Reloading equipment

[Jim Towns]

I came over here from accurate reloading after reading ALL the MK and LR hunting posts. I can see this is going to get expensive, getting some of the specialized equipment I see mentioned.

I've been handloading for over 30 years. I did a lot of long range target shooting 25 years back and got back in it the summer of 2000,(if you consider 600 yds long range).

As far as equipment goes, I started with lee hand dies that my brother had, to load my mil surp 8mm mauser. Got my first deer with a shell I loaded with them. After a stint in the AF I bought a used RCBS set up with a rockchucker. I used that press for 10 years before I got my Bonanza co-ax. I sold the rockchucker and a spar-t that I had after useing the co-ax for a while. The mechanical advantage of the co-ax is so much better than anything else, I doubt I'll ever change.

My newest project is a 300WSM in a Browning A-bolt synthetic stalker. So far it is showing promise for the 600 yd shoot at Ripon Wi. This is a fun shoot with almost no rules, any rest and almost any caliber. Last summer we had a guy shoot a .50 BMG there, but never again!

I look forward to participating in the discussions here.

 

[Dave King]

J_Towns

Welcome to LRH, hope you like it.

 

[Len Backus]

J_Towns

Do people really live in a town called Oshkosh?

 

[Jim Towns]

Naw Len it's more of an existance!

Got a serious case of cabin fever right now, itchin to go do some long range shooting.
I've got some 168 and 190 MK's to try out in the WSM, also some a-max 168's.

Guess I better get a comparator, Red's has one by RCBS, is that a good one or should I get something else? Never have checked runnout of any of my ammo.

After reading some of these posts, I find out how little I know. It'll be fun learning the how to's of long range hunting.

 

[milanuk]

Neat! I never actually ran into anyone from Oshkosh, WI. I happen to be from Oshkosh, NE. originally

Later,

Monte

 

[Tommy Vaughan]

sR90,
I've used the Forster Co-ax with Forster and Redding dies for six years now on everything from 7mm TCU to 7mm Rem Ultramag, with flawless performance and no complaints. The ring clamps on the Redding dies are a little loose in the Forster press however, and you might want to replace them with easily obtainable Forster rings. And yes, the Ultra-Seater option on the Redding Ultramag die is reported to give clearance problems, though I use and have no such problem with the standard Redding die. The Forster dies are nice too, and come also with the micrometer seater options, but typically cost considerably more than the Reddings. I load everything that will fit in a 3.8" magazine with my Forster press using Redding and Forster dies, again with good results and no problems.

 

[Nicholas]

Tommy

Sounds like you really like the Forster coax press. How repeatable is the quickchange system on the press when you remove and reinstall the dies?

Seem like this feature would be great. Do you have to readjust the dies at all when changing dies?

 

[rlipson]

SR90,

I loaded some .270 loads the other night using my Co-Ax, grabbed my RCBS competition seater with the Forster ring, popped it in, seated my bullets. Grabbed my stoney point comparator just to double check the seating depth since I'm right to the lands. Exactly, to the thousandth, the same as the last batch I loaded. As a matter of course I always double check seating depth, but that's just cuz I'm anal. If the locking ring is snug, my experience is that no adjustment is needed.

Roger

[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: rogerinneb ]

 

[Nicholas]

What about with other single stage presses, is it easy to reinstall the dies to the same settings?

 

[shepardswatch]

sr90

I really don't know what the difference would be at those ranges but at 1000 yds you should keep your concentricity within .001" which is hard to do sometimes with the best set-ups but you can feel the spring in most of the common arbor presses and light duty conventional presses (7/8x14 die type).
If you use the Forster for neck turning make sure your pilot is only slightly smaller (under .001") than your expander or the I.D. of your neck (if you don't use an exp), also buy an extra stop collar (or make one) and put it directly behind the ONT attachment on the cutter shaft and lock it in place after you determined where you want the cutter to stop in relation to the shoulder junction, then you can take off the ONT attachment for cleaning out brass and lubing pilot. Remember that if you are turning long cases (300 Wby, etc) that this trimmer should be bought with the long base not the standard.
The hand turners work well too, epecially the K&M with a power driver.

Dan

sr90

I really don't know what the difference would be at those ranges but at 1000 yds you should keep your concentricity within .001" which is hard to do sometimes with the best set-ups but you can feel the spring in most of the common arbor presses and light duty conventional presses (7/8x14 die type).
If you use the Forster for neck turning make sure your pilot is only slightly smaller (under .001") than your expander or the I.D. of your neck (if you don't use an exp), also buy an extra stop collar (or make one) and put it directly behind the ONT attachment on the cutter shaft and lock it in place after you determined where you want the cutter to stop in relation to the shoulder junction, then you can take off the ONT attachment for cleaning out brass and lubing pilot. Remember that if you are turning long cases (300 Wby, etc) that this trimmer should be bought with the long base not the standard.
The hand turners work well too, epecially the K&M with a power driver.

Dan

Dan, I'm trying to improve my loading, I had an accident that stopped my for a few yrs, but I'm getting around better and the bug's got me again.
I loaded 223 through 25-06 and had pretty decent luck, when smoke flew fur normally went down, but I've not got into my larger calibers yet, 7mm-300wm and I only have RCBS Rock chucker and the Rock chucker JR.3 with RCBS dies. I've worked at trying to make sure powder loads are the same from case to case and trim length and prep are too. I really spend time on seating because I found the seater die is inconsistent so I manual seat each one slowly by feel and measure often till I get my length right, I got pretty decent varmint rounds that way. But a lot of the things you stated in your comments above is like Greek,Latin, or any other language you want to pick... :-] I want to further my understanding, loading abilities and be more consistent. A few nice guys on here have mention using an arbor press and maybe wilson dies, but when they got into collars, bushing and neck turning I've never ventured into that water. Honestly I wouldn't now where to start, I'm not an old dog as they say, just a middle aged dog at 58, but I believe I can still learn some new tricks. Sir, if its not to great a bother, and I don't want to burden you, could you direct me in the right direction or explain some of these things to me? If just going to an arbor press and better seating die is the answer I'll do my best to move in that direction.
Thank you....

 

[MontanaRifleman]

It might be a while before Dan replies, this thread is 17 years old

 

[shepardswatch]

It might be a while before Dan replies, this thread is 17 years old

Yeah, I saw that I just liked what he said and kinda shot it out there in hopes...