Guy with mainly Lee dies & shell holders, good with RCBS Rock Chucker?

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I am interested in getting one big single stage press. I have a bunch of Lee stuff incl. dies, safety prime, shell holders.

While I like the idea of the Rock Chucker, can I use the Lee supplies or would I have to get everything (besides the dies) new?

The Lee classic press would be the alternative and I assume not much difference....
 
Lee stuff works in all modern presses that I am aware of as everybody has standardized to the same threads. The Rock Chucker is a nice press, but so is the classic cast if you want to stick with Lee. It's considerably cheaper than the RCBS as well. You can't really go wrong with either.

The Lee is actually really nice for the money. The primers dropping through the ram into a collection tube make it my preferred press. There are plenty gizmos to add as well so it can get really nice. If you go with the Classic Cast, look up the Sleazyject. A member here created it and sells them, his username escapes me st the moment but it works well for speeding up bulk loading on the single stage.
 
Dies and shellholders for presses are pretty much universal so those are fine.

I'm not sure about the safety prime. My gut says it won't work but I'm not certain and would suggest you do a search.

I'm not an expert but both presses are good and the only negatives you should get about the Lee is from Lee bashers.

If I were you I'd just go with the Lee and be done.

I went with the Lee Classic Turret as the price wasn't much more and I love just swapping the Turret not individual dies. So just something to consider
 
I had to look up the safety prime as I haven't used it. Both the Lee and RCBS presses come with primer arms. The safety prime looks like it is specifically designed and intended to load the arms on the Lee presses.

If your running a single stage though I recommend a hand prime tool, whether it be the Lee or the copies of the Lee tool. It is much easier to prime off press. I have primed on both presses and found both to be a pain in the rear and priming off the press solved that problem. It looks like the safety prime is another means of minimizing that pain in the rear.
 
Yes.

The only mod any of my Lee equipment needed was slightly countersinking the underside of the shellholders to work on the RCBS handprime. Other than that, plug-n-play.
 
Having been where you are, I would suggest the Lee Classic Turret for pistol ammo. Twice as fast (at least) as my Rockchucker and easier to change calibers. I deprime on the Rockchucker, then prime on a Lee bench mounted primer and load on the LCT. Rifle goes ammo on the Rockchucker. A press doesn't cost much; your time has got to be worth something.
 
I have two presses, a Lee Classics turret press and a RCBS Rockchucker. My Lee dies and shell holders work perfectly on the RCBS press. I never tried to use my Safety Prime on the single stage press because I hand prime rifle cartridges.
 
I also recommend the Lee Classic Turret. You can take the Turret rod out and it is now a single stage. All your dies can remain in the turret so it's easy to switch calibers. If you want to speed it up, than out the turret rod back in and it auto indexes, you choice,
 
I have been using only Lee dies with a vintage Rockchunker since 1988. It is a very good combo. I do all priming with a small Lee Challenger press set up for only priming.
 
I have the Rockchucker, also I use the Universal RCBS Primer vs the Press method. I find it easier, especially since the Universal model does not use Shell Holders. I have RCBS as well as Lee Dies, both work well, and I'm sure the Lee would work just as well.
 
I have been reloading for a very long time.I have 9 presses set up in my cave. I have 3 of the wonderful Dillon Progressives. I also have a little orphan LEE Turret with a dozen turret heads.
I find my self using the "Orphan" more all the time. LEE offers a lot of quality and customer service for the money.:)
 
I have a Lee turret and classic cast, RCBS rockchucker and turret and a Hornady LnL progressive. All of them accept Lee, RCBS and Lyman dies. I only prime on the progressive for pistol rounds- I agree with the others who don't like to prime on a single stage.

You can't go wrong with either the rockchucker or the classic cast- both are well made and I really don't have a reason to prefer one over the other except (as WestKentucky noted) the spent primer system on the classic cast works much better than the collector on the rockchucker.
 
I used my Chucker to size .223 brass today, using a Lee FLS die.

Yes, the lee dies will work on any press made with the 7/8"-14 threads. If I'm not mistaken, Pacific set the standard when they introduced the 7/8"-14 dies way back in the 1930's.
 
SARuger said:
I used my Chucker to size .223 brass today, using a Lee FLS die.

Yes, the lee dies will work on any press made with the 7/8"-14 threads. If I'm not mistaken, Pacific set the standard when they introduced the 7/8"-14 dies way back in the 1930's.
Click to expand...
Something tells me you had a good time with that press! Like a first date maybe? :D;) But yep they made the first 7/8" dies along with the universal priming arm.

Here's some history on the pacific I thought you would find interesting about the color change (don't know if you ever found that answer) and I never knew they were bought by Hornady either! Learn something everyday (thought I would have read about that one by now). http://pacificreloaders.awardspace.com/History.htm
 
Wreck-n-Crew said:
Something tells me you had a good time with that press! Like a first date maybe? :D;) But yep they made the first 7/8" dies along with the universal priming arm.

Here's some history on the pacific I thought you would find interesting about the color change (don't know if you ever found that answer) and I never knew they were bought by Hornady either! Learn something everyday (thought I would have read about that one by now). http://pacificreloaders.awardspace.com/History.htm
Click to expand...

I finally got it mounted to my LEE bench plate. I had to drag the welder out to finish that task!

My other Chucker now resides in my "Bug Out Reloading Box" where it will serve duty if God forbid needed.

I ended up painting mine blue. Pressman, a member on castboolits.com, who is a press expert, recommended blue, so I went with it! He said it could have been 4 different colors but red probably wasn't one of them. I read that article on Pacific C presses, very good read!
 
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