Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Reloading equipment, methods, load data, powder and projectile information.

Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by wayward » 20 Oct 2014, 10:48 am

Is there anything I should look out for when buying some second hand ammo reloading equipment?

No second hand ammo, or brass or anything like that. Just the press, dies, primer tool etc. All the bits which don't go bang.

They're all pretty hardy right? Unless there is a massive dent in one where it's clearly been dropped or something, it should be good if it looks good?

Thanks guys.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Tiiger » 20 Oct 2014, 2:31 pm

Got an ebay listing or something to look at?

Short answer: They should be fine.

A press that hasn't been abused will just about last forever. Dies will last thousands of rounds at least with basic care.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by COLLECTOR 1 » 20 Oct 2014, 8:49 pm

Depends on the brand.....some lee gear can wear easy, others like the Lyman, and Redding press's with outlast you and I.....

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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by wayward » 21 Oct 2014, 12:17 pm

I'm looking at RCBS stuff at the moment, Collector.

Opinion?
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Lorgar » 21 Oct 2014, 12:20 pm

The RCBS rock chucker press is solid as.

Their dies are decent enough, personally I switched to the Redding dies because the finger adjustable dies are much better to work with than the RCBS ones which need a driver bit/coin/blade to turn.

Not the end of the world but less hassle.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Korkt » 21 Oct 2014, 1:33 pm

COLLECTOR 1 wrote:some lee gear can wear easy


What's "some" gear?

It's hard to see there presses or dies wearing out fast.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by COLLECTOR 1 » 02 Nov 2014, 2:07 pm

Some Lee press's have a lot of moulded alloy bits that can brake, along with developing a bit of sloppiness or slack in ram arms, their dies are good enough for most applications, however if you strike a twin flash hole case when reloading and snap the decapping pin, you have to replace the entire expander rod. RCBS, Lyman, and Redding are designed differently and you only have to replace the decapping pin.

Rocker chucker press's are totally indestructible, if your looking for a good single stage press....they are the way to go, and will handle any calibre bar 50 BMG I think.

If your looking for turret type press's I personally used Lyman T Mags. Have two (2) that I've owned now for some 20 years, have reloaded 10's of thousands of rounds of various rifle calibres over the years and they have never missed (the T mags) a beat. The thing I like the most about them is you can lock the turret up tight, when you have everything set up, and there is just NO movement...and their price is within reach on most people. All cast iron, and getting spare turrets and changeover is a breeze

Dillion make great progressive press's if your into pistol shooting, but they are expensive, but great gear.

As per Lougar's comments, Redding is the way to go for dies.....especially the match grade stuff....engineering brilliance.

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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by yoshie » 02 Nov 2014, 3:15 pm

Rust and missing parts. Presses, dies, etc should be fairly ok. If there is a critical part missing it will be useless. If dies have sat for a while without being oiled on the inside, they could be rusted and useless. I wouldn't buy second hand electronic scales.
Last edited by yoshie on 05 Nov 2014, 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Jack V » 02 Nov 2014, 3:24 pm

My advice is buy a second hand RCBS press by all means but don't waste money on second hand dies . Dies get the bulk of the abuse and it's just not worth it when new ones are not that expensive. A press is fairly easy to see if it is broken and takes quite a bit to wear one out .
Don't buy 19th century dies , come into the light and buy a Lee collet neck size die , a Redding body die and some kind of quality bullet seater like Redding or Foster .
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by wayward » 05 Nov 2014, 8:32 pm

yoshie wrote:I wouldn't buy second hand electronic scales.


Press, beam scales and dies is what I'm looking at second hand I think.
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Warrigul » 05 Nov 2014, 8:43 pm

This is the only one that gave trouble, I have one(I have five different presses) but have never given it a hard time but other people have broken the bit off at the end of the arm that actuates the ram(at the bottom of the picture) on some early versions, the later ones are beefier. The other Lee presses do the job just fine.

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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Jack V » 06 Nov 2014, 7:01 am

Only experienced people should buy second hand stuff because they have the knowledge to pick the better stuff and even then they still make mistakes.
New re-loaders should start with new stuff if at all possible. Never buy a second hand powder scale unless you know how to test it's accuracy .
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Re: Second hand ammo reloading equipment

Post by Ariat » 06 Nov 2014, 10:43 am

Dies aren't that expensive anyway. $80 for a 3 piece set or something last time I checked?

Go the press if it looks good and buy new dies.
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