What Is Your Favorite Item of Reloading Equipment?
This article originally appeared in the Sierra Bullets Blog.
We asked a few Sierra Bullets bulletsmiths “What is your favorite ‘don’t know how you ever lived without it’ piece of reloading equipment?” Along with the not-so-surprising “reloading press” responses, there are some interesting answers, including a reloading room, an annealing machine, a comparator, and a home-made tool for detecting incipient case head separation. Check out all the answers below. We would love to hear from you too, please share your response in the comments below.
What Is Your Favorite Piece of Reloading Equipment?
Ballistic Technician Carroll Pilant answered: “Dillon 550 and 650 presses.”
Ballistic Technician Rich Machholz answered: “My universal decapping die is as handy as a pocket on a shirt.”
Ballistic Technician Philip Mahin answered: “A comparator gauge to measure from the base of a case to the ogive of the bullet. This bypasses the tip of the bullet, so I can repeat the same seating depth the next time I visit a specific combination.”
Ballistic Technician Duane Siercks answered: “I don’t know that you would actually call this equipment, but the item that comes to mind would be my reloading room. I had always had to squeeze everything into a corner or even an unheated shed. After we bought our current house, I built a garage and placed it so that I had a window looking down a 250-yard range. I built a dedicated room with heat and A/C. It contains my reloading bench and a shooting bench. The shooting bench lets me slide open the window and shoot down the range. It is very handy to not have to load everything up to go to the range. It also makes load development a lot simpler and efficient. I don’t know how I ever got along without it.”
Ballistic Technician Paul Box answered: “The Lee hand priming tool.”
Former Ballistic Technician Robert Treece answered “My homemade dental pick. I use it to check incipient case-head separations. We all see the ‘bright ring’ down close to the case head, that’s natural, but after several firings could be starting to split apart. You could start by just straightening out a paper clip; flattening one end; sharpening and turning it 90 degrees, then bend if about 1/8″ long will even fit all the way down into .204″ cases. On the other end, bend about 3/4″ to 90 degrees also, in the same direction as the pick. That will give you a handle and also ‘points’” in the direction of the pick as you scrape along the side wall from down inside at the bottom upward along the side wall. If the pick hooks into a crevice — DON’T TRY TO SIZE THE CASE. It will pull apart in your die.”
Dan Blake answered: “My Annealing Made Perfect (AMP) annealer. With consistent neck tension being one of the largest contributions to small Extreme Spread on muzzle velocities, I believe this induction annealer is truly the best on the market.”
This manufacturer-produced video shows how the AMP annealing machine operates:
Production Toolsetter Brad Vansell answered: “Redding Ultramag single-stage reloading press for my rifle and my Dillon 650 for my pistol loading.”
Process Engineer David Palm answered: “Homemade case lube.”
Plant Engineer Darren Leskiw answered: “Beyond the normal equipment, I’d say my electronic scale. Using the beam balance for the past 9 years was ok, but nowhere as easy as using an electronic scale.”
There were many votes for the classic RCBS Rock Chucker single-stage press:
Ballistician Gary Prisendorf answered “RCBS Rockchucker Press, it’s built like a tank, and it will last me a lifetime.”
Production Manager Chris Hatfield answered: “RCBS single stage reloading press.”
Maintenance & Machine Shop Lead Craig Westermier answered: “RCBS Rock Chucker.”
Production Resource Manager Dan Mahnken answered “RCBS Rock Chucker! Buy one and it lasts a lifetime.”
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Tags: Case lube, Case-Head, Comparator, Decapping Die, Dillon 650, RCBS, Reloading, Rock Chucker, Sierra Bullets, Single Stage, Ultramag
+1 on the RCBS Rock Chucker press. I am still using mine that I bought in 1978. It’s untelling how many thousands of rounds I’ve reloaded with it!
Lee hand press. I take it to work, the range.
Little crow world’s finest trimmer.
The Lee neck sizer. The best (and cheapest) on the market.
I’ve been reloading for many years and like all my equipment or I would not have bought it. I guess my most used tool is my case trimmer from L E Wilson
Calipers, because reloading doesn’t–or shouldn’t–happen without calipers.