Mec Marksman any good

6pakzak

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2021
Messages
678
Location
New York
This is a question for me marksman owners, have you seen a big difference in runout since getting your mec?
 
I have had mine a couple years...
I have found that the Mec is very smooth in operation....
But I think run out comes about more with finesse of the dies...
People talk about 'cam-over'...mine runs top to bottom....
If dies are set correct..no worries about run out....
 
I'm finding with sloppy shell holders my runout is decreasing quite a bit and getting consistent results, that's why I would like to know if the floating shell holder on the mec is giving you better results, I suppose if your previous press was right on the money there would not be much difference but I would think that the float would maybe give more consistent results.
 
I love the ergonomics of the mec especially with inline roller handle. Smoothest stroke of any press I've used and lots of power.

I've compared it to a redding t-7, big boss ii, and rock chucker.

All are extremely consistent. Over an average of 50 rounds resized and loaded for each press i found....

The t-7 and big boss ii are a virtual tie and were the best, then rock chucker, then mec.

All produced shoulder bump under 0.001 variation, and runout averaged right at 0.001 with all 3 presses. The reddings were 0.0009, rock chucker was 0.00095, and mec was 0.001.

Same brass same dies.
 
I looked up long range competition shooters and tried to find out what presses they used, they all recommended single stage and the big boss did come up as a recommended press, I'm at pretty much .0001 run out on everything using rebel to do one thing and rcbs junior to do another and another press to seat, I don't neck turn, don't really want to so my goal was .0001 runout consistently, I'm at that and thinking of getting mec but realistically am I gonna get better than what I'm getting, having loose shell holders has really helped with runout and that's why I like the idea of the mec
 
I gotta say Redding makes some good stuff I don't see why their presses would be any different, I bought Redding body dies and they work perfect,first bought just one to see how it works and then immediately got more for my other calibers
 
I'm at .001 runout not .0001, just noticed that reading your replies, no need for any change at that run-out with the extra 0
 
What I'm doing seems to be working, the rebel press seems to work fine, I think I'll be looking at getting some mandrels instead of another press, I thought more people would be praising the mec, I guess the coax is what people go crazy for, I guess saving that 8 seconds sliding the dies in and out leaves you a lot more time for other things.
 
Well does anyone have the Frankfurt m press which is clearly superior to the coax press, wondering how it's worked out for you.
 
I have the Frankford M Press, it has worked out good for me, I upgraded from an old Lyman All American turret press I had that had a lot of slop in it. I like the M -Press it does what I want it to do, runout varies from a low of .0005 to as high as .004. I am not sure if the press or the dies are causing it, but I normally see .001 to .003. If you are getting .001 consistently, I would not bother with finding another press. What I like about the M Press, the integrated light, the primer catch, no shell holders required. What I don't care for is not being able to use certain dies, one die I have to manipulate to work is the Forester Micro Seater die, the upper die body is fatter than the bottom die, this causes it to not fit with the upper screwed down tight to the bottom portion of the die. What I did was unscrew the upper porrtion until it clears the press body, which is roughly two turns. This allows me to use the die, I did see on Johnny reloading bench, someone mentions using a shell holder in the jaws to give the case a little more depth for the die, this may work by allowing me to screw the upper die body down to it's normal position, I have not tried it, but looks like a work around. The Hornady micro adjuster dies I understand will not work, they are too tall and hit the yoke on the handle when lowering, the Redding Micro Adjustable die works fine.
 
Without a high precision runout tool like the 21st century, we are basically guessing.

With that, I found my press switch from Hornady SS to MEC netted me a 0.003" on average, but the Hornady sometimes had 0.02" bullet tip runout, if I remember right. The MEC never has this much variation. The only problem with these numbers is I also changed from LNL insert to threads which had some improvement, but I cant isolate the numbers now.
 
So the quick change inserts created ammo that was not as good? Asking cause I have the lee inserts but haven't switched to them yet and if ammo won't be as good I'll stick with screwing in the die evertime
 
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