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I didn't want to hijack OldCannon's reloading room thread, so I'm starting my own.

I want to get started reloading and the only thing I have so far is used brass cases. How much and what prep work can I do before getting the reloader itself? I haven't decided on which manufacturer or model yet. Will that make a difference in how much I can do before buying the reloader?

I bought a Lee classic loader turret press kit it came with most of what I needed. Looking back it was not the best choice but will make do with what I have. Since then I have tried to buy whatever I could while it was in stock and normal prices. Today I bought my wife a new Lyman 700 sonic cleaner to clean her jewelry it happens to do a wonderful job cleaning my brass also maybe 30-40 .308 at a time. For what it is worth I have yet to make a single round I started buying in December.

C-dub wrote:I didn't want to hijack OldCannon's reloading room thread, so I'm starting my own.

I want to get started reloading and the only thing I have so far is used brass cases. How much and what prep work can I do before getting the reloader itself? I haven't decided on which manufacturer or model yet. Will that make a difference in how much I can do before buying the reloader?

Tumbler...can't do much of anything till they're cleaned. Manuals (plural) so you have an idea of what powders and bullets are suitable for the cartridges you're loading.

After the tumbler you need to size/de-cap them so you're kinda dead in the water without the press and dies pretty quickly. You can't trim or re-prime until after they're re-sized.

As for supplies...well...primers are on the market again but there is nothing for powder out there. Bullets are very scarce in common calibers as well and can be found but not in the most popular weights and jackets.

Good luck...I'm getting close to bone dry for reloading and I'm hoping I'm reading the tea leaves correctly. Looks like the drought is just starting to relax so hopefully supplies will be back by the time I'm completely out of everything.

olafpfj wrote:

C-dub wrote: As for supplies...well...primers are on the market again but there is nothing for powder out there. Bullets are very scarce in common calibers as well and can be found but not in the most popular weights and jackets.

Pistol bullets are out there in common wieghts - Blacks International and Berry's have in stock.
Bayou Bullets are my favorite, but looks like they are still backed up - I would wait a short while for those.

I don't know about rifles though...Not sure what you are looking for.

So far, I only have four calibers that I would like to start reloading. The two most frequent will be .45ACP and .223/5.56 followed by 30.06 for the Garand and then .44Mag. I don't have a 9mm yet, but will probably have one for my daughter before too long. QB's Glock 17 really caught my eye when she put it up for sale yesterday.

You should have a location and loading bench in mind. Are you going to be inside or outside? You'll need a place to store brass, bullets, powders, dies and primers that's relatively moisture-free. Where will the bench be? What kind of chair will you use? Where will the press sit on the table? How will the press attach to the table? These are all worth answering and setting up before the press.

Locations are limited right now. Too much stuff in the house that needs to go and we're in a little bit of a remodeling phase right now and going through much of that stuff to get rid of some of it. Two of the possibilities are inside and the third is in the garage. That's one reason I thought I'd try and start off with one or two steps I could do before actually getting a reloading machine. I was hoping I could get all the brass cleaned up and maybe deprimed until I was ready to go further.

C-dub wrote:Locations are limited right now. Too much stuff in the house that needs to go and we're in a little bit of a remodeling phase right now and going through much of that stuff to get rid of some of it. Two of the possibilities are inside and the third is in the garage. That's one reason I thought I'd try and start off with one or two steps I could do before actually getting a reloading machine. I was hoping I could get all the brass cleaned up and maybe deprimed until I was ready to go further.

ya know one idea I had but never tried, take one of those bags for doing dry cleaning in your home dryer, put some of the corn or walnut stuff in it toss in dryer on air only an see what happens.

suthdj wrote:

C-dub wrote:Locations are limited right now. Too much stuff in the house that needs to go and we're in a little bit of a remodeling phase right now and going through much of that stuff to get rid of some of it. Two of the possibilities are inside and the third is in the garage. That's one reason I thought I'd try and start off with one or two steps I could do before actually getting a reloading machine. I was hoping I could get all the brass cleaned up and maybe deprimed until I was ready to go further.

ya know one idea I had but never tried, take one of those bags for doing dry cleaning in your home dryer, put some of the corn or walnut stuff in it toss in dryer on air only an see what happens.

I may be the paranoid one here, but if that bag breaks, how much lead is going to contaminate your dryer.

I hate my media tumbler. Seems like a lead infection.

I still want to experiment more with the liquid cement mixer/dryer contraption. :)

under the circumstances, I would suggest that you get a Lee Breech Lock Hand Press Kit and a set of Lee dies (4 die carbide if for handgun), and a few very basic tools .... chamfer/deburr tool, primer pocket cleaner, micrometer, digital scale, kinetic bullet puller/hammer, etc. All this stuff will fit into a pretty small box, out of the way, and can be used just about anywhere you can sit or stand. Even if you don't want to load with it (which I do - a lot), you can still do all your brass prep, including priming the brass, with the Hand Press and still have a set of dies for whatever bench press you plan to set up in the future. I'd bet that the vast majority of folks that bought a Hand Press, no matter how many single stage, turret or progressive presses they have, still find uses for the hand press. It's just a compact single stage press that you just happen to operate with both hands, and produces as much quality ammunition as any other press you could set up, just a bit slower than most. Extremely compact, storable, moveable and reliable.

Got my first piece of equipment today. I went to Bass Pro to check out some boots and look for some .22LR and didn't find either and then wandered down a few other isles. I was really in the mood to spend some money. They had a nice looking .308 with a Nikon scope and pelican case package for about $2300, but that was too much.

I ended up with a Lyman 2500 sonic cleaner. I haven't set it up yet, but I've got several hundred rounds of handgun and rifle brass that needs cleaning. Maybe sometime this week or next weekend.

So far, I only have four calibers that I would like to start reloading. The two most frequent will be .45ACP and .223/5.56 followed by 30.06 for the Garand and then .44Mag.

I would suggest starting with 45ACP or 44 mag - pistol cases are easier to learn reloading on than bottleneck cases (which usually means rifle, excepting .357 Sig, 400 Corbon, etc).


If you're' going to load 223/5.56 for a semi-auto (AR-15, mini-14), you may want to use "small-base" dies. If the 30-06 is only for 1 rifle, you may consider neck-sizing rather than full-length resizing.

Make sure you have at least 2 reloading manuals.

I figured I'd start with the .45ACP. I shoot it much more than anything else.