Home

Gavin does great handloading video's , he was good friends with 24hrcmpfr member - Jim the Plumber - who passed away unexpectedly Dec. of 2017 [hope I got the date right] , Thought I'd throw it on here since there has been questions on new presses - I might be in the market for a new press .


I'll be looking forward to the float or no float info. - what do you folks think ?
Wow! What an awesome overview of presses.
Very good video, interesting and informative (I did not see ALL of it, though...gotta hit the hay very soon so I'll see it in its entirety when I can).

I do question the summarized results, though. When showing the Co-Ax, he implied that he used non-Forster die lock rings...what I saw looked like RCBS die lock rings. I suspect that may have skewed his run-out numbers with that press. I could be wrong, but I believe Forster rings work best with the Co-Ax.
Tagging this to watch tomorrow.
Meticulous measurement and overview. Was amazed to find the RCBS RC to do so well at roughly 20% the cost of the German press.
Happy to see my old RCBS Rockchucker do so well against all the other presses.
Nice work
Well done, for sure.

When he said he was shooting 1/3 MOA with the cheapest press, I kinda figured the rest was beyond my interest level.

I’m yet a wet-behind-the-ears novice, but already turning out more accurate ammo then I’d have thought, and even using that cheapest press.

Cheap but accurate presses? $300 bug-hole shooting rifles? $150 scopes that outperform the alphas of 20-30 year’s ago? <MOA factory ammo? We’re truly in the golden age of shooting sports.

FC
Checked some factory ammo once fired brass last night on the RCBS Concentricity gauge - shot in a custom 22-250 Mickey Coleman built for me .
Cleaned 10 cases with fine steel wool - worst case was 2 thousandths , neck sized cases with three presses - two Lee hand press and an old Lee 3 turret press . The turret press is old and was given to me years ago - bit of rust on ram etc. , one hand press has a good bit of wiggle in the ram , other is better but still a bit of wiggle.
Anyway all three presses added a bit of runout using a Lee collet neck die . The hand press with the loose ram turned out one case with 7+thousandth runout .
[added 5K + runout] to the brass .

I'm not running Lee stuff down by any means the turret press was very neglected - the hand presses cost $29 each when I bought them and have turned out hordes of 3/4-1'' ammo . Plus quite a few lucky groups measuring .3-.4'' but that's not everyday stuff.

Ordered a new RCBS Summit from Midsouth today - hopefully it makes a bit more concentric ammo .
Great video
Gavin is a friend, a good guy, and meticulous with his testing. This was quite a big project.

Guy
Recieved my RCBS Summit press , it was on back-order but not for long .

Smooth as silk , I'll do the same test as I mentioned above and see if it introduces run-out in the 22-250 cases , but i'm heading to my hunting lease for a few days right now .

Cascade , yeah Gavin doesn't leave out much when it comes to handloading and he shoots the loads and shows the results which I really like .

Good shooting and Happy reloading smile .
That's cool Guy, seems like he is a good fellow.

I saw that not long ago and found it very interesting. Nice to see RCBS doing so well, I have a Reloader Special 5 which he didn't test of course but I'm quite happy with it and have no reason to replace it. Might get a second press one day and one of the RCBS presses or a Redding will be the top choices.

Ol mike, that Summit press sure is different but looks to be very good. Hope you let us know the results of your 22-250 tests.
I will indeed .
Great, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it.
Originally Posted by gerry35
Great, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Gerry35 ,

Really liking the Summit press it's making nice straight ammo and is very smooth .
Seated some 180gr. Berger Hybrids and 180gr. Hornady ELD-M using the ''short handle'' [bought separately] gives very good feel . Looking forward to testing the 180's soon .
Just yesterday I loaded some 7mm-08/150 ELD-X rounds. This was on a 35 year old RCBS II, used a Lee collet neck die and Lee seater (virgin brass) and runout was 0.001".

The press has been a part twice for lube, second time noticed wear on the pins so rotated them, good for another 35 years.
Yet another data point showing that the RCBS RC outperforms the Forster Co-Ax on quality of ammo produced. Not really news to people who have measured it, but probably news to the reloading community as a whole.
Originally Posted by ol_mike
Originally Posted by gerry35
Great, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Gerry35 ,

Really liking the Summit press it's making nice straight ammo and is very smooth .
Seated some 180gr. Berger Hybrids and 180gr. Hornady ELD-M using the ''short handle'' [bought separately] gives very good feel . Looking forward to testing the 180's soon .


Sounds good so far, thanks for the update.
Originally Posted by Axtell
Just yesterday I loaded some 7mm-08/150 ELD-X rounds. This was on a 35 year old RCBS II, used a Lee collet neck die and Lee seater (virgin brass) and runout was 0.001".

The press has been a part twice for lube, second time noticed wear on the pins so rotated them, good for another 35 years.



On the week-end this load combo and a Steyr Pro-Hunter got a 6.25" (3 shot group) at 1050 yards. I don't think the press or dies are holding me back.
I'd say NOT!
I'm still using a 70's vintage Rock Chucker and I have no problems assembling straight cartridges. Other ducks need to be in a row before fine differences in quality presses start to show.


All I can tell you is that I got lucky with my first press. I bought a new Rockchucker when we built our house in 1980. I haven't regretted it for a second. 10's of thousands of rounds before I got a couple Dillon 650's and a 550. This shows how much it has been used. The wrinkle finish is worn off from holding the back of the press with my left hand when I was putting a lot of pressure on the lever to resize...

[Linked Image]
Originally Posted by RiverRider
Very good video, interesting and informative (I did not see ALL of it, though...gotta hit the hay very soon so I'll see it in its entirety when I can).

I do question the summarized results, though. When showing the Co-Ax, he implied that he used non-Forster die lock rings...what I saw looked like RCBS die lock rings. I suspect that may have skewed his run-out numbers with that press. I could be wrong, but I believe Forster rings work best with the Co-Ax.


Further, Forster lock rings are Aluminum not steel. Aluminum is softer than cast iron concentrating wear on the lock ring rather than the press. I think it is a mistake to not use Forster lock rings with the Co-ax. The one exception I’ve made is with Whidden dies (particularly those with their indexing lock ring). Whidden also uses a thick aluminum lock ring.

My second criticism concerns the application of Redding Imperial Case Sizing Wax. The consistent application of ample, but not excess, sizing lube directly correlates with increased uniformity in sized brass. Lubrication effects mechanical sliding friction. Variations in mechanical sliding friction contribute to variations in deformation (elastic/plastic). We’ve all seen brass spring-back vary with inconsistent lubrication particularly as brass gets worked. Regarding the application of Imperial Sizing Wax, my experience shows its consistent application to be much more an art than science.
At the end of the day, a sample size of 5 is way to small to yield meaningful results.
Originally Posted by kingston
[quote=RiverRider]Regarding the application of Imperial Sizing Wax, my experience shows its consistent application to be much more an art than science.



I have a very little bit coating tip of my thumb and first two fingers, and I apply it almost as if I'm trying to wipe something off the case.
© 24hourcampfire