Single stage gotchas?

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Hawk

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I've decided I need a single stage or turret. Mostly to work up loads and, right now, only in revolver chamberings. I gather they're all pretty good but I've turned up a few gotchas in recent threads and was wondering what else I might be missing.

1.Forster – won't do .25ACP and (according to review at Midway) won't work with a collet type bullet puller. I can't see .25ACP being an issue but then I didn't think I'd want a single stage either – things change. Those whack-a-mole bullet pullers and I don't get along. Is there a work-around for this?

2. RCBS Rockchucker – rumblings of a recent decline in QC. Anything I'd be likely to notice? I'm probably easier to please as I don’t have an old one for contrast.

3. Lee Classic Cast – looks like a solid choice with no obvious warts.

4. Hornady LnL Classic – looks like another solid item. Does the LnL system still make sense in the absence of a LnL AP? Looks like something I could make use of assuming new sets of dies apart from the ones residing on the progressive's toolheads, or am I missing something?

5. Redding and Lyman – No gimmicks or gotchas that I could find.

I don't have much in the way of brand loyalty. If I’m leaning in any direction it'd probably be Lyman as I like their handgun reloading manual and the color of the press goes with the drapes in the room.

I gather there's not much difference in (carbide) handgun dies and one can generally buy whatever "out of stock lotto" produces at Sportsman's Warehouse?
 
"5. Redding and Lyman – No gimmicks or gotchas that I could find."

Redding is much more robust than Lyman. Plus the Redding boys will help you over the phone much better than the Lyman folks -- I speak from experience.

Get green drapes!
 
I have an old RCBS jr, that was a gift. Works like a charm. RCBS has given outstanding service, and replaced a few minor pieces for free, even after I told them it was a gift.
Good press. Someday I'll get a turret, but then again, this one works so well.
 
I have many of the presses about which you write. I also keep one of the really cheap little Lee presses just for decapping and for bullet pulling.

RCBS: good quality, in spite of the new Chicom origins for the castings. They are machined here in the good ol' US of A and the customer service at RCBS is legendary. The RCBS presses generally have a bushing that would allow you to use the Hornady LnL adapter. I do that and it is a very good solution.

Redding: I have the great, big huge Redding press; it is a regulation tank and it is hight quality stuff, no doubt about that. A buddy just bought a Redding T-7 and I am in love with that now. The T-7 is the best of the turret presses, by far. It is a tank and very well made, too. Redding customer service is just fine, too.

Forster: my old Forster-Bonanza press is a gem. It catches the primers, does not need special shell holders and loads the straightest ammo of any of them. I have dealt with the people at Forster and they are nice people; they'll make any modification to one of their products that you want--at a price, but they will do it. This press has an awkward overhead and long swing for the handle. I think that it is especially tiring, but it is the hots for competition ammo. Their short handle option may very well solve the problem. A clean loading room floor is also a very nice blessing.

Over the years, I have had occasion to use Lee's customer service. They are really nice people there, in my experience. I use many of their dies, especially the Lee Factory Carbide crimp dies. They will custom make modifications for you for a really reasonable price, usually. I have no experience with the new cast press (yet).
 
1.Forster – won't do .25ACP and (according to review at Midway) won't work with a collet type bullet puller. I can't see .25ACP being an issue but then I didn't think I'd want a single stage either – things change. Those whack-a-mole bullet pullers and I don't get along. Is there a work-around for this?
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I don't know for sure if it will do 25 acp, I do have dies for it and the co-ax, so I might try it,(sold the little bauer years ago). BUT you can use the Hornady cam lock bullet puller with the co-ax, I just got one, it works well on it. As for the LNL bushings, with the co-ax you just slide the dies in and out of the loader, faster than the LNL bushings. Oh and there's no added expense of the bushings.

As for a turret, the NEW lee classic turret is the cat's meow. It can be used as a single stage or semi-progressive with the auto advance feature.
 
The lock and load feature on the single stage is as much as a time saver as it is on the progressive.
I would recommend the Hornady press because as single stages go it is pretty quick and very solid.
 
