Thinking about going .45 acp

[DaFadda]

On the reloading side of things.... take a look at this post from 2013 or so. It shows my setup (which has changed a bit since I moved south). I now have one entire bedroom of the house for reloading.

the tools:

Harbor Freight 18 lb tumbler.
Lee 4 hole turret press (I use it in batch mode, not semi progressive
RCBS Powder handler.
A separate 4 hole plate for each caliber I load. Once the dies are set properly, you should not have to touch them again. Very repeatable.
Dies in the caliber you want to load.
Dillon or Wilson go/no go gages. one in each caliber you reload.
For pistols: RCBS, LEE, Hornady or Dillon dies that are titanium.
For Rifle: You MUST, absolutely MUST lubricate the cartridge before depriming. Failure to do so will jam the cartridge in the die, making both worthless.
Hand primer or use the Lee turret to prime (I find hand priming to be faster)

Here's the link to the reloading section:

http://www.cotep.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1815

Enjoy! Ask any questions you would like answered via PM, my link or this post.

PS. Everyone likes to do things the fastest way possible. In reloading, that would be progressive. That said, I would not recommend a progressive machine to anyone just starting out. If you got it set up correctly, then you would produce good ammo. If you make a mistake in the setup, you may find yourself with a few hundred pieces that you will have to break down and rebuild. You can pick up the Lee 4 hole complete kit for $154 at Amazon. You'd need to purchase the dies for .45acp and of course the components. But $154 is a far cry from the price of a Dillon 650 @ around $550 without the bells and whistles... for a hobby that you might not enjoy doing. Here's the Amazon link:

https://smile.amazon.com/Lee-Precisi...ndex+value+kit

Da

[sdmc530]

Originally Posted by DaFadda

PS. Everyone likes to do things the fastest way possible. In reloading, that would be progressive. That said, I would not recommend a progressive machine to anyone just starting out. If you got it set up correctly, then you would produce good ammo. If you make a mistake in the setup, you may find yourself with a few hundred pieces that you will have to break down and rebuild. You can pick up the Lee 4 hole complete kit for $154 at Amazon. You'd need to purchase the dies for .45acp and of course the components. But $154 is a far cry from the price of a Dillon 650 @ around $550 without the bells and whistles... for a hobby that you might not enjoy doing.
Da

Couldn't agree more. I started with a Lee single stage and glad I did. I got to understand the basics of reloading and its a great way to learn. You can sell reloading stuff pretty easily. If you have somebody you really like you can give them a good deal to get started.

Basic Dillon 650 is $599. If you buy the better mounting stand, roller handle, case feed, extra lighting, trays I could go on and on. I have about $1100 in mine with extra plates. I did swap out my RCBS dies for Dillon dies as well. Didn't need to do that but man the Dillon dies are spendy but so easy to set up.