Which press?

[madarcher427]

Iam wanting to get back into reloading ,I would like to get one of them kits. My family had rcbs press.I was looking at the Hornady along with the RCBS kits?

 

[calico22]

I use RCBS like it and the customer service is great. I bent the primer arm they sent me a whole new kit which had arm, springs, cups, no ? asked they just wanted to know where to send it. Pretty cool. jmo

 

[calico22]

I use a hand priming tool now. Much faster

 

[SWThomas]

I love my Dillon 550 for cranking out high quantities of pistol and 223. I just bought a Forster Co-Ax to do my 308 and 30-06.

 

[bjay]

Progressive reloading: hornady with the bishings option makes realoding faster n easier.. single stage press i also had classic hornady but sold it and got me a co ax.. imo co ax is better than rcbs and classis hornady.

 

[Brux]

I use a RCBS,but I don't do any bulk loading for pistol's or AR's.I changed it over with the Hornady bushing set and they have to much play in them for me so I changed it back.Now I have a lot of the bushings laying around.

 

[ChrisGarrett]

I love my Dillon 550 for cranking out high quantities of pistol and 223. I just bought a Forster Co-Ax to do my 308 and 30-06.

The devil is in the details.

I've been loading very accurate rifle ammo for 19 years on my 550b. It makes nice, consistent ammo if I do my part.

Plus, if I want to crank out blasting ammo, or pistol ammo, I'm golden.

Chris

 

[flashhole]

Get one each of the Lee Classic presses, single stage and turret. That will cover all your needs ... forever. Great presses and great value. You will really like the primers dropping through the center of the ram instead of ending up on the floor. They're he!! bent for stout too.

 

[madarcher427]

Thank you ! Ive never heard of the dillon or the coax before.

 

[Fuzzball]

People make way too much over presses. They have a very simple task, they make the ram go up and down, and they all do that.

I'm not onto large volumes or speed of loading. If I had to replace my old RockChucker 2 tomorrow it would be with Lee's Classic Cast, it's an equal or better press in every way. IF I wanted more speed, or found swapping dies to be difficult or slow (I don't), I'd get the auto-indexing Lee Classic Turret press and a seperate turret head for each set of dies. The heads cost no more than a set of quick-change bushing gimmics and a pre-loaded turret head can be exchanged in seconds without tools.

 

[flashhole]

I agree the quick-change bushings are a gimmick. They are a solution for a non-existent problem. It's not that much effort to screw a die into the press and there is no gain in quality of the ammo, just something else to spend money on.

 

[delixe]

I agree the quick-change bushings are a gimmick. They are a solution for a non-existent problem. It's not that much effort to screw a die into the press and there is no gain in quality of the ammo, just something else to spend money on.

Spoken like someone who has never used a quick change system.

I have a Coax press, and quick change die holding (and universal shellholding, no shellholders to swap out) is just one of the benefits.
Floating die and shellholder for concentricity, greater mechanical advantage for effortless FL resizing of any case, and primers and debris in a catch can with a clean work area are the other advantages.

 

[KYpatriot]

Spoken like someone who has never used a quick change system.

I have a Coax press, and quick change die holding (and universal shellholding, no shellholders to swap out) is just one of the benefits.
Floating die and shellholder for concentricity, greater mechanical advantage for effortless FL resizing of any case, and primers and debris in a catch can with a clean work area are the other advantages.

This. I use the Hornady LnL progressive for volume ammo and the Coax for precision stuff. Love the no shell holder system Forster has, change calibers in seconds and the settings are perfect, dies never get loose, etc. great press in every way.

 

[KYpatriot]

I have used various hand priming tools and so far they have all been inconsistent and potentially dangerous with brass that has tight primer pockets leaving lots of high primers. I like hand primers but this is a fatal flaw in them. I bought an rcbs bench mount priming system and it will seat any primer but the feed system is poor. If had seen the hand primer from CS I would gave bought that one before trying the bench mount because it is theirs is the only hand primer unit I have seen that is adjustable for priming depth and seems likely to solve the high primer problems of other hand priming units.