I bought an RCBS Rockchuck in December and it works great. No quality control problems here. I've read that some parts are made in China and my guess is that people feel it is inferior due to that, but I'm happy. RCBS support is also wonderful.
 
If my RCBS Rock Chucker 2 breaks tomorrow (fat chance!) by Saturday I'll have a Lee Classic Cast to replace it; I would LIKE clean(er) floors! The RC, and perhaps all others but the Forster Co-Ax, don't help with that. And I like the idea of an adjustable lever. And the larger diameter ram is good too.
 
3. Lee Classic Cast – looks like a solid choice with no obvious warts.

4. Hornady LnL Classic – looks like another solid item. Does the LnL system still make sense in the absence of a LnL AP? Looks like something I could make use of assuming new sets of dies apart from the ones residing on the progressive's toolheads, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

The LEE Classic Cast single stage will accept the Hornady LnL conversion.
 
Thanks guys - I couldn't make up my mind so I didn't.

Bought the Redding Big Boss (not the Big Boss 2) from Midsouth. Also got some Hornady LnL thingamajigs. I was really wanting to try the LnL system but the positive remarks on Redding made me decide I might just need to change the drapes. According to the nice guy at Redding, I can do both.

I hadn't previously realized that things were generally not proprietary, hence easy to try the LnL and Redding at once.

The nice lady at Midsouth said she wasn't allowed to "take sides" but verified that my concerns with the Forster were "real". It still looks like the cat's nads for benchrest though. Should I ever get to where I can hit the broad side of barn from without, it'll definitely be at the top of the list.

As noted above, the LnL system works with other than the Redding (and, naturally, Hornady) but one has to start somewhere.

It must be a tribute to reloading in general that there are simply no negative remarks about any of the players although I "jumped ship" from Lyman based on posts here. Next step will be getting my digital scale making nice with my XL650 powder thrower.

Thanks all!
 
I hate digital scales, they never work quite right for me. I much prefer my ancient Lyman/Ohaus M-5 balance beam scales. The RCBS 10-10 and the Dillon Eliminator scale are also excellent.
 
Snuffy,

How did you get your Hornady cam-lock puller to work on your co-ax? Which way is the puller handle pointed? I tried it, but could not find a way to make it work. Now I just use it in a Huntington compac hand press, but I sure would like to figure out how to use it on the co-ax. I thought about shortening the collet handle, since not much leverage is needed on it anyway.

I think the limitation on 25acp may be the automatic shell holder jaws. They sell a standard shell holder adapter that lets you use any standard shell holder, for those cartridges that their jaws won't fit (not very many!)

As for pistol dies, I really like Hornady dies, especially their seaters. If you load lead bullets, the lube can really gunk up the seater insides in a hurry. The Hornady seating die has a sliding alignment sleeve similar to other brands "competition style" dies (forster, redding), but they disassemble while still on the press to allow easy cleaning, and reassemble without affecting the crimp/seat depth settings. And their optional micrometer adjuster works with any seating die they sell. Beware, though the optional micrometer head on the hornady seater is too tall to work on the Forster co-ax.

Andy
 
I hate digital scales, they never work quite right for me.
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I've not had good luck with instructions generally and the amount of variance I was getting with H110 on the 650 couldn't be explained away by Dillon's charge bar.

I had purchased the scale (RCBS Powder Pro) as it had the capacity to weigh shot charges for the shotshell loader. I've found some grim reviews since. I can't picture stopping to fiddle with a balance beam every couple dozen rounds - there's gotta be a better option.

...beats me what it'd be, though.
 
What fiddling with the balance beam?

My two ancient Lyman/Ohaus M-5's are completely accurate, compared to eachother and against a professional labratory scale. When I first pull them out I calibrate them against known 260.9 grain calibration weights (only touched with tweezers), then against eachother, then against my lab scale.

they balance out realllly fast even though they aren't magneticall dampened. Over the years I've learned to 'read the scale' even before its at a final rest, based upon the equality of the 'bounce' of the beam.

No digital scale for reloading is nearly as fast or accurate as a fine, high quality balance beam. Once the scales are calibrated I check them once every couple of hundred times I weigh a charge. If they zero back out, I keep going. Never had a problem with them, ever.

