Reality Check: Star vs Lyman 4500?

[HighHook]

Well it's still a magma, just a little bigger then the one in the background

Holy melted boolit Batman!!! I think we are all jealous.

[Bradley]

I have had a number of stars. I've still got one. But I sold the rest off. Don't know why I haven't sold the one I've still got.

I prefer the Lyman 4500. I can do about 550 bullets and hour and changing out sizing dies is trivial. Don't really do all that much different with a Star but changing out dies is a bit of a pain.

So I prefer the Lyman. And I also like Lyman customer service.

[STAR4ever]

I have 3 Star Lubrisizers, one is always set up for .45 ACP #68 H&G boolits. The other right now is set up for .44 Magnum and the third is set up for 9mm. The .45 and 9mm both have Magama boolit feeders and heaters, the .44 machine is just stand alone, no heater or feeder. Great machine for lubing and sizing. I do not have the air feed for the lube, but the shovel or L shaped handles are a must, as is a bin underneath to catch the boolits.

[rockrat]

Bought a used Star a year ago, never used it. Finally about 3 weeks ago, decided to see what it will do.
I have 4-450's set up with different lubes/dies. Once I got the Star figured out how to mount it and work it, I probably have done 500 boolits on the 450's and 4000 bullets on the Star. Easily 2X with gas checked boolits and 4X plain based ones. Mainly 30 cals. on the Star, but some 38's too. Don't have .340",.433" or .501/.512" dies for the Star, thats why I am still using the 450's.
Going to check gun shows for used ones. Wouldn't mind having two more Stars
Should have bought at least one of the used ones on Swapping/sellling

[MtGun44]

Star wins on quantity, and because I have two of them. I sit down to the Star to turn out
a BUNCH of the same thing. For the Lyman and RCBS lubrisizers, smaller batches of
designs for testing or just in calibers that I don't load large quantities of ammo for.

Bill

[Whistler]

I recently bought a Lyman 4500. I will only use it for my heavy .44 and .444 long range loads where I want a proper hard lube. For my volume productions of 9mm and .38 Special I tumble lube with wax based antirust spray for cars.

[rmcc]

I never knew how much I didn't know about this game until I joined this site!!

[cajun shooter]

I had three Stars all with it's own air feed and heater at one time. I sold off two of my Stars as I have settled on shooting the 44-40 full time with BP in SASS matches. When I loaded other calibers and casted for them I was always having to change out the lube and dies to go to another caliber. It was easier to have a Star for that caliber. I purchased my first Star in 1971 and used it until 1997 when I sold it to gather moving capital. I wish that I still had it just for the memories. The Star has a learning curve ands it is limited to bullets up to a little over 50 cal because of die size and the space to fit it. I prefer to pan lube my 45-70 bullets even though I have a 460 die if I choose to use my Star. They are far and away past any thing that is offered at this time.

[Dale53]

One thing that I keep seeing on here is how difficult it is to change dies in a Star. I use a home made die extractor (pretty much the same as the factory one) and it only takes a couple of minutes to change the dies.

I use Carnauba Red which requires a heater to apply. It also makes it easier to remove the die when the machine has been pre-heated so I do that to make it easier on the machine. It's pretty straight forward with the die extractor.

It is a good idea to record measurements for minimum fumbling when you change bullets of the same caliber. Remove the last bullet in the die so that the die is clear. Then hold the handle down and using your dial caliper as a depth gauge, measure from the bottom of the die to the nose punch while holding the handle down. You can measure this quite accurately and when you set up again, you can hit this one on the nose and immediately start proper lubrication without "******* around".

FWIW
Dale53

[Linear Thinker]

Star for flat-base pistol boolits, Ideal/Lyman 45/450/4500 for rifle calibers or GC pistol heads. Star is a lot faster, especially with a tube feeder. For gas checks, I prefer Lyman.
LT

[tackstrp]

has anyone tried the ALF (Auto Lube Feeder) with spring for soft lubes from Cabinetree. Of course would not be as fast or as good as a star sizer or even no sizing and xlox lube. But as I was doing some 9mm, my one and only convental mold, in my lyman 450. I noticed how much time i spend cranking the lube wench.

The cabine tree ALF could cut out some of the time. Will order one as soon as i sell more stuff .

[Swede44mag]

I have a RCBS lubamatic II for calibers I don't shoot a lot and 2 Star Lubers.
I lubed a 3 pound coffee can of H&G 158 gr SWCBB in a couple of hours.
I don't get to shoot as much as I would like they will last me a couple of years.

I use to shoot hundreds of H&G #68 every weekend.
If I only had my own range and a bullet catcher to recycle.

If you need Star dies PM Lathesmith he will set you up with whatever size you need.

[songdog53]

All my sizing and lubing is done with Star and couldn't be easier. Went from pan lubing to Star and wondered why i waited so long except being frugal or better know as cheap.

[tackstrp]

ordered the Magna star lube sizer and Air feed. The sales department are rather casual, they make an invoice and charge credit card when shipped. Should also get the Magna star heater, rather than messing with a subsitute. Oh well one thing at a time. Ordered Sizing dies from lathesmith.

Saw a used Star with two sizing dies sell for $291 tonight on another url. Rather have new from Magna star for that much money.

[Colorado4wheel]

Last time on my Star I sized 2k bullets. It took less then two hours but I was not watching the clock precisely. All in one sitting. All 9mm, with hard lube and a lyman heater. I size so fast that the heater has to go full tilt all the time to keep the lube hot enough to still flow.

[Pete P]

I have a 15-year-old Saeco. I did have an older Lyman but I did not like it and got rid of it for the Saeco. If I would have known about the Star I would've purchased it instead. My Saeco is in perfect condition not a speck of rust and does not leak. Right now I can't justify a star because my Saeco works very well. Perhaps in the future. I am probably going to add a heater to it soon.

[9.3X62AL]

My mode of reloading and shooting seems well-adapted to the Lyman 450 sizer--the Ponsness Warren P-200 for handgun and small rifle work--and the Rockchucker for big rifles. I hvae 35 calibers, but roughly no more than 300 pieces of brass for each. A few handgun calibers exceed that number, but only 40 S&W exceeds 500 in number. I'm also heavily invested in Lyman-type sizer dies, and could not afford to re-tool in depth with another maker's hardware.

[Slainte]

Got an old Star from a friend who died. Has taken a while to find Magma is building the same and has a little manual. Also that Lathesmith is making dies & punches. The best is his set- nuts.
Just did 500 .428 200gr in a half hour. It has taken longer to heat up the red rooster then to handfeed the machine.
Will never part with it !

PS : Put a heater on, since most lube is very hard and may cause damage to the machine.

[63 Shiloh]

Love my Star, got air feed and the heater, just cobbled myself up a roller handle out of an old scooter grip and T shape handle.

Still have a Lyman 450 that is used exclusively for BP lubes and fat boolits.

Shooting IPSC makes a Star almost mandatory, it would be painful to size and lube 2500 .357" boolits a fortnight/month with the Lyman!


Mike

[Reload3006]

I am using the Lyman 45 and 4500 wish I wasnt I sure would rather have a star. But I am too far gone into H&I sizing dies and nose punches to change now. If I only knew then what I know now. LOL or Hind site is 20-20