Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Comments

11 comments

Date Votes
  • heavyiron
    Hi Shane,

    Looks like a good value and an excellent starter kit. It appears that the basic essentials such as the press and scales are included.

    The kit is complete except for your reloading dies and shellholders. These will need to purchased separately. You will probably also need to purchase some incidentals like case length trimmers, primer pocket cleaners, etc.

    Take a look at this link to the RCBS website:

    http://www.rcbs.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=1

    Regards,

    Heavyiron[8D]


    bullitt_county_4199_small.jpg
    "If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix
    0
  • sweaver
    Thanks for the opinion, I was curious about that press. Alot of people here have strongly suggested the RokChucker (from reading old threads) so I wanted to know if this one would suffice till I graduate to better equipment.

    Thanks!
    Shane
    0
  • mrbruce
    Hi Shane,
    That kit will get you of to a good start, but if you think you will be doing a lot of reloading or fooling with wildcat stuff, or plan on doing large calibers, you will need something a little heavier. If you buy a real good heavy duty press at the start you will never regret the choice. One thing for sure is if you load a lot you will soon want to trash the mechanical scale and replace it with a electronic one.
    As always if you do it right the first time you will be content with what you have.

    Gun control is hitting what your aiming at.
    0
  • Pinhead
    Sweaver, the kit you are looking at is a nice place to start. The Special 5 RCBS press was a slightly lighter and smaller version of the Rockchucker. It will do about anything the rockchucker will do except swage bullets or load the longer ultra magnum calibers--if I remember right it had a slightly shorter frame heigth than the rockchucker. As someone already stated you will need dies in the calibers you intend to load and case length trimmers such as the lee's or the forester, lyman or one of the others. They all work -just in slightly different fashion. DON't trash the manual scale. If you go to an electronic scale it will be good to have to check the accuracy of the elctronic scale from time to time. If I was going electronic I would go whole hog and get one of the newer RCBS Or Lyman complete weighing outfits. You will find yourself buying things like chamfering tools and other little goodies that make loading more fun. AND IT IS FUN. Good luck, Jim
    0
  • heavyiron
    Sweaver,

    The RCBS Special Press is a fine press and should meet all your needs if they are not specialty cartridges, like ultra long magnums.

    This press is also upgradable to make it a progressive press later on if you desire. The weblink below will take you to the RCBS site where this press is described.

    http://www.rcbs.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=4&s2=2&s3=7

    Is is plenty sturdy and has enough leverage to do just about anything that needs to be done in the way of reloading.

    Regards,

    Heavyiron[8D]


    bullitt_county_4199_small.jpg
    "If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix
    0
  • 1KYDSTR
    Go withthe MAster Kit that includes the Rockchucker press. The decision is easy; the smaller press will never keep up with the hobby if you expand into it, which I bet you will. Try sizing 7 mm Rem Mag (IF it even fits in that dinky little thing) and you will see what a pain it is to have toslide it up in and then back onto the shell holder! The Rockchucker will likely handle anything you want to reload, and last for many, many years. The master kit, while several hundred dollars, also comes with a powder measure, case trimmer set-up etc. I would think it cheaper to buy the whole kit this way than trying to piece it together as well.

    "When I cease learning...I'm dead"(Me)
    "When I was 14 I used to marvel at how ignorant my old man was...by the time I was 21 I was truelly amazed at how much the old bugger had learned in the intervening 7 years!" Samuel Clemens
    "History is written by winners"(Patton)
    "You get a lot farther with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone!"(Al Capone)
    "There is nothing lower than the human race...except the French" (Samuel Clemens)
    0
  • tobefree
    While you are on this subject. What do you guys think about the other guys Dillon, Lee and so on. I bought a book a while back by Lee. It had some good info, but his whole book is nothing but a big sales pitch.
    So is RCBS the best? Is one better than the other or are they all about the same

    tobefree
    My wife said,"Either the guns or me." I sure do miss that woman!
    0
  • earlwellman
    I have a lee challenger starter set similar to what you are inquiring about. I shoot mostly a contender and a ruger #1, so I don't do a lot of volume. Reloading a few boxes of .45 acp takes hours. If you want to reload as a hobby rather than as a big volume deal, go for it.

    Earl
    0
  • heavyiron
    I have a Dillon RL550 progressive and I can load ammo like a madman for my .45 ACP. It is a fantastic reloader and the warranty cannot be beat for service. It is a relatively high volume (say 300 rounds per hour)producing machine.

    Having said that, I don't always find the Dillon to be practical for producing smaller volumes of ammo. Therefore, I have two Lee loaders that I use. I have a Lee C press which is tiny, but can load everything I own. It is easy to setup and use. It is the best when I am loading small lots or some specialty ammo where bullet weights, charges, or OALs are changing often I use it because it works better.

    I also own a Lee Turret press which is used for jobs in between the Dillon and the other Lee press. The turret is relatively easy to use and setup and the turrets are cheap so I can leave my dies setup to change calibers. I like to use the turret for .44 Mags and .357 Mags because I will load a box or two of each at a time and the turrent makes quick work of a box or two of ammo.

    My summary would be you can't go wrong if you own a Lee, Dillon, RCBS, or Lyman or any of the other major reloaders. Buy a progressive if you are a high volume shooter. For all the years I have been reloading I have not seen any of these load a better round than any other. If you are going to shoot .50BMGs or someother large magnums of this ilk, then get a specialty heavy duty loader. If you are going to shoot benchrest get benchrest dies and case prep equipment. But all in all, there is not that much difference in the basic quality or accuracy using these machines.

    Regards,

    Heavyiron[8D]

    bullitt_county_4199_small.jpg
    "If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix
    0
  • Ross
    Shane,
    The full-bore retail of the kit is $231.90 at Huntington's Sportsman's Store. Second buyers have the same warranty a new buyer has.
    Exceptionally good buy at $75.00, but with four days left, I would suppose it will become dearer.
    Cheers from Darkest California,
    Ross
    0
  • moose56
    Looks like a decent deal! You can make some great deals on the auction sites on dies, shell holders and other goodies. I made some great deals at flea markets on supplies as well.
    Reloading is fun, just be careful with the powders and primers.

    Have fun..........Moose

    "I will follow the path of others some of the time, but most of the time I prefer to make my own path." - Mike Moyle
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity