Jim Luke said:
If I were starting over today, loading only handgun, I would start with a Dillon 550B as it is not a true progressive...and it makes a great single stage and turret for handgun rounds. I use only one LEE press, that being the Classic Cast single stage that I like well enough that I sold my RockChucker after using it. I had the Classic Cast turret and I just traded it over on castboolits, I was never satisfied with it and the 550 is a much better turret press so the LEE was unused anymore and I turned it into another 4 cavity 44 mold through a trade.
Hi,
Methinks Jim has just illustrated one of aspects of reloading I like: there are often several ways of doing something, and the end result is the important thing, more than the journey there!
Why are there so many types of presses, dies, scales and so forth? One reason is each guy who designs a piece of equipment has his own ideas of what he thinks are good features, desirable qualities, materials, and on and on (I'm sometimes kinda glad I'm NOT an engineer!) Another is that the market has its own ideas about what it likes, distilled down to each individual using the equipment.
So it's hard to say there's a "best" in so many areas, but there is usually an "I like this one best" for most of 'em... and what everyone "knows" isn't always the truth. For example, I'm sure most people who use single stage presses will agree the RockChucker is one of the top machines out there. But is it "best?" Maybe, maybe not. I was interested to see that Jim sold his: mine, almost brand new, gathers dust in the closet. Not because it's a bad machine, but because I like the "feel" of one of my Lees better for most uses!
Guess what I'm trying to say is you've either gotta decide whether you're gonna buy one piece of equipment and learn to live with it, bells and whistles side by side with warts and wrinkles, or be prepared to do some experimenting, trading, buying, selling, etc. until you've gathered your own assortment of "best for me" equipment! Betcha the latter course will catch up to you... like it does most of us.
Rick C
