Progressive or nice single-stage press?

H

Hunt

New member
So I have been kicking around reloading for some time. Now that ammo. has hit approx. a 30% increase in price this year, I think it's time to start rolling my own. I would eventually be loading .243, .308, .270, .30-06, and pistols (.40 S&W, .44 Mag, .45ACP I have been looking at the following presses and would appreciate any advice:

1) Forster Co-Ax: I hear they are the best of the best in terms of precision rifle loading and use less pressure to seat/resize than a "D" press. They also have the universal shell holder which I think is nice. The negatives I hear is that they use their own custom lock rings, don't have enough hand room to work with and are more pricey than RCBS or the like.

2) RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Kit: I hear these have most everything to get started minus the dies and some other odds like micrometer, etc. The negatives I have heard about this press is that the tolerances aren't as tight as others and runout may be an issue. I do hear that RCBS and Forster and Dillon all have excellent service.

3) Dillon 550: Dillon seems to have legendary service and a great product. However, my concern in starting out with a progressive is that I may not be able to produce accurate rifle loads by throwing charges (is this true?). I wouldn't mind having a progressive as it will get the pistol ammo. loaded quicker.

So what do you recommend? In all honesty, I only probably shoot 100 rifle rnds./month due to availability of funds and proximity to the range/farm. However, I would shoot a lot more pistol/rifle if I had access to more ammo. I think I want to use the Forster Bench Rest Micro. dies for the .243 and .308 if that makes any difference. Everything else can use normal dies. Also, what reloading books do you recommend? I hear Lyman has a good book. As a last request, could you list all items necessary for a beginning reloader? From what I can think I need is the following:

- press and dies
- trimmer
- scale
- micrometer
- reloading book(s)
- tumbler
 
I use an RCBS single for my rifles and a Dillon 550B for my pistol rounds. Bought both used but the RCBS I bought years before the Dillon. I've found the Dillon powder thrower to be surprisingly accurate.
If I had to do it over, I might look at the non-progressive Dillon so that I could use the same dies and accessories, and just move up when I started reloading larger quantities. I loaded up 200 rounds of 357Mag last night on the Dillon.
The term "precision" always bothers me because I've always felt my reloads are good and I feel that it's just a marketing term to get people to buy something that just isn't that much different. If you "hunt" then any of the systems your looking at will work well. If your a paper puncher, I thinks they'll work too.
For reloading books, I use Sierra, Hodgdons, and Nosler, and I try to replace and update books so that their not older than 10 years.

A starting list----
2 or 3 Reloading Books--Buy First
Press
Dies
Shell Holder
Powder Funnel
Case Lube or Spray
Case Lube pad
Burring Tool
Pocket Cleaner
Case Trimmer
Powder Scale
Powder Thrower
Powder Trickler
Tumbler & Cleaning Media
Reloading Blocks
Caliper
Case Gauge (pistols)


To be added later-----
Hand Primer
Primer Flipper
Plastic Cartridge Boxes
Stuck Case Remover
Case Neck Trimmer Tool
Stoney Point Bullet Comparitor
Lockable Storage Cabinet
Dedicated Reloading bench and room
Computer Ballistic Programs
Chronograph

If you like working with your hands, making something useful, can live with a certain level of repetition, like a challenge of "cooking" up new loads with different components then you'll probably become hooked on reloading like many of us here at PM. Good Luck
 
