Magma Star vs. Lube-A-Matic 2 ???

[Char-Gar]

I have been sizing cast bullets and don't have a star. I have used Lymans the entire time. I am convinced the Star is the nee plus ultra of these kinds of gizmos, but I never had the money to buy one and over the years have accumulated so many dies and nose punches, that I will not change now.

While the Star is a great machine, I doubt if bullets sized and lubed with one will out shoot bullets sized and lubed another way.

When I started in this stuff, everybody I knew only owned one single stage press and a Lyman 45. There was just not enough cash around to have a shot full of dedicated presses and lube size machines. I just go into the habit of changing loading and sizing dies and have never seen a good reason to change. I still treat each dollar with great respect for how it is used.

[Bryan Marino]

A search should find you many posts about Star vs anything else. But I will make a few points. A Star is more expensive, but worth every penny IMO. They can be found on ebay but prices are often quite high. Yes a Star uses solid lube because the lube compression screw does not pass through the lube to anchor at the bottom of the press, it is above the lube piston. A Star does not care what type of boolit it is sizing and lubing. No nose punches as boolit are inserted nose first and a flat punch pushes on the base that ensures the boolit has no force applied to the nose of the boolit which can result in squashed or bent boolits. A Star is faster but that depends on how fast you want to go. Changing dies in a Star can be a trial but with the proper tool it is a 60 seconds or less job. Buying a Star now will mean you won't need anything else in the future.

You will never buy anything else, they are that good.

[Springfield]

Chargar: I doubt my bullets will shoot any better than your bullets. But I can spend an hour lubrisizing 1000 bullets and then take my kids to the park for a couple of hours, and when I get home you will still be sizing bullets. Time is the only thing in this world we can't buy nor get any more of, so I like to spend it as wisely as I can. I will trade money for time with the family any time I can. That's one of the reasons I work from home doing leather work and BP bullets. Not as much money but much more time. We all have our different priorities.

[taminsong]

+1 Springfield.

[fishnbob]

Do I correctly understand that RCBS and Lyman Lube/Sizers insert the boolit "base up" to be sized? That means the punch has to fit the nose perfectly or risk damaging the nose. Is Star the only Lube/Sizer that runs base down & nose up?

[Bryan Marino]

Do I correctly understand that RCBS and Lyman Lube/Sizers insert the boolit "base up" to be sized? That means the punch has to fit the nose perfectly or risk damaging the nose. Is Star the only Lube/Sizer that runs base down & nose up?

You got it backwards; Lyman and others are used base down with appropriate nose punches that fit the bullets being sized/lubed which can lead to deformed noses. These sizers eject the bullet back out the top. The Star can be used either way but it is a through die, bullets are pushed through the bottom by the next bullet. Commercial casters learned a long time ago to process the bullets nose first using a flat base die, works really well whether it is pistol or rifle bullets.

[cbrick]

I also see the occasional mention that it is intended more for handgun bullets.

I've heard that also and cannot even imagine where such nonesense could come from. I size as many rifle bullets as I do handgun and I'm a handgun competitor. I have never seen any difference what-so-ever between sizing rifle or handgun bullets on the Star. In fact the Star push through method WILL size your bullets more concentricaly. I proved this to myself several years ago by sizing several bullets from the same casting session with the Star, an RCBS and a SAECO, I took these bullets to a friends machine shop and examined them with a comparator. The difference was shocking. The push through method is a far more concentric method of sizing that shows up considerably more with longer rifle bullets.

I have also seen a few on this forum post that you cannot seat a gas check with the Star . . . that is an even more rediculous thing to say. About 80-85% of my bullets are gas checked and every single one of them were seated with the Star.

As was mentioned, now is the time to make up your mind. IE, before you invest in several dies and then decide you should have gotten the Star and then get to buy the dies all over again.

Not a single bullet that I size has a mark on the nose much less bent noses, dinged up noses etc. I also don't need to buy or have made a nose punch for each of my 70+ molds.

There are a few that post here that attempt to put down the Star but they are far and few between the pro Star posts. For the most part I would venture to say that these are people that have either never used the Star or are just to plain lazy to learn to use it correctly.

I'm a light weight though, I only have two Stars on my bench.

Rick

[Char-Gar]

Chargar: I doubt my bullets will shoot any better than your bullets. But I can spend an hour lubrisizing 1000 bullets and then take my kids to the park for a couple of hours, and when I get home you will still be sizing bullets. Time is the only thing in this world we can't buy nor get any more of, so I like to spend it as wisely as I can. I will trade money for time with the family any time I can. That's one of the reasons I work from home doing leather work and BP bullets. Not as much money but much more time. We all have our different priorities.

I can't disagree with anything you said, but it is predicated on the idea that a fellow can afford to spend money on time saving devices and just chooses not too. My kids are grown now, but when they were small, my economic resources, as well as my time, were dedicated to the children. If I had festooned my bench with Star sizers the kids would have to sacrifice something important. That too is a matter of priorities.

I commend you for your career choice and making the family such a high priority. I like that allot.

Today I have lots of time, so I mush on the same ol way.

[Blanket]

I have a couple of Stars, an RCBS and an old Lyman and one thing the Stars can't do is bump bullets up to a larger size. If you are trying to match a bore on a particular combination of mold/ bullet size this can be important. Other than that the Star is the way to go for production. The others are quicker to set up as well for filling the grooves properly. Have had Saeco's and a Herters copy of a Saeco and they can be set up to size nose first, straight thru if you apply the lube elsewhere. Russ

[257]

hi guys i have cast and sized around 500,000 bullets over the last 35 years up untill about a year ago i used lyman or rcbs sizers then i bought star/magma with a air feed for lube the lyman and rcbs hardly ever get used since should have went star 35 years ago

[captaint]

I looked at it this way - To me, it just makes sense to size a boolit nose first. Also, if you want to avoid thinking - I should have bought the Star - just get one and get it over with. My opinion only. enjoy Mike