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Adjustment of the sizing die to bring down the case shoulder to spec. You can use a RCBS precision Mic or
the Hornady Lock-N-Load Headspace Comparator to measure your sized brass.
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Or, just contact me, I live just up the road in Sandy, OR and can loan you my Dillon swage tool for a day so you can prep all your brass. It only has to be done once.
 
Being lazy here... how much did this initial set up cost?

It depends on how cheap you wanna go.

You know......some people say buy a Dillion 550 (or whatever) right off the bat. I say buy a single station and learn about reloading. When you're ready to move on.....well, the single station press can come in handy for those small jobs.

Then.....LEE makes some cheap (yet, good) stuff. Or you could just budget to buy everything "Blue" (aka: Dillion).

And....don't rule out the USED products found at gunshows. Though, just finding a gunshow now a days (because of the CCP Virus) comes with a problem of it's own. Not to mention that many more people are becoming interested in the hobby of reloading.

Then components.....
Rrrrrright......like ammo, some stuff can be difficult to find.

Good luck to you.

Aloha, Mark

PS....ooops, sorry. You probably was asking the OP about HIS COST for HIS set up.
 
Couple of things, I have the same kit, as well as the equivalent Rock Chucker kit. The digital scale the kit comes with it is crap, as is the hand priming tool and powder trickler. The RCBS hand primer is a much better tool, and the Frankford Arsenal even better than that. FA for the powder trickler, too, metal, heavy base, and a nice rubber cover that doubles as a non slip base. I do like the Hornady powder measure better than my RCBS unit, it just seems more consistent. I also really like the quick change powder drain, it's not included, but worth getting. Like I said, the scale is crap, never settles down and won't register the same weight 3 times in a row. And you can't let it warm up because it has an auto-shutoff "feature". Do yourself a favor, get a balance beam scale, yeah, they're tedious, but if you're just running plinking ammo, you'll only be using it periodically as a check scale. I think others have already given you good advice. Have fun!

Dave
 
I missed the vernier calibers, got to have a way to measure. this is the one I've had for years:


My god hopefully not true OG vernier calipers, those things you need young eyes for! Digital these days!

Probably around a few cases of 9mm (1.5 cases), or 1 case of 5.56.

If today's price.

But my setups different than OP, progressive. Lock-n-loads.

AND always remember quality reloading gear holds its value. Its not $ gone. It's just in the form of freedom pill making equipment for now. When the time comes, it turns back into cash again. Not spent. Invested.
 
Don't try to deprime a three crimp case, IMO. I bought a Lee universal depriming die specifically for crimped primer cases. The first one I tried was a three crimp primer case. The case got stuck and pushed the stem out. It ripped the case and the stem is now a 'U' shape.
 
Reloading on a single stage got old quickly for me, I didn't want to devote the time to it for the amount of rounds I wanted to complete at any given time.

In regards to your set up, it seems it will do the job. I find Royal brand case lube to be preferred for spraying on batches rather than rolling individual cases.

Load data is important after you get the basic equipment, it seems most load data published today is neutered compares to what it has been in the past (lawyers). Accurate and Hodgdon both have extensive load data available for free. That's really all a new reloader would need unless you are dead set on buying powder from a different manufacturer.
 
Alliant and Vihta Vouri (sp?) both have online load data for their powders, as do Nosler and Speer for their bullets. I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I use and know about. Paper load manuals are probably a better choice if you're just starting out, as they also have a wealth of loading info in addition to load data.

The closest I've gotten to automating my loading is a Lee Automatic Processing Press (APP). I got it intending to use it primarily to swage a bucketful of crimped .223 brass, but instead, it's become my go to pistol loading press. Still a single stage, but once you get it adjusted, each stage goes MUCH faster than on a typical press. All told, I figure I can do around 150 rounds per hour on the Rock Chucker, with the APP, it's closer to 500. Not that I run a batch start to finish, my usual process is to prep a pile of brass ready for priming, then prime with my hand tool while watching TV in the evenings. Once that's done, dropping powder and seating bullets is lightning fast, even though I can't use the case feeder. Nice little unit, and cheap enough that I'm thinking I should pick up another one so I can dedicate one to .45 ACP and the other to 9 mm. Later.

Dave
 

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