Hello all. I'm basically a lunchbox when it comes to reloading. I never reloaded in my life. I want to start reloading .50AE cuz anyone who uses them knows how expensive they can be...HA. I would like to get a reloading kit that does almost everything for me (measures powder, removes old primer, loads new primer, etc). I've been looking at Lee & Dillon products. Anybody have any input on this? Any other vendors you wanna throw in the pot? Which .50AE dies work better? Which is the most user friendly & require the least work? I also have two .45 ACPs & a .308 that wouyld be nice to reload. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
James

I have Dillon 550Bs & they are pretty esay to get started on. The no BS lifetime warranty is nice as well. The 550B is a semi progressive. You have to put the cases in & the bullets & advance the case through each "station" by turning a small wheel/star. So it doesn't do it for you but pretty close. For more money you can go to a Dillon 650, it has a bullet & case feeder & advances the casees through the press everytime you pull the handle. It's more complicated & expensive but does more w/ less input from the user.
I would recommend you get The ABCs of Reloading & at least one good handloading manual (I like the Speer) & read them before you go buy anything. Handloading isn't rocket science but requires a bit of knowledge, common sense & the ability to pay attention.

I "highly" recomend you learn to reload on a single stage press BEFORE you go automated. You NEED to learn the proper steps to reloading to be safe at it...

DM

How much money are you willing to spend to get into reloading?

quote:

Originally posted by DM:
I "highly" recomend you learn to reload on a single stage press BEFORE you go automated. You NEED to learn the proper steps to reloading to be safe at it...
DM

The nice thing about the 550B is you CAN use it like a reverse turret press & load one at a time until you get the hang of everything. I use a single stage for all of my rifle rounds & the 550B for pistol rounds, but the 550B will do it all.

If you started with these following items, you'd be headed in the right direction:

1)Lee Classic Cast single stage. Darn good press, I like it better than a RCBS RC but, they are fairly new and several folks turn their nose up at Lee because of the low price.
2)An RCBS 505, 1010, or Dillon Precision beam scale.
3a)Powder funnel, Lee or RCBS as they are about the same.
3b)Lee powder dipper set
4)Shell holders for the cartridges you intend to load(alot of SHs work for many different carts) I use a #2 and #5 the most as they cover many carts. Again Lee or RCBS are both fine
5)RCBS primer pocket brush tool
6)RCBS chamfer/debur tool
7)Loading block, the RCBS is good and there are some good wooden blocks as well
8)A Good Loading manual that has a good read and how-to section for beginners reloading.
9)Dies, RCBS 2 dies sets are good for rifle rounds, Forester is much better. Hornady and Lee work fine as well. For your pistol loads the RCBS Carbide sets are nice.
10)Lee Case Lube for your rifle loads
11)Brass
12)Powder
13)Primers
14)Bullets
15)A bench to set-up your press
16)A good chair to sit in while you reload for a while
17)Caliper



You'll be set with all that, just go to Midway and fill your basket to see where you're at on cost. Place the order for all of it(except primers and powder) and you'll save a good bit on shipping.

Read the manuals or books on the steps to reloading and begin to experiement. Just load a few at a time so you can get the hang of it.

Good Luck

Reloader

I only wanna spend around 250-300 bucks. I'm looking at the Lee Load Master. Are either Lee or Dillon more .50 AE friendly?

There are those that like the Lee but if I were loading the 50AE, I would pop a bit more for a 550B for the reasons I stated. You can turn out good ammo on a LoadMaster, but they are a bit more finicky about setup & using one to load small batchs of test rounds is a PITA, JMO. Check Ebay for someone getting rid of one. If anything is wrong w/ it, Dillon will fix it free. Yuo can use any brand dies in either the Lee or Dillon.

If you start with a 550 for your first press my advice would be to use it as more of a turret press for the first couple hundred rounds. just put a single piece of brass in and run it through all of the stations before you run the next piece through. It will still be a hell of alot faster than a single stage and will allow you to become familiar with how the machine works. I only use powders that fill at least half the case or more on my dillon. Just gives me a little more peace of mind.

I think I'm gonna go with the Dillon 550B to reload .50AE, .308 Win, and maybe .45ACP. Is ther eanything else that I'll need? To clean brass? Measure powder? Miscellaneous stuff? How does the 550B measure powder? Should I go for the 650? What are the benefits of it over the 550B? Just a thought.

Thanks

JC