Starting

[Guest Riverrat]

My son wants to shoot the 9mm more than I can buy ammo. I looked at Midway and can get the lee breech loader kit for 100 plus dies and extras. What else will I need?

[Patton]

Really, just the materials for the loading. Assuming your going to find a way to clean your brass, and there is ways without getting a tumbler. I started with that same kit and bought other items along the way but really don't need them. I haven't found a single pistol casing that has stretched to trim. I'm going to add some things to think about.

A loading manual

A digital scale(once you use one you'll understand)

Calipers

Trays or cartridge boxes

Case length gauge

A hand prime would be nice

Extra bushings

None of this is required but there items I've thought about or have picked up. I only do handgun calibers currently.

Oh you will néed nuts and bolts to attach to your bench.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Patton

[Dolomite_supafly]

These are all available at Midway Usa. They normally have coupons online so you can save money as well.

lee-perfect-powder-measure

lee-auto-prime-hand-priming-tool-shellholder-package-of-11

frankford-arsenal-micro-reloading-electronic-powder-scale-750-grain-capacity

lee-auto-prime-hand-priming-tool

lyman-electronic-scale-powder-funnel-pan

lee-classic-cast-breech-lock-single-stage-press

hornady-lock-n-load-press-and-die-conversion-bushing-kit

hornady-electronic-caliper-6-stainless-steel

This is what it would minimally take to load. You would still need to buy the particular dies you need as well as bullets, primers and powder. I suggest the primers and powder be purchased locally. I would also suggest buying jacketed bullets in the begining, they are easier to deal with than cast. Cast bullets add another facet to reloading.

People are going to say the Lee stuff is crap but I have used all these items for a few years now without a single issue. For the money the Perfect Powder Measure can't be beat.

I prefer a electronic over a balance beam. Balance beams take a lot longer to settle than an electronic.

No need to tumble your brass to clean them. Get some Lemishine at Walmart. Add a table spoon to some water and soak your brass for 24 hours. Every time you walk by give them a shake to aggitate them. Rinse them and let dry. Brass will be very clean and useable.

This setup may not be as fast as a progressive but it allows you to learn the machanics of it.

As far as supplies to reload you can get what you need from David, DLM37015 on here. He has all the supplies you could want or need to reload.

The list above is under $200.

Here are a few things to do to save money at the cost of convienence

You could do away with the conversion bushings if you don't mind setting up your dies each time. I find it hard to make identical ammunition when I have to set the dies up each time.

You could also do away with the powder pan and just weigh the powder in the casing. You just need to make sure to zero out the scale for each casing because they all weigh differently.

You could also dip out the powder and not use the Perfect Powder Measure but that is a very slow going process.

The Press has a priming tool on it but that is also another slow going process. You are also tied to your press to prime cases. With the hand primers you can watch TV while priming cases.

Dolomite

[Patton]

Im curious. What kind of 9mm are you loading for?

[Jonnin]

As usual I am the odd man out, but I find the press priming tool to be great. A lot of folks seem to like the hand tool so they can prime a bunch of cases while watching TV or something (and that is worth noting: the hand primer is portable), but apart from that both work equally well for me and I prefer the press tool.

The trays that most commercial 9mm is sold in are fine, I save all of them I can find (the 9mm trays work for 223, 9mm, 9x18, 380, and a bunch of other calibers, 45s work for 44s and a bunch of rifle cases, etc). I think there are really only about 5 sizes of them to fit 99% of the cartridges in the world. All it has to do is prevent the case from scooting around or falling over, you do not need anything special here.

You can get a cartridge specific reloading data booklet for like $5 or use the data found online at good sources (typically, the manufacturer of your powder will have data and 9mm is easy to find data for). You may not want or need to spend $$$ on a manual. I find the manuals to be rather expensive considering that 95% of the info in them is available from the web. But I am fairly cheap and tend to only buy something if I cannot function without it.

And in the opposite direction: I cannot recommend enough a turret press like the lee classic. The amount of time saved to produce a box of ammo is worth the extra costs. I can make simple pistol ammo like 9mm about 3 times faster on the turret, and its a one time expense. I would take the money you were going to spend on a manual and put it here...

[RichardS]

What kind of volume are you thinking about? If you are going to make 500 or more at a time then I recommend getting a progressive or at least a turret press. I use a Hornady Lock N Load for 9mm and it once I have the brass cleaned I can load a few hundred per hour. That press has 5 stations, you insert a case and it goes through multiple dies/stations and comes out a completed round.

Using a press with a single station is going to be significantly slower as you have to handle each case multiple times, picking it up once to size/deprime, prime, drop powder, seat bullet, and then crimp. If you are doing a hundred or two at a time this might be fine but if your volume is greater than that IMO buying a progressive or turret is worth the extra cost. It is a lot more money up front but allows you to be a lot more efficient reloading large volumes.