I've also had remarkable success with my Dillon powder measures on my 550's and our company's 1050's. Same measure for both, and the same one you're using. Always within a tenth.

Sorry you have had bad luck with yours, have you talked to Dillon? I've done hundreds of thousands of rounds with mine and they are still like new, although I have gone through a few hoppers over time.
 
Haven't talked to Dillon as I'm pretty sure it's not the bar.

I've got a 505 around here somewhere. Maybe I'll dust it off and see if things settle down.
 
Thirties said:
Plus the Redding boys will help you over the phone much better than the Lyman folks...
Click to expand...

I have made exactly one call to Lyman, and they were very helpful.

Mike
 
For anyone wondering...

The stuff showed up today. I'd never bought from MidSouth before and, in fact, hadn't heard of them until the LnL thread.

Everything showed up packed well, if less slick than Brownells or Midway. They've been gentle with the credit card and the Big Boss was 104.00 which was pretty good at the time. There seemed a oddly large jump to the Big Boss 2 - they may be closing out the standard Big Boss but that's just conjecture - I wasn't planning on using it enough to justify the new primer system. There was a nice collection of reloading info in the box.

As luck would have it, the shell holder for the dies they had was backordered and vice-versa. The only shell holder I have has no dies to work with. Oh well, I was warned when I called.

I never called Lyman so can't comment on whether Redding CS was better or not. What impressed me about Redding, apart from the friendly service, was the willingness to say that the thing worked with the Hornady LnL system. In my trade, people get cagey and say they can't comment on competitor's compatibility or "we accept a die size of ...". Redding just said "fine, piece of cake". Others may do as well but Redding was the first I tried.

Whoever said the Redding was stout wasn't kidding. I don't have a basis of comparison but it seems plenty beefy for the task at hand.

If anybody's still hangin' in, I could use some advice: I had forgotten why I had strong mounts - my "bench" is 1-3/4" solid core doors on top of Stanley garage cabinets. Anything hanging over the edge fouls the drawers.

I don't have a way of mounting the Redding other than rigging a "sorta strong mount" or putting it on something to get "C" clamped to a workmate which doesn't seem right.

Anybody know of a generic "strong mount" that I could use to put the Redding on the bench next to the 650?

I may not be explaining it right so I've attached a pic - the Redding is lying forlorn on the left of the 650. TIA.
 

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I have a vintage CH single stage press and a newer RCBS JR. Both companies have been very helpfull over the phone and have replaced some parts free of charge. Actually I like the CH dies better. They seem to hold the adjustments to a tighter tolerance. I use the RCBS JR for depriming, sizing and priming. I use the CH for seating for competition benchrest rounds.
 
Hawk said:
I had forgotten why I had strong mounts - my "bench" is 1-3/4" solid core doors on top of Stanley garage cabinets. Anything hanging over the edge fouls the drawers. I don't have a way of mounting the Redding other than rigging a "sorta strong mount" or putting it on something to get "C" clamped to a workmate which doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...

Do you have room to use it if you were to mount it around on the left side of the bench?
 
The left is where the door is - it's a bit tight.

I believe I have it worked out - there are two similar cabinets on the opposite wall. I've got enough room to pull them apart from each other. I'll put another door over the tops and have the space in the middle for the single stage.

The ones in the pic are pretty well jammed between the door to what was once a spare bedroom and the safe.
 
Snuffy,

How did you get your Hornady cam-lock puller to work on your co-ax? Which way is the puller handle pointed?
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Big Jake, sorry I didn't answer sooner. I just took some pics to show how I did it.

P6290027.jpg

P6290028.jpg

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Nuthin to it!:scrutiny: I didn't try any shorter than .308 shells, the handles may interfere if I had to go lower. I usually use a hammer puller for handgun stuff.
 
I cannot attest for recent quality issues but RCBS makes a very nice press in the Rockchucker. I still use the Master Kit that my father bought 30 years ago for all my rifle and most of my handgun. I have become so familiar with it over the years that I can crank out some pretty good production numbers (safely) for a single stage. RCBS does have a good customer service reputation. I think you will find the same thing of any of the presses mentioned, Lyman, Forster, etc. Buy it once use it forever. Bill
 
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