10+ Must Have Reloading Tools Under $50

today we're going to cover at least 10 reloading tools that cost under 50 that you should consider for your reloading bench and if you stick around to the end of the video I'm going to cover at least one reloading tool that you should be using that won't cost you a dime the first tool we'll talk about today are check weights I don't care if your scale is fifty dollars or five hundred dollars having a set of check weights to be able to validate your reloading scale is very important and they can be had for not a ton of money now this particular lineman set right now is running around forty six dollars it was a lot less when I bought it but there are alternatives for example RCBS has a set that's running around twenty four dollars at this time there's also two other kits available from traumner the large set is just under 28 dollars and there's a small set that's just over 20. checking your reloading scale before you use it takes very little time and I think it's a super important step when you're reloading but Reloaders measure Lots besides powder so the next thing we want to talk about are calipers I can't imagine my reloading bench without a reasonable set of calipers if price is No Object mitutoyo calipers are hard to beat but again we're looking for a little bit more budget tools if you look on Amazon eye gauging has a similarly featured set that has reasonable reviews for around 42 dollars you're going to need a set of calipers and if you're looking to get some reasonable quality ones I think the eye gauging ones are good ones to look at after we've acquired a reasonable set of calipers we're going to want to talk about comparators what we have on the table is a Hornady headspace comparator set as well as a projectile comparator set why are we going to want a comparator well what this is allowing you to do is make sure you've set up your size and die correctly if you're only reloading for pistol this might not be something you're interested in but our projectile comparators are going to be needed so you can consistently measure What's called the cartridge base to O drive again it's a comparative measurement but this is going to take away some of the variation that you're going to find in projectile tips and other areas hornery's headspace kit right now I think is running somewhere in the ballpark of 45 depending on where you get it from and the projectile comparator set depending on which one you get can run anywhere from the six insert set is somewhere around thirty four dollars you can get all the way up to 14 different inserts depending on what projectiles you're going to be using that's going to write run right up against that 50 mark inserts are available individually but you'll just have to make the decision for whatever you're looking to reload if money is No Object short action custom sells a wonderful comparator set where you can customize it depending on your calibers that you're interested in but I believe that starts off right now somewhere around 175 dollars so if you've got the dough you won't be disappointed but being able to set up your dies correctly is very important being able to consistently set your projectile length is very important as well if you don't have the dough for the short action Customs kit these are certainly better than nothing next item I think you should consider is a stuck case remover now you're going to find some people that have said that they've never stuck a case I am not one of those people I don't stick cases all the time but if you end up having a stuck case it's very nice to have a way to remove it this stuck case remover kit runs around twenty dollars and to me it's the best insurance against Murphy showing up and at least for my situation the couple times I've needed it I've been happy that I've had it but if you're one of those people that never has anything bad happen to them hey maybe you can skip it talking about stuck cases well how do we prevent them Lube there's certainly a lot of Lubes out there but this is my gold standard Imperial case sizing wax right now you can get two ounces for around fifteen dollars this will go a long way like two ounces probably 5 000 cases or more if you're using it sparingly like the directions tell you to if you're lubing your cases and you're using this it's very difficult to get a stuck case but if you've got your own favorite by all means our next tool here most you pistol guys can skip this is a Lee cutter and lock stud after we've sized our cases if you're not reloading for pistol there's a good chance you're going to need to trim them and this is one of the most affordable methods of doing it is it the best way probably not but it is probably the least expensive the Lee cutter and lock set come as a kit however I would recommend getting the ball cutter because it just so much easier on your hand now assuming you have a power drill you can use the cutter and lock stud with the ball grip you do have to buy the adapter for every single caliber you would like to trim but the cutter and lock stud itself runs around 5.99 the ball head runs between eight and ten dollars depending on where you look depending what caliber you need those seem to run between seven and ten dollars depending where you look so as long as you have a power drill you can start trimming brass pretty consistently and pretty quickly there are certainly other methods that I prefer but this by far is the least expensive after we've trimmed our brass chamfering into burning is almost a necessity now depending if you've already purchased a kit or if you're putting your own Reloading Kit together there are several things to think about this particular chamfering to bring tool came with my kit it actually works pretty well but honestly the one that I use more than anything is this Lyman tool I've had this Lyman Case Prep tool for almost seven years now and when I purchased it it was only 16 earlier this year I was looking up some pricing on some items and it was around twenty four dollars unfortunately when I'm making this video it's actually all the way up to 33. besides being able to chamfer and debris your cases you can separate the two halves and with the tool comes two sets of tools these are primer pocket cleaners I'm not a huge fan but if you'd like to clean your primer Pockets out they do work in a jam the other two that come here are crimp removers now I will tell you they do work are they my favorite tool absolutely not however if you need to do a couple cases in a jam they will certainly function being able to have the handles remove your chamfering deburring tools put another tool in its place this tool is very handy and it's one of my favorites I use it all the time so this is a Case Prep tool from Reading you don't have to get this but you'll see that this contains case neck brushes if you'd like to get this kit right now it's running somewhere around 33 dollars however you can get individual brushes assuming you've already purchased the lineman tool you can get brushes anywhere between three dollars and fifty cents all the way to around seven dollars depending on your caliber needs and use them in the other tool if you want your own handle