Previously posted review of mec press, was told to send back to vendor, well called me again, told him about a lot of slop in ram and rough finish where shell holder sits, got a different guy and he sent me a new press with return shipping on old one, happy to say ram is much tighter and top of ram is finished way better, nice and smooth, I'll put it through it's paces but looks like this one will be a keeper so far.
MEC marksman customer service
- Thread starter 6pakzak
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
Good for you. Glad it worked out to your satisfaction. 
Bolted up replacement mec and rechecking slop has much less, really gotta tug on it to feel anything which is night and day compared to first one, top of ram is finished much better, I lightly wet sanded it with 1200 grit and polished it up to help floating holder work better, just been seating with it but everything is coming out great, definitely not adding any runout, averaging around .001 or less, surprised if I see anything close to .002 but hey not all my cases are perfect to begin with, kinda pricey for a seating press but worth the money if it doesn't induce any runout and I'll be doing other things on it but was looking for a good seating press and works great, looks better finished too than first one too.
What seating die you using?
Seabeeken
Well-Known Member
Once that case goes into the die, the die is in control of runout more than a tight ram. If this were not true then the Forster Coax with floating die and shell plates would make the worst runout in the industry
I did have the coax and was getting bad runout with it. I use Forster seating die. I understand that the die does all the work but after replacing my Challenger press my runout went down, the press isn't gonna improve the brass but a good press is gonna let the die do its job better, it can't hurt to let the case line itself up with no resistance from the shellholder, the better the ram lines up the better your ammo will be, if this wasn't true I would have seen no improvement switching from lee and why was did my ammo have bad runout with coax and improve greatly when I got rebel, if die is only thing to be concerned about than any press should do.
Seabeeken
Well-Known Member
I have a forster and a BB2 side by side. Runout is the same in both with the same die. Once in the die under pressure the die has it. On the way out of the die passing over expander can change things. My 338 in those presses has perfect runout, my 250ai a couple thousandths. At one time th 250 had .010 runout, sent die to Redding for repair, came back runout .002
My 40+ year old RC press still makes great loads with little runout even with play in the ram. Son has it now and he is shooting one groups. TETO
My 40+ year old RC press still makes great loads with little runout even with play in the ram. Son has it now and he is shooting one groups. TETO
Last edited:
Seabeeken
Well-Known Member
I just went down and did a few 250ai cases on each of my presses, I measured no difference between them. Both presses have play in the shell holders and the forster has the floating die. Ive never had a lee but a friend does and he loads some very accurate ammo on it although Ive never asked him about runout. I'm not disputing what you say, just relating my experience. I have seen some pics of broken Lee presses that were aluminum cast.
The other day I had variations in bullet runout. Tried both presses, same thing. Round 2 with Redding upcoming. Their last solution was send another seating plug, no difference. Next step is a custom die.
The other day I had variations in bullet runout. Tried both presses, same thing. Round 2 with Redding upcoming. Their last solution was send another seating plug, no difference. Next step is a custom die.
I was seating on the first MEC and it did pretty good but sometimes my runout would go above .003, last couple days been using the replacement, my highest runout has been .002 and only a few and been doing some brass I saved from cheap 223s, runout has hovered at .001 but I am getting many now around 0, needle is jiggling in place which could be slight imperfections in case, percentage wise I have never had this many so close to zero. Seating doesn't involve much pressure and I believe the easier you allow it to center itself the better, when you put case in holder you can set it more to the right or left or back and forth so anything you do to cut down on any resistance will allow it to center itself better. If a ram is sloppy it has a little bit of a tilt to it which would cause it not to be perfectly square to die and press harder on one side of the base than other, mind you very tiny but my theory with reloading is all the little things add up, I'm even still slightly dipping the base of bullet in hbn so it can slide easier on shell holder and have noticed an improvement in runout overall, not huge but enough that I keep doing it, my bullets runout wise have been improving every week so I feel I'm moving in the right direction.
I'll just add if you look at the 14 press shootout some presses had very good shoulder bump and runout, others did not and the differences between the best and worst were pretty large and these are all new presses sold today, so absolutely a press can affect the quality of your ammo and by substantial amounts.
