Starting Reloading

[Bassfish1952]

If I were to get into reloading and just wanting to reload for hunting rounds . Not a large volume . 
What equipment would you guys recommend ?



Thanks

[grayfox]

Baseload of equipment, there is an rcbs sale going on for a few of their reloading sets.
For the dies, I'm using the horrnady die set, working well for like you say, accurate hunting/shooting. Not a competitive shooter and not an OCD.
Reloading data, get the hornady reloading book and the hodgdon annual magazine.
There's more details I'll cover for you in a post after I eat some breakfast.

[grayfox]

Going to try to organize my thoughts here. First off, what with brass being a scarce commodity, doing practical things to it to prolong its life becomes real important. Needed to say that.
Reloading breaks down into a few repeatable processes.
1. cleaning
2. Resizing
3. trimming
4. load primer, powder and bullet, to desired OAL.

Folks get real complicated or real OCD, and that's fine for them, but what about the regular guy who wants to find good loads for his rifle? For me, a good load is consistently 1 moa or less at the bench... that way I figure it will be <1.5 moa in the field. You want to define what your goal is, that's what I'm saying here. Then adjust your reloading to achieve that.

My processes are basically do 1 step at a time for all the brass you're doing on this go-around. All the cleaning, then all the resizing, then all the trimming, etc.

1. Cleaning - at some point in a gas gun and even in bolt actions the brass can get pretty dirty. Again, trying to prolong brass life, you'll want to do some cleaning and probably after each firing but for sure after every 2 (sometimes I "cheat" and do bolt actions every 2... only once in a while though but I digress). Several methods, from using some hot water, dishwashing soap and lemishine, to walnut or SS in a dry tumbler. I do the walnut/tumbler route. There's also the liquid or ultrasonic but for me that's a little overkill. Read up on some internet reviews on these various methods. You'll want to do some kind of cleaning especially when your brass gets to 3x or 4x fired. Maybe not super-crucial for 1x or 2x brass but the time will come.
2. Resizing - an rcbs press and shellholder/dies and some lube for the brass or it WILL get stuck in there and you won't be able to get it out! But not too much lube. For the press I'm using the rock chucker, there's also a smaller rcbs that should be ok for you. I don't use any of the Lee or the bigger, more expensive presses but you can go there if you want. Lee IMO has too many reports of too much slop, so I avoid them. On the lube there's hornady 1-shot which is the best IMO all-around, it doesn't get too much on there and it also gets some into the neck area which you definitely want. There are other ways but this is simple and straightforward, and not too much $$. Spray them in a dedicated casing holder tray (spread a towel underneath), then let them dry 2 hrs+ or overnight. Dies - for the 6Arc the hornady's custom dies are just fine. You need a shell holder- well 2 of them - this can be either rcbs or hornady just don't mix them, use 2 of the one shellholder kind or the other. when I was looking all I could find was the #6 hornady but that was fine. Rcbs might be #32 but I'm going from memory, I got the hornady ones. 1 shell holder for the press, one for your primer seating tool in the phase below. We can caoch you on how MUCH to resize, basically you can resize/set back the shoulder by 0.003-0.004" and the brass will last longer than if you set it all the way back to "factory", that stretches and eventually weakens the brass to where it doesn't last as long.
3. Trimming - the resizing eventually will stretch the brass out too long for the chamber so it needs to be trimmed - maybe not every time but for this you will want a nice digital calipers - they go for around $15-20 so not expensive but they are a must for the measurements you need to make. shooting/resizing is a game of thousandths - 0.001's. Frankford has one that I use. AG3 or 357 style little batteries. Best little precision guy in your toolbox.
Trimming requires a trim tool, I just have the rcbs trim tool and my calipers. O, and nominate 1 brass casing to be your "model" because when you need to trim, you set that one in the tool and size fir it, then put it back in the resizing die box. Trim to some where down close to the min saami length. For 6Arc that's 1.480-1.490 is saami, so close to 1.480 is where you want your little case model to be. Mine is 1.483 I think. If the fired brass measures > 1.490 then you need to trim, if it's under 1.490 then you can skip the step if you want to. Some guys trim every time regardless, which is (kind of OCD but ) fine of course. To measure for that before trimming set your caliper to 1.490 and lock it down, then if a case goes thru the caliper it's less than max, if not, then trim.
After trimming do a "VLD" chamfer on the inside and a regular chamfer on the outside because trimming leaves some flashing both to the inside and on the outside. VLD for inner b/c it makes flat-bottomed bullets seat easier. boat tails seat well also.
See how useful your calipers is gonna be?