 

[samnev]

For high volume reloading the Dillon 550B. For loading rounds for a precision rifle the Dillon 550B powder measure doesn't cut it even with ball powder. I take the brass out of the 1st stage (resizing) and use the RCBS Chargemaster to dispense the powder. The back into the Dillon to complete the round in stage 3 (bullet seating) and stage 4 if crimping is required. Sometimes I just use my RCBS Rockchucker and the Chargemaster for precision loads.

 

[flashhole]

Spoken like someone who has never used a quick change system.

I have a Coax press, and quick change die holding (and universal shellholding, no shellholders to swap out) is just one of the benefits.
Floating die and shellholder for concentricity, greater mechanical advantage for effortless FL resizing of any case, and primers and debris in a catch can with a clean work area are the other advantages.

Not so, I had the Hornady system for a couple of years and found I could load more accurate ammo without all the dodads. Don't miss it one bit. Also had a Forster Co-Ax, nice press but the ergonomics were not for me. Kept pinching my fingers trying to seat bullets in magnum cartridges and the handle system was not friendly to my seat dies that have a micrometer adjust. Don't miss it either.

 

[dariof]

I love my Dillon 550 for cranking out high quantities of pistol and 223. I just bought a Forster Co-Ax to do my 308 and 30-06.

Agreed. I've put over 300K rounds through my Dillon, loading 9mm, 38/357, 30-30, 30-06, .223, .380. For the rifles I don't use it as a progressive press, but use it for everything except powder (I use the RCBS Chargemaster and weigh each rifle charge).

For pistols it's progressive all the way, and use the Dillon powder hopper for the powder charge.

Can't beat their lifetime guarantee...anything wears or breaks on the press, and Dillon sends out a replacement (free) with no questions asked. You don't even have to send in the parts you are replacing.

 

[delixe]

Not so, I had the Hornady system for a couple of years and found I could load more accurate ammo without all the dodads. Don't miss it one bit. Also had a Forster Co-Ax, nice press but the ergonomics were not for me. Kept pinching my fingers trying to seat bullets in magnum cartridges and the handle system was not friendly to my seat dies that have a micrometer adjust. Don't miss it either.

I stand corrected.

There's an offset link available to make it easier to load cases from the side but I haven't needed it.
I could see a problem with micrometer seating dies for really long cartridges, I only have micrometer dies for SA cartridges. Conventional dies for magnums are no problem.
I can bang out ammo faster with faster setups/easier changeovers with the Coax than a C-frame press with conventional shellholders.
The concentricity of my ammo has improved with the Coax vs the RCBS Jr I was using, too.
If I'm in the middle of processing some brass and I need to run one through the Coax (which is already setup for something else, happens all the time) it takes 5 seconds to replace the die and zero seconds to replace the shellholder. It saves me time, and I like that.

I guess one doesn't know for themselves until they try for themselves.

 

[delixe]

I have used various hand priming tools and so far they have all been inconsistent and potentially dangerous with brass that has tight primer pockets leaving lots of high primers. I like hand primers but this is a fatal flaw in them. I bought an rcbs bench mount priming system and it will seat any primer but the feed system is poor. If had seen the hand primer from CS I would gave bought that one before trying the bench mount because it is theirs is the only hand primer unit I have seen that is adjustable for priming depth and seems likely to solve the high primer problems of other hand priming units.

I have no more problem seating primers in tight pockets with the Lee Auto Prime hand tool that I've had with any bench mounted tool.
I've seated tens of thousands of small and large pistol and rifle primer cartridges with it sitting in front of the TV with my wife (preserving matrimonial harmony vs. spending several more hours in the loading room) with the occasional tight pocket requiring a bit firmer squeeze. 99.9% of the primers seat with no difficulty, and I can seat primers to the depth I want without a problem, it's a matter of feel.

YMMV