Reloading for long range?

[kupper]

Stainless steel media and it doesnt have a close second. Cleans your primer pockets and inside of brass. Mine always comes out looking better than new (not an exaggeration). Most Guys skip the cleaning solution for it and use dawn dish soap and lemi-shine in the water. Frankford arsenal is the one I use.

 

[Apollo117]

Stainless steel media and it doesnt have a close second. Cleans your primer pockets and inside of brass. Mine always comes out looking better than new (not an exaggeration). Most Guys skip the cleaning solution for it and use dawn dish soap and lemi-shine in the water. Frankford arsenal is the one I use.

What do you use to clean the inside of your brass?

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[wind gypsy]

What do you use to clean the inside of your brass?

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The inside of your brass does not come into contact with your chamber walls or sizing dies so it doesn't really need to be cleaned beyond removing any foreign material or corrosion. That said, stainless media typically cleans this as well.

Most people looking for the absolute most in precision do not use stainless media for cleaning, it can ding up case mouths and cause more inconsistency in neck tension. If you chamfer/debur every load it can help but there is still evidence that does not solve everything. Stainless is still the only way I clean brass but it isn't without these shortcomings in addition to the need to dry brass after cleaning.

I'd start with the following:

-RCBS chargemaster (can save money with a funnel powder thrower and beam scale, but you'll want to get to this eventually).
-Lee Classic Cast press (or RCBS rock chucker)
-Hand Priming tool (i use Lee)
-Full Length sizing and seating dies (I'd get forster if budget minded - you can get them custom honed to minimize over working brass if desired eventually)
-Calipers (can spend $25-40 here and be fine)
-Hornady COAL measuring tool and case comparison measurement accessories
-brass tray (the green RCBS ones work fine for me)
-Shell holders - redding seem to fit case heads best but any will work
-Brass tumbler and media (I use the Frankford arsenal steel tumbler - best value for stainless pin cleaning. Could save a little money with corn cobb media type tumbler. Do your own research on benefits of each.)
-Hornady one-shot case lube spray (much faster than individually lubing each case)
-Case trimming equipment - Few options here, the forster trimmer with a 3-in-1 trimming head attachments will do your trimming, chamfering, deburring in one action. You can go bare bones and chamfer/debur by hand with a screwdriver type deal but it's very cumbersome. The RCBS brass prep station is popular to do all of the chamferring, deburring, primer pocket uniforming, and flash hole deburring. If you get the Forster trimmer with 3-in-1 head you do not need this (primer pocket work not necessary with good brass). It is nice to be able to just touch up the case mouths on the RCBS station without using the trimmer though.

That list should cover all of the basics with some $ spent above the minimum cost gear where I feel it would most benefit you and where you would upgrade eventually anyway.

I agree with previous posts in regards to primer pocket uniforming and flash hole deburring being unnecessary. It stems from people using cheaper brass where it and sorting brass have merits. It is a waste of time with Lapua, Norma, Nosler, and Peterson brass IMO. Having good consistent brass is a huge part of accuracy so I just buy good brass to start with.

Neck Turning - don't worry about this unless you are forming wildcat cartridges, have custom tight neck chambers, or have frequent issues with cases developing "donuts" at the neck/shoulder junction

Annealing - Nice to get equipment for eventually but you should be able to get 5+ good loads out of brass before it becomes more critical. Brian Litz testing indicates this is not as important to accuracy as many make it out to be. It can be important to case life though.

Other stuff you don't need but might want eventually:
-Dial (tube) micrometer - for measuring case neck thickness, more applicable if using bushing dies.
-Flash hole debur and primer pocket uniformer - if using rem, win, LC, etc brass
-Concentricity gauge/measuring tool - nice to measure straightness of ammo as you are developing reloading processes. I don't use mine anymore because I've settled on a process and ammo doesn't seem to get out of wack enough to make a detectable difference in accuracy
-Beam scale (if you already have a chargemaster) - this is just a second way to confirm your digital scale is on, I use check weights of known weight instead on the chargemaster to check it. I have 2 beam scales that have moved to 3 different houses since they were last taken out of their boxes.
-Chargemaster reducing insert - Get one of these if you get a RCBS chargemaster. They dramatically reduce the frequency of your powder charge being "over thrown". Chargemaster Reducing Insert | Sniper's Hide Forum

For people looking to make the process as precise and painless as possible for a single stage press without cost constraints - I'd get a Giraud Case trimmer and the A&D FX-120i auto powder trickler.
AUTOMATIC POWDER TRICKLER – A&D FX-120i Reloading Scales & AutoTricklers
Giraud Power Trimmer - giraud tool company, Inc.

 

[Apollo117]

Thanks for the explanation wind gypsy. I had never heard of cleaning the inside of brass. I may look into this topic deeper. Again, I appreciate the explanation.

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[smokinbobf4]

More great info, I really appreciate every person that has chimed in! I think I am going to take the plunge. I have watched so many videos on everything that has been brought up and have been reading a ton. It doesn’t seem too difficult. For now, I am not really concerned about how long it takes with hand tools, powder measures, etc if I can cut alittle cost and upgrade down the road. But I do want the tools that do the job right and precise. The things I still haven’t decided are what dies, scale, and cleaning. Seems the Frankford does a really good job, but looks like a bit of a mess.


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[kupper]

Redding dies, RCBS or lyman scale (digital. trust me, go digital). I have an extra frankford arsenal corncob media tumbler that I will give you if you're ever in the dickinson area along with corncob media and brass polish. I dont have a need for it ever again as i use stainless. It is for sure messy but then again so is the corncob.

 

[blackpowderhunter]

i would splurge for a nice digital scale/trickler as well.
last year RCBS had a "buy green get green" rebate deal where depending on how much you spent, you got x amount back.
299-499 was 100 back, 499 or more was 175 back.

 

[smokinbobf4]

So I am going to try to save to get something like the ChargeMaster but if I can’t yet, what’s the next best way to precisely measure powder that is reasonably priced?


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[Axlrod]

A powder measure from Hornady or RCBS and a trickler and a beam scale prob. the min i would spend.
I use a Chargemaster- LOVE it but I also have a Redding powder meas, and a Hornady meas. that work well.
Another item i like a lot is the Frankford hand priming tool

 

[ckleeves]

I’m probably the odd man out but I don’t care for digital scales or chargemasters. Owned a bunch of different digital scales and 2 chargemasters. To much drift and inaccuracy for my taste. The Gempro scales are accurate but I can’t seem to get one to last over 6 months without it going wonky on me. I think you have to be in a vault underground without any other electronics to get a chargemaster to throw accurately.

I know guys have great luck with them and love them but that hasn’t been my experience. Wish they did work for me they sure are convenient.


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