Lyman Spartan press

[Racktracker]

Hi everyone, first post here and I need to borrow a little experience from a few of you.

I've been reloading for 15 years or so with an old rcbs jr2 press that my dad had. The other day while resizing a few 270s the handle broke off. I'll get around to fixing the handle eventually, but in the mean time I'm looking at getting a different press.

I noticed that the lyman spartan presses go fairly cheap on fleabay. So I was wondering if these presses use standard dies and shellholders. I know that at one time lyman made a press that didn't use the standard 7/8x14 dies used today and I was wondering if that is why the spartans were going for so cheap.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Chawbaccer]

I think it's the Tru-line press that uses the crazy a$$ dies, I'm not sure about the Spartan. Why don't you get in touch with RCBS, They should give you a new handle for your press. At least they cover their dies.

 

[Ross]

The Spartan uses standard dies. The Tru-Line Junior does not. It uses the 5/8"-30 nutcracker 310 dies and a (IIRC) J-type shellholder.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

 

[Racktracker]

Thanks for the replies.

I am one of those fix it type of guys, so if I can fix it I normally will. I can fix the handle to my old press, but I want errr... need to do some reloading first.

It looks as though the reloading gods have smiled on me and won't have to worry about buying a new press. My brother in law has an old rock chucker press that he said I could have for little or nothing. I know that the rock chuckers are about as good as any single stage press made today so it should be all I need.

I still am rather curious about the spartan presses though. One just went on fleabay for $30 including shipping. They look like good presses, so why so cheap?

 

[Rico567]

The Spartan is standard dies & shell holdes all the way. A friend had a Spartan, while I opted for the Spar-T turret model. A good simple press, but care needs to be taken when resizing the larger rifle cases. My friend eventually sprung his doing just that. For a super-strong bulletproof single-stage reloader, it's hard to beat a Rock Chucker, if you can find one used. For single-stage, if I had to buy new today, it would undoubtedbly be the Lee Classic Cast.

 

[Jubjub]

I still load all my handgun ammo with the old Spartan that my uncle handed down to me way back when. It's great having the whole front open for moving cases in and out. I wouldn't want to load rifle ammo in it though, especially if they were being sized full length.