Speaking of presses...

[John_M]

Frank, Sorry I came late to this thread.

You have received many good recommendations and if you have not yet purchased a press, my comments might help provide some direction.
My current two presses are the Forster Co-Ax and a Lee Classic Cast Breech Lock Single Stage. Both are excellent presses and I can't honestly say I prefer one over the other except that the Co-Ax probably has the best spent primer retreival system in the entire industry. You mentioned in one of your posts that you "...wished Lee made their presses a little meatier..." I'll tell ya' my friend that the Lee Classic Cast press is a cast iron brute made right here in the good ole' USA. I can't imagine anybody breaking any part of this press during "normal" use in any of the regular reloading/sizing operations. Some users have reported breaking the hollow steel handle while doing full length sizing on large cartridges (those in the .338/50 BMG) range but even these cases are rare and the handle is easily and inexpensively replaced.

I currently use only the Co-Ax for seating bullets but am having some "issues" trying to achieve consistent Base to Ogive lengths on my reloads. I won't go into those details here. However, in my search for the "perfect" reloaded round I will soon (budget constraints) be ordering a Redding Big Boss II press and use it and the Lee to manufacture some rounds to determine if the PRESS really does make a difference in the consistency of the finished round.

I have a FEELING that if I were to place 60 identical rounds in three different boxes with each box containing only those rounds from one press, a "regular" reloader would have a difficult time determining which of those boxes came from which of those presses.
I have that much faith in the quality of my Lee Classic Cast Breech Lock Cast Iron Single Stage press.

I am unfamiliar with the various turret presses.

[jhelmuth]

Frank,


The Lee Classic (cast) now sports the breech-lock system. (just FYI)

[fgw_in_fla]

John & jhelmuth -
Thanks for the heads up on that. To be honest, I've had my good eye on a Lee Classic press that I saw at my local supply shop. It's brand new, in the box & he'll let it go for $110. I know the price is pretty good but, I've been a little sidetracked by a certain Edge 25-05.

Now that I have a new caliber / rifle that I'm growing to love more & more each day (Kinda reminds ya of being young & in love again, don't it?)..... I'm doing alot of neck sizing - again & I really do not want to break that connector part on my Lee Challenger. I broke the miserable thing TWICE already. I don't wanna go for 3 outta 3.


Thanks again for the info.

Frank in Fla.

[jeffreyC]

Frank,

Save yourself a lot of stress and get the Classic, it is a much stronger design, no need to baby it.

[fgw_in_fla]

'preciate the info.

Thanks

I hope to be setting it up on the bench in the next few days. Just waiting on that next draw on the project.....

Frank in Fla

[rrflyer]

For the most part the press matters very very little in relation to the finished product. Some have some advantages that make them easier and more friendly to use but the ammo quality mostly comes down to dies and how you operate the press.

I've reloaded ammo on everything from lee single stages to dillon 1050's and everything in between. A basic single stage press are all pretty similiar.

FWIW my Dillon 550 loads more consistent rounds than my Forster CO-AX did.

[John_M]

rrflyer, I am not surprised that your Dillon 550 loads more consistent rounds than your Co-Ax.

FWIW, I use only Redding and Forster Competition Seating Dies for that phase of the process and attempt to make all my procedures as precise and consistent as humanly possible.

None of my efforts are geared toward making a more accurate hunting round. My interest is only to make the best rounds I am capable of producing with the equipment I use. Then being able to shoot five shot groups making only one hole in the target.

For me, most of the joy of handloading is in the process. One hole, five shot groups would be icing on the cake.

[rrflyer]

Not by much. I use Forster benchrest dies as well in both presses. I loaded 100 rounds of 260 on each and (without my notes) the coax averaged .0015 runout using a Sinclair concentricity guage while the dillon was in the .0012ish range. Identical for all practical purposes I guess.

Length measured with hornadys ogive tool was spot on for both as was how far I set the shoulders back.

I use a chargemaster to drop the powder charge for both.

I shoot my 260 to 1,000 on a regular basis and occasionally beyond.


I however hate reloading so anything I can do to speed it up I will.