Reloading Checklist - Beginner's Equipment.
Safety is your responsibility. You assume all risk.
All legitimate manuals and reloading recipes should have a minimum and a maximum charge. Start with the minimum. Don't be a dumbass and start with the maximum. This is an explosive. You don't know what your firearm will do. So, start at the bottom. There's plenty of time, assuming your ticket has not been called tomorrow by the Great Deli in the Sky, to get to max load. Hot, nuclear, or scalded ape rounds rarely if ever provide better accuracy.
www.SAAMI.org This is your friend. Every caliber has an overall length and other case dimensions. Follow these. You can wildcat later.
| 1. | Level work surface | Stable and strong enough not to flex with minimum pressure. So, buy a level. | Example | $ |
| 2. | Clamps or bolts | Either bolt your press to the stable work surface or use clamps | Example | $ |
| 3. | Press | Single or multi stage . | Pick one. Lee, Hornady, Dillon, RCBS. | $$$ |
| 4. | Die Set | One die set per caliber. For pistol, you will need resizing die/de-capping die, seating die, case mouth flaring die. For rifle, you will need resizing / de-capping die, seating die. For both, check to see if your caliber needs to be crimped. If so, buy the die set that either has a crimping die or has the crimping function in the seating die. | Pick one that matches your press. Titanium Nitride dies do not require you to lube the cases. The manufactures web page will tell you if you need to lube the cases when resizing and seating. Pay attention to the picture and videos of your press brand. Some presses use a bushing. Watch a youtube video of someone setting up a die for your brand. |
$$$ |
| 5 | Shell Holder | This is a small metal plate that holds the specific caliber shell you are reloading. It is not one size fits all. If you have a multi stage, you will most likely need a shell plate to match. |
Pick one that matches your press | $ |
| 6. | Case Lube | Graphite, wax-style, spray, homemade (lanolin and rubbing alcohol) | Find some. Research. Hornady spray lube works well in many cases.You will probably buy several before you find your favorite. |
$ |
| 7. | Brake Cleaner | Try to get the chlorine free kind. Better for your lungs. | You will need to disassemble your dies and spray them so as to remove the oil on them to keep them rust free during shipping | $ |
| 8. | Scale | Analog or digital. Make sure it does "grains" or "gr" | Doesn't matter. Lots of old school guys use analog. Use what you like. | $ |
| 9. | Powder Funnel | If you plan to load each round by hand, as for a single stage press, you will need a funnel. | Make sure it fits your cases for your caliber. |
$ |
| 10. | Powder | These are the major brands. Hogdon, Western, and Vihtavuori. They come in 1 lb, 4 lb., and 8 lb. bottles. Starting out, if you are shooting 9mm, look in a reloading manual and see what the top 3 powders are. Buy 1 of each in 1 lb. You are experimenting. | Powder is typically application specific. Pistol powder for pistol, rifle powder for rifle. They are not interchangeable. E.g. Trail Boss for heavy, cast lead bullets used in cowboy style shooting in revolvers. CFE Pistol for pistols. IMR 4064 for .308. |
$ |
| 11. | Reloading Manual | Pick one. Lyman, Hornady, Nosler, Sierra. Or use www.loaddata.com (subscription) | Find the bullet you want to reload. Nosler 135 gr in .400 for 10mm or Precision Delta's FMJ 9mm 115 gr or Sierra Match King 168 gr in .308. Each bullet manufacture will provide you the powders they used and their results. Consult these before you load anything. | $ |
| 12. | Chamfer and Deburring Tool(s) | If you are going to shoot rifle rounds that have a neck (.223, .243, .270, .260, .280, .303, .308, 30-06, .338, etc) you will want to smooth the case mouth edges | Your choices are from inexpensive hand helds to big money. Lyman and Lee make hand helds. Frankford Arsenal, RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, etc. make motorized, multi-stage tools. Giraud makes a caliber specific triple tool | $-$$$ |
| 13. | Trimming Tool | Mostly for rifle cases. If you are going to use 1x or more fired brass, chances are you will need to trim to | Same as chamfer and deburring tool. Hand held all the way to mechanized. | $-$$$ |
| 14. | Primers | Specific to your round. 9mm uses small pistol primer. .308 uses Large Rifle Primer. Use what your manual shows you | These come in units of 100 and 1000. | $ |
| 15. | Bullet | Choose the bullet for your application. Self Defense, hunting, plinking, action pistol, match grade. | If you are starting out, buy quality. Many people use Berry's for plinking. While you are still figuring it all out, don't waste your money on high end, super performance bullets. You are going to screw up. Screw up on the cheap stuff | $-$$$ |
| 16. | Brass | If you are starting out, see if you can buy 1x fired brass. You can buy new (Starline, Peterson, Lapua, Winchester, Sig, Hornady) brass. | 1x fired brass will give you the experience you'll want in inspecting, measuring, cleaning, prepping brass that all reloaders do. Find someone who can help you determine if you that brass for sale on some website is worth while. www.reddit.com/r/reloading | $-$$ |
| 17. | Cleaning Method | Dry media tumble or wet media tumble. Dry media is cheaper. Wet media, using stainless steel pins, is typically more thorough. | Are you obsessive that every atom must be clean? Then wet tumble. If you are a "good enough for the retreads I date and government work," then dry tumble. Either way, clean your brass. | $-$$ |
| 18. | Reloading Tray | MTM makes some great ones. Buy 2. | Example | $ |
| 19. | Case Gauge | Hornady, Lyman, etc. My favorite is Shooters Box. These are caliber specific. There are some that are multi caliber. | Example | $ |
These items will get you started. Always remember, you can never have enough tools, toys, gadgets. This is an obsession.
Nice to haves but not necessary to get started:
1. Hornady Bullet Comparator - allows you to measure seating depth and ogive. RCBS also makes one
2. RCBS Precision Mic - caliber specific to measure head space
3. Hornady OAL guage - helps you determine seating depth for different rifle rounds
4. Concentricity Tool - helps you measure and adjust concentricity of the bullet in relation to the case mouth
5. Case Wall Thickness Gauge - helps you measure the thickness of the rifle case mouth
6. Automatic Powder Dispenser - not as accurate as doing by hand but great for plinking rounds
7. Brand Specific Powder Measure and Stand - analogue powder dispenser (example here)
8. Latex or Nitrile gloves when you handle primers and when you de-cap/work with lead dust.
9. Some silica pods you can get from any Bezos-based retailer to put in the containers your store your materials and completed rounds
10. Ammo boxes that hold 50 or 100 rounds. Keep your fired brass together with notes affixed as to load, times fired, etc.
11. Chronometer. Great way to validate your efforts and to QA your results.
12. Safety glasses. Explosions seek open eyes.