Who still loads in the "Dark Ages" as far as equipment?

Hidalgo

Hidalgo

Well-known member
I guess I'm just stubborn, or maybe a little senile, but I'm still loading with the minimum of equipment and most of it is old. Anyone else in that boat?

My Stuff:

RCBS Rock Chucker
505 scale
Redding powder trickler
Lee perfect powder measure
Small electronic scale
Other assorted hand tools to chamfer, trim, etc

Yep, it's slow. But it's also precise and relaxing. I've thought about buying another press, but not sure I need it for the volume of shooting that I do even though I'm loading for 4 rifles and 1 pistol.
 
I bought a range master scale. It was the best one that RCBS made back in 2000. Was like 169 bucks. I had it for 13+ years, and it finally went on the blink. That scale was a nightmare from day one. I bought a charge master light with a fluted barrel on it. It’s the best thing I ever did. I plug in the charge weight and it rolls it out in like two seconds. I still use my rock chucker master reload kit with a bunch of other hand tools, of course. I bought a cheap Lee press for about $29 five years ago still sitting in a box. I’ll have to pull it out and put it to use someday. My plan was just to set it up and use it for sizing Cast Boolits With the lead push through sizer on a different bench. Never got around to it. My buddy bought me a horny case prep, dual handheld chamfer and deburring cordless drill style tool. It’s awesome and man it sure saves time. Those are two things I would tell you to add to your bench. You’ll freak out seeing how easy both of them makes life a lot less frustrating on you when reloading.
 
Hidalgo said:
I guess I'm just stubborn, or maybe a little senile, but I'm still loading with the minimum of equipment and most of it is old. Anyone else in that boat?

My Stuff:

RCBS Rock Chucker
505 scale
Redding powder trickler
Lee perfect powder measure
Small electronic scale
Other assorted hand tools to chamfer, trim, etc

Yep, it's slow. But it's also precise and relaxing. I've thought about buying another press, but not sure I need it for the volume of shooting that I do even though I'm loading for 4 rifles and 1 pistol.
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You have one of the best presses made.
 
Still use my rock chucker for centerfire rifle rounds 22-250 and up. The beam scale, powder throw and trickler are back up's incase my charge master goes down.
 
I still mostly use the Pacific press I got for Christmas 47 years ago. Fancy spent primer system - I catch them in my left hand as they come out of the slot in the ram.

A Harrell's powder measure I bought more than 20 years ago.

Sinclair hand priming tools (keep one setup for LR and one for SR) I bought used more than 20 years ago.

Just switched from the RCBS 5-10 scale I bought 42 years ago to a Pact digital maybe 5 or so years ago. But I don't weigh many charges, just enough to get the powder dump set then I throw them not weigh. The 5-10 still has the price tag on the box and I paid a very princely sum of $65 for it. That really was a bundle, for a 17 year old in 1981. I still believed in weighing charges back then :ROFLMAO: .

Ancient Forster trimmer that I rarely even notice. I quit trimming brass a long time ago - unless shortening cases for a wildcat.

Still use Imperial sizing wax when needed. But, I only very occasionally shoulder bump or FL size, so don't use case lube most of the time. Most often for case forming a wildcat.

K&M neck turner I bought I don't even know how many years ago - a lot. Have had several others since, but got rid of the others and still use the K&M.

Sinclair concentricity checker from the stone age.

Calipers, ball and outside mics as old as dirt.

RCBS funnel I've had for 45 years for most things. Little Saunders aluminum I've had for 30 years for .17's.

Herters powder trickler for the unusual instances I weight charges - big stick powders.

Loading blocks my Dad made out of an oak church pew 45 years ago.

Most of my stuff is pretty used.

