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Wow, Some really great and somewhat overwhelming information. Lots to consider.

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You CAN save money depending on your caliber choices and your shooting habits, and depending on how you consider your reloading time. I don't factory in my "labor" costs, because I enjoy doing it so it is a hobby to me.

I know I have saved money shooting my 257 Weatherby vs. factory ammo. I have at least 700 rounds through the gun. The cheapest ammo for that gun is $40/box. The good stuff is $80-100/box. My loaded ammo for that rifle costs less then $1/round for the components with a Berger bullet, and it will shoot .5-.75 MOA.

That doesn't include the many other calibers I load for.

If you shoot your rifle 2-3 times a year to sight in before season, you will never see a payback or get even close with reloading.

If you have an interest try and get into the hobby at a reasonable cost, and learn. Then invest in products that make your finished product better. You don't have to have $200 die sets, chrono's, and other expensive items to product good repeatable ammo. They make life easier to achieve consistency, but you can do it without them.

A press, case trimmer, primer pocket cleaner, funnel, powder dipper, a decent scale, a tumbler, a decent die set, a digital caliper, and the attachment to measure case length to Ogive will get you a long way.

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16 hours ago, PRDATR said:

A chrono is a nicety but by no means necessary. Until the Chrony came out literally no hobbyist had a chrono. Reloading manuals are very close to reality and one of the first lessons is observation. Now if you are going to shoot ballistic long range you will need one if you rely on the multitude of apps out there.

I frequently see the charts off by 50-100 FPS all the time.   Plus, normally I'm always shooting well past the "published" max loads.    Currently I'm shooting 54 grains of H4350 out of my 6.5 X 284 at 3005 FPS with a 142 grain bullet.   That is 8 grains above suggested max and 275 FPS above Hodgdon's max speed.   I hit pressure signs at 3100 FPS and 55.5 grains of powder.   

In my .243 with H4831 I shoot 46 grains of powder at 3100 FPS with a 90 grain pill.   We ran the grains up to 49 or 50 grains but couldn't gain any velocity after 46 grains of powder but the groups did start to open up pretty good as we went up the ladder.  

If you want to shoot tight groups at distances over 400-500 yards a chrono is a must.   Your speeds have to be really, really consistent or you will not hold a good water line.   Plus, you need to know your speed for your drops/chart too.    I guess you could do a bunch of load testing at 1000 yards and see how it prints but I think it is much faster and easier to do with a chrono just to see if you are close.   I've just had to many loads that were 30-50 FPS different that printed great at 100 yards that I didn't even care about shooting anymore because I knew they wouldn't produce good results at longer distances.    You will literally learn more about your rifle and loads with a chrono than any other piece of gear.   It doesn't need to be the first piece of gear but it is a needed for good long range results.    

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For what it is worth, if you are a new handloader or one with little experience, you might want to get a little seasoning before you start going over the max load in any manual. Some will say that the max listed are no more than "Lawyer Loads", but do yourself a favor take the bolt out of your action and realize that those lugs on your bolt are the only thing that is going to stop that bolt from penetrating your skull if something goes south. I have seen three guns blow up, one I was standing next to and got powder burns on my arm. A 30-06 case filled with pistol powder, looked like rifle powder in the hopper to the shooter, another using Lake City brass .308 necking it down to .264, didn't check the chamber neck diameter, too much pressure, another was a warm load built up in East Texas, came here with the temps 30 degrees warmer, too much pressure. The thing that all three had in common was they didn't think it would happen to them. There is a shooter from Missouri that was a  good shot, had the potential to be real good, his gun blew up on him, bolt came back bopped him in the bean, he hasn't shot a decent score since. He says he still gets headaches from it.

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Typically max loads are not your most accurate loads anyway. Work up slow and learn about pressure signs. 

The difference between an hot load and overcharge can be very small.

I recently had a load in was working up. 1 grain of powder was the difference between being ok, and blowing out primers.

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14 hours ago, 10Turkeys said:

For what it is worth, if you are a new handloader or one with little experience, you might want to get a little seasoning before you start going over the max load in any manual. Some will say that the max listed are no more than "Lawyer Loads", but do yourself a favor take the bolt out of your action and realize that those lugs on your bolt are the only thing that is going to stop that bolt from penetrating your skull if something goes south. I have seen three guns blow up, one I was standing next to and got powder burns on my arm. A 30-06 case filled with pistol powder, looked like rifle powder in the hopper to the shooter, another using Lake City brass .308 necking it down to .264, didn't check the chamber neck diameter, too much pressure, another was a warm load built up in East Texas, came here with the temps 30 degrees warmer, too much pressure. The thing that all three had in common was they didn't think it would happen to them. There is a shooter from Missouri that was a  good shot, had the potential to be real good, his gun blew up on him, bolt came back bopped him in the bean, he hasn't shot a decent score since. He says he still gets headaches from it.

Let's put it this way.   Right now me and my father in law are buying custom ground reamers and having custom die sets made for wild cat cartridges.   We completely understand pressure signs and if anything I'm usually well below what I consider a max load.   When I ended up 8 grains above max we started at the suggested minimum loads and went up .5 grains per load (with a chrono) until we started seeing pressure signs.   Once the bolt got a bit sticky and we started seeing the extractor mark we were done.   The max for my gun/load was actually 1.5 grains higher than my load.   For a total of 9.5 grains higher than the suggested max load by the book.

