Hollywood turret press

[Avery Arms]

I recently purchased a "Hollywood gun shop" turret press, it's a monster with three 1.5" shotgun stations and nine 7/8" rifle stations.

It has two micrometer powder (and shot?) throwers, 3 12ga dies, a 12ga shell holder, a .22 hornet shell holder and some type of primer feeder die.

It was so unique that I just had to buy it but now I'm wondering what to do with it. I don't load .22 hornet and I don't have any extra shell holders so I thus far I have the world's slowest shotgun press.

Any ideas? Could I use it to load .50 BMG? Does anyone sell screw-in shell holders these days? 1.5" shotgun dies?

I already have a MEC 9000G for 12ga but perhaps I could use the hollywood for making specialty stuff like mini's or 3.5's?


PP

[Bent Ramrod]

Both C-H and Hollywood Engineering, 10642 Arminta St., Sun Valley CA (818) 842-8376, e-mail cadqueene11@aol.com make shellholders that fit the Hollywood. You can also find them at gun shows; best to take a few sample shells to check as few of them are labeled as to caliber.

The currently manufactured Hollywood presses will load the .50 BMG, but you'd have to measure the ram travel on yours to see if it is long enough.

I have an old 12-hole Hollywood turret and an older three-hole sector Hollywood, neither of which have enough travel to load anything much longer than .375 H&H. I use the latter for .45 Colt, as it's pretty fast to move the dies from sizing/decapping to neck expanding. Worst thing about these old classics is the spent primers squirt out all over the floor. Even a large box under the tool will only catch about 85% of them. The only way to remedy this involves removing the repriming stake and putting a piece of tubing on the shellholder.

[Pressman]

Another consideration is it cast iron (steel) or aluminum. It souds like you have a Hollywood/Universal press. Does it have the smaller turrets for additional shellholders and primer punches?
Ken

[curiousgeorge]

Bent Ramrod - I have one of the 12 hole turret presses with around 20 to 25 of the original shellholders. I solved the spent primer problem by taking a 35 mm plastic film container and cutting a hole in the lid just large enough to slide over the shaft part of the shellholder and then screwing the nut on. The container is just large enough to still snap on to the lid over the nut. Primers can be emptied just by snapping off the container and dumping out.

On second thought, I may have had to change the nut from the original to one I picked up at the hardware store that had a smaller outside diameter so that the film container would fit over it and snap to the lid. Regardless, it works like a charm.

You do have to take the priming punch off so that the above will work. Mine only came with the punch faces that were cupped for the old style rounded primers, so I never used for priming anyway.

steve

[Avery Arms]

It's aluminum.


PP

[Bradley]

The finish on these can be easily damaged so you want to be careful when handling it.

[quasi]

Packin Plastic, you have a Universal 3 press. You can buy an adapter from C-H that uses the industry standard "button" shell holders.

[Bent Ramrod]

Thanks, Curiousgeorge. I may try that as I don't use the repriming setup either.