't care, it's what I wanted and I got it. That's all that matters.
I need to stock up on primers and a few bullets fora couple of calibers.

Which brings to mind, for checking case length, Over All Length and other stuff I prefer the dial calipers over the digital, And i do have a couple of each.

For trimming the cases I like the lyman case trimmer.

[Special T]

Midway USA has the rock chucker kit on sale for $223

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[wooltie]

I just started reloading, but purchased everything separately.

Probably $1,000 I'm set.

PM with questions.