I'll cover priming, loading and seating after my morning work-conf call.

[grayfox]

If you do start reloading, your brass should last 4-5x easily and if you don't go for hot loads, maybe as much as 10X. My various kinds/mfrs of brass in several calibers, I'm only up to 4x but so far so good - a couple of mfrs (not in 6 Arc) get loose primer pockets after 2x fires but only a couple, and not in 6 Arc.

[Bassfish1952]

Thank you
Currently I am buying Hornady 103ELDX ammo and will keep all the brass as fired. Am. thinking I would like to work up a load with the Hornady 90gr CX bullet or something like it so right now I am just looking and talking .

[grayfox]

4. Prime, load and seat - I use a hand priming tool, and one of the shell holders mentioned above. The 6 Arc uses small rifle primers, the go-to (and currently available) is the cci 450. I avoid cci 400 or any primer where it is not thick/hard enough to withstand potential slamfires of an AR. For a bolt not really an issue but still use 450's. An alternate is the cci #41. I had some "no name" #41's (maybe Winchester) that failed to fire, several in a batch made up for one range-time shooting, so I've canned those and back to the real cci's 450 or 41. I like to be able to feel the seating and like I said, I do one batch/step at a time, so any of those "auot feed" setups, not for me. In the 6 Arc I haven't found or seen any crimped primers, in fact I try to avoid using those in any caliber as far as reloading, I haven't had consistent success in removing that crimp; so I just toss those cases after firing (factory loads). Powder, for this you need some kind of weighing scale, you can use the manual one - it's kinds slow however. Or add in a powder-thrower (check measure every 5 loads or so)... that's where I started. But now I have an rcbs digital scale that measures out the powedr. There's also a few other mfr's so you can look them over too. I go for an accuracy of 0.0 grains ie, if it doesn't say the grs I set it at, I just throw it back and re-measure. That means for an rcbs I'm within +/- 0.1 grs of my desired load in reality. Some guys want to be within +/- 0.01 or 0.02, again kind of OCD. By the way it's good anyway to have that manual scale and thrower so you can load if Biden's energy plan cuts your electricity, lol!
Bullet seating - this comes as one of your die set so you put it into the press. As far as adjusting, you want to find out where the bullet hits lands in your chamber, b/c you dont' want to jam these bullets and some of them will need to go at an OAL less than "Saami" ie less than 2.260. Mag length for an AR usually limits how far out you can seat. For pills like the 105 hornady's you'll be looking at 2.200 give or take, for a 103 eldx you can go usually out farther, for my chamber I can load the 103's to 2.300 but my mag limits me to 2.290, but now you see the difference you can run into.
Like I said, reloading is a game of 0.001's.
I like to confirm I got the OAL I'm looking for in the first few loads I run, b/c it's all about adjusting this and tweaking that... if, in most cases, you get +/- 0.003 OAL for a poly-tip or OTM you're doing fine, for lead tip it can be more like +/- 0.005, but I don't shoot any lead tips in my 6 Arc AR's.

Some guys like to crimp after loading but I haven't found that needed, then again I'm getting the accuracy I'm looking for without it. In an AR if you average the good with bad, a consistent load will be usually 1.25 moa or so, sometimes 0.75 but sometimes 1.5. AR's aren't the bug-hole shooters that the interweb guys claim.

Anyway it's a rewarding and enjoyable hobby as well as more economical. IMO anyway.
When you say you'll shoot only "some" hunting loads, I bet if you reload you'll do more than you think b/c 1, you're looking for that accuracy load, and 2, you can b/c it's cheaper. But time will tell on that.

O yes, powders. If you want to do only 1 for the 6 Arc, my recommendation is leverevolution. Best MV's, mostly available, easy to measure. It is somewhat temp sensitive, so there are others on the hornady load data and they all can do what you want. Powder likes/dislikes - there are lots, and they are topic of lots of posts. Pick and use the ones you like and the ones you can find. When you settle on a powder, buy 3-4 lbs of it in the same lot#, even powders can change from lot to lot. this last thing, no one told me back when I first started (in the 70's) but you learn as time goes on.

---

One final point, don't try to hot-rod these small-case cartridges, keep the MV and powder loads sane and within spec. You can go over pressure or get real hot loads but it will trash your brass and maybe blow up your rifle. Many rifles, but only 1 face. lol.

