First Time Reloader, Buy Once

I take it that some of the folks that say that priming on the CoAx takes a lot of arm movement ....

Well it really does not ... you only need to lower the arm just enough for the primer seating punch to clear the bottom of the brass ... not all the way to the bottom of the stroke .... I will measure the degrees tomorrow ... but I would think it less than 30 degrees.

If there is a drawback to priming ... it would be the lack of a tube/tray to feed primers ....

I have a old style Lee hand primer and never use it(no I don't want to sell it either)....

If you buy a digital set of calipers you should havexa set of dial or veneer calipers to check the digital are reading right.
My brother is just getting into reloading and bought a set of digital calipers out of Harbor Freight, they would sometimes not reset to zero.
So he bought a nice used set of Brown & Sharp dial calipers off of Ebay.
Ebay is where I buy a lot of new and used reloading supplies. I just bought a set or Redding 32 Remington dies and a set of Hornady 300 Blackout dies on there tonight. Now I need to buy a 32 Remington crimp die and a 300 Blackout crimp die.

I'd buy a standard press from Lee, RCBS, Lyman, MEC, or Redding and put the savings toward a Chargemaster Lite or Lyman Gen6. I am loading on a 50 year old Rock Chucker and I doubt that I could get better results with any other SS press. I have no problems screwing dies in and out, and I need the shell holders for my RCBS bench primer anyway. YMMV

I started reloading in 1969 with a Lee Loader, and I have used a few presses since. Progressive presses don't fit my lifestyle so although I have reloaded on a "auto-everything" Dillon I have not purchased one. I have 4 different single stage presses and one turret press but the single best all around press I have ever owned/used is the Forster Co-Ax. Not only a better design, but excellent quality too. Just like every manufactured product, some will not like a particular feature about the product. Small things like priming (although I've had very few problems priming on my Co-Ax (as long as I adjust/set up properly) but then there are many, many reloaders that don't prime on their press regardless what press or method. I don't recommend a Co-Ax for a starter press but it's it's not because of cost but my experience teaching. K.I.S.S. is by far the best and longest lasting teaching method I've come across in 20 years of teaching apprentices in Auto Electronics. I'd suggest a single stage press with "old school" screw in dies. When changing dies one gets experience adjusting dies and proper die adjustment is necessary for good safe reloading, and essential for troubleshooting handload problems. I shy away from "faster, quicker, easier" for a new reloader and to never hurry...

mdi said:

K.I.S.S. is by far the best and longest lasting teaching method I've come across in 20 years of teaching apprentices in Auto Electronics. I'd suggest a single stage press with "old school" screw in dies. When changing dies one gets experience adjusting dies and proper die adjustment is necessary for good safe reloading, and essential for troubleshooting handload problems. I shy away from "faster, quicker, easier" for a new reloader and to never hurry...

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Exactly. Should be put in the reloaders bible.

JimKirk said:

I take it that some of the folks that say that priming on the CoAx takes a lot of arm movement ....

Well it really does not

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I was talking about the user's arms, not the arm of the press.

To use the on-press system you have to reach for a primer and place it into the fixture. Then you have to reach for a piece of brass and place it in the fixture. Then you have to pull the handle. Then you have to remove the primed case and put it somewhere. I know it sounds silly, and when you're twenty that amount of work is probably not a big deal. When you're 65 and have a couple hundred cases to prime, it adds up. Almost everyone develops a little bit of arthritis when they approach old age. Anyway, I find the hand-held priming tools MUCH easier to use, if only because you don't have to individually load the primers.

Tim

TimRB said:

I was talking about the user's arms, not the arm of the press.

To use the on-press system you have to reach for a primer and place it into the fixture. Then you have to reach for a piece of brass and place it in the fixture. Then you have to pull the handle. Then you have to remove the primed case and put it somewhere. I know it sounds silly, and when you're twenty that amount of work is probably not a big deal. When you're 65 and have a couple hundred cases to prime, it adds up. Almost everyone develops a little bit of arthritis when they approach old age. Anyway, I find the hand-held priming tools MUCH easier to use, if only because you don't have to individually load the primers.

Tim

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I wish I was twenty .... I am a year younger than you .... Your hands must not be full of arthritis like mine are ...just can't stand to a operate the Lee hand primer...

But anyway good to have different options to do things ..... having reloaded since 1965 ....I tried a good many of them .....

JimKirk said:

I am a year younger than you ....

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Ah--just a kid! Remember, we're only "approaching" old age.

Tim

Janningc said:

I have read that autoloaders such as my BAR should be reloaded with small base dies

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No, not true.
Small base dies should only be used if the chamber on your rifle is smaller than normal.
If you use SBDs with a normal - larger chamber it just creates more accuracy headaches.

Part of the decision is how many steps one can eliminate in the hand loading process and at what cost.

Jim Kirk I feel that using the Lee hand primer as long as I can will be a good limbering up exercise and hopefully delay my gout ravaged fingers from seizing up. So far I have been OK but I can see the time coming that I'll have to stop and use another method as I need to stop at 100 these days and wait a bit before I do any more. I feel your pain.

I switched to the bench primer because my hands cramp up. I still use the hand primer occasionally, but only for small batches of fifty cartridges or less.

Whiterook-

If hands hurt, you might want to look into a ram primer. I have one from RCBS, it is fully adjustable and will lock down and not vary one thousandth from the depth set. No pain, no bother , no fuss except primers need to be placed individually.

Yup, I have the Lee version of the ram primer, but I use the RCBS bench primer the most often.