Jeremybj
Well-Known Member
The Lee Classic Cast is a very reasonably priced press, and WELL built. If you want to go for the cheap, get the Lee. If you would rather spend a little more money, the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme is what I would go with.
Which press?
- Thread starter Coues Sniper
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joe0121
Well-Known Member
I already have a steel pedestal for a press sitting in my garage. Prolly get the Forster sometime around Christmas.
CO-AX all the way - no questions, Friends have Rcbs, Dillion, and Hornady (I think they all use dies from their press manufacturer) anyways they can't compete with my accuracy. I use a Bonanza CO-AX, today it's a Forster CO-AX (same thing) and Redding Comp dies, easily the greatest combo out there... people can argue... but they are wrong..
Quite a statement considering you've probably not compared your results with others. Those others may well be getting twice the accuracy you are.
For example, how does your accuracy compare to what Sierra Bullets gets with their equipment? I seriously doubt anyone shoots their product as accurate as they do. They used Lyman presses years ago and their best match bullets shot into the ones (that's less than 2/10ths MOA) and sometimes in the zeros (under 1/10th MOA). For all I know, they still use Lyman presses with Redding full bushing or standard full length sizing dies.
The most accurate centerfire ammo I know of has been loaded with an old RCBS A2 press. A pair of Dillon 1050's put out some .308 Win. match ammo with new cases that tested about 1 inch mean radius at 600 yards.
joe0121
Well-Known Member
Heck I watched a guy win a 500 yard match reloading 308 ammo for his m1 garand with on of those hand heald reloading tools on the firing line! (well on a bench behind the firing line between strings) He saw me staring and shot me a wink and said you young guys don't know anything about hos we did it in the 60's
Who was he competing with? What kind of score did he shoot?
Even a duffer will out score a bunch of ragamuffins in a rifle match.....once in a while. That aside, the best of the Garands converted to 7.62 NATO by one of those 3 or 4 people back in the '60's that knew what to do, they would shoot inside 4 inches all day long at 600 yards with a good lot of commercial match ammo.
Here.... Cooper Load Data
Believe it or not I guess... CO-AX Press - Redding Comp Dies - I seriously don't compare a person who shoots for fun to a company worth millions of dollars... but hey...
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joe0121
Well-Known Member
This was at the ben avery range in Phoenix AZ shooting against a bunch of other guys who shot F-class and NRA service rifle. This was a match run by the range. I was there because to get access to the 500 yard range you had to let the guys in the club get to know you by showing up to the matches. It was a silhouette shooting steel targets. His Garand was a custom job converted to .308 because they didn't like you using stuff above .308 because it was hard on the targets. It was a hit = 1 point miss = 0 set up targets from 100 to 500 yards in size from coyote to deer. 100 shots total. 20 per yard line divided by 4 targets. Done know his score all I know is he didnt have very many steel targets left standing. gun)
joe0121
Well-Known Member
You bring up a good point. It seems smithing on Garands is an ART and science. Some guys just have the special something to make a sweet shooting Garand.
Trickymissfit
Well-Known Member
I did check ammo from several presses several years back, and then we all redid the same test over again due to some disagreements. Results came out the same each time. All loaded ammo was checked in a J&L Shadowgraph in two different positions. We did run one more test by swapping dies, and loading a half dozen rounds from each die set in each press. There was a difference in the dies, but you still saw problems with the cases not being square. A Dillon built the worst ammo of the group eachtime, and showed little improvement with die swaps. The guy then sent the Dillon back for repair, and it came back worse.
gary
Trickymissfit
Well-Known Member
Did you happen to check a CO-AX with Redding Comp Dies?
at the time they were not doing the bushing die, but did use their Comp seater and the better full length die. Not much difference between the Forster seater and the Redding, but found the numbers easier to read on the Redding. The Forster seems to have slightly less backlash in the adjustments. The real difference between the two is with the full length sizers. In otherwords if you used a Redding full length comp die and a Forster seater or a Redding seater you wouldn't see much difference. But the Forster full length die is a different story. The necks are better.
Back to the Redding dies a sec; The dies were owned by Doug and another brought in some 6BR ammo done off Redding comp dies (everything was in .223). I don't know whatkind of press the 6BR rounds were done on, but the others were done on an Redding, a couple RCBS, a Hornaday, and a Dillon then later my Co-Ax. I also compaired the .223 stuff with a similar set of rounds done off my K&M arbor press and Wilson dies. Only slightly better, but the necks looked better than anything I checked, no matter who made the die.
To take this into depth further, when we checked the rounds the first time we all knew who loaded what. So the next time we did it blind. The third time we swapped dies between us, and we knew who did what. This whole mess was started by one guy that claimed he was loading ammo well under .001". He saw me checking a hand full of dummy rounds in a gauge I was working on. Then another guy chimed in, and before you knew it there was about five or six. And later yet my boss brought in a dozen .223 rounds he loaded in his rebuilt press. They all were under .002", and most were around .0015" (checked in the Shadowgraph). The one die I wish we'd have tried was the Lee Collet die.
Sometime later I ran some tests on lock rings for the hell of it, and we sorely need better lock rings!! None were all that great, and when you seat them, they moved the die body. I did find one good lock ring that wasn't made for a die body, but was very square yet expensive!
gary
I was thinking of getting a new press and after reading this thread I'm more confused than ever. You guys are good!. I'm new to long range and I've been loading on a Rockchucker for 12 years. I saw a thread somewhere and the guy said it wasn't that bad as a press, but you need to set the press up properly, but did not say what "proper" was. Any suggestions? I just bought a Redding S type bushing die, Lee Collet neck sizing die, and Forrester Competition seating die. Shooting a 7 mag. Not trying to hijack the thread , just impressed with the knowledge you have.
Thanks
Thanks
