hornady kit?

[texasgunhand]

Would you guys recommend the hornady lock and load kit?
I have a freind thats wanting to get stated reloading and Cabelas has this kit on sale right now for $260ish.
And hes bound and determined to get one sun. And he wants me to go with him to get everything he needs to get started. (Tumbler,trimmer,calipers.. etc) he has no idea.

Since i only got started in December and use RCBS stuff i have no experience with the hornady lock and load stuff at all. It comes with their digital scale iam going to recommend he also buys their beam scale.
Once again he wants to buy local , thats cabelas or academy and he wants enough to get a start now.
This post could go on forever, any thoughts on their stuff,, press,scales etc. Iam pretty sure hes going to get lee dies to start with and he will be reloading .380 and .223 mainly i think.

[PaulnPats M-4]

I have been reloading for about 52 years, and yes your friend is really bitten by the bug. Hornady, RCBS, and the rest all make great presses, except Lee I think there junk, at least 15 years ago they were crap. I have a Dillon 550 and in my opinion they are top dog, customer service is legendary, and they have a no BS warranty, something breaks or wears out they send you the parts-no charge , but your friends selection is good, I have never used a Hornady, but my friends that have them are happy, and I think RCBS dies are the only way to go. Good Luck

[texasgunhand]

Thanks for your post, yes hes ready he shoots a bunch and all he shoots is tulaammo becouse its cheap.
He orders 1000rnd bricks of 5.56 but since hes shooting it through a scoped bolt action the accuracy of it is not the greatest. He may not save a bunch of money but at least he will get accurate ammo for a change.

Hes retired and it will give him some thing to do also besides sitting in a house by himself. Hes a volunteer fireman and his cheifs been realoding for 30 years, so between both of us he will be up and going pretty fast i hope.

[MonkTx]

The only problem I see with that kit is the One Shot Lube. I think there have been a lot of cases stuck in dies using that stuff.

[Co-gnARR]

I bought the LnL single stage and it works just fine. I like the quick change bushings for the Lee universal depriming die, and although I have not crimped any hand gun cartridges I plan to use the Lee factory crimper when I load for rifle. One thing to note is that the single stage press and the LnL progressive presses have slightly different dimensions inside the yoke in terms of ram travel. If you get a die set on your single stage and then put it into the progressive you will need to tweak the setting a little. It annoyed me a little at first, but I realized that my progressive reloading will be hand gun range stuff, and my hunting loads will be worked up on the single stage only.

[20ozjolt]

Everything in my room is green

Except for my press which in a LnL I love it I only have a single stage but unless the new gen green ones blow me away when I get a progressive it will be a red LnL

Why is everything else green well let me tell you.

When I was first going to get into reloading I bought some dies off of eBay they were used RCBS, but when I received them a few parts are missing and they were an old generation that didn't work the same way I spent some Time on the RCBS website and figured out what parts I needed to repair and update them

but there were no part numbers on the part breakdowns so I called them attempting to find the part numbers to order them, the guy in the customer service department knew exactly what was going on, knew I bought them used, and refused to to give me the part numbers to pay for the stuff to get up and running, by the time I was off the phone he had shipped everything express mail for free with extra spare parts and some other goodies.

THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE

[Co-gnARR]

Everything in my room is green

Except for my press which in a LnL I love it I only have a single stage but unless the new gen green ones blow me away when I get a progressive it will be a red LnL

Why is everything else green well let me tell you.

When I was first going to get into reloading I bought some dies off of eBay they were used RCBS, but when I received them a few parts are missing and they were an old generation that didn't work the same way I spent some Time on the RCBS website and figured out what parts I needed to repair and update them

but there were no part numbers on the part breakdowns so I called them attempting to find the part numbers to order them, the guy in the customer service department knew exactly what was going on, knew I bought them used, and refused to to give me the part numbers to pay for the stuff to get up and running, by the time I was off the phone he had shipped everything express mail for free with extra spare parts and some other goodies.

THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE
My shotshell press is RCBS The Grand and when I needed to replace a part I broke, RCBS gave me a no questions* asked part replacement shipped at their expense. I have not needed the same service from Hornady but from what I've read I think they are similar to RCBS. As for my choice to go red over green on metallic reloading, it really was simply because I was able to get the LnL single stage for a great price, and it seemed only natural to stay with the LnL system for my progressive. That said, if the single stage RCBS presses weren't sold out at the time, and if I could find their progressive locally, I'm sure I would have grabbed a Rocker Chucker set, followed by a Pro2000 and had no regrets. It was simply a matter of grabbing what was available when I was looking.

*the only questions asked related to the part number(s), if I knew how to remove/replace stuff on my own (with encouragement to call back anytime if I needed guidance), and my name and address. I agree, their service is top notch.

[20ozjolt]

I received my LnL in a package deal of random gun stuff from Craigslist and I'm super pleased with it as well....

The only reloading brand of the big ones I have ever heard negative of is Lee and only because their progressives are finicky to set up.... At least that's what I'm told

Oh and for some reason I fell in love with Lyman taper crimp dies...

But tex I'm sure your friend will find it an easy press to learn on, I know I did... If he has a .45 I would recommend starting his loading off on it such a forgiving round to load...

[Co-gnARR]

Not sure about Lee dies but they seem to be good according to online reviews. I agree with getting a beam scale (mine is the RCBS 505 and it's great); crimping die may not be necessary depending on the particular round but I will let more seasoned reloaders answer that. The Lee universal deprimer is well worth the cost IMO as it does it's sole job without a hitch, and with the LnL system you can use the same die for multiple calibers without readjusting anything. I like to keep resizing the brass as separate step.

[texasgunhand]

Excellent, i will recommend the kit,, Cabelas has it on sale and iam sure he will be pleased then. It should be a good starting point for him. I look forward to seeing him shoot something other than tulaammo out his bolt action,seems like such a waste of a bolt gun at 100 yards its ok but pushing it further shows its limitations.

Like i told him you may not save a ton of money over the tula but at least you will get accurate ammo. He shoots off a rest so you might as well go for accuracy instead of banging away all day trying to figure out whats wrong when its crappy ammo giving you your spread. He will enjoy shooting even more with better quality ammo.