Which press kit do you use?

[yepod]

Thirty year old Rock Chucker (still going strong) and recently a Lee Classic Turret (haven't loaded enough on it yet to comment).

 

[wade rigsby]

offhand that is a nice looking press. can you pass along the name and modle

 

[Retired in 2001]

Ditto what yepod had said restarted reloading with a RCBS rockchucker and moved on to a Lee Turret.Haven't looked back since

 

[Hanzerik]

Started with a Lee Hand Press, then bought a RCBS Rock Chucker a few months ago. I just sold the Hand Press to a fellow in Florida.

 

[bullseye308]

Lee Loadmaster for me. That and a couple of Lee Reloaders and it's all covered.

 

[hydraulicman]

I voted RCBS only because there was no spot for DILLON

if it is for single stage RCBS rocks

 

[proplinker]

press

What about Forester co-ax??

 

[Offfhand]

Wade, the reloading press in the photo I sent is the Hollywood single stage. It is a rather large and heavy tool, made of steel and cast iron, and originally made by the Universal Loading tool company as far back as the 1930's. later they were made by the Hollywood gun shop In, yep, Hollywood, Ca. They also made big tools with rotating heads and all their products were beautifull made and finished. They were also comparatively expensive, appealing mostly to elite handloaders and professional loading companies. Their loading dies were especially well finished inside and out, beautiful just to look at. When the owner, Lyle Corcoran, died the shop closed and now Hollywood loading equipment is eagerly sought by collectors. As you can see why by the photo.

 

[strat8]

What about Dillon? My best press. I have a Dillon 550. Dillon is the Mercedes of reloading presses. The RCBS Rock Chucker broke recently in 2 places on the casting while resizing 30/06 brass. This is BS in my opinion. Yeah they are sending a replacement toggle block but if I had it to do over again I would have bought the Dillon AT500 for my single stage rifle reloading.

Strat8

 

[Offfhand]

Strat, good point. But if Dillon is Mercedes, which tools are the Rolls Royce and Bentlys?

 

[Oyeboten]

So far - I've been using a Lyman 'Tru-Line Jr.'

Turret type...four station.


Handgun Ammunition


I like the old Single-Stage 'Pacific' Presses...and plan on getting one eventually.


The old 'Hollywood' Presses are sure good looking..!

 

[luis7]

I use Lee Clasics Cast and RCBS Rockchucker

 

[Wilburt]

I started reloading on a Rock chucker!

 

[Landric]

I voted RCBS because I bought my Rockchucker kit new in 1994. It was my first, and only, press until 2001 when I got a Square Deal B to load .45 ACP. Everything else I still did on the RC until early this year when I got a Lee Classic Turret and a Lee Classic Cast. I actually bought the Breech Lock Challenger Anniversary Kit recently on sale from Midway. I needed several of the items included with the kit, and the kit is such a deal compared to buying the parts separately that I got it and basically ended up with the Breech Lock Challenger press for free. Still, I bought that kit for some extras and I bought the RC kit for the press to get into handloading, so I voted RCBS.

IMO the RCBS kit was much better quality in 1994 and included more stuff than it does now. It was also a lot cheaper. I think Lee offers a much better value these days, though they really need to offer the Classic Cast as a basic kit to compete with RCBS there. Still, if I were buying a single stage kit today, it would probably be the Lee Anniversary kit.

 

[ranger335v]

I didn't buy a "kit" to get started, knew I wanted specific items from different makers even long before I started reloading.

I use a 45 year old Lyman Spar-T turret and 22 year old Rock Chucker II single stage. But if you mean is that what I would get again, now with some 45 years of experience, they certainly are not.

Instead, I would get a Lee Classic Cast single stage, it's the better press. The CC is bigger and stronger, has excellant user features and the spent primer catching system is clean and actually works. It's made of cast steel in the USA, not China with weaker, cheaper cast iron as the current RC model is. All that and the CC costs MUCH less than it's competitors!

And, if I still wanted a turret, it would be a Lee Classic Turret with inexpensive, tool-less swappable heads and an auto-indexing feature that makes it something between conventional turrets and progressives.

 

[Landric]

To change my position slightly from my above post, I think if I were going to buy a handloading setup today, and I wanted a single stage, I'd still buy the Rockchucker Kit. The powder measure and scale are hard to beat. It also comes with a number of smaller items that are of traditional RCBS quality, bulletproof and well thought out.

However, I would then sell the RC press on the evil auction site and use the proceeds of the sale to buy a Lee Classic Cast press, the safety prime system, and a pound or two of powder. Since I'm on on-press priming guy, I'd sell the RCBS hand primer included with the kit and use the proceeds from that to buy 1000 primers and a Lee die set.

On the whole, I'd say that RCBS accessories are of much better quality than Lee's (scale, powder measure, etc.), but the Classic Cast is a much better press than the current Rockchucker.

 

[wade rigsby]

Wade, the reloading press in the photo I sent is the Hollywood single stage. It is a rather large and heavy tool, made of steel and cast iron, and originally made by the Universal Loading tool company as far back as the 1930's. later they were made by the Hollywood gun shop In, yep, Hollywood, Ca.

thank you I am now in search of my next

 

[lgbloader]

a hammer and my bench is a an old 2x4. Well... that's one of my kits.

LEE, RCBS, REDDING for single stage. 3 blue presses for progressive.

Me personally, I really like the hammer and 2x4

LGB

 

[Retooferab]

Redding Big Boss!