I am thinking about buying a new press to replace my RCBS JR3. I don’t need a progressive press and I will be reloading a variety of cartridges from .38 Spcl. To .300 Win. Mag. I would appreciate any suggestions any of you have. Thanks!

Forster Bonanza Co-Ax.

'Nuff said! :D

Ditto what kdub said

nuff said.

Those co-ax presses are a sexy looking piece of machinery. I've never used one though.

I would recommend a Lee Classic Cast.
Now we can say, nuff said. :D

If your going with a new then go with the Co-Ax, it makes super accurate reloads. Enuff said or not you can't go wrong with high quality tooling. TF

[QUOTE= buying a new press to replace my RCBS JR3. QUOTE]

The merits of presses of simular design is vastly overrated. Any iron press with compound linkage - the only type linkage anyone makes today - will do as well as any other, regardless of color. The single exception to this IS the (very expensive) Bonanza Co-Ax! But the Lee "Classic Cast" iron press is the best value on the market.

Truth be told, few of us have guns, scopes or shooting skills good enough to see any tiny difference in a press of any type at the range. Our loading skill, quality of components and techniques are far more important to the quality of our ammo than the press we use.

That observation includes the brand of dies we use, with two exceptions. Forster and Redding "BR" type dies are those exceptions, but at great cost for small advantages.

[QUOTE= buying a new press to replace my RCBS JR3. QUOTE]Truth be told, few of us have guns, scopes or shooting skills good enough to see any tiny difference in a press of any type at the range. Our loading skill, quality of components and techniques are far more important to the quality of our ammo than the press we use.


Still using the "classic" RCBS Rockchucker that I bought used on ebay years ago. IMHO, it's capable of doing far more than I will ever need. That's a lifetime investment that will be passed down to the grandkids. Just my dos centavos.

using... RCBS Rockchucker that I bought used on ebay years ago... That's a lifetime investment that will be passed down to the grandkids. Just my dos centavos.

Marshal, I don't disagree about the quality of the RC press a bit. I have an old RC II in the same condition. My point is, I don't know that our experience is unique. I have NEVER seen or heard of any simular press wearing out or giving the owner any problems. It seems the compairable presses by Lee, Hornady, Lyman, Redding, etc., are just as durable.

So, while my RC is certainly good I don't tout it as a unique standard. In fact, I'd get a new Lee Cast if I had to replace my RC just because their primer catcher works right and my RC's doesn't. (I can't justify the price of a Bonanza Co-Ax or Redding UltraMag!)

I'm not going to change my primary press just because of stray caps so I set up a little Lee "Reloader"press just for decapping. It directs (almost) all of my spent caps into its hollow base, which I modified to feed them into a tube-and- bottle assembly that works much like the Co-Ax. Love it.

Got a A2 RCBS didn't have to modify any thing just set the waste basket under it and spent primers drop right in.
The idea is this - use good tooling and you will make good reloads. I don't know whats in your shooting battery, but you spent some decent money on the rifles and scopes you are using--- why cheapen out now when it come's to making reloads.
Check out NitroExpress.com and see what others use. They shoot the big stuff. TF

In fact, I'd get a new Lee Cast if I had to replace my RC just because their primer catcher works right and my RC's doesn't.

Ranger,
We must have the same problem with our RCs. :) Once in a while, a stray spent primer will find its way under the priming arm. If I'm lucky, tilting the priming arm will dislodge the offending primer. Sometimes I have to pull the priming arm to clear the primers. With me, no big deal, as I prime on a bench mounted priming tool anyway so the priming arm on my RC is hardly ever used.
If I had to replace my RC, I would get another used one off ebay because of the lifetime warranty and excellent customer service.
Agree that we are fortunate to have so many good presses that we can choose from!

Got a A2 RCBS--- why cheapen out now when it come's to making reloads. TF

Yeah, I sort of envy your old A2. But, I haven't seen one of those on a store shelf since the early 60s and it was out of my price range even then. And my RC just doesn't handle primers very well.

"Cheapen" is a relitive term. Just spending more money than is needed is rarely a good answer. If it was, a gold plated press would work best of all! Actually, the job of a press is VERY SIMPLE and none of them are made to missle program specifications. There is no need for them to be made that precisely, so spending a bundle more than is needed to realiably push a case into a die and pull it back out seems pointless to me.

