The products I’m about to discuss are items I would buy today if I were just getting started in reloading. I’ve been reloading since 1975, and these recommendations are based on a good 37 years of experience.

I would start with the Redding Big Boss II Pro-Pak Reloading Kit (item #RD45000). This kit has the basic tools you need to get started, and the press will handle most calibers from 17 Fireball to 375 Ultra Mag. It can be mounted to a bench or our press stand (item #09-820) for portability and space-saving if you’re limited on room. The scale will hold .10 grain accuracy and is portable if you want to load at the range for load development. The powder trickler is solid enough to stay put on your bench. The kit’s lube pad is good, but I would rather use Hornaday One Shot #H9991 for the lube (liquid lubes are messy). This kit also has the deburring tool, neck brushes, primer pocket cleaners, and a handle for them. The powder funnel will work on most cases, but I prefer caliber-specific funnels for rifle reloading.  The Hodgdon annual manual is good reference, and I recommend a second manual for cross-reference: the Sierra Reloading Manual (item # 15-0500) or the Hornaday manual (item # 15-99238). A powder measure and trimmer are also included in this kit, and with the Sinclair powder measure stand (item # 11-1200), you can use this at the range for load development.

After using many die sets over the years, I recommend Forster dies for varmint hunting or big game hunting. I like the way their full-length dies work with the expander ball just below the neck and a vent hole for trapped air to escape. Forster seaters have a sliding sleeve that aligns the bullet with the case before you seat it. I feel this gives you good concentricity for the loaded round.

I use bushing full-length dies from Redding for my competition rifles and their Competition seaters. I want to control how much I size the neck and with the bushing I use .001″-.002″ under the loaded round on the neck. There are carbide expander balls available for the insides of the necks. The bushing dies have enough clearance to let the trapped air escape so they don’t dimple the shoulders of the cases.

Some of information above was learned from trial and error over the years. I hope it will help you from making some of the mistakes I did and keep you from buying more than what is needed.

Ron Dague
Reloading Technician
NRA Certified Reloading Instructor
rond@sinclairintl.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Sinclair News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.