Check out this oddball press!

[Gewehr98]

So I'm goofing around buying primers and a big batch of wonderful 500/525gr bullets for my Sharps rifle before I move away from the guy who makes them. Something big and heavy catches my eye, sitting on the floor is part of an estate sale, the deceased was an avid reloader. It's an old CH Tool & Die press, Model 206 (or 208, kinda blurry casting), with a 4-station die holder on an otherwise normal O-frame design.

The press came with 9 thick steel 4-die plates, with indexing slots on each side edge. One puts all the dies needed for a given cartridge in the plate, setting them to proper depth, then indexes them fore and aft in the press against an allen screw ball detent, which locks the whole assembly solid. It reminds me of the tool heads of my Dillon 550, albeit a few years earlier.

This one's missing the primer arm, but I *think* a spare RCBS unit I have laying around in the evil lab will fit and function just fine.

I've owned several presses, and still have my Lyman 310 tool, as well as the Dillons, an RCBS JR2, and a Pacific (Hornady) 007 O-frame. But something about this oddball just grabbed my eye, especially when I picked up the spare dieholder/toolhead plates and felt how beefy they were. So I brought it home to live with my other reloading tools. It was only fair.

 

[BigSlick]

Schweet !

I love old stuff like this. Heavy duty as hell and still functional. The 9 plates are probably worth a small fortune on FleaBay.

Mount it up and use it as a sort of quasi-turret.

Before you do that though, blast it and redo the paint, with some highlight on the letters in the casting. Maybe silver overall with red lettering, with a nice blue on the primer catch cup. Love the spent primer cup mounting thingy, much less hassle than a Rock Chucker.

Certainly a conversation piece.

You can get started right after the hernia operation from lifting that thing

BigSlick

 

[Matthew748]

Wow, that is one impressive piece of ironmongery! Don't drop it on your foot, that puppy would cause some damage. I could not have passed something like that up either.

 

[Grump]

Looks like your ram has the adapter to go between the C-H shellholder ram side and an RCBS-type shellholder. That *may* defeat priming on the downstroke. Earlier adapters were too narrow to allow the primer cup through to the RCBS shellholder, and I don't know whether the later ones, which ARE wide enough for a primer cup, will allow the tip-in primer assembly to reach the case. Probably depends on the vertical "reach" of the straight part of your primer seater.

The one I've worked with was on an H-press, so the primer seater was just a straight-up tower sorta thingy.

 

[PaulTX]

Cool! I like it!

 

[Gewehr98]

It's up and operational!

A little degreasing, some fresh paint on the primer catcher, and we're making .45-70 ammo.

Toolhead Position Number 1, decap and resize:



Toolhead Position Number 2, case mouth flare and prime:



Toolhead Position Number 3, bullet seating:



Toolhead Position Number 4, gentle factory crimp:



Note the custom shellholder retaining wire, from a garbage bag twist tie. I need to find the original style circlip that snapped in place.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Try an automotive parts store or hardware store...circlips are very common and are off the shelf parts...

 

[Kamicosmos]

Interesting press. Guess that would be a Linear Turret press?

I somehow smashed the circlip in my RCBS turret. I was able to bend it back into shape well enough, but I also need to check the hardware stores to get a few backups.

 

[Matthew T.]

rock n' roll!

Nice custom paint job on the Strat.

I was talking to an old friend of mine who plays guitar and is into mil surp collecting. We agreed that there's just something special about music and guns.

 

[bogie]

I picked up a Texan cartridge reloader turret press at the Nationals. The thing is just SOLID.

 

[YellowLab]

Looks like you are gonna join the busted knuckle club as you increment the toolhead towards you.. or is the handle offset?

 

[The_Antibubba]

"For they shall beat their swords into rifles, and their anvils into turrets.[i/]--Armourie, 26:3.

 

[Gewehr98]

No busted knuckles...

Looks like you are gonna join the busted knuckle club as you increment the toolhead towards you.. or is the handle offset?

The toolheads are index slotted on both sides for the ball detent. All I have to do is remove it and turn it 180-degrees, and the two dies I need are then in position without all the toolhead overhang. Neat design, but I'm noticing it's weak on leverage compared to my Hornady 007 or RCBS Jr2.

Regarding the guitar, it came that way from Miller Brewing Company. My wife works for one of their distributors, it was a promotional item Miller commissioned Fender to make in three or more flavors, MGD, Miller Lite, and Icehouse. They really didn't do too well in the public scheme of things, so every now and then company employees received them as performance bonuses or in office drawings.

 

[Ross]

Gewehr 98,
PM me, I have an old style retainer clip for you.
Please don't repaint that rare old tool.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

 

[Yotecallr]

I just wonder how many rounds that monster has loaded and for what calibers!!

 

[Gewehr98]

Ross, I wanted to thank you for that shellholder retaining clip!

It works like a charm!

BTW, I had no idea Paul "Fitz" Jones was a dedicated C&H Tool and Die mentor. I'll bet he can tell me a thing or two about this press. Sadly, I see he is selling off things on e-Bay as he's fighting cancer. Paul, if you're reading this, our prayers are with you!

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

C-H Distributor Designer

I do have a ton of C-H Parts as I was their reconditioning center along with Star too. I probably have some of the circle clips and lots of caliber changes for that press as C-H dies were not as pretty as RCBS but were the strongest workhorses. I even have hundreds of decapping shafts for them and then some. C-H owners of the h presses and Champs just ask.

I am selling my last Mint C-H Junior Champions on Ebay.

Thanks for your kind thoughts. I am holding my own on the cancer and will find out on my next scheduled checkup next month.

 

[Nhsport]

Looks cool,I go with the no new paint crowd myself, but do as you please.Don't know if you got the primer going , I generally do all my priming with a RCBS hand primer, I think it gives me more control and better feel and is faster to do it that way.
Nothing to prevent one from haveing two or three presses bolted down and useing whatever one has the correct leverage for the job at hand. Many times the preses with weaker leverage will be quicker to opperate,save the killer press for full length resize of big cartridges and reforming cases,the more delicate ones will give you better speed on neck sizeing ect. Heck, sometimes I resize and case prep on one press and bullet seat or crinp on something else because I like the way it feels. For that matter I tend to do my case prep when I am in the mood in big batches several times a year ,then to reload a batch only takes very little time.
Again ,cool find,some day after I am gone I hope somebody gets ahold of some of my weird stuff and gets some use out of it. Other option is the dumpster and that would be a waste