RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit, still on the bench today (with friends )
RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit, still on the bench today (with friends )
Like many others here I started on a Lyman Spartan Press.............That my dad bought new in 1968 or so!
RCBS Rock Chucker
Plainsman
plainsmanscabin@yahoo.com
My first press was the one owned by the chap who taught me how. It was a heavy C. I don't recall the #. This was sometime in late 55 or 56. He sold my Dad the press, a Redding scale (the brown one with the crackle finish), a Bond measure, and I think, Pacific dies in 270 WCF. I still have and use everything but the big Herters. I want to tell you about my loading manual, my first manual.
It has long since joined the sands of time but the fact that it was a sheet of lined notebook paper has stuck with me. A few scribbled lines of numbers and I was off to the races. My teacher was my neighbor too.
I was only going to load 270 in 130 gr and 100gr. , so my little manual was brief. There was nothing about primers, cases or bullet manufacturers. I had three powders listed, 4895, 3031, and 4064. My first published loading manual was a 39 Lyman...
Our first equipment was from Herters. The press was a "C" frame press with pretty simple linkage. If I remember correctly, the shell holders did not interchange with any other equipment. We made lots of good ammo on that press but I consider the Rockchucker that I replaced it with to be a much better press.
I was lucky and had friend that had stuff and wanted me to be happy. Sold me a Star set up for 38 and 45 for $100. came with the case feeder and primer tubes. I spent hours making a table with just the right holes in it to drop the primers and loaded rounds into their own buckets. I remember that the case funnel was the coolest thing I had ever seen at the time.
RCBS Junior, 1971
First generation Lee turret press with the handy storage box. I hauled that thing around and loaded thousands of rounds with it. It became someone else's first press a l long time ago.
A Super Simplex.Bought half share with my brother,with all the money we had.Ive still got it,and they are still being made.Its made of the best of materials,all hardened steel or cast iron..........unfortunately its design was to flimsy,but they just last and last. I still use it with homemade dies for loading 44-40 and 32-20..............its good with the thin brass.never lost a case.
Dillon 550 set up in 9mm loading lead given to me by a buddy. I wanted to load for years and then out of the blue he gave it to me. Soon picked up a RC and it all went down hill from there. Was up to over 50 presses and finally started selling them off.
First was a Dillon SDB 4 years ago. Stumbled on this site looking to save even more money since loading components were hard to come by then. Its been an awesome press. Finally broke it last week. Got the parts in the mail yesterday.
My first was a Herters super model 3. I processed close to 25000 9mm's, 10000 223s, and another 5000 of misc on it. When I ruined my 223 shell holder I had to get the adapter for it. It also has the primer arm for large and small which I used very little.
I, too, have a Lyman Orange Crusher.
35+ years and going strong.
Political correctness is a national suicide pact.
I am a sovereign individual, accountable
only to God and my own conscience.
Pacific, single stage, "O" press I guess you would call it.
Maybe 1973 vintage.
Couldn't even hazard a guess how many 10's of thousands of 357, 9mm and 45 Colt it had loaded before I got a Dillon.
Still use it for some bigger rifle loading and for punching out gas checks
Cogno, Ergo, Boom
If you're gonna be stupid, don't pull up short. Saddle up and ride it all the way in.
I was 14 and it was a Lyman Tru-Line Jr. given to me by my dad along with his M94 in .32 Spec. He had just received a new .270 Win. model 70 Featherlite with a scope as a gift from my grandfather. The M94 and M70 were passed on to my younger brothers as the years went by.
I still have the Tru-Line. That was 52 years ago and I remember it better than I remember yesterday now...
I relate exactly. I get up from the couch to get something in the other end of the house and by the time I get there I forgot what I wanted.
My memory is clear on the 1st press I had. It was a Herter's Super Model 3. It was used for many years before I upgraded to a Bonanza Co-Ax.
I started with a Dillon 550 back in the 90s. Needless to say, that press is still going strong
A Lyman Spar-T was my first , sold it after I got a Bonanza CO-AX press around 1978 .
Jack
Buy it cheap and stack it deep , you may need it !
Black Rifles Matter
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |