First time home loading - Sako 85 20" Varmint - What kit and what loading components

[jack]

Thanks for the Kind offer Steve. I may have to take you up on that at some point. I'll drop you a PM.

I found this 5 part series of clips on YouTube quite informative, although I did notice he didn't bother trimming his resized casings:

There are a lot of videos on Ammunition reloading video tutorials by ammosmith.com - ammosmith.com.
I use powder manufacturer's web sites and Reloader's Nest - a reloaders resource
If you start cheap as Oly suggests then if it's not for you, not much is lost.
You need to check case length after resizing and trim if necessary, otherwise they round may not load.

 

[Oly]

Oly i said "usually" the domain of advanced reloaders, the reasons i think they are not a good set up for a beginner is because, i believe a good understanding of the reloading procedure and the function of various dies should be learnt rather then jumping in at the deep end and getting confused.
Inline bullet seaters, interchangeable bushes, neck tension, neck turning and other peculiararities associated with hand dies and their operation is going to baffle many novice handloaders.
You dont ask a learner driver to take a ferrari round a test track and expect him to set a lap time like Michael Schumacher
You said the you now use Lee gear? i suspect had you not sold your highend reloading equipment you would still be using it and would have saved the money you spent on replacing it with the Lee stuff

Ian.

I'm not saying that they will post record breaking lap times, but they should be able to drive round without killing themselves! You talk about buying once and buying right but buy again if you want to use an arbour press...

I would still have sold my expensive gear for two reasons, firstly too much money was held in it and secondly it took up too much space in the new house. I'm not saying that I wouldn't but a lovely arbour press if I had money to burn, but I don't regret my choices in the slightest, quite the opposite in fact!

 

[Whitebeard]

Oly, check out the prices my friend you might be surprised you can bring in a Sinclair Arbour press/Wilson kit for roughly the same price of a set Redding Comp dies over here!
I have been using this type of set up since about 2005, although i started on Lee stuff back in the mid 80s simply because that was all that was available locally at that time, however being an engineer i quickly noticed the shortcomings in quality and materials in these dies and soon strived for better tools.
As my knowledge increased and my calibres changed, so did my desire for more accurate loading tools and i progressed through RCBS, then Redding dies and Redding comp dies.
I was unaware of Arbour press's and hand dies untill i took up BR in 2000-2001 and after learning the benchrest techniques i could not bring myself to go back to usual reloading techniques.
When i packed in BR i used normal press dies but could not get it out of my head that i could be reloading better ammo if i re-adopted BR techniques and went back to an arbour press set up, so this is what i did.
I now use wilson style dies i made myself cut with the same reamers used to chamber my 2 rifles, i also make my own bushings, form dies and die sets for friends.

Here is a .20 Practical Inline bullet seater and form die i made for a mate of mine.

 

[Oly]

I used to get a lot of my gear from sinclair's. Like I say, I know what you mean about the feel of lee gear, but as a chartered engineer myself I find the end result very much within my tolerances for mostly hunting and a minor amount of range work. That said everyone has different expectations. Provided my guns shoot.sub 0.5"at 100m I'm happy. I found that there were too many variables outside of my control to start chasing my tail reloading in such an expensive manner!

 

[Whitebeard]

I found that there were too many variables outside of my control to start chasing my tail reloading in such an expensive manner!

Hmmmm....... I know what you mean my problem is i am trying my hardest to bring all those variables under control, handloading is a major part of the overall hobby for me, i love it and i must admit i have spent a pretty penny on it too.

Ian.