Must-Have Tools for Reloading Ammo | Reloading 101 – Part 1

Related to reloading your own ammunition, we’re going to discuss essential tools for reloading ammo as well as equipment that helps make ammo reloading much easier, safer, and just more streamlined.

First off, I like these 50-count cartridge organizers, and you can get these pretty much anywhere. As you can see, there are a bunch of different holes all over it of different sizes. So that just helps it be more compatible with a wide range of different ammo and actual loads. The reason I like these is not that I want to stay organized, but when I do actually reload, I know that this holds 15, so every time I fill this tray up, it is time for me to stop the press and check to make sure that I am inspecting periodically the rounds that I am making. I want to make sure that randomly I pick a few out, inspect the round, make sure it’s safe, visually make sure it’s all the right specs and put it back. That just means that the batch after I’ve checked a few is good to go, and I’m confident in that. Another reason I really liked this little tray here is that it’s got that 50 count. A lot of ammunition comes in 50 count boxes, and I tend to save a lot of those old boxes that I buy. That just helps me know that I can dump the rounds in a bag, and I know there are 50 in there.

Another tool for reloading ammo that I like to use, which you don’t need, but I prefer having one, are these cartridge checker boxes. They can be made from plastic or other molds. This one I have is actually made out of a solid block of steel. The reason I like steel over plastic is I know for a fact that this is not going to shrink or expand over time. This size is going to stay true for the entire life of the product. Really, it’s quite convenient when you want to check each round to make sure the cartridges are free of defects and that they’re going to work flawlessly in every single gun you fire with these.

Another really helpful tool I like to have when reloading are these little digital spectrometers. You don’t need a digital one. They have mechanical ones that work fine. It is just really easy to read the digital ones. What these are used for is I tend to take normal standard factory ammo, and then I’ll take a batch from what I have here. Next, what I do is I will check the case length on the factory ammo on the spectrometer here, and I will compare that same measurement to the casing that I just reloaded. This helps me to know that these bullets are safe to fire and they’re not going to have any malfunctions. They’re pretty much factory spec ammo.

This next thing I have here is an absolute must tools for reloading ammo which is a scale to measure the actual powder you want to put in each cartridge. Here is a digital scale that will measure the powder all the way out to a 10th of a gram. So you know you’re gonna be really consistent in what you put in each cartridge. You can use the mechanical ones, which pretty much are the same ones you used in science class when you were a kid. You’ve got that long arm you move the weights along the scale to find out what the actual item that you’re weighing weighs. Those work perfectly fine. They have those made up for reloading. I just prefer digital ones a little bit more because they are easy to read. I’m not going to have trouble miscalculating what I actually read here, whereas, with an actual mechanical scale, I might misread one of the measurements and, who knows, throw off around. You have to have a scale to measure the powder in each cartridge.

For me personally, these are a few of the more important things that I have on my table when reloading. I think they just make it safer, easier, and just more effective in my actual reloading process. You don’t need all of them, but I would recommend having a scale and a spectrometer. The cartridge checker and the bullet organizer are just kinds of secondary improvements that can help to make everything more streamlined and really help you have a more enjoyable reloading process.