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Accuracy, how much is down to the press?


Woodlander

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Thanks guys, just needed to settle that doubt (again).
 When I see the likes of the Co Ax press and compare it to my clunky Lee (not that I would/could buy a CoAx) I wonder how it could make ammo to come anywhere near it.  
Catch, turning the cartridge through 180, is a habit I’d got into after watching a YouTube vid, when I first started reloading.  
Thanks again, I’ll stick with Lee, unless somebody wants to swap for a Lyman T mag.  
Cheers all and good health

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4 hours ago, Catch-22 said:

Likely no.

But something worth doing is rotating your bullets as you progressively seat.

So seat half the bullet, back out and revolve case 180 degrees, then fully seat.

Has been proven to improve concentricity.

Interesting. I had heard that this was a thing.  I did some trials of this procedure with my RCBS Rock Chucker.  I have a Sinclair concentricity gauge and tested 50 off fully seated in one pass and 50 seated progressively with rotation.  No statistically relevant differences seen on .308, .223 or .338.   I use Hornady seating dies with polished seating stems in all calibres.  I must say run out is very small in all cases anyway ± 2 ~ 3 thou. and easily fixed with my calibrated thumb

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Personally, I’ve not tried validating this myself as I don’t own a concentricity gauge. But have read a few resources that recommended it and as it’s quick, simple and free (no extra equipment needed) I’ve just always done it and have always been able to produce very accurate and repeatability accurate ammunition.

I too use a RCBS Rockchucker Supreme, albeit with a mix of Whidden, Redding and Lee (.44mag) dies.

Here’s something I’ve read in the past. There was also a good piece by the USAMU on it but can’t locate it as yet.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/07/try-rotating-cases-during-bullet-seating-to-reduce-run-out/

 

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if it is tight no wiggles I would think no issues, I use a rockchucker and thousands of rounds in 15 years its tight. I would think many varibles would exist, brass trim, bullet used,  scales calibrated ect.

 

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The first press I bought many years ago was a Lee turret press and I wore it out, got play in the ram, so bought a rockchucker next and now had it a lot longer than the Lee and it's still like a rockchucker, solid 😃. I've always had a habit of rotating my cases 3 times while seating the bullet.

Oh yeah and I think I've 3 spare turrets if anyone's wanting some.

 

 

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1 hour ago, One on top of two said:

Bastardised Redding /  Rock Chucker Supreme Here 👍

A wise choice sir! If you can break one I don't know how and with any reasonable care mine will do my shooting lifetime with ease.

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When I started shooting in 1984 I bought a secondhand Rockchucker for £30.  I eventually added a Hornady progressive for pistol rounds.

I was happy with the Rockchucker until a few months ago when a guy joined Diggle and mentioned that he was waiting for his MEC Marksman press to arrive from America.  MEC?  - never heard of it but a quick Google and a few You Tube videos later I decided it was time for a new press.

I presumed i would have to order from the States but no - Hull Clay and Game are the UK importers!  It's a fine press, I really like it - and I got £75 for the Rockchucker

 

 

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I posted a few weeks ago that I was thinking of changing over from my 33 year old Redding Boss to an RCBS Summit, of which I had seen some very mixed reviews. 

I made the change and as expected bullet seating is much more consistent; this had been my chief complaint in recent times and I believe wear at the top of the ram was responsible.          

The Summit is quite different and it would be interesting to know if RCBS created it with nostalgia in mind for those of us who read Guns & Ammo in the 1960's.  The articles often featured items like the old Hollywood column presses which were an unattainable dream in those far off days and the RCBS Summit bears more than a passing resemblance to it.

With the advantage of hindsight had I bought a Rockchucker in 1987 I would probably still be using it as I believe it set the gold standard then. That's not to say that 33 years use of the Redding Boss was a waste of money.                                                                                          

When time and space allow the Redding will be equipped with a universal de-capping die and used immediately upon my return from the range. I reckon in this capacity it will last at least another 33 years if not more. 

