Re: What equipment do I need?
Although I own other dies, they are not ones I've bought personally, and I always buy RCBS. Yes, there are better dies; but for me it's a matter of cost, pure and simple. Never found an RCBS die set that wouldn't make ammo my rifles like.
It's less about the dies, and more about how you use them.
Victor nailed it.
Bottleneck cases simply require more attention than straight walled ones, and all of the popular reloading manuals will give you good explanations and directions on how to do that.
As you are starting out, I will give you the basic summary of what I've learned over several decades.
If there's a tool, technique, or incantation that will improve the accuracy of my handmade ammunition, I've tried it.
They work.
They also have costs, in cash, time, and frustration. Most of them, as effective as they may be, add up and eventually conspire to cut into your range time.
In my book, that's counterproductive and largely unforgivable.
But it's a failure of my own making, and I can fix that.
With time, as many of us 'Neanderthals' have discovered, simplicity is its own reward.
Limit the things you do to what's necessary, and maybe so helpful these few additional ones cannot be ignored. If you can concentrate on doing those few things consistently, and with a professional, workmanlike approach, you will make ammo that works better than the other 'all possible bells and whistles' stuff; because the more one does, the greater the chance of error, and the less the likelihood you'll be able to isolate that error.
Do the few essentials, and do them well; and your rifles and targets will thank you.
..and I promise you; precision shooting will be more of a joy than a labor.
Greg
PS, My sole condescentions to the esoteric are the reaming of flash holes, and the weighing of individual charges.
