Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Huntington Compac Press

Found one in a box, cute little thing.
Proly be dandy for small stuff.

Not orig box and no papers, but looks dang near new.

What do these fetch?

Will post a pic when i get home.

I'd say that one fetched about what you paid for it....

Will load some .357 on it and see how it goes 😎

These are exactly what you describe- -small, handy, cute. The HDS press is very portable and easy to use when at the range or on the road. Harry Decker (if I remember correctly) designed and made the originals and later sold the patent or assigned the rights to Huntington (RCBS). These used to be advertised in gunny magazines for about $48, which was adjusted upwards over a period of maybe 15 years to about $75 when l last recall seeing the ads. The street price generally runs $45-55, but I haven't seen one in a LGS for years. I don't think I will ever be able to wear one out. Personally, I think this is THE best design for a light weight and portable reloading press and I keep two of them set up with dies and shellholders (32 long/mag and 38 special/357). The little red press from Lee would be my second choice for the same chores IMHO.

Resizing revolver cases or flaring case mouths for pistol brass is their principle use. I have processed thousands of cases while on temporary duty, which beats sitting in the motel with nothing to do. I don't deprime or prime cases with the HDS. There are better ways to deprime that also catch the spent primer. I haven't used the HDS press for resizing anything besides straight-sided cases, so I can't tell you if it is suited for rifle brass, but I have other presses for that action. They are mounted to a substantial bench in the workshop.

I was thinking for pistol.
And using a hand priming tool.

Just kinda cool and portable if need be
Have that funky hand lyman too.....orange deal w monkey grip LOL.

Not a fan of Lee stuff outside of their collet dies and ram prime.

Have a Lyman Mag T. had a Spar T that did great service but sold my whole setup when i moved.

Currently have Lyman T mag, trimmer , beam scale and 55 measure.

Have a bunch of my dads old stuff. Herters, Lachmiller, Hollywood, Star and Dillon stuff. Some Pacific, Bear and Forster.

That little RCBS press looks handy as heck.

I used to use a Lee Hand Press for everything from 30-06 to 22-250 when I had no room in the house for a bench.

Now I have a RockChucker and an RCBS Jr-5 permanently mounted and a Lee Breech Lock Aluminum C press on a slide mount. The Lee gets pistol flaring and seating duty, and often seating of rifle cartridge bullets.

Sometimes I really miss that Hand Loader.

I picked up one in December for $40 with a box.

It is great to use for those times when I'm set up for loading but need to do something like size one or two when the press is set for seating bullets.