[Bassfish1952]

4. Prime, load and seat - I use a hand priming tool, and one of the shell holders mentioned above.  The 6 Arc uses small rifle primers, the go-to (and currently available) is the cci 450.  I avoid cci 400 or any primer where it is not thick/hard enough to withstand potential slamfires of an AR.  For a bolt not really an issue but still use 450's.  An alternate is the cci #41.  I had some "no name" #41's (maybe Winchester) that failed to fire, several in a batch made up for one range-time shooting, so I've canned those and back to the real cci's 450 or 41.  I like to be able to feel the seating and like I said, I do one batch/step at a time, so any of those "auot feed" setups, not for me.  In the 6 Arc I haven't found or seen any crimped primers, in fact I try to avoid using those in any caliber as far as reloading, I haven't had consistent success in removing that crimp; so I just toss those cases after firing (factory loads).  Powder, for this you need some kind of weighing scale, you can use the manual one - it's kinds slow however.  Or add in a powder-thrower (check measure every 5 loads or so)... that's where I started.  But now I have an rcbs digital scale that measures out the powedr.  There's also a few other mfr's so you can look them over too.  I go for an accuracy of 0.0 grains ie, if it doesn't say the grs I set it at, I just throw it back and re-measure.  That means for an rcbs I'm within +/- 0.1 grs of my desired load in reality.  Some guys want to be within +/- 0.01 or 0.02, again kind of OCD.  By the way it's good anyway to have that manual scale and thrower so you can load if Biden's energy plan cuts your electricity, lol!
Bullet seating - this comes as one of your die set so you put it into the press.  As far as adjusting, you want to find out where the bullet hits lands in your chamber, b/c you dont' want to jam these bullets and some of them will need to go at an OAL less than "Saami" ie less than 2.260.  Mag length for an AR usually limits how far out you can seat.  For pills like the 105 hornady's you'll be looking at 2.200 give or take, for a 103 eldx you can go usually out farther, for my chamber I can load the 103's to 2.300 but my mag limits me to 2.290, but now you see the difference you can run into.
Like I said, reloading is a game of 0.001's.
I like to confirm I got the OAL I'm looking for in the first few loads I run, b/c it's all about adjusting this and tweaking that... if, in most cases, you get +/- 0.003 OAL for a poly-tip or OTM you're doing fine, for lead tip it can be more like +/- 0.005, but I don't shoot any lead tips in my 6 Arc AR's.

Some guys like to crimp after loading but I haven't found that needed, then again I'm getting the accuracy I'm looking for without it.  In an AR if you average the good with bad, a consistent load will be usually 1.25 moa or so, sometimes 0.75 but sometimes 1.5.  AR's aren't the bug-hole shooters that the interweb guys claim.

Anyway it's a rewarding and enjoyable hobby as well as more economical.  IMO anyway.
When you say you'll shoot only "some" hunting loads, I bet if you reload you'll do more than you think b/c 1, you're looking for that accuracy load, and 2, you can b/c it's cheaper.  But time will tell on that.

O yes, powders.  If you want to do only 1 for the 6 Arc, my recommendation is leverevolution.  Best MV's, mostly available, easy to measure.  It is somewhat temp sensitive, so there are others on the hornady load data and they all can do what you want.  Powder likes/dislikes - there are lots, and they are topic of lots of posts.  Pick and use the ones you like and the ones you can find.  When you settle on a powder, buy 3-4 lbs of it in the same lot#, even powders can change from lot to lot.  this last thing, no one told me back when I first started (in the 70's) but you learn as time goes on.

---

One final point, don't try to hot-rod these small-case cartridges, keep the MV and powder loads sane and within spec.  You can go over pressure or get real hot loads but it will trash your brass and maybe blow up your rifle. Many rifles, but only 1 face.  lol.

Thank you 
I now have 5 boxes of new Hornady Hunter in the 103 ELDX , checked it in my Mag and checked OAL so with the 90gr CX and a step below max load if my rifle shoots it . The Leverevolution shows 3000fps which would make a safe round for me
Again if my rifle likes it. 
So I think I will look at acquiring parts and pieces to attempt reloading . I won't have my new barrel and action back until Nov-Dec sometime so no hurry and I can shoot up what I have and start after hunting this year to nail down my load for next year.
I see Hornady has a reloading starter kit I assume to other companies have one too. Is that a simple way to start or is it better to go with buying each part separate ?


Thanks

[grayfox]

There are a couple starter kits out there. shop and compare. In the long run your initial price won't matter too much (I have had my rock chucker for 20 years, my digital scale I think 10+) it will get spread out over years of loading. So go for pieces/kit that has a lot of quality stuff that will last. Some things you will want to replace out of any of those kits anyway, just do some comparison and decide. Most gear will be ok as long as you don't try to do hot stuff with it, treat it nicely. But you're aware of that I'm pretty sure.