- DAA
 
I gave my 505 scale away a few years ago to a new reloader never used it because I did a digital scale off the bat when I started reloading in 00’. Wish I would’ve kept it. I’ll have to look for another. One never did learn how to use it because I never took it out of the box. Still have my powder thrower hooked up on the table but I don’t use it anymore. I can remember every time I threw a charge there was about a four grain or more difference.lol. Still have my little RCBS tricker as well. Thank God I bought that charge master light it would take me two hours at times for 20 powder charges. It takes me probably 10 minutes to do over a 100 now with the chargemaster lite. Between throwing powdered charges with an old digital scale trimming and chamber and deburring those were my most hated tasks. The Hornady dual chamfer tool tool care of that headache. Also a drill hook up to my rcbs trimmer that came with my rock chucker kit back in the day. Can’t believe RCBS doesn’t include a case trimmer with their master removing kit like they did when I bought mine back in the day that just blows my mind.
 
I have a Dillon 550 but use mt RCBS JR2 more than it. Still using a 505 and 510 scale. Most my equipment is the like the stuff my dad taught me to reload on.
 
You youngsters and your 40 year old presses make me chuckle. I load on a 1950's vintage RCBS A2 press. They were, and still are, one of the best presses ever made. The were made out of cast STEEL as opposed to the cast iron presses that came afterward. Heavy, stiff and straight as an arrow. I had 7 of them at one time. The one that I load on today, and 6 more that were set up for bullet making. Great presses.
 
Set up for reloading in 1955 on a somewhat meager budget. Had more time than money, so made what I could and bought the rest The press is the old Herters Model 3, shown mounted on the bench where it was originally mounted and continues to do all my "low volume" chores, as does the Hollywood powder measure alongside my home built pistol powder measure. Still use the Redding balance scales and a trickler which I made from a piece of conduit.
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I do keep one of the Dillons, for .223, .308 & 30-06 and pistol ammo, but everything else still done the old way.

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We've been married going on 68 years & my wife never goes into my reloading room unaccompanied. How long did it take to train her? IDK she trained me the day she was vacuuming my loading room and picked up a live primer, which made a very loud noise.........I've been 100% responsible for cleaning that room ever since......for about 50 years would be my best guess.

17ahjoe said:
HM1996, that bench is great, I like that set up, only you know where things are!
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Hey, guys, I straightened it up to take that picture; you oughta see the other end of it. Besides, who said I know where things are? :ROFLMAO:
 
Those herters presses were beasts, and took a different shell holder than what is standard today iirc. One of my mentors had one mounted to his bench which was made of power line cross timbers, which are bigger than they look from the ground lol. He tried replacing it with a RC back in the 90's and he couldn't mount it up because of the way the linkage swings underneath on those. He threw it under the bench and sold it to a buddy later lol.
 
Me, I have newish and old school stuff. Have a RC just like the one my mentor hated for my single stage, but started on a Lee hand press. I also have a 90s vintage Ammomaster progressive I bought from someone on here more than 10 years ago now. Works fantastic and I try to do as much on it as practical. My electronic scale is 20 years old now probably, it's the RCBS scale and dispenser that Pact made for them back in the day where they're two separate pieces. Slow but works well. Sometimes I just use a balance beam scale and throw charges and trickle for the coarse powders, it's actually faster than you think but it labor intensive compared to the electronic set-up. For most of my ammo, throwing is plenty precise enough, especially for ball powders it's a no-brainer and even small sticks like Benchmark throw on my progressive within a tenth of a grain. Trimming is a Trim-pro which I refined into a fast trimming beast, I can't really describe it but I'm pretty proud of my idea there, will have to post a pic. A Hornady case prep trio sits right behind it so it's trim, chamfer and de-burr and clean primer pocket within seconds.

My absolute biggest pita is still trimming though, when running progressive. To get absolute uniformity you have to resize first then trim, which wrecks the whole process speed wise. It's usually not a problem as I resize just enough that cases don't stretch much and stay pretty uniform in a lot, but with some things like 30-30 which I crimp, I want them all very close to exact so they get touch-up trimmed every time.
 
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