If you are wondering what the difference looks like then check out youtube, I have seen videos for the Lee breech loader and the various progressive presses, seeing them in action may help you make a decision on cost versus speed.

If you are primarily looking to save then you should also take the time to pick up spent brass whenever you can. 9mm seems to be left on the ground a lot and if you pick some up every time you go to the range you may never have to buy any brass. The guys here can help you out with casting your own bullets which can be a lot cheaper than buying. I've not tried that yet but have shot lead from Missouri and Dardas as well as copper plated from Berry's. All of those shoot fine and cost less than jacketed bullets. Check your range rules first though to see if they require you to use jacketed bullets. The two that I frequent are outdoors and lead or copper plated are fine.

Edited June 21, 2012 by RichardS

[Patton]

Everyone has their preferences but I'll tell you my biggest regret was not casting my own lead from the begining. What I have spent already just on 9mm (1500)I could have spent on casting to get 500 lead bullets and the rest would have cost me a penny a bullet or less. I do not regret getting a single stage press. Guys with single stage presses and turret presses get a chance to look at every round through every stage if they want to. BTW how do progressive press guys clean the primer pocket and flash hole?

Edited June 21, 2012 by Patton

[Caster]

What else will you need?

Well, a decent lead source, lead pot, ladle, mold, sizing die, a couple bottles of Lee liquid alox, lots of patience and attention to detail. If you can make friends with a tire store and get some free or really cheap wheel weights...DO IT. Follow the directions in my Lead Thread I made. Take your time and develop a good load and you can shoot for less than a hundred bucks per thousand.

[RichardS]

BTW how do progressive press guys clean the primer pocket and flash hole?

Good point, I think a lot of guys do not. I deprime first then wet tumble with stainless media. Takes more time than dry tumbling since you have to deal with rinsing and drying the brass but gets the primer pockets real clean. Then I inspect them all and run the brass with crimped primer pockets through the swager. At that point I call it done for 9mm, I do not bother measuring case length or trimming or flash hole deburring.

[Jonnin]

I do not clean the flash holes. I did for a while, then I tried it without, there is no real difference that I can tell. That is on a turret press, and it is counter productive to clean them: the point of the turret is to put a piece of brass on it, pull the handle a few times, and put the live round of ammo into your box, next... To clean the primer pocket, I would have to put the brass on the press, size it, take it off the press, clean it, put it back on the press..... that is called a single stage. Im sure someone has a valid reason to clean the holes, but my ammo goes bang just fine without it.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've been cleaning and conforming the primer pockets but it is probably a nutty thing to waste time for little benefit. Most of the rounds came out fine before I started doing that. I deprime a few hundred cases in one session, then clean/conform a few hundred cases in another session, then hand-prime a few hundred cases, then sometime get around to running em thru the progressive press for size/powder/seat/crimp. One thing is that the progressive can be operated faster and more trouble free if I don't have to worry about priming.

The main advantage is consistent primer seating depth and hardly any wastage from high primers and such. But it would save a lot of time for the same results to throw away brass known to be difficult to prime, and then throw away any rounds that come out of the press with high primers. Or alternately save up the bad rounds and dissassemble and try to seat the primer better, and try again. It would probably be less expensive in money+time to simply trash the few bad ones, compared to pulling the bullets, because the components are still relatively cheap. Spend a bunch of time fixing a mistake containing a dime's worth of materials? It only makes sense if one has plenty of extra time or a serious obsessive compulsive disorder.

[Ajruger]

I would steer away from lee.

If you are in the Memphis area I can help you out with getting started.

[Patton]

Your going to get different opinions on Lee equipment. My friend uses his grandfathers Lee challenger that has 20k plus reloads through it. It's what I learned on and decided to invest in.

[Caster]

I'm using a Lee Classic cast and 20K wouldn't knock a dent in what I've loaded on it.

Lee only makes two things of dubious quality. Powder measure and a scale. Everything else is just as good if not better. Unless you need some micrometer benchrest whatevers, Lee has them beat. I've tried most every brand out there and the only dies you'll find me using are Lee.

[Patton]

I would agree about the scale and the dispenser but they are worth the very inexpensive price.

[dlm37015]

lee is a great way to reload as long as you stay away from the loadmaster.i think they make as good of a die set as anyone

[Guest Riverrat]

I have an XD9. Some lady came into the pawn shop I was at. Said it was her late husband's gun. The owner was going to give her $100 for it. I got it for $150.

From Midway, I've ordered the breech lock challenger kit 90030 for $100. 3 piece carbide dies, case length gauge. 2 cartons of small pistol primers, 2,000 115 fmj bullets and 2 pounds of bullseye powder. We will be going to Memphis tomorrow to visit my wife's folks. My cousin said we will go to a coworkers house and do a little work on his lee loader.

