kit to start out

[Simon_S]

Think there just the standard ones at £42. The cheap Lee dies are £18 RGB.
Its up to you at the end of the day. Just for hunting rounds you don't
have to go mad with it. I would just get the Lee set with the crimp with them
if your using them for hunting.

[pothunter]

It's up to the op what he buys.
Given the number of rounds a hill stalker/keeper will use in a year, a Lee set up will be more accurate and cheaper than standard factory with a bit of bullet/powder/length tweaking, but it takes time to build up an accurate load, and costs money for the consumables, so initial costs need to be offset.
X, Y, or Z dies and presses can produce more accurate rounds, you can play about with primer pocket uniforming, flash hole de-burring, neck sizing, annealing, etc, but shooting into a Minute of Fox, or Minute of Deer with the chamberings that he proposes, at the ranges he is likely to use them at, shouldn't need that degree of buggering about.

[DedIdick]

Hi guys
I'm looking at starting g reolading for .22-250 and .25-06.
I have people working with me who would help me set up and get me going once I have the equipment but I'm not sure what I need or where's best to get it.
Ideally I'm looking for a secondhand kit of essentials that will be enough for me to start with then add to as I go along.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
Cheers
Jamie

It'll be for hunting, I'm a gamekeeper on a highland estate and its easier to reload than it is to keep pestering the boss for more bullets haha
I imagine I'd be reloading about 50 at a time.
Thanks for the heads up about fleabay.
Are there any makers you would recommend to look at for a kit? Preferably towards the bottom end of the price range but enough to get me started for a couple of years.
Cheers
Jamie

There is another option, have your handloading done for you.

Have a chat with Ronnie at Highland Handloads


http://www.highlandhandloads.co.uk/

[zanes]

It'll be for hunting, I'm a gamekeeper on a highland estate and its easier to reload than it is to keep pestering the boss for more bullets haha
I imagine I'd be reloading about 50 at a time.
Thanks for the heads up about fleabay.
Are there any makers you would recommend to look at for a kit? Preferably towards the bottom end of the price range but enough to get me started for a couple of years.
Cheers
Jamie

I'm not deliberately trying to be knobbish here, but is there potentially a problem with your employer's employer liability insurance (etc.) if something happens with one of your handloaded rounds?

Unless your boss is paying for the kit, you will be a very long time clawing back your money in reloading kit- the only place I make statistically significant savings is in my .44 loads (lightly loaded lead bullets), and shotgun slug (components bought in in bulk from Italy). .308 target ammo might now come in a fair amount cheaper than factory but again, I've bought components in mega bulk and some parts from the continent.

TBH it's probably quicker, cheaper and less hassle to ask your boss for larger batches of ammunition to be supplied (I would think he'd be agreeable to that as it's less time spent going back and forth to the gunshop and far less time you spend reloading "on the clock")- if necessary apply for an increase in your expanding ammunition allowance as well. Looking at Section 4.7 amd 13.30 of the guidance 500 rounds of expanding may not be an unreasonable allowance in your case.

[GaleForceEight]

Think there just the standard ones at £42. The cheap Lee dies are £18 RGB.
Its up to you at the end of the day. Just for hunting rounds you don't
have to go mad with it. I would just get the Lee set with the crimp with them
if your using them for hunting.

You are right, of course. I needed the FL die rather than just a neck die as my brass has come from several rifles without segregation and therefore full length resizing initially allowed enough brass to be recovered to the point that the dies have more than paid their way after my first batch of cases! Also I find that I am being gifted once fired brass for 'recycling' from club members who do not themselves reload and would otherwise be ditching their empties in the brass bin which again helps offset the cost of the equipment but which again require the full resizing treatment.

I guess my primary motivation was one of wanting to get decent ammunition for my wife's Mauser and if I was doing that I might as well offset the cost a little by rolling my own .308 and .303 as well. In the light of limited ammunition usage and a tight budget rather than treating the reloading process as a secondary hobby, maybe Lee is the way to initially go for the OP.

[Pigeon sniper]

Cheers guys.
I think I'll buy the Lee kit and add better dies as I go along.
The £150 ish for the Lee kit doesnt really bother me.
It would be nice to ask for more bullets from the head keelr and he'd probably let me but I like to ping a fee rounds away at the target for practice and keep my eye in shooting rabbits and jackdaws which he isn't keen on using estate rounds for so I buy my own for that, that's Tue main reason as it means if I'm low or its a rainy day I can sit in the house and knock up 100 bullets.
Plus the extra accuracy comes in handy now and again when we have little competitions on the estate.
Cheers
Jamie

[GaleForceEight]

Go for it - you'll probably get the reloading 'bug' and start investing more into the process - the more I looked into it the more involved I got, to the point where I had read so much that once I felt I knew enough to post on this site about it to get some advice I had some folks assuming I wasn't a newbie at it and was trolling - which basicly meant I had been reading the right stuff! There is no complete substitute for experience however.

