Rookie question: How do I choose a proper reloading press?

[joed]

Thirty five years ago when I started reloading I asked the same question, there was no internet for an answer though.

Back then you went to gunstores or gunshows and looked at equipment. I figured all were good enough to do the job. When I first started loading there was a group of us that shared a press. So, I had my own tools but no press.

I found one of the local gunshops that had the Rock Chucker on sale. Why did I pick this one? Well, the majority of my reloading tools were RCBS, my RCBS tools held up well, the Rock Chucker looked rugged and it was cast iron. And it was on sale.

Thirty five years later it's still in the basement and sees regular use. All my pistol rounds are now done by progressive but any rifle rounds are still done on the Rock Chucker.

It works as well as the day I brought it home too.

You can buy cheap presses like Lee. But chances are high they will wear out or if you decide to sell it you won't get your money back. I learned early in life to buy quality over cheap.

Good luck.

 

[kingmt]

I don't think the OP is coming back to this thread.

 

[JohnGault]

Buy a book first. I am endowed with 20-20 hindsight!

Lee single stage press will beat factory rounds in accuracy and price.

If you can shoot?

I may have more rifle and bullet than shooter?

"Everyone has the right to make his own decision/s, but none has the right to force his decision on others." AR

 

[Clark]

I have a couple of those presses that rotate. I have never used them.

I like the single stage, co-ax or RCBS partner are my favorites, but any will do.

Someone who shoots thousands or round of the same load would say just the opposite.

My single stage is so boringly slow for loading thousands, that when I do that for rodent hunting, I watch TV at the same time.

 

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

"You can buy cheap presses like Lee. But chances are high they will wear out or if you decide to sell it you won't get your money back. I learned early in life to buy quality over cheap. "

Where you been living, under a rock? The current Lee Classic Series are inexpensive, but extremely well made of cast iron and steel and their engineering is superior to the Rock Chucker. In fact, a Lee Classic Cast single stage pushed my Rock Chucker off my bench into the for sale forum.

The latest rendition of the Rock Chucker looks like most of it's parts were manufactured in China. One had it's linkage arm broken fairly easily over on another forum recently. I hate to say that, but it's true and I own a lot of RCBS stuff.

What once was, ain't no more.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

You can buy cheap presses like Lee. But chances are high they will wear out or if you decide to sell it you won't get your money back. I learned early in life to buy quality over cheap.

Like said above, Lee products might be inexpensive but not cheap. I'm not a Lee fanboy blindly siding with that brand as I own both Lee and RCBS presses. Lee's Cast Iron presses are high quality and produce very good ammo. Of course some of their stuff is not to my liking but their Cast Iron presses are very good products.

 

[hAkron]

I started reloading a little over a year ago. I bought the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreeme kit. From what I can tell, the additional stuff in the RCBS kit (powder thrower, scale, etc) are of higher quality than some of the other kits and the Rock Chucker is a pretty solid single stage. I moved on to a Hornady progressive for my range fodder once I knew what I was doing with my Rock Chucker, but it's always wise to have a heavy duty single stage press handy for things that come up.

 

[Clark]

I got the Rockchucker kit when I started.
I don't use the press or most of the stuff in the kit anymore, but I do still use the Uniflow powder measure, Ohaus OEM powder measure sold as 5-0-5 RCBS, and Wilson chamfer.

To reload at someone else's hunting lodge, I would at minimum WISH* that I could do this:
If brass has been fired, de cap [get old primers out] with a Lee decapping die in a Forster co-ax press.
Then rub some Redding Imperial sizing wax and the outside of the brass.
Size the brass in the co-ax using a Forster sizing die with decapping stem removed.
Seat a primer with the co-ax press.
Put powder in the RCBS uniflow powder measure.
Adjust the powder measure until each throw weighed as the correct charge on the 5-0-5 scale. [I use the Quickload program to find starting loads and then work up]
Then I would put a powder charge in the case.
Then I would seat the bullet in the co-ax press with a Forster seater die.
I would adjust the seater die until the cartridge had the correct over all length as measured with dial calipers.
Then I would put the cartridge in a container with a handwritten note describing the cartridge, bullet, powder, charge, and over all length.

If the brass were new and unfired, I would not size the brass, but instead chamfer the inside and outside of the case mouth with the Wilson chamfer.

If the brass had been fired, but it to be shot again in the same bolt action rifle and had not already done this too many times to this piece of brass, I would not size the whole piece of brass, but just the neck in a Lee collet neck die.

Oh, and I like a chair, a bench, and a light over my head.

*I can bring my own powder, primers, brass, bullets, and dies. But I have to live with the other guy's press, which came over on the Mayflower.