Looking for Advice on new press

[NTXshooter]

I've been reloading rifle ammo with an Old Lyman Spar-T press that I bought along time ago.  The press is in good shape but I am getting very inconsistent results in COAL.  I'm thinking that it just has too much play.  Looking for suggestions on a new press.  Do the progressives meter out powder accurately enough for rifle rounds?  

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

[planeflyer21]

What kind of ammo are you loading?  What brand of dies?  What type of bullets?

 

I have a batch of Remington .308 JSPRN for .30-30 that vary in length 0.015".  I've seen other soft points like that too.

 

Progressives or autopresses?  The most important part of operating the press is operator consistency.  This is magnified 100-fold with an autopress, as the linkage operates multiple functions at once.

 

Oh yeah…how about some photos?

[NTXshooter]

I guess if you are getting .015, then I may not be as bad off as I thought.  I will get the die set and the next round will be off several thousandths.  Right now I am reloading 7mm Rem Mag  with 139 grn Hornady GMX and .308 Winchester with Nosler 180 grn E-Tip using RCBS dies. I am on a lead free kick.  I will add photos tonight when I get home.

[survivalshop]

  Bullets may give some variances , but I don't get that much COL differences with match bullets . I set a 308 to 2.797" ,just about every one will be in 0.001-2" + or -. And that's with a very , very old Pacific single stage press . I don't know how my Dillon would do , because I make all my precision target & hunting ammo on the single stage. I guess I should try it out .

  Hunting bullet types , especially ballistic tip bullets , may have higher variance's . You also have to watch for any burr's or dents on the cartridge case base , can cause variances .

Edited May 2, 2014 by survivalshop

[shibiwan]

It's really dependent on the bullet, especially when it comes to OTM/BTHP match bullets. These projectiles don't usually have a flat or uniform meplat so the COAL when measured at the tip can be 0.2-0.4mm off (0.007"-0.015"). The right way to consistently measure the length is using a bushing that indexes on the projectile body and not the tip, and add the correction to get the "real" COAL measurement.

 

Related question - does anyone here use a meplat uniformer? Wondering if they'are worth the expense.

Edited May 3, 2014 by shibiwan

[392heminut]

  Do the progressives meter out powder accurately enough for rifle rounds?  

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

I load .223, ..308 and soon 300 BLK on my Dillon 550 along with several pistol calibers. The powder metering is pretty consistent with the ball type rifle powders and the finer stick type rifle powders but with the courser stick powders like IMR 4895 it can get somewhat inconsistent. It's enough that I won't use them in the Dillon.

[NTXshooter]

Took awhile but here is the press.  It is in good shape but maybe being a turret press instead of a single stage gives it too much play.

 

 

[mineralman55]

If you are like most of the rest of us, you load for more than one caliber. You probably also load lots of ammo at a time or for a given set up before you tear it down and re-set up a different caliber. My suggestion is get the Dillon BL-550. Why? It's a manual progressive. It's simple, rugged and you can stop the action at any moment and remove a cartridge, inspect it and remove it or replace it. It takes all the standard reloading dies. I have an old RCBS 4x4 which is exactly like the BL-550. Only thing more I could ask for is auto-index. Still, even with manual advancement of the carousel I can still easily do 160- 200+ rounds/hour doing all my QC.

 

BTW, the press has nothing to do with the way the measure meters the powder. I much prefer ball powders (come on Accurate, where the hell is the AA2520?) but find even coarse stick powders do well with a deliberate throw motion on a manual powder measure.

[planeflyer21]

I much prefer ball powders (come on Accurate, where the hell is the AA2520?) but find even coarse stick powders do well with a deliberate throw motion on a manual powder measure.

 

+10!

 

For consistency on my powder measure, it gets three taps at the top of the arc for powder-in, three taps at the bottom for powder out.

 

Zero variation on weight…so long as the operator is consistent.

 

I see reloading students all the time prove it.  They will tap-tap-tap the first few loads, then TAP-TAP, then TAP, then tap.  Making sure they weigh each throw, I keep repeating "This is why consistency is so important."

[NTXshooter]

Thanks for the insight.  I always tap the powder measure to make sure it fills and clears. Powder loads are pretty consistent, it's just the AOL that seems to vary.