Some of the Lee gear is designed to 'do the job' but without needing fixed gear (for example a press). properly done it is potentially no less accurate, but may take longer to go through each process. So long as you don't get complacent and maintain a good quality control it is perfectly adequate.

[223AI]

I used the lee RGB dies to load ammo for my .223 that gave a 3 shot group that was smaller than my little finger nail when load testing and I won the BBS mqueens last month with ammo loaded with the same dies so for £18.00 they can certainly be used to load accurate ammo!

[Parabuteo]

There is shag all wrong with Lee gear.

I have bought Forster kit that was next to useless until Dave Bonwick (Shooting shed) did some magic, now its a treasured possession.

Lee is what it is, it works for you or it doesn't. I have all manner of dies from Forster/RCBS/Redding/Sinclair/and Lee. They all do what is needed and do it well.

I do use my dies in a forster coax press, but even then, the die is the business end.

IF there is one draw back with Lee, it is that occasionally their dies need more thought in setup by the user (I managed to blow the top off my collet sizer the first time I used it, my fault and lack of familiarity with the process, but the replacement cost a few quid so I bought 2 just in case I was stupid twice!!).

You have to ask yourself (and the gear snobs...many of whom will never have used Lee in any event) why, if they are so bad, they have been around so long?

To the OP....enjoy, its a hobby in itself, it will help you get the best out of your rifle and tailor the loads to your rifle/quary

[223AI]

To the OP....enjoy, its a hobby in itself, it will help you get the best out of your rifle and tailor the loads to your rifle/quary

Just be warned its ever so slightly addictive if you're that way inclined

[Parabuteo]

Just be warned its ever so slightly addictive if you're that way inclined

Ah well....I collect as well so there are little burned patches all over the drive where I burn off small piles of powder

The bloody garage looks like an ammo factory at times, since taking up HP Rifle and CSR I am finding I am loading and shooting batches of 100 at a time, its time consuming but it really does work out cheaper and the ammo is more consistent/better suited to my rifles.

It still works out cheaper than both Mill surp and most factory, with the 5.56 hand loads giving less than half the group size over mill surp 5.56 in my BAR, and that is with BR primers and 77gr SMKs.

55 grainers come out dead cheap for standing practice at 100, just use smaller targets.

The biggest saving is on .303

My 308 loads shoot really nicely at circa 60p a bang.

If you use a lot of ammo it can be worth doing, but the benefits of ammo tailored to your rifle are well known.

[223AI]

Ah well....I collect as well so there are little burned patches all over the drive where I burn off small piles of powder

If you use a lot of ammo it can be worth doing, but the benefits of ammo tailored to your rifle are well known.

I know, I believe a little .22H round I gave you has pride of place

My decision to reload was based on the ammo I started getting through with you boys on the 3rd Sunday of the month! The knock on effect being that I had the kit to load for the hornet which would be a no go if I was using factory ammo.

[Parabuteo]

I know, I believe a little .22H round I gave you has pride of place

My decision to reload was based on the ammo I started getting through with you boys on the 3rd Sunday of the month! The knock on effect being that I had the kit to load for the hornet which would be a no go if I was using factory ammo.

Yes it has B, its with a .17 hornet and hornet K I was given, in its own cosy little compartment thanks.

As I understand it the Hornet can be a sod to reload if you dont nail it as well.

Yea, my mate was a bit flummoxed last week. We went up for a mornings practice at 100 (Fig14 standing sitting kneeling etc) he had sunk at about 20 rounds....I ended up putting 120 down from 2 rifles. It was the runup to the last season CSR and Historic CSR shoot...it has to be said it did me more good in the CSR shoot but there you go.

At least now I know what I was doing wrong, sittings a bitch and needs timing right!!!

You can do quite a lot with dry training but a good noisy session never hurt no body.

[223AI]

Yes it has B, its with a .17 hornet and hornet K I was given, in its own cosy little compartment thanks.

As I understand it the Hornet can be a sod to reload if you dont nail it as well.

Yea, my mate was a bit flummoxed last week. We went up for a mornings practice at 100 (Fig14 standing sitting kneeling etc) he had sunk at about 20 rounds....I ended up putting 120 down from 2 rifles. It was the runup to the last season CSR and Historic CSR shoot...it has to be said it did me more good in the CSR shoot but there you go.

At least now I know what I was doing wrong, sittings a bitch and needs timing right!!!

You can do quite a lot with dry training but a good noisy session never hurt no body.

I haven't struggled with it too much mind it was the first cartridge I reloaded so I didn't know any better, last night I was loading some 142 gr SMKs for the Swede for sunday, the 142gr 6.5mm bullet was virtually the size of a hornet round, after loading a load of hornet ammo in the week its was like loading anti-aircraft rounds!

See you Sunday, hopefully weather will be like this so I can stretch the 52gr A-max out to 600