But, to each his own!

Marshal -- I use a Lee Auto Prime to put new ones in, just gave up on using the press' primer arm! ;-)

I found the A2 at a swap meet at a local gun club. I thought I did very well with the press. But got there too late and missed out on a chooting chrony that went for $20. At the swaps guys want unload stuff because they nolonger use it. Ebay is the same you have to wait till good equipment come's up and can be purchased for a good price. It's all in the timing.
And one thing I do is to make sure my son knows the value of the equipment. TF

The idea is this - use good tooling and you will make good reloads. TF

Nope, somebody that knows what they are doing can make good loads using a hammer, nail and a teaspoon. A sloppy, careless person will turn out garbage no matter how much money they throw at reloading equipment.

Nope, somebody that knows what they are doing can make good loads using a hammer, nail and a teaspoon. A sloppy, careless person will turn out garbage no matter how much money they throw at reloading equipment.


Chances are when you purchase quality equipment you have progressed beyond the hammer-nail stage of reloading. The odds are in anyone's favor when using better tooling. The whole subject was to upgrade to a better press and the recommended Co-Ax is a next logical step, after that it would be Wilson hand die's and a arbor press. TF

I have to give the nod to the Forster Co-Ax as well. The movable die and the bullet seating features were enough to justify the extra money to me.

I don't have a concentricity gauge yet, (got one on order) but I'd be willing to bet a big red apple that the Forster reloads will by and large hold "truer" than those loaded on my old press.

Ridgerunner

First of all thanks for everyone who posted in this thread, your help is greatly appreciated. I think I will go with the Forster co ax. However I see that a few people had trouble with Hornady dies. That isn’t a direct problem for me since my present die collection is mostly RCBS. So has any one had trouble with the co ax and RCRS dies?

. . . So has any one had trouble with the co ax and RCRS dies?

I have had no trouble with the dies themselves. However, the aluminum RCBS lock rings I have were a little too thick to slip into the Co-ax press slot. So, you'll need to buy lock rings from Forster/Bonanza to replace the ones on the RCBS dies. Otherwise, if you know someone with a lathe, you can get him to turn a little bit off the RCBS rings. That's what I did.

The old RCBS aluminum lock rings appear to be 5/16" thick whereas the new steel ones appear to be 1/32" less, or 9/32". Always hated moving the old lock rings, once tightened they tended to freeze in place and required the assistance of a vise with padded jaws.

The old aluminum is all I have. None of my RCBS dies are recent. Sounds like the steel will be fine. I only had to remove a few thousandths, as I recall. Of course, I lathe-cut 7/16x14 threads into CRS stock to put the rings on for trimming, and that may have helped guarantee thread axis perpendicularity? I haven't checked that?

Only the Hornady seater dies, with the optional micrometer adjuster installed, have problems on the Co-Ax, in that the handle yoke won't clear the top of the die. They work fine with the standard adjusting screw installed. Forster and Redding make similar dies, with floating alignment sleeves and micrometer adjusters, and they work fine by all accounts I've seen, but I have no experience with them on my Co-Ax. Also, I've heard reports that the RCBS windowed competition seating dies work fine too.

Hornady lock rings also work well on the co-ax press. They have the same clamping action that the forster's do, but they are steel, and have wrench flats (although wrench flats are not needed with the co-ax). The hornady lock rings also have socket head cap screws, as opposed to Phillips head on the Forster lock rings. Since the die and ring are loose to spin around while you're trying to tighten the lock ring screw, it takes more pressure on the phillips screw, and the die/lock ring wants to spin away from the screwdriver, but an allen wrench works better. I've heard some folks replace the phillips screws on their forster rings with socket head cap screws.

I can verify the Redding Competition Bullet seater, with micrometer head, works fine up to .30-06. There is precious little clearance above that, though. Where mine is currently set for match ammunition, there might be another 1/8" of room to seat the bullet out further. Above that, the yoke will be bumping into the micrometer knob. You could call Redding to see if that '06 die is made in their tallest profile, or if there is something taller that might not make it?