without a huge investment. A two-die kit for reloading rifle ammunition will run around an additional $55, and a three-die pistol die kit costs about $60. If you select one of these presses, then plan on sending as many shells as you need through each die once it is placed on the press and adjusted. Then do the same with the next die, and your final step will be to seat the bullet after you're finished with the dies. This gets around the slower pace dictated by a singleposition press and minimizes the time lost in exchanging and adjusting the dies. For just a bit more, you can purchase a turret press that has a rotating die holder. This type of press permits [3 . jpg] The Lee Pro- I 000 progressive press can transform you into a one-man ammunition factory. (Photo courtesy of Lee Precision, Inc.) reloading just a few shells at a time without having to readjust the dies each time you use the press. Lee's turret press allows a quick exchange of the turret and its dies so you can rapidly switch from reloading one type of ammunition to another without readjusting the dies (once you've done this task for the first time and locked the dies in place) . The cost of a Lee turret press is around $68 (or $82 with an auto-index attachment that rotates the dies into the next position with each pump of the handle) . Lee offers extra turret die holders for around $11 each. For really chugging out ammunition the Lee Load-Master is ideal; this assembly can load both rifle and pistol rounds (with the conversion from one to the other pretty quick, thanks to snap-out die turrets that permit leaving the dies in place so they don't need to be readjusted) . The Load-Master automatically inserts a case and advances it, positions the primer, drops in a powder charge, and seats a bullet on the cartridge. All you do is load the storage bins on the machine, pump the handle, and watch to ensure that everything is going as it should. A loaded cartridge is spit out with each crank of the handle. The suggested retail price for the Load-Master is $189, plus the cost of the dies and shell holder (also available from Lee) , or approximately $330 for a complete kit of dies and press that practically allows you to start loading ammunition as soon as you take the gear out of the box . If you're only interested in reloading pistol ammunition, then the Lee Precision's Pro1000 is an excellent choice. It has most of the automated features of the Load-Master, but reloads only pistol cartridges and carries a slightly lower price tag. As does the Load-Master, this progressive press turns out a reloaded cartridge with each pull of the lever once you get it started. The cost for this reloading kit is around $189, and the kit includes the dies for the 9mm Luger cartridge, so there's nothing else to buy other than powder, primers, and bullets in order to start reloading. The Lee kits also come with clear instructions to get you started. When a cartridge is chambered, the bullet often hits the feed ramp or edge of the chamber with a lot of force. If the bullet isn't firmly in place, it can jam back into the cartridge, thus creating excessive pressures when it is fired. Therefore, it's essential to get good crimps on cartridges, bullets with cannelures are ideal, though these bullets can be tough to find and hard to make. Fortunately, Lee offers a crimping tool that both improves accuracy and keeps the bullet in position during chambering. The crimper works like a die and is easily mounted in a press. It costs around $18, making it a good investment . Another trick that might improve the reliability of ammunition is to chamfer the outside rim of the mouth of the brass to help prevent the edge of the cartridge neck from getting hung up on the front edge of a magazine during chambering. This is a good idea on "bottle-neck" cases that headspace on the shoulder; however, most rimless, straight-case autoloading pistol rounds headspace on that square front lip of the brass case. If you taper (chamfer) its leading edge on the outside, the case will tend to feed too deeply into the chamber /bore : if it goes too deeply in the chamber/bore, the firing pin may not be able to reach it, and it won't fire. If the firing pin is long enough to hit it, odds are fair that it will go off — and tend to stick in the chamber to cause extraction problems. Most people slightly chamfer the inside of the case, to help the bullet go in straight, but only trim [4 . jpg] Shotgun ammunition comes in a variety of lengths and gauges. Shown here are three of the more common. At the left is a 3-inch Magnum gauge shell. The center shell is a standard length 12-gauge