Anyone load 50bmg?

[sniper7]

My neighbor recently cleaned out his basement and brought me a bunch of .50 reloading stuff, brass, pulled projectiles, primers and even a bunch of factory ammo.
i have a .50 but no press, dies etc for that caliber.

just not sure if I want to invest in a 50 setup when I hardly get the rifle out to begin with.

if I do, I would consider a kit like the hornady or lee press and load up plinking Ammo.

if you load 50, is it worth it? Seems like surplus stuff and even some lower priced FMJ makes reloading not very cost/time effective but wanted to get some opinions.

[Lurch]

All the guys at the at the full auto shoots that load for their M2HB say you really need to buy in bulk to save on .50bmg. Most use surplus powder as well which personally scares the hell out of me. I have also had a bunch of trouble with reloads in my 50 so I won't shoot anything but factory.

[sniper7]

Gotcha, well maybe these will be up for trade then. I was leaning that way as it is a big investment in something I hardly shoot. Thanks for the input.

[Hoser]

I load a lot of 50. For my semi its mainly surplus bullets and brass. For my bolt gun its all match bullets and Lapua and IMI brass.

Most everthing for the 50 is twice as expensive, from trimmers to dies to you name it...

[Grant H.]

I also load .50, however I am sure nowhere near the quantity that Hoser loads.

I started with a Lee kit, and it worked just fine. The only annoyance that I ever ran into, and it was minor, was having to tip the cases in and out. Not a big deal, but to some it's a royal PITA. The dies that come with the Lee turn out perfectly usable ammo, and they run through my bolt gun without any issue, and seem to be perfectly accurate. I've loaded everything from ball to lathe turned solids, and everything in between (AP, Tracer, APIT, AMAX, etc...), and it works. The one thing that I bought to use with the Lee Press was the CH4D primer pocket swaging setup. For the money, it is WELL worth having if you have an surplus cases.

I got an opportunity to buy a CH4D press/dies at a screaming deal ($300 as part of a package deal for an old timers complete 50 loading setup and components) so I have been using that since.

Invest in Imperial Sizing Die Wax. It's worth it.

[ark3maxu5]

I reload 50bmg and have gone back and forth about whether it was a good decision or not. I concluded that it comes down to this: If you're doing extreme long rang shooting (2000+ yds.) or need benchrest accuracy then yes, you should reload. Otherwise save yourself a ton of time and money and buy cheap fmj factory which you can find all over the place for about $2/round and will shoot 1 moa or better out of most guns.