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I still use my Lee press and as it's resulted in ammo that's seen off competition at shoots, it works for me.  I'd rather invest my cash in more reloading components as I'm pretty sure that the difference between bullets and case prep consistency matters more than what press you use.  Now dies...that's a different story...

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I went from a lee to a forster co-ax about 11 years ago. I got the forster from bushwear on promotion. 
 

The camming action on the forster is excellent and allows me to full length size .308/6.5 creedmoor/6.5x47 and 7x64 with ease. 
 

However I have been using a hand press for a couple of years due to the confines of space. It’s been a cracking piece of kit. Very expensive once imported. so much so I won’t go into it. 
 

I am currently shopping for a press for my Dad. I have always reloaded for him. We had a trio of 6mmbr’s made a few years ago and now he is retired he can load for himself. When Jeff Rowland is supplying his high-fi I had to offer a good looking press which means European. 
 

check out these for engineering goodness as what I believe are good prices. There was a one that was twice the price but couldn’t see why. 
 


 


https://www.solidsolutiondesigns.com/product/micron-press-up-to-300wm/

 

https://www.com/product/reloading-press-talon-advanced/

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On 3/21/2020 at 10:22 PM, Catch-22 said:

Personally, I’ve not tried validating this myself as I don’t own a concentricity gauge. But have read a few resources that recommended it and as it’s quick, simple and free (no extra equipment needed) I’ve just always done it and have always been able to produce very accurate and repeatability accurate ammunition.

I too use a RCBS Rockchucker Supreme, albeit with a mix of Whidden, Redding and Lee (.44mag) dies.

Here’s something I’ve read in the past. There was also a good piece by the USAMU on it but can’t locate it as yet.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/07/try-rotating-cases-during-bullet-seating-to-reduce-run-out/

 

I thought I'd try the seating in the part-steps and rotate method again just in case my earlier tests were poorly controlled

50 off .338 Lapua Mag, Hornady 285 ELD-M.  Hornady seating die with correct stem for ELD-M.  Lapua brass 2 thou knock back in Redding bushing die. RCBS Rockchucker press.  Bullet part seated then rotated 180deg and then fully seated.  

I achieved no statistically significant improvement over seating in one pass.  The only 'benefit' to me was it helped fill up a boring self-isolation day 😀

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2 hours ago, Popsbengo said:

I thought I'd try the seating in the part-steps and rotate method again just in case my earlier tests were poorly controlled

50 off .338 Lapua Mag, Hornady 285 ELD-M.  Hornady seating die with correct stem for ELD-M.  Lapua brass 2 thou knock back in Redding bushing die. RCBS Rockchucker press.  Bullet part seated then rotated 180deg and then fully seated.  

I achieved no statistically significant improvement over seating in one pass.  The only 'benefit' to me was it helped fill up a boring self-isolation day 😀

Not having done the case rotation during seating I was curious. One friend of mine swears by this to seat bullets and crimp too, always seemed a waste of time to me and thank you sir for confirmation of my thoughts.

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Maybe...but maybe not!

Its great Pops has done some more testing of his own, but one person isn’t statistically significant of a method working or not. The article I linked to shows another respected shooter did in fact get demonstrably significant improvement by rotating. So there’s one for it...one against. Would be interesting to collate data across a lot of people to see whether there’s statistical significance across the spread.

Pops, I also wonder whether you’re not getting much improvement due to the honed dies you use. Not sure if these are ‘standard’ dies you can buy or you’ve had them modified?? But perhaps the rotational method irons out any run out or lack of concentricity you might get with standard mass produced dies? So maybe rotation isn’t that useful if using custom or ‘specialised’ dies?

Dunno.

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26 minutes ago, Bob57 said:

Yeah but pops just not doing it right, you have to seat the bullet a bit then turn twice more😋

 

27 minutes ago, snakeman said:

Try rotating it the other way, pops 😄

yes but only when there's an "R" in the month 😉

Catch 22, don't know what you are referring to re 'honed dies' - all I do is polish the seating stem where it bears on the bullet ogive otherwise, standard Hornady 'competition' die.

I do have Radio 4 on the radio while I load, don't know if that has any affect ?

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