[Mark A]

BTW how do progressive press guys clean the primer pocket and flash hole?

I generally don't when turning out range ammo. It just isn't worth it. But, since you asked and since I do it regularly on my .223 loads I bought an extra head and a single sizing and depriming die. I can crank around 450 an hour when that is the only thing happening. I just let them ride around and fall out like a loaded round would. Then I clean the primer pockets and uniform them up.

A bonus with this is when the brass comes back through to be loaded it takes less effort per stroke

Mark

[Guest Lester Weevils]

BTW how do progressive press guys clean the primer pocket and flash hole?

It isn't especially necessary but lately I do it anyway and think it makes priming go smoother. Actually the ultimate plan is to mark cases that have been uniformed, and not bother to uniform them again. Making the assumption that 9mm won't "flow" enough for the primer pocket to go much out of spec once its been uniformed one time.

I tumble, then decap with a lee hand press & universal decapping die. Uniform and remove any pocket crimps with an RCBS trim mate. Prime with an RCBS hand primer.

I removed the decapping pin from the size die in my progressive press, so the press only performs the size, bell, powder charge, bullet seating and crimping. Operating the press goes much faster for me when all I have to worry about on each cycle is inserting a new case, visual-check powder level, put bullet on charged case, pull handle again. I was kinda slow filling primer tubes for the progressive press and carefully "feeling for primer seating" on the progressive press. It goes slick as goose squeeze without having to worry about priming on the progressive. But the extra steps really do take substantially longer than just doing it all on the progressive to begin with.

[SonnyCrockett]

Good point, I think a lot of guys do not. I deprime first then wet tumble with stainless media. Takes more time than dry tumbling since you have to deal with rinsing and drying the brass but gets the primer pockets real clean. Then I inspect them all and run the brass with crimped primer pockets through the swager. At that point I call it done for 9mm, I do not bother measuring case length or trimming or flash hole deburring.

guy who shoot hundreds of rounds of pistol a week tumble for 2 hours and load up,primer pockets dont need cleaning what so ever

The machines punching out of the old and inserting of the new is plenty good..Then you have the guys they go overboard

and they clean too much and take days to reload a batch....I dont know about you but im into shooting not wasting time

im no expert but i have an easy 15K bullets reloaded this way and have never had an issue

however reloading 9MM is not much of a cost savings,if my kid shot lots and lots of 9MM

I am not sure I would start reloading even if I used lead and got my brass free

in bulk 9MM is pretty cheap and some online reloaders sell even cheaper and make better rounds

that the factory boxed up stuff....I reload because I shoot lots of different calibers , 9MM is one that

costs savings are the least

[Guest Riverrat]

I thought I'd post before bed since I'll be up in a few hours. It feels like we spent most of the day at this guy's house. He has 9 crappie on the walls of his living room. The smallest is 3.4 and the largest 3.9 pounds. Well back to the reloading. He ran through all the steps we will be doing when we get ours. We sat and loaded 3 boxes of 9mm rounds, lead bullets, on his lee single stage. Then he brought out his loadmaster. It was setup for 38 spl. The three of us took turns sitting and pulling the handle and placing bullets in the cases. He kept the brass tubes full, the priming box full, a supply of bullets and 1 refill on the powder. After we filled a box we sat with a drink while loading rounds into trays. We loaded 1147 rounds in an hour and 25 minutes. Then he showed us is smelting room. My son wants to get a few molds and start casting some bullets now. The only thing I saw that I didn't order is a tumbler.

[Jonnin]

Your going to get different opinions on Lee equipment. My friend uses his grandfathers Lee challenger that has 20k plus reloads through it. It's what I learned on and decided to invest in.

This is because they have a variety of products that vary in quality. Their steel presses are great. The aluminum line has a questionable reputation. Some of their accessories are made of plastic and have to be treated gently or it can break --- I love my disk powder device for example but it only works with fine/ball powders and the on/off twist cannot be used (it nearly broke the one time I tried it!). Their dies are excellent and come with basic load data, hard to beat that. Depends on the product in question, really, but they have an excellent service/warranty, good prices, and even sell refurbished gear at a very low price.

I will stand behind their steel press. I even used mine to brute force reshape 30-06 brass, and my first reloading bench broke under the strain but the press is fine...

[Guest Riverrat]

Got the press kit and most everything, short powder. Sure not going to buy it here.

[Guest Riverrat]

Got this press going and my son wants to shot as fast as he can reload. Got a mold and sizer today, we'll start casting tomorrow.. Told him we had to catch fish to pay for these things.

[Jonnin]

sweet! Not sure how catching fish helps, but glad you got set up and running.

I shoot as fast as I can load up some too. That is the point, isnt it?