and case neck brushes this even comes with primer pocket cleaners it works well but at least you're gonna need case neck brushes to clean some of the brass out of your case next or at least I do the next tool I want to cover are these primer pocket swage gauges from ballistic tools these tools run around 13 a piece right now they're essentially go no-go gauges for primer pockets in case you're not aware sometimes a failure mechanism of brass is that after so many firings the primer Pockets will get loose and they won't be able to hold a primer anymore if you'd like to be able to measure these one side should clearly go the other side should not they have them for both large and small and I think they're far worth the 13 dollars for as much as I've used them now another fun tool that I use depending on how your process works is a decapping die most of your sizing dies are going to have a decapping pin and you can use it and that's fine however sometimes before I do a clean I like to have my brass decapped and I'll use a universal decapping die Lee makes a wonderful Universal decapping die if there's a chance you're using a caliber that has small flash holes you might want to look at something like this reading this small to capping die has a pin for a small flash hole if you're using lapo brass and 6.5 Creedmoor this is going to Decap your brass without wrecking your flash holes the lead works for most stuff but for these smell flash holes this is kind of a lifesaver it's not a have to have but it's certainly nice to have when I need it the next thing we'll talk about is a powder trickler this particular unit is obviously from Lyman and this is one of the favorite models that I've used for several reasons when I bought my first Reloading Kit it came with this trickler now I'm not here to disparage anybody but this just doesn't work very well it doesn't have very much weight it's not height adjustable and frankly it's not as easy to clean for me this Lyman unit solved all those problems it's very heavy it has a weight in the bottom there's a locking screw you can loosen and adjust the height it has a longer tube and it comes apart very easy and it's very easy to clean whether using extruded powders or ball powders it's very easy to clean it up very quickly as with everything else we've talked about I'm sure the price is going to vary but right now this trickler is running somewhere around 29 dollars but frankly it's a very good trickler it does exactly what I wanted to and I've got no complaints the next tool I want to talk about are funnels now most universal funnels do exactly what you need them to and reasonably well so if you just need a universal funnel you might be okay but if you ever use extruded powders and you might load a compressed load this is one of my favorite tools this is a Forester Blue Ribbon powder funnel with long draw top tube but this funnel with the attached drop tube when you dump your powder into this actually allows it to settle now some people happily tell you to shake or knock against your case I promise you if you compare this funnel's performance to being able doing that this is going to win every single time and this is relatively inexpensive right now 18.29 on Midway this funnel works very well I did a video on it a while ago and frankly I think some people don't believe the results it just works that well there are certainly more expensive funnel options but again this is well over a 50 kit but if you've spent the money they do have drop tube extensions you can get for it that are going to perform the same function just so you're aware but if you're loading compressed charges and you're on a budget this really is a great product for those of you that never make mistakes you guys can skip this next tool these are kinetic bullet pullers if you've seen a projectile too far or you're unsure of a powder charge and you need to disassemble a Reload these are tools that will work and they're relatively inexpensive our boot blue Frankfurt Arsenal is running just under 14 and our orange lineman model that can do Magnum cartridges is a little over twenty one dollars if you end up needing to do larger quantities the Hornady cam lock puller works pretty well but the puller itself is in the ballpark of thirty three dollars but it needs a collet for every single caliber you intend to load individual collets run somewhere in the ballpark of twelve dollars and fifty cents give or take so if you don't have very many mistakes to disassemble these kinetic ones will work just fine but if you're going to have to disassemble a lot the cam lock puller is a lot more efficient at least in my experience a couple other nice things to have are Universal reloading trays and clearly they handle multiple calibers but there are caliber specific reloading trays and these are very nice if you're loading a very specific cartridge the universal blocks right now running somewhere a ballpark of five dollars somebody's caliber specific learning trays run somewhere around eight dollars so it might be a couple extra dollars but in some cases they just do a better job than your Universal tray and your Frankfurt Arsenal actually has a list on the bottom of the tray of all the different calibers and which number corresponds to which caliber our next product is a little bit more of a niche product but if you're using a bushing die that accepts bushings like this reading s die this is a reading s bushing die it can accept obviously Redding bushings but Direction cousins make Universal bushings that work very well in fact and everything I've tested them I've had less average run out across the board right now they're running about 35 dollars per bushing and if you already know the size of your bushing you might want to size it down about 1000 as they tend to give just a slight bit less neck tension however I've certainly had better concentricity across the board again if you're not using bushing dies not for you but if you are something you might want to consider if you're going to be working with a much military brass I would consider the RCBS crimp remover depending on which primer pocket size they're about twenty dollars each I've heard they work very well and if you're going to be doing a lot of military brass I think it'll be a reasonable investment what free tool can I possibly offer to you guys I think you guys should check out Gordon's reloading tool Gordon's reloading tool is a free software you can download it's similar to quick load you can input all of your cartridge details into the program and it can help you estimate the pressure and velocity that you might achieve it can help you predict your velocity adjustment if your load data has a different barrel length it's a very powerful program I really encourage you to download it and try it out the tools we've covered today have worked very well for me but I have made some mistakes along the way check out this video right here where I cover five beginner mistakes that you should try and avoid I hope to see you come back next week and until then stay safe in small groups

Channel: Bolt Action Reloading

Views: 23,282

Keywords:

Id: v-Kau_-C31s

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2022