Reloading Press

[alwie]

What reloading press do you use? Why did you pick that press?

[Old Bob]

MEC Marksman press

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1018146888?pid=467697

I'm liking this MEC press. The floating shell-holder keeps things lined up. I used a RCBS Rockchucker for years & a Forster CO-AX for awhile. The sliding shell-holder plates kept breaking on me on the Forster. Replaced them 3 times. If I was doing something wrong, I don't know what it was. The MEC is a keeper but it did have one small issue. The shell-holder storage tray that clips on to the top-back of the press kept falling off. The clip on the tray didn't quite fit right. What I did was drill a hole in the clip & press. I tapped the hole in the press with a 6-32 tap & attached the tray with a cap-head screw. See pic ...    

[grayfox]

RCBS, since the 70's. At first the junior, but then rock chucker. My rock chucker has been in operation since somewhere in 90's. There are more expensive ones, and maybe better ones, but I wouldn't go any less than these guys.
I'm not a super precision shooter (not that skill level), if I was I might get something else but this one hasn't had any problems for me.
1 or 2 of my seater dies are forster, which do really well, but most dies are either rcbs or a few hornady's.
I never got into the progressive press type of things.
Biggest "precision" move I made was to get a digital scale, instead of the measure/throw variable volume type and check every 5 or so... I weigh out and measure every powder charge.

[BD1]

I load all of my rifle ammo on a RockChucker that I bought in 1995. I was lucky in that purchase as the press is as near to perfect alignment as I've seen. I load all of my .45acp and 9mm on a hornady LNL progressive, The alignment is not perfect at the primer station, but it works. I load all of my revolver on a Lyman turret press as it allows me to keep the progressive set up for the shorter cases. I don't shoot more than a couple hundred revolver/year. The Lyman has some movement in it so I slip a shim under the back of the turret when I'm seating the boolits.

[SpeyRod]

Rock chucker I purchased used in 1997 for sizing all my precision rounds. Now using Wilson inline chamber dies for seating precision rounds. My competition 9mm & 223 rounds are loaded on a Dillon 550. It actually loads very precise rounds. We were shooting some 69 SMK’s loaded on the 550 at 600 yards today. Easy peasy!

[dfosland]

Ammomaster 2 for BMG, it has worked well

Rock Chucker for all my small stuff, it has been a good press, does what I need, though there is an issue with the pivot pin at the bottom of the ram, it tends to walk out, so I have to push it back in.

I've considered a Dillon 750 for my mass loading.

[300BLK]

I STARTED handloading on a Bonanaza CoAx in the early 70s. I added the RCBS Rockchucker around 1990, and have since added an old, like new, RCBS Jr dated 72 (?). ALL of my rifle ammo is singlestaged, but almost all handgun ammo is loaded progressively on a Dillon 550 bought in the late '80s.

All of my 6ARC ammo has been loaded on the RCBS JR and mostly with the Forster dies. I did initially load some ammo on a Lee collet die set, and may use that neck sizer again. I prefer Forster's sliding chamber seater die for the ARC over the Lee. Most of my dies are RCBS. I use Redding powder measures exclusively (3 of them) and find that they throw ball and short cut extruded powders very consistently.

I NEVER broke the sliding shell plates on the Bonanza/Forster CoAx!

[Cwlongshot]

I 100% agree with OldBob!!

I have had a Rock Chucker too it was my favorite. I have owned and used most presses available for the last forty years. That MEC is head and shoulders my favorite!

CW

[corpsman8483]

Never tried the MEC press, no doubt it would be a good press. At present I have 5 presses but I confine my reloading chores to a couple; Lyman BrassSmith and a Redding T-7. All preliminary reloading steps are done on these two while the final bullet seating is done exclusively with Wilson Dies.

[tlbaker]

I use a Dillon 650 for cranking out pistol ammo. I bought it because of the speed and guarantee. Forster Co-Ax for anything precision because of the simplicity.

I really like the looks of the Short Action Customs Nexus Press. Maybe one will find a home on my bench!

[CZ527 Guy]

Rock chucker here Again. Just what I started with 45ish years ago.

[SpeyRod]

Rock chucker and 550 here. The sac press looks great but I’d need a sturdier bench.

