Lee Classic Cast Press
I've heard good things about the Rock Chucker. It was popular, and a lot of people learned on it and stuck with RCBS afterward.
I have the Lee Classic Cast Press, and I can't imagine a better single stage press. Anyone who said "isn't strong enough to properly resize rifle brass" has NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE SAYING. I would consider their other advice as suspect as well. The Lee Classic Cast Press is probably the strongest reloading press in existence. Lee had previously made some "good enough" presses, and when the marketing started emphasizing which was stronger, Lee published an ad that showed some large rifle brass being resized on a Lee turret press with the beefy supports turned down to 1/8" pillars. Most presses are significantly overdesigned, partly to make them stiff enough to flex very little so they'll make accurate ammo, and partly to withstand people doing stupid things. With the Classic Cast Press, Lee has abandoned theirdesign philosophy of "it's good enough". The Classic Cast Press is WAY overdesigned, and is extremely beefy. It's by far the most popular press now used for reloading the monster 50 BMG.
The fit and finish on the Lee Classic Cast Press is dificult to contest. It's by all measures, a very nice press, and I'm sure it'll serve you well for your life, and a couple of more generations as well.
I have a Lee LoadMaster progressive press, and I bought the Lee Classic Cast Press for the operations like decapping that are easier on a single stage press, and operations like lead bullet resizing and measuring lead hardness that aren't possible on a progressive. A single stage press is great to learn about reloading, and also great for loading very accurate rifle ammo, and when you decide to expand your pistol reloading capabilities for greater throughput, you'll still need a good single stage press.
I don't see any reason why the RCBS dies wouldn't work with the Lee press, or vice versa. Dillon made some nonstandard dies, but almost everyone uses standard threads, and the length is usually long enough to work in the various presses. You might want to consider using Lee dies though. Lee makes some of the very best dies and they're very inexpensive. Don't let the low price fool you. The quality is excellent. Clean them before using them because there may be a metal chip left from the machining, or more likely some abrasive left from the grinding and polishing process, but the Lee dies work very well and produce excellent ammo.
I highly recommend you finish the reloading process with the Lee Factory Crimp die. It's a great quality control step to ensure your ammo will chamber properly. It makes a nice firm crimp that allows the ammo to withstand rough handling (hunting or any semi-auto use where the ammo will be subjected to recoil). If the bulet is pushed back into the case, excessive and dangerous chamber pressures can result. It probably improves accuracy too, because there will be a more uniform powder ignition because the crimp holds the bullet in place until the pressure builds to a higher value. For precise bolt action rifle shooting, you may want to skip the Factory Crimp die in favor of a collet crimp die, but otherwise, I use the Factory Crimp on all pistol and rifle ammo.
After the single stage, when it's time to reload with greater speed, you'll want either a turret press or a progressive press. The progressive will be twice as fast, but more hassle to set up and maintain. If you don't like fussing with mechanical stuff, get the new Lee Classic Turret press. It's a lot better than the older Lee Turret Press. It has more durable auto indexing, and a much better Lee Safety Prime primer feed mechanism.
http://www.realguns.com/archives/122.htm
I'd skip the deluxe turret kit and buy the components I needed separately. Get a god digital reoading press on eBay. It's a lot faster than the Lee Safety Scale, and a lot less expensive than the electronic scales from Dillon, Pact, RCBS, etc. $22 delivered, and it's readable to .1 grain. I like the Neva brand the best of the three I've tried.
If you decide on a progressive press, you can get the Lee LoadMaster, which is a good value, although most people find the priming system to be fussy and potentially problematic. Stick with one brand of primers that work (CCI work well for me and the brass I'm using). You can also buy a Dillon. You'll pay a lot more, like three times as much, but their guarantee is very good and their presses arrive more setup and ready to go. With the Lee, you'll be learning about progressive reloading, while setting up the press and debugging it. That makes for a steep learning curve. If you have someone nearby who has the experience and is willing to set up your Lee press, then it'll probably be the better buy. You can almost buy a Lee progressive press kit for one caliber for what it costs to buy just the caliber upgrade on a Dillon press.
I started with a progressive press but I reloaded with it single stage to understand the processes, then used it more like an auto-advancing turret press to further familiarize myself, and only then did I graduate to full progressive reloading. Starting with a single stage press is probably a better idea.
I highly recommend the book Modern Reloading Second Edition by Richard Lee. It's usually $12 at
www.MidwayUSA.com. The first part is a very good introduction to reloading that's very readable and very educational. It plugs Lee products, but the info applies to any reloading. The last part of the book is the large section of reloading data for all common calibers. There's a ton of good info in there. I read it cover to cover, and usually use loads directly from the load data.
Edit to add:
Oops. I see that you were asking about the Lee Classic Press and my comments related to the Lee Classic Cast Press. Despite the name similarities, the Classic and the Classic Cast are two very different presses. The RockChucker is a lot beefier than the Lee Classic Press. I stick by my recommendations for the Lee Classic Cast Press. It's a lot more press for only a little more money.
