Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage reloading press

I didn't know Savage made presses. I saw this on on Mn. K-Bid. It sold for something like $25.00. Does anyone use one of these?

Collecting old loading tools is fun and every bit as satisfying as collecting anything else gun related. As for using that stuff to build precision handloads, I'll stick with new stuff which undoubtedly is built with superior tolerances, in the main.

Old reloading equipment is cool, but presses are really heavy to ship.

I am reloading .300 savage for the first time...discovered that a neck expanding die is a must! Not so on .30-06, .284 Rem, .223 Rem, etc but these short case necks need a slight expansion on the neck to get that bullet fitted! (No, I am not using BT bullets)

?? I never had such an issue with .300's. In my experience they behave just like any other .30 cartridge when seating bullets. Have you checked the diameter of your expander ball?

I have to have an expander ball first before I can measure it. I bought an RCBS two-die set. Resize/deprime and a bullet seating/crimp die thus the neck expansion die purchase (that flares the cartridge ever so little to accept a jacketed bullet)

I came across one years ago in a pile of old stuff on a table in a gun shop. I didn't grab it and I kind of have regretted that as it was an interesting old item. But I too have to say that you are better off going with something of newer design and manufacture. Savage primarily was in the business of selling guns, not presses and scopes and other such accessories. If you want a good press then get one from a company that's in the reloading business.

Could be you are at the end of your brass' life sportsdad60, maybe too much brass has flowed up too the necks and with your sizing die just working the outside, the inside neck is ending up too small.

I'd like to see a picture of the Savage press, is it just someone elses' casting rebranded for Savage, or were they making them in Utica?

Are you telling me your die came without an expander ball in it? Highly doubt it if it decaps. If no expander ball, then I can readily understand why you need to expand in a separate operation. Otherwise there really shouldn't be a need for a separate expanding operation. A little chamfer on the case mouth should be sufficient.

This was once shot brass, straight out of the box.

gnoahhh, the Hornady decapper/resizing die doesn't have an expander ball. So yeah, a 3rd die was ordered to flare it ever so slightly.
Sorry for the thread hijack!

Does your die look like this? https://www.hornady.com/reloading/dies/custom-grade-dies#!/

Maybe it came with the wrong decapping stem.

Yes, and...could be. I'll have to pull it apart and mic it...

The decapping pin should screw into the sizing ball. I've never ran into this problem, but don't believe I have any Hornady dies. Maybe they work differently.

Its been a while since I've reloaded but the only time I had issues with the 300 was once when I used a s that I think were not machined correctly and when I used too much case lube. Other than that it was always SOP.

I bought a new set of RCBS .308 dies that came with a .243 expander ball. They sent 2 replacements.

This worked.... when I first tried without chamfer It just felt tighter than normal but I've been reloading a lot of .30-06 BT's lately, been a while since I reloaded a flat bottom bullet.
Reloaded my first 10 x .300 savage rounds! Woo hoo! #14 bullet type. Ready to chrono.

Always chamfer the mouth of a rifle case; inside and out.

Yup, I made a fixture to chuck up the chamfer tool in the drill press - quick and easy.

After a few loadings,If same caliber bullet will not fall down into a fired cartridge then you need to inside ream the case.