[BD1]

I load all of my rifle ammo on a RockChucker that I bought in 1995. I was lucky in that purchase as the press is as near to perfect alignment as I've seen.  I load all of my .45acp and 9mm on a hornady LNL progressive, The alignment is not perfect at the primer station, but it works. I load all of my revolver on a Lyman turret press as it allows me to keep the progressive set up for the shorter cases. I don't shoot more than a couple hundred revolver/year. The Lyman has some movement in it so I slip a shim under the back of the turret when I'm seating the boolits.

I should amend this post, given the forum it's on, to say that I use Wilson dies for the 6 ARC as the Redding comp dies were not available when I built this rifle. So I seat using the Wilson precision seater and a small arbor press. All of the rest of my rifle ammo is loaded on the Rock Chucker.

[Rickhem]

I have a few reloading presses, and chose them mostly based upon the volume of ammo I planned to reload with them. 

I have two Square Deal B presses from Dillon, one set up for small primers, one for large primers.  I shot a lot of Bullseye pistol back in the 80s and 90s, and these presses were set up for .45 acp, and .38 special.  I could do 100 rounds in 20 minutes without any trouble on these presses.  That was all about volume and those two presses let me load up good ammo at the volumes of ammo I needed back then.  The Square Deal isn't big enough for any bottleneck rifle reloading, only handgun. 

I also have a Ponsness Warren 375 for 12 gauge.  That was a hand-me-down from my dad when he shot trap, and came to me when I started shooting a lot of trap too.  That is a great press and works like a turret press, except you move the sizing die around under each station, not move the turret.  Loading ammo on that isn't as fast, but adequate for what I shot.  If I remember correctly, loading 100 rounds was over a half hour. 

I bought the RCBS Rockchucker kit back in the late 80s/early 90s and have used that for rifle since then.  I loaded all my .223 ammo for service rifle on that press, one at a time, but generally used thrown charge weights, and didn't weigh every one.  That was pretty repetitive once you had a good load.  I have dies to load .44 magnum, and .45LC on the Rockchucker, and load those there for hunting loads, where I don't load for volume.  I can also load .357 mag, .40 S&W, and .44 mag on the Square Deals, have the toolheads set up for those.  You can load like a single stage on the progressives if you want, and I load heavy .357 loads that way.  Most of my loading lately is for a few rifles I have, and trying different bullets and powders.  Usually it's loading only 10 or 20 rounds at a time for testing. 

So decide what volume you need of the ammo you want, and pick a press for that.  You can load volume on a single stage, I did that for service rifle for a long time.  You can also load singly on a progressive, I do that for my .357 lever action hunting ammo.  I think it's universally accepted that a single stage allows you to produce ammo with greater precision, so nobody shooting benchrest would use a progressive, but they don't need the volume anyway.  I'd also say that switching to loading for a different cartridge is easier on a single stage, and most of us break up the resizing, the brass prep, and then the charging and bullet seating into different sessions, so you can mix that up for different cartridges too.

One last point is that it's generally accepted that people reload to save money on the cost of factory ammo.  Yes, you can reload ammo, usually better ammo than factory loads, for a component price that works out to less than factory ammo.  But the reality is that it becomes a bit of a rabbit hole that ends up with you having a significant investment in your reloading equipment, and that often becomes a bit of a hobby and a pursuit all on its own.

[popgun]

Rock Chucker for the most part and on some cartridges I use a K&M arbor press with LE Wilson bushing and seating dies after resizing on the Rock Chucker.

[jrogi1]

If I was starting today and unsure if I'd stick with it, or was a bit tight on funds, I'd definitely go with the board's favorite, the Rockchucker. It's pretty much the perfect no frills, good for life, single stage press.

I started with a cheapie Lee kit. The press was horrible (sloppy janky linkage), but it had most everything needed to get started. I still use the funnel on occasion.

Then moved to Bonanza/Forster Co-Ax for many years. It's a great press and I still recommend it often, but it seems like it's become very costly (what hasn't?).

Recently I wanted to go a bit more minimalist on my bench, so I picked up the RCBS Summit with Hornady Lock & Load bushing swap. That, and the little Lyman Brass Smith micro C frame. These things both take up so little space on the bench and the Lyman gives me a second station for light duty tasks.

I'm really liking the new setup, but I was likely just craving a change. I had no reason to move away from the Co-Ax, but this gave me an excuse to do a full reorg of my loading space.