First Press - without brand snobbery

[danielsonson]

I have done the reading, watched the videos and spoken to friends.

I have amassed a lot of kit but keep stopping short of pulling the trigger on the press. Do I subscribe to brand snobbery with a RCBS rock che
ucker or get a Lee Turrett?

Genuinely - is RCBS so much better.

For context I will be loading. 308 and
243 for hunting, maybe 500 rounds of each a year.

Tia

 

[Malxwal]

That's a lot of hunting !
If you're really tight for cash, a Lee Breech Lock or similar will be absolutely fine for loading hunting ammunition. But if you can stretch to the likes of a Rockchucker, and used ones appear at sensible money, then you'll never have that urge to "upgrade".

 

[B&W FOX]

If your only loading 500 a year is it worth the outlay ?
Dies x 2, press, scales, trays, powder despenser, powder x 2, primers, heads x 2 minimum, vernier gauge.
If you do go down the reloading route don't get carried away and load up more than your allocation on your ticket.

 

[kenbro]

I have done the reading, watched the videos and spoken to friends.

I have amassed a lot of kit but keep stopping short of pulling the trigger on the press. Do I subscribe to brand snobbery with a RCBS rock che
ucker or get a Lee Turrett?

Genuinely - is RCBS so much better.

For context I will be loading. 308 and
243 for hunting, maybe 500 rounds of each a year.

Tia

Made in China?

 

[webley701]

If you are thinking of Lee, a Lee Classic Cast press would be a better first press than their turret press. The Classic Cast may end up only press you ever need.

 

[royalewithcheese]

There are small differences between presses, also some have features others dont like a decent priming system. Some are too small to handle very long OAL cartridges like 338 lapua or 50bmg, etc. Although it sounds like thats not going to be an issue for you

This guy did a pretty good measureable test across 14 different presses:

Fourteen Reloading Presses Compared: Single-Stage Shootout – Page 15 – Ultimate Reloader

ultimatereloader.com

That's just the summary page but you can read the whole thing if you have a spare hour two!
He did show (for the specific presses he had at least), that typically the Hornady and Lee presses were the least consistent, and typically the RCBS presses were the most consistent.

One other thing to consider is the warranty/aftersales you get. RCBS is well known for its aftercare. A mate of mine told me he lost some parts for the priming system of his RCBS press. He emailed RCBS saying he lost them, and could he buy some new ones please. They replied back asking for his address, he gave it and asked for the price.
RCBS emailed back saying "nothing, they're already in the post to you". Granted they were some small parts that probably only cost a few quid, but thats decent of them to send it all the way from the US for nothing when it was his own error.

 

[enfieldspares]

I have done the reading, watched the videos and spoken to friends.

I have amassed a lot of kit but keep stopping short of pulling the trigger on the press. Do I subscribe to brand snobbery with a RCBS rock che
ucker or get a Lee Turrett?

Genuinely - is RCBS so much better.

For context I will be loading. 308 and
243 for hunting, maybe 500 rounds of each a year.

Tia

Many companies trade on past reputations and sell presses that have been cheapened and are junk on comparison to their earlier iteration. the Lyman Brass Smith Victory press doesn't now have the pin that goes through the linkages at their top supported at either end. Just in the middle. This is a cost cutting measure. The Lyman Orange Crusher II did have the linkages, at their top, with a pin that was so supported.

So what you need to do is treat the press as if made by an unknown maker and assess it on the basis of what it does, how much slop (or not) there is in it and things like that. Do the nuts and bolts start to undo when you use it? Is the metal of good quality and so on. It used to be that the name RCBS, Lyman, Redding, Hornady and so on meant that that was so. Today? View and try the press but "blind" its name.

For shorter cases .243 and .308 an older, not worn out, secondhand Rockchucker will serve you well. And because the window in its O frame is smaller that later versions of the Rockchucker may be slighly cheaper that the later version with the greater window height.

 

[andyk]

I’d avoid the Lee Turret Press. You can see the turret part lift (and so sit at an angle) when you raise the cartridge to the die.

It probably doesn’t matter in real life (unless doing high level target shooting) but is still something I wasn’t keen to see.

Nothing wrong with a lot of other Lee stuff though, I’d look to get a s/h cast press and use their dies.

I wasn’t impressed with the Lee scale though, and would save money elsewhere to get a better one.

 

[timbrayford]

You don't have to stick to just one brand, e.g. the Lee aluminium press has got a bit of a reputation for breaking, so I use a Lyman turret press with predominantly Lee dies.

 

[User00056]

I've used a Challenger Breechlock press for a decade with zero issues. I probably load a hundred or so mixed .223, .308, and .270 a year. Lee make good kit, but there are better presses out there. Guess it depends on how hungry you are to spend money on kit

 

[Bavarianbrit]

The MEC marksman has a fab reputation for being very solid and very accurate without slop.

 

[Tikkat3rob]

Mec marksman press as said above, i replaced my my rcbs with one, they are glass smooth with no slop

 

[Jamsie]

If you are thinking of Lee, a Lee Classic Cast press would be a better first press than their turret press. The Classic Cast may end up only press you ever need.

The Lee Classic Cast is a good piece of kit. I've had one since day one of reloading and its been fine.

Jamsie

 

[Jagged77]

Forster Co-Ax, silly money these days but well worth it. (Sorry, just to throw something else into the mix!)

 

[enfieldspares]

I started with the old (old now but new to me in 1976 direct from John Longstaff) RCBS Rockchucker. In the light green crinkle finish. I reloaded thousands of rounds on it from .32 S & W through to .455 Webley in pistol calibres and in rifle maybe three or four thousand .303.

But at some time I also started to load .270 WCF and .280 Ross and found that these Rockchucker presses of that era had a smallish window. Great for pistol and great for .303 but not ideal for the .280 Ross or even the .270 WCF.

So I sold it to a man and now have Simplex Master in blue which is in form and style a Lyman Orange Crusher II so a taller window opening that my original RCBS. So ease of getting you fingers into the O for bullet seating is also to be considered.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I now use my upper bench mounted RCBS for all bullet seating, neck sizing that involves a bushing and full-length sizing of 22 hornet and 222 Rem.

All other reloading duties are carried out on a lower bench mounted Corbin S-Press (CSP-1) that makes pain-free work of all full-length sizing.

K

 

[deeangeo]

While Lee products will do it - my view is go up-market. You'll just never go wrong with an RCBS product & it'll last a lifetime - other up-market brands are equally good.
The RCBS Lifetime Warranty is second to none!

 

[Donkey Basher]

Personally I’d avoid anything that uses die cast ‘white metal’ in any part of the construction, especially if it is a ‘C’ press and not an ‘O’ press, ie open on one side of the vertical frame.

I’d also look for an older secondhand press by the likes of RCBS, Lyman, Hornady etc. as others have said, modern stuff tends to be built to process not spec.

 

[wytonpjs]

Very happy with the classic Lee press (and dies) - have done all I have ever needed in my 10 years of reloading .243, .308 and .270. I've started now to acquire some more niche specialist items like Forsterner shoulder-bump dies but basic Lee kit work - do avoid their beam balance as others have said though.

 

[Demetrius]

I bought a Lee Classic press when I started reloading for target shooting (for two people) 18 years ago........we get through 1500- 2000 rounds a year between us, and it's as good as it was on day one.
I also use Lee collet dies for neck sizing.....they've lasted as well.

D.