Need help choosing a new single stage press

I picked up an old RCBS and I bloody well love it, heavy duty, smooth and all the attachments are available. Christ it's over 25yrs old but was never mounted, I got a sweet deal.
 
For the screw in style presses a grand accessory to buy for the dies is some of the pinch style collars such as sold by Hornady. These will lock on the die far better than any other. A second string option is the RCBS die collars that use a set screw. Not quite as secure but still head and shoulders over the Lee solution of a friction O ring.

With the collars locked securely to the threads of the die it enhances the repeatability of the die setting to where you can swap between dies certain that they are still in adjustment.
 
BCRider said:
For the screw in style presses a grand accessory to buy for the dies is some of the pinch style collars such as sold by Hornady. These will lock on the die far better than any other. A second string option is the RCBS die collars that use a set screw. Not quite as secure but still head and shoulders over the Lee solution of a friction O ring.

With the collars locked securely to the threads of the die it enhances the repeatability of the die setting to where you can swap between dies certain that they are still in adjustment.
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I have a drawer full of forster lock rings, and a bucket full of RCBS die rings..............good stuff resides in the drawer
 
The Forster co-ax is an awesome press and the ease of changing dies is brilliant. However, after getting the Redding T7 the co-ax left the bench and never came back.
 
BCRider said:
The Hornady with it's bayonet bushings is sort of a middle ground between a multi position turret press and a screw in single stage. For me it makes me smile when I use it.

I've had screw in singles and I still have a cast iron 6 position turret Lyman. But for the flexibility, repeatability and ease of changing dies the Hornady is the keeper that I'll have after the others are gone.
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I agree. Having all of my dies set up in bushings, makes reloading a quick task when I need to switch over dies. Accuracy has also been excellent with the bushing system.
 
Just picked up a nice lightly used rcbs rockchucker,so far i think it is a very good unit feels tough as hell compared to my old lee turret press.Seating bullets with the rockchucker feels odd to me, its like there isn't enough room to get your hand in there properly,probably once a guy gets used to it will never notice it.
 
A bit of an off-topic question but related.

I've been using single-stage presses for almost 30 years, first with a used Redding "C" press (which I still have and use for secondary operations) and more recently (about 5 years ago) an RCBS RockChucker. I'm getting in to pistol caliber, starting with 9mm, and have been using my buddy's Dillon 550 to pump out reloads. I'm interested in my own Progressive, with auto-indexing, and it's kind of a toss-up between the Dillon 650 and the Hornady LnL progressive w/auto-indexing.

My question: with either of these progressives, can they be used for larger caliber reloading? I'm thinking .308 Win, .270 Win and 30.06 Sprg. Not considering my larger calibers like 444 Marlin or 45-70, I'll continue to use the single stage for those, they're so expensive to shoot even reloaded that I wouldn't be pumping out a lot of rounds for those.

I've been talking to some Local Gun Store folks, with mixed messages. A couple say "yup, no problem" - but one guy who seemed to know what he was talking about told me that he wouldn't consider a progressive auto-indexing press for anything rifle larger than about a .223.

Anybody on here load up rifle rounds on a progressive auto-index? If so, what calibers, which press, any issues, etc?

Thanks for the help and feedback.

OldNewGuy
 
Well, the answer is in the list of shell plates to be had for those presses. If they make shell plates then the press will handle them. So clearly they will since they do. The list of available plates for the Dillon 550 and 650 looks like it has pretty much everything on it but 50BMG and AIM9 missiles..... :D And I'm guessing that if you look up the Hornady shell plate list that they are the same.

For my own rifle loading the only round that I'd be interested in loading progressively is plinking rounds for my .30-30. And if I ever get an AR'ish clone I'd load the 5.56 on a progressive in a blink. But the rest of my rifle loading involves sets of brass that is dedicated to one rifle because it's fire formed to that chamber and I neck size only. I also drop and trickle each charge onto a scale for those rounds as well. So all in all those steps just aren't that compatible with a progressive press. Or at least there's just no real advantage.

I suspect that the guy that told you it's a bad idea does much the same for his own rifle loading and that's why he's against it.
 
While I'm not a Lee fan at all, I do have a Lee hand press for portability. I also currently have an old Lyman Spar-T press, an RCBS Big Max (sadly discontinued), and a Redding Ultramag. I also have a Dillon 550B for a progressive and have found it to work very well as a turret press when required.

If pushed to the wall I'd have to say Redding over everything else...
 
BCRider said:
Well, the answer is in the list of shell plates to be had for those presses. If they make shell plates then the press will handle them. So clearly they will since they do. The list of available plates for the Dillon 550 and 650 looks like it has pretty much everything on it but 50BMG and AIM9 missiles..... :D And I'm guessing that if you look up the Hornady shell plate list that they are the same.

For my own rifle loading the only round that I'd be interested in loading progressively is plinking rounds for my .30-30. And if I ever get an AR'ish clone I'd load the 5.56 on a progressive in a blink. But the rest of my rifle loading involves sets of brass that is dedicated to one rifle because it's fire formed to that chamber and I neck size only. I also drop and trickle each charge onto a scale for those rounds as well. So all in all those steps just aren't that compatible with a progressive press. Or at least there's just no real advantage.

I suspect that the guy that told you it's a bad idea does much the same for his own rifle loading and that's why he's against it.
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Thanks, Rider.

That shows how ignorant I am of the progressives - I never even thought of looking up the shell plates. Just goes to show, it doesn't matter how long you've been at something, there is always new stuff to be learned.

OldNewGuy
 
One thing that you might consider. It may be that at some point you want to do half the operations on a progressive to prep the brass then remove the casings mid run and perform something outside then re-insert them into the progressive path again. The Dillon presses with the removable retention buttons makes this easy peasy compared to having to juggle the cases out from the spring band on the Hornady. You Tube videos of how to set up the shell plates will show these features pretty clearly.

I've done exactly this for loading black powder cartridges. The measures in the usual Dillon powder measure are simply not big enough unless I buy a rifle measure. So it was a simple matter to pull out one retainer button and size, decap, prime and flare then slip the cases out to a loading block for powdering up. Then to slip them back into the seating position and on to the separate crimping station.

This feature that the 550 and 650 share over the Hornady makes the Big Smurf Blue Machine the winner in my books.

On second thought which just occurred as I was typing the above lines I guess there's a work around for the Hornady. Because it uses separate bushings for each die it becomes a simple matter of lifting out the dies you don't want. And then once done you lift out the ones you just used and put in the ones you need for the follow up operations. A bit more die handling vs small brass buttons but certainly just as effective. So it may not be as clear as I was thinking at first.
 
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