 

14 hours ago, Hoss50 said:

Typically max loads are not your most accurate loads anyway. Work up slow and learn about pressure signs. 

The difference between an hot load and overcharge can be very small.

I recently had a load in was working up. 1 grain of powder was the difference between being ok, and blowing out primers.

It has been my experience that .1 grains of powder doesn't take the load from good to bad.   Normally it takes the better part of a 1 - 1.5 grains to go from good to bad.   Normally I will see pressure signs coming way ahead of time flat primers, raised firing pins marks, shinny extractor marks, sticky bolt, ect.     

 

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On 11/4/2018 at 8:13 AM, Red Rabbit said:

RCBS Rockchucker press.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/513567/rcbs-rock-chucker-supreme-single-stage-press

RCBS scale. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/232621/rcbs-m500-mechanical-powder-scale

Lee Powder Dippers.   https://www.midwayusa.com/product/943305/lee-improved-powder-measure-kit

Forster Case Trimmer.  The RCBS trimmer works too.   https://www.midwayusa.com/product/614276/forster-original-case-trimmer-kit

Satern aluminum anti-static funnels, caliber specific.   they fit the necks well and powder does not cling to the funnel.   https://www.midwayusa.com/product/294705/satern-powder-funnel-264-caliber-65mm-aluminum-and-brass

Priming tool.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/582486/frankford-arsenal-platinum-series-perfect-seat-hand-priming-tool

Reloading Trays. I like the base specific ones rather than universal as they hold the case better.   https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019379134/national-metallic-reloading-tray-50-round

Shell Holders. https://www.midwayusa.com/s?targetLocation=%2F_%2FN-19786%2B4294967253%3FNp%3D2%26Nr%3DAND%28p_visible%3A1%2Ccustomertypeid%3A1%29%26Nrpp%3D24%26Ns%3Dp_metric_sales_velocity%7C1%26Ntpc%3D1%26Ntpr%3D1&userItemsPerPage=48&persistedItemsPerPage=0

Case OAL Gauge.  Very useful to set bullet depth a certain distance off the lands.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/570611/hornady-lock-n-load-overall-length-gauge-bolt-action

Comparator set to use with OAL gauge and caliper.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/231904/hornady-lock-n-load-bullet-comparator-basic-set-with-6-inserts

OAL case dummies. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012753414/hornady-lock-n-load-overall-length-gauge-modified-case

Digital Caliper.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/297498/national-metallic-digital-caliper-6-stainless-steel

Primer Pocket cleaner.  https://www.midwayusa.com/product/467111/lee-primer-pocket-cleaner

For dies, I like Forster micrometer seating dies and Redding.

 

There are many options and brand to choose from.  Above is what I use.  Others may have less or more essential tools and preferences.  Most of the powder and bullet companies provide reloading data online.

One can also spend more and get power trimmers, RCBS or Frankford power case prep center, and RCBS Chargemasters, case neck turners, concentricity gauges, flash hole uniformers, high quality Lapua Norma brass.  As 10Turkeys said, a lot depends on how much you shoot, spare time to reload and range time to test loads, $ to invest.  Factory ammo is much better than 30 years ago and sometimes a good factory load is not worth trying best by handloading, unless you like just trying different bullets for S&G like I do.

 

Best press out there!   RCBS dies work very well.  Good list!

 

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Red Rabbit has a great list. now you just need to get the powder and bullets you want to try first, along with the primers.  Best thing you can do is READ several books on reloading, Lyman is one good book to start.

 

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2 hours ago, recurveman said:

It has been my experience that .1 grains of powder doesn't take the load from good to bad.   Normally it takes the better part of a 1 - 1.5 grains to go from good to bad.   Normally I will see pressure signs coming way ahead of time flat primers, raised firing pins marks, shinny extractor marks, sticky bolt, ect.     

 

Mine wasn't .1 grains. It was 1 full grain. I have seen a lot of pressure signs over the years, but this one load was the weird one. It went from looking good to blowing primers quick. I was shocked that 1 grain went from zero to primer pocket issues that quickly.

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17 hours ago, Hoss50 said:

Mine wasn't .1 grains. It was 1 full grain. I have seen a lot of pressure signs over the years, but this one load was the weird one. It went from looking good to blowing primers quick. I was shocked that 1 grain went from zero to primer pocket issues that quickly.

We had one gun that showed a bunch of pressure at well below the suggested max grain weight load.   I believe were were 4-5 grains below max and had serious pressures and we weren't getting nearly the speed we should have been getting either.   Super weird and never did figure it out.  We checked everything we could think of.   Neck diameter, no go gauges, shoulder spacing, different powders, bullets, primers, ect.   We shot lots of bullets out of the gun but never got where we needed to be.     Crazy thing.   Gun was super, super accurate with just about everything we shot down it but we couldn't get velocity out of the gun.   It was a 6 - 284 and we couldn't get .243 velocity out of the gun without a bunch of pressure.   

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