[CZ527 Guy]

Id like to think you may find someone getting out of reloading where you might acquire everything you need including the reloading bench except your dies. ( unlikely the party would have 6mm ARC Dies) These days Id feel hard pressed to get the bare minimum in reloading equipment for less than $1,200.00 when you include the following.

Bench
Press
die set
trimmer
scale
powder thrower
caliper
primer seating tool for small rifle primers
Reloading manual
chamfer tool
shell tray
funnel ? Drop tube


Id do some searching for a press in any of a number of brand names including RCBS, Redding or Hornady. I am partial towards the RCBS priming tool. As for powder throwers Id seriously consider any of a number of throwers out there meant for smaller charges.

Lynman, Hornady, Redding & RCBS powder throwers would be on my list. then you are looking for a scale for weighing your powder an old beam scale followed by a digital scale would be on my list.

A quality newer digital 6" caliper is a tool Id not wish to do without. This is to check seating depth & Trim length. If I was only going to reload 6mm ARC the WFT trimmer is the trimmer for 6.5 grendel is the only consideration I would recommend. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/101285306

If you get serious we could go into deeper recommendations. Johnny reloading bench youtube videos may be an ok place to start off with to get a glimpse of an idea of what you could be getting into.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/vi...tion=click

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOd-Sj_Eh5A

[GRH]

Pass on the Lee kits. Lee Classic cast press (iron) and dies are good.

The Lee bench prime is worthy a look also, I love mine in terms of function, it's a good design. Unfortunately it suffers from lackluster quality of many of their offerings and it won't be a "forever" tool but it doesn't have that kind of price tag either.

[Bassfish1952]

Thanks everyone for the advice .I'm looking at cost to reload vs a local Gun Smith that also makes custom ammo, which for the limited amount of shooting I do may be the way to go.
W'ell see


Thanks again for you guys input

[CZ527 Guy]

May wish to ask the gunsmith about Hammer bullets, Specifically the 87 grain Absolute Hunter. Curious if he has dealt with Hammer bullets yet? Sounding promising to me Though I am still on the fence. Questions regarding terminal ballistics has been my biggest hangup with the Hammer bullets.

[Stonegables]

I am using a RCBS Rebel press, RCBS balance beam scale, RCBS powder measure, RCBS hand primer, RCBS shell holder and I have a set of RCBS AR small base dies on order. I also ordered a power Lee Quick Trimmer and a Quick Trim die. I also ordered a couple of boxes of Hornady 105 grain HPBT bullets (cost was the deciding factor) and a couple of pounds of CFE 223. I hope to duplicate the factory (Black) load with improved accuracy. So far I have 80 rounds of once fired brass. Soon there will be more.

[CZ527 Guy]

If I were to get into reloading and just wanting to reload for hunting rounds . Not a large volume . 
What equipment would you guys recommend ?



Thanks

---

If you should decide to give reloading a go, This may be an ok place to go. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012998011?pid=749997

[r.tenorio671]

... good pricing, fast shipping, large selection, excellent availability of products...good info & tips as well on product usage.

http://fsreloading.com/

[Stonegables]

I have been handloading ammo for over 50 years, I am 71 today. I recently upgraded my go to press from an old RCBS Rock Chucker to an RCBS Rebel. I did this because I am left handed and the Rebel has a reversable handle and a huge frame that is symetrical. It is great for a lefty loader. There is also a grease fitting for the ram.

[Bassfish1952]

I have been handloading ammo for over 50 years, I am 71 today. I recently upgraded my go to press from an old RCBS Rock Chucker to an RCBS Rebel. I did this because I am left handed and the Rebel has a reversable handle and a huge frame that is symetrical. It is great for a lefty loader. There is also a grease fitting for the ram.

Thanks , I am also left-handed knowing that helps. Not much in this world is made for left-handers

[CZ527 Guy]

Fishing reels

[Bassfish1952]

Fishing reels

 Funny as a left hander I cast with my left hand and reel with my right, so bait caster reels have always been for left handers (maybe invented by one). All my right handed friends cast then swapped hands to reel until the so called left-handed reels came out.
One reason I am slow to get into reloading is I have a garage that was built for my tournament bass boat and all the gear I have to go with it, then I bought an old pickup to restore. She was ok with me starting hunting again but I think reloading might be one hobby to far. LOL I will never be as good of hunter or shot as I have gotten in Bass fishing, for a while I was number 38 in the world for biggest bass.

[CZ527 Guy]

Fished with a Halibut guide out of Homer Alaska 15 years ago or so that tournament fished bass in California in the winter months. Sounds like you need to get wife into hunting / reloading. Let the reloading be her idea