just bought a new kit

[Rocky_Raccoon]

hey all, just went out and bought me a new kit, ive never reloaded before and this seemed like a good kit to start with, a rcbs rock chucker supreme kit, i got it from midwayusa. http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=646599 heres what all comes with it, what do i need bsides whats in the kit, i went out and got a new scale because they were saying it was kinda junk, i got a hornaday gs1000 scale, they say i need a trimming tool, but what else? i also bought some books on how to reloading like "abc's of reloading" anda few others, another question, how big of rounds could i reload with this kit? i havent bought any dies yet, but im probably gonna get some .223 dies soon. any advice on the dies? also can i reload pistol cal' with this kit?? thanks any tips would b helpful. Semper Fi

[Rocky Raab]

RR2, you home now? Good kit choice. Unfortunately, you won't be able to load any 20mm cannon ammo, but anything smaller than that is fine ;)

Yup, pistol ammo will be fine, too. It'll look kinda lost in that huge press, but it will work.

What scale was it that's supposed to be "junk"? The RCBS 505 that I think comes in that kit is just fine for a balance beam. You won't need a trimmer or a case tumbler immediately, but you'll need the trimmer before you need the tumbler. If you only load one or two cartridges to start with, you can get some cheap Lee hand trimmers. They actually work very well, just slow and finger-tiring.

You'll need dies and a shellholder for each cartridge you load. All brands are fine, including Lee, but the other kinds are maybe a bit better.

Components are the last thing to buy. Primers, powder and bullets. Don't buy those until you've read all those books at least once - preferably twice.

[gd357]

RR,

you can indeed load pistol calibers with that press, trimming tool is a necessity, bullet puller and case tumbler would be a darn good idea. Being in Ohio, you should be able to reload just about anything you would want to shoot, although i'm not sure how big you're wanting to go.:D Not exactly sure where you're at, but if you need some help, I may be able to show you how to get started.

gd

[Rocky_Raccoon]

thanks, not home yet, just buying things here, so that when i get home its llike christmas. so down the road im gonna need a case trimmer, a tumbler, caliper, dies for wanted calibers.... any good advice on which components are good and what to stay away from??.........youll be seeing alot of me on here on the reloading forum in the future :) just one more step in becoming a complete gun nut :P

[gd357]

The best advice as far as components are concerned is that some simply work better with your specific gun than others. I ran into that situation about 6 months ago. Got some once fired 22-250 brass, but the resizing die I was using would not resize the cases enough to fit the chamber that the rounds were intended for. Got another one, problem solved.:rolleyes: Every once in a while, you may run into things like that, but that's the only issue I've had so far.

gd

[Jack]

The RCBS 505 scale is perfectly fine, IMO.
The smartest thing you can do, you've already started to do- get some books and read them. The ABC's of reloading is fine, and so is the Speer manual that comes with the kit.

[Catfish]

Rocky you have an excellant starter kit and unless you start doing alot of shooting one that will last you a life time. If you have some time on your hands now you might want to buy a good reloading manual, one with blistic charts in the back and other data, and read it in your spare time. By studing the bullet drop and the velosities of different rounds you will know more by the time you get home than most guy do that have been reloading for years. Yesterday I was shooting at a 500 yard target. I dialed in the drop and guessed at the windage, useing the chart data in the back of my Serria manual. A 3 shot group of 3 1/4 in. I was left of point of aim and alittle low, but all shots would have taken a groundhog. I really was supprised how close the chart was. I did crono my ammo so I did use the correct velosity which is critical when shooting long ranges. Wind drift on my 80 grn. .22 cal bullet was just over 15 in. and drop was 45 in. over my 200 yrd. zero. Keep your head down, we`re looking fordward to getting you home.

[Rocky_Raccoon]

thanks for the imput catfish, i gotta couple of questions.. first will this kit be able to load shotgun shells (with an adaptor or without one would be even better) and the second is ive been buying up some reloading books lately, any advice on some good books i should look for? and lastly can i only use rcbs dies in my reloader or are they basically all threaded the same? and how many "dies" do i need for one caliber? are their two for each caliber? what do they do? any imput would be appreciated

[gd357]

On the question concerning dies, all brands of dies will work in your press. Each die set will come with at least 2 dies, a resizing dies and a seating die. the resizing die sizes the casing, the seater seats the bullet into the casing. Some die sets will come with three, primarily handgun dies, and rifle dies where a crimp is beneficial or necessary.

gd