Hunt,
You'll get yourself a good book, Most of them are the same, so if you are swaying towards one brand go with it. I choose Hornady because of availability at the time. Now with the internet the bullet and powder manufacturers are providing so much info over their sites it is really making the books only toilet reading material. A good place to start is with Sierra. Their bullet techs are some of the best in the business. They will answer any questions you may have about any bullet reloading question. They were sending out a flyer for some time too. I really like Hodgdon too. They have a nice site, and put out a yearly Annual Manual for about 8 bucks each year. Much of the same info that is on the site can be found in that Manual. I still seem to get it each year though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
Mike Dillion's equipment is top notch and I cant say enough about it. Last year my Department sent my to McMillan’s sniper schools while there I whent to the McMillan machine shop I got to see them making some of the presses for him, I believe even the base models are capable of producing several hundred rounds per hour.
If that’s not for you go with the single stage jobs. I have been using an old Herters from the early 60's press that I purchased from an estate sale really cheep I'm sure it'll out live me and my boys too. I also have RCBS single stage press too.
Most everything I have I got from people throwing their reloading stuff away and didn’t know what to do with it or just wanted someone to take it off their hands. Believe me I was more than willing to help them out and offer them some cash, or load some rounds up for them.
Again check out the net, get some reading and learn if you have someone close by have them teach you. If not it really isn’t that hard if you can follow instructions, if you cant and you know who you are, do yourself a favor and buy your ammo loaded. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Mike
 
I started with the RC Supreme. Excellent press, but everytime I changed dies it was time to recheck seating depths. I picked up a CO-AX at Cabela's in the bargin cave and now the RCBS sits on the floor. I love switching dies in 2-3 seconds. The locking rings are about $3 each, but I was already using them because they do not seat on the threads like others. I like the centering ablilities of the CO-AX. I learned the hard way that a few extra thousandths of runout can cause huge accuracy problems.

I have used both on everything from 22-250 to 300 RUM and found enough room for my big paws.

RC Supreme spent prime catcher is a disaster, just plan on sweeping the floor after de-priming.

IF you watch Ebay, CO_AX's sell there fairly often for about $150-160. I saw 2 earlier today.

Either is a good choice, I just like the CO-AX.
 
I use RCBS RC for all rifle ammo, in fact I have 2 of them set up when I load. For handgun I have Dillon and Star machines.
 
Quote:
1) Forster Co-Ax: I hear they are the best of the best in terms of precision rifle loading and use less pressure to seat/resize than a "D" press. They also have the universal shell holder which I think is nice. The negatives I hear is that they use their own custom lock rings, don't have enough hand room to work with and are more pricey than RCBS or the like.



It is not a requirement to use forester locking rings in the co-ax. I will say though that they do fit a little more snug though but I have used my dies with their supplied rings without any issues.

As far as lack of hand room, no problem there.

Price wise, yes, they are a little more costly then others but at the same token, they are not like other presses.

One thing I really like is you do not have to have it mounted at the edge of a bench. I drilled a few holes in my bench and mounted it about 12 inches back. My bench is freestanding and being able to offset it keeps the force loacted closer to the center of the table.
 
Quote:


3) Dillon 550: Dillon seems to have legendary service and a great product. However, my concern in starting out with a progressive is that I may not be able to produce accurate rifle loads by throwing charges (is this true?). I wouldn't mind having a progressive as it will get the pistol ammo. loaded quicker.





However, my concern in starting out with a progressive is that I may not be able to produce accurate rifle loads by throwing charges (is this true?).


No, I reload alot of rifle ammo on the Dillon, all my 223, 243 and 6mm remington, all loaded in progressive fashion, all will shoot better than I. The Dillon measures will drop with in 2/10ths of a grain, or closer depending on the powder you use. Unless you compete in benchrest you will never know the difference. I know the difference between single stage and progressive on the Dillon equipment, to me its a waste of time to single stage the 223 and 243 rounds, I can tell no difference either way.

You can set up the dillon 550 to single load a single round if you would like, you set it up as you would for a progressive load session, they have a powder funnel that sits on top of the powder die(instead of the powder measure like the old AT 500) you can still get them. You measure your powder and drop it into the case on the second stage, loading 1 round at a time. I do this for the large magnums, works great!

Plus I believe your 243, 308, 270, 30-06 and 45acp use the same Dillon conversion kit!!!

There ya go single stage for rifles and progressive for pistols!!
 
I load .223&.308 on a Dillon XL650 I was having trouble with varget in the Dillon powder charger so i bought a adaptor from Dillon and mounted a redding powder charger on the 650 works great.
You wouldnt beleive how much more you shoot when reloading is fast and easy.

Gary
 
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