Best Press for Precision Shooting

I guess it depends on what 'match loads' mean for you. For me it means 0.5 MOA, all the time. And in my short time of precision shooting match loads and fast reloading do not occur in the same sentance. You have put alot of $$ in your rifle, if you are going to reload for it then you should think carefully about getting good quality the first time. I have a dillion, and I use it for pistol and for loading for my autoloading rifles. For my bolt guns where I want all of my ammo to shoot the same I use a Forster Co-ax, and forster bushing bump dies and ultramicrometer seating dies. I started out loading for my .308 using a dillion, but it did not take long to see that this was not going to be a press for competitive reloading. Most loads were not bad, but there were occasional filiers, if the odd flier does not bother you then go with the dillion, otherwise move to a single stage press. In this category I cannot recommend the Forster co-ax highly enough.

For long distance shooting the second issue of powder wt, if you want true 0.5moa rounds then you really need to keep powder wts to +/- 0.1gn. If you are using stick powders, this means weighing every load, if anyone can get stick powders to always meter perfectly please let me know.

Anyway that is my $0.02 worth
 
yukoncoyote said:
I am wondering what the best reloading press would be to reload .308 Win for precision rifle ammo. It's a toss up between the RCBS Rockchucker and Dillon R550B. Plan on doing a fair amount of shooting and looking for match grade results. Any thoughts?
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I have loaded .223 match ammo that shoots into 1/4" to 1/2" on a Dillon 1050 and a 550, this with H4895 stick powder, Sierra 52/53gr Match, Dillon dies. No case prep, take RP brass out of bag and load it. I believe the dies are very important. I never teasted for runout, I let the rifle do the testing.

The above ammo was for a Colt AR 15 match rifle with SGW match barrel on SGW flat top upper and handguard that I assembled. For testing ammo I used a B & L 36X benchrest scope I had won in a match.

A Dillon 550 will save you time for shooting, the RCBS will be much slower.

You will never be sorry buying quality.

:wave:
 
While I've never used one personally, a lot of experienced guys dote on the Foster Co-Ax. If you get a chance to look at one of these, I think it will quickly become apparent why they like them.

For the rest of us, the 'O' frame press design, regardless of maker is most likely not to spring and cause misalignment.
 
HKMark23 said:
Jeeze Levi, you're no fun ;). All we really want is an excuse to buy more toys so keep your practical solutions to yourself K :D?

That said, I understand that the venerable Forster Co-Ax now has a taller yoke so it can accept Redding's venerable Competition dies. This combination should prove ,, venerable.

Hows the dog :eek: ?
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:D He's dead :( , after 5 years as a diabetic , and 2 needles a day, but he lived a long life, 14 when he went to the hunting grounds in the heavens.:cool:
Sorry about pushing the cheap stuff:D , I wish I had the cash for the good stuff, so its all good :rockOn:
 
Thanks for the info. I am hoping to make my decision soon cause my 300 rounds of Lapua won;t get me to far. At least I'll have some decent brass to reload. Another quick question: I have a bunch of Federal Gold Medal brass and some regular Federal brass from low end hunting ammo. Is it worth reloading the junk brass or should I set it aside and concentrate on the good stuff?
 
yukoncoyote said:
Thanks for the info. I am hoping to make my decision soon cause my 300 rounds of Lapua won;t get me to far. At least I'll have some decent brass to reload. Another quick question: I have a bunch of Federal Gold Medal brass and some regular Federal brass from low end hunting ammo. Is it worth reloading the junk brass or should I set it aside and concentrate on the good stuff?
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no. The opposite. Learn to reload on hunting ammo, then move onto gold medal, then onto lapua.

Same reason you don't learn to drive on a F1 car.
 
Let me throw another vote in for the Forster Co-Ax. I have one that is still marked Bonanza [bought it brand new] This is without a doubt, the best press made when it comes to minimum runout of loaded ammo. I have a couple of other presses as well, but none is as good. With the higher yoke update on the newer Co-Ax presses, it should remain the king. Regards, Eagleye.
 
I finally got set up and bought a RCBS Rockclunker kit. I loaded 20 rounds of .308- 38.5grs Benchmark, 175gr SMK, Fed 210 primers, Fed brass. FL sized, seated to 2.74". Fired 5 rounds into .950 at 250 yds. No signs of excessive pressure or any sign of damage on the cases. Popped 15 more in a nice tight little group, had one total unexplainable flier in the middle somewhere. Very happy that I took my time to load them up, not so happy with the press or seater die. I loaded 40 more of the same load and noticed a slight ring etched into the bullet about 1/4'" or so from the tip. I am using RCBS dies and all my gear is brand new. I used the same procedure each time, do I have a bunk die or something? ANy ideas?
 
yukoncoyote said:
I finally got set up and bought a RCBS Rockclunker kit. I loaded 20 rounds of .308- 38.5grs Benchmark, 175gr SMK, Fed 210 primers, Fed brass. FL sized, seated to 2.74". Fired 5 rounds into .950 at 250 yds. No signs of excessive pressure or any sign of damage on the cases. Popped 15 more in a nice tight little group, had one total unexplainable flier in the middle somewhere. Very happy that I took my time to load them up, not so happy with the press or seater die. I loaded 40 more of the same load and noticed a slight ring etched into the bullet about 1/4'" or so from the tip. I am using RCBS dies and all my gear is brand new. I used the same procedure each time, do I have a bunk die or something? ANy ideas?
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The new rockclunker:p are made in china and have some issues, lots of info out there. The first thing to check is bullet run out which can be a simple as rolling the finished rounds across a flat surface and look for the tips wobbling. If this is noticable there are a few things that might be happening;
seater plug not right for bullet ogive, the ring your seeng is not uncommon but if your getting tip damage the bullet is bottoming out in the plug. Springiness and play in the press means the die isn't consistently sizing and any intermittent binding is an indication the case isn't centering and is actually deforming when sizing. The Coax has a floating shell holder/die setup which allows everything to self centre. Check the runout and take it from there.
 
After getting back into shooting rifle again and reloading for it, I've found that weighing the powder charge is the slowest part of the reloading. Maybe I'm to fussy but I weigh every charge to be the same (electronic scale good to .000 gr.). I have not used the RCBS charge master combo, but I think you would get more accurate loads on a single stage press, with good dies and using something like the charge master combo (very expensive) to speed up weigh charges.
 
A 35 year old Rock Chucker. Also a Lyman T Mag Turrett Press. Use the LNLAP for plinking and small cal stuff, bulk loading.

RCBS and Hornady Dies.
 
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