After having all the gear for months I finally got my act together and got my Dillon Reloading press up and running tonight. Shortly after getting into shooting I decided I wanted to start reloading. It appealed to me from both a tweaking standpoint and as a cost saving measure. In particular shooting .45 is pricey. If I reload it brings the cost way down so I can actually shoot more for less. Also I can customize my loads for the application. Ie. I may want to shoot a different setup for pin matches than say IDPA.

I actually bought all this gear with the money I got from selling my VPFree a while back. I think it was a good trade. I will get a lot more use out of this rig than I did that ride. The thing that I like most about the press and the process is how mechanical it is. Most of my other hobbies are much more digital in nature. With the reloading press everything is simple and mechanical. It’s simple but really elegant piece of equipment and process. The press works in 4 stages. The first stage reshapes the brass, removes the old primer and inserts a new one, the 2nd stage adds the powder and bells out the brass so the bullet can be inserted, the 3rd stage presses the bullet to the proper depth, the final stage crimps the bullet. Each time you pull the lever all of these steps take place as there are 4 bullets in the various stages being worked at a time. I was able to crank out 100 rounds in short order tonight after getting it setup. My first load is a 124g plated bullet that I’m using 3.8g of tightgroup with. I think I’m going to try 100 at 3.8 and then 100 at 4.1 on the advice of my buddy. Whichever feels and works best I’ll go with. This is going to be a fun project and cool way to expand my hobby. I’m looking forward to the tweaking.

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