Bit the bullet and bought a press: my new setup.

[AtomicTango]

After much reading, and advice from many reloading veterans (especially here), I bought my first press from a fellow member. This week I built a bench for it, got it mounted, and crammed it all in my apartment. Turned out pretty good I think.



Scrounged some powder and primers last weekend, and bullets get here on Wednesday. I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

 

[dennishoddy]

Its an addicting hobby.

Don't ask me how I know this.................

 

[458 SOCOM]

Dennis it takes one to know one.

 

[oneof79]

Nice press. What caliber are you setting up for? It looks like you got the dies in the wrong order, at least compared to how I set mine up. Mine goes, deprime/size, belling die, powder measure then seating die and crimp die. I can seat and crimp in one step but I like to do it in two steps. That mallet will help keep those pesky interrupters at bay i.e. talkative wifes, noisy kids, hungry dogs and nosey cats.

 

[AtomicTango]

Nice press. What caliber are you setting up for? It looks like you got the dies in the wrong order, at least compared to how I set mine up. Mine goes, deprime/size, belling die, powder measure then seating die and crimp die. I can seat and crimp in one step but I like to do it in two steps. That mallet will help keep those pesky interrupters at bay i.e. talkative wifes, noisy kids, hungry dogs and nosey cats.

Haha, yessir, you are correct! Turns out the mallet is good for when you need to knock a few brain cells free too

Also, my seat/crimp is one step so I moved it to station 5, leaving station 4 empty for visual inspection, and bullet placement.

Edit: Almost forgot, I'm set up for 9mm right now. I can see .223 looming in the near future, and .45, and maybe some .38 and .357 and ect...

 

[Calamity Jake]

A word of advise!!! And I don't care how much wisdom you have aquired off of this board!! If your new to reloading then use that progressive
press as a single stage and load ONE round at a time(for at least 500 rounds)to learn the basics of how a round is loaded,
all the reading/advice learned here will not save your life if you rush into progressive loading and screw up.

I don't see a set of scales or load books on your bench, if you don't have one, get one before you ever pull the handle on that
press. Double and triple check the type and amount of powder you use. Have only ONE powder type on your bench at a time, the
ONE your using in that loading session, empty the powder measure after your through for the day even if you are going to
load the same caliber tomorrow.

Safty is the key word here. Enjoy your new hobby, it gets very addictive but you can in trouble in a hurry.

Not ranting just giving some advise, I hope you learn from it.

 

[AtomicTango]

Thanks Jake, I'm really not a hasty person. I do have a scale, it's that small electronic one to the left of the press in the picture. I've only got the components for one load right now (hell thats all I could find), and only 500 bullets on the way to start out.

I'm gonna pick up a basic load book before my bullets even get here, and I've run some empty brass through it (no powder) just to get a bit of a feel.

 

[ASP785]

You made the right choice on the press (biased)! I have taught multiple people to reload on that same progressive press. Take your time and pay attention to detail and you will be fine.

 

[Honeybee]

I am glad to see that you have chosen to proceed with such an addictive hobby. I am sure that in future years you will find that you have wasted many thousands of hours in creating perfection only to be scourged by those who have gone before you and insist that you are doing it all wrong and spending more than they would have, It only goes to show that they are jealous enough to care.

Addictions are hard to break unless you break them early. Remember that first taste of victory when hitting the target? That has lead to many hours and much money in feeding a gun that has yet to pay you back in enough material goods to warrant keeping it and yet you will never give it up, or you will replace it with an equally unthankful firearm that will no doubt cost you even more of your hard earned cash. Well the same goes with reloading!

Now you will have the satisfaction that you are shooting something that you made!

 

[Pulp]

I don't know what kind of electronic scale you have, but be aware some of them will NOT work for trickling. Mine works fine if I just dump a load on it for weight. One day I set my trickle charger over it for some .243 loads. If you add powder very slowly the scale won't react to it. I kept adding powder and thinking, why isn't this thing changing. Picked up the scale pan and set it back down and I had added over three grains of powder without the readout changing. Mine is a Cabelas brand. I know some brands are trickle capable, but I also know mine is not.