The answer is 'depends'. It depends on what you're reloading and expectations. 223, handgun rounds= doesn't really matter. Rifles, it makes a difference. The concentricity (runout) will be a big deal when you stretch the distance. You can be fine with an average press. Your dies, components, and preparation play the biggest role.
I will spend the money on expensive dies and match primers for rifles. I personally don't like/refuse to use rcbs dies. Love Forster dies.
Including pressure and velocity factors so reloaders can calculate velocity. Presses (Lee presses); Breech Lock Reloading Instructions; Chapter 2.
The Lee collet die is a great buy when getting started. I use federal primers, no love for cci. Shootersproshop.com will save you some money on nosler bulets.
Like norma, lapua, nosler brass. Won't use federal, remington, or hornady brass. You mentioned optics earlier, so let me say this. I've never said 'that glass is too clear and bright, better get rid of it'. Buy once, cry once. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk. There isn't a lot of consensus about what you are asking, in part because people reload for different purposes and with different expectations.
Don't skimp on the press. I use and like the Lee Classic Cast, but RCBS, Lyman, Redding, and Hornady also make good models. What I like about the Lee press is that it doesn't toggle over, which makes die adjustment easier. Stay away from small presses except for handgun and 223 reloading.
It would help to know more about what you will do with your reloads, i. Handgun or rifle used under 300 yds or rifle used past 300 yards, target competition or hunting. Most of my dies are Lee, but I also use RCBS and Redding.
Your midrange concept is a good starting point. Any single stage O style press will work. Mine is an old CH. The thing probably weighs 20 lbs and can crush steel or swage with it. Depends on what you want to do with it or expectations. If you are just starting out there are dies that might be to complicated to use efficiently at this point. All things matter and sometimes they don't matter.
You can take 5 each of Hornady, Fed, Rem, Win brass put the same primer, powder & charge, bullet and pre prep them the same and load them the same on the same day and shoot them the same day and they can group differently. Just for another heck of it, back about 40 years ago Lee made a target loader, inexpensive simple tool, ammo loaded with it shot 1000 yd world records. Like others said. Spend the money upfront on a good heavy built press. I run a Rcbs rockchucker since the 90's and not a single issue.
FIL runs a Hornady Turret for a very long time and loves it but recentlt stated he feels its getting sloppy on lock up. My dies are mostly Lee and hornady. I used to sepetate out my headstamping and even weighted tbe cases. Lot of extra work for what little I gained. I was mainly worried then about minute of coyote. Mixed stamps my.223 still puts 5 under a half inch at 100 yards. Like others said.
Spend the money upfront on a good heavy built press. I run a Rcbs rockchucker since the 90's and not a single issue. FIL runs a Hornady Turret for a very long time and loves it but recentlt stated he feels its getting sloppy on lock up. My dies are mostly Lee and hornady.
I used to sepetate out my headstamping and even weighted tbe cases. Lot of extra work for what little I gained. I was mainly worried then about minute of coyote. Mixed stamps my.223 still puts 5 under a half inch at 100 yards. I originally started out on a hornady lock n load single stage.
It worked marginally decent but when my knowledge increase on what I was actually doing I found the lock n load bushings horribly inaccurate and sloppy. Got and older rcbs single stage and noticed that loaded rounds came out much more uniform and accurate. Then I found that when you have more boolits, you tend to shoot more. I jumped in head first and bought a dillon and I've never been happier. Yes they can be pricey but in my opinion, they are by far the best machines you can get.
Buy it once and cry once, dont get roped into gimmicky sales the others offer. I originally started out on a hornady lock n load single stage. It worked marginally decent but when my knowledge increase on what I was actually doing I found the lock n load bushings horribly inaccurate and sloppy. Got and older rcbs single stage and noticed that loaded rounds came out much more uniform and accurate. Then I found that when you have more boolits, you tend to shoot more. I jumped in head first and bought a dillon and I've never been happier. Yes they can be pricey but in my opinion, they are by far the best machines you can get.
Buy it once and cry once, dont get roped into gimmicky sales the others offer. About Us Founded in 1999, Michigan-Sportsman.com started as a collection of links to Michigan related sites, and a series of manually edited blogs. It was a marriage of my passions for the outdoors and the internet.
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