Hi I am just trying to get people information about how to chose the right Reloading Press for their needs. I have been reloading bullets for over twenty five years and have had and used mostly just the RCBS Rock Chucker Reloading Press. I did use a single stage shotshell reloading press to try shooting trap and it was great but a little costly for a family man. I have used an old Pacific press before and it worked very well also.

I think the best way to find what is best Reloading Press for each persons needs is to go on a forum and ask what the biggest gun users are recommending.  I have seen time and again the forum regulars are more than willing to give this type of information to an amateur and rather than getting bothered they seem to enjoy this type of  inquiry .  I have also seen that they seem to know all the right answers for the right reasons when it comes to reloading and choosing the right products these people are some of the best resources you can get because they have all gone through the same thing you are. To find the forums you can just Google Reloading forums or hunting forums and there is quit a few.

Reloading Press

The best advice is not to stay in your comfort zone when getting the right Reloading Press. I am telling you this is something you can use for a life time so cheeping out is just cheating your self and you will never regret getting a good Reloading press. I personally like RCBS Reloading presses because I have been using one for ever now. My old RCBS Rock Chucker has been one of my better buys.

Reloading Press

The other good part about getting RCBS press is it can be bought as a kit and as a starter or pro reloader you can save quit a bit some getting a reloading kit. The companies use these kits to get people hooked on their brand name so they give good quality and at good prices.  So it is a good bet if you check it out you can get a good Reloading Press in a reloading kit and save money getting  just what you want.

Hunting Rangefinder is the product I could use I would like to have one to use on the rifle range and out hunting.  I have hunted for over thirty years and would like to try having all the bells and whistles just to say I have and it could be a fun addition to precision  reloading for long range. I have been reading up on the Burris Rifle Scopes and they make one with the Hunting Rangefinder built in. Well it may be built with out hunting even thought of but it has great potential for game use. I also checked the Leupold Rifle Scopes and they are making one also only they are making a tactical compact and for us older hunters who are older than some of the trees in the area we may want to stick with the larger better light gathering scopes.

Hunting Rangefinder

I can think to a few times I could have had a big bull elk and saw one at about five hundred yards and just let him go because I did not have the scope to get the  tine count and exact  range to get the shot in the kill zone with out sounding like a war was starting and ruining the area for hunting for a week. This is due to the fact that you should always rethink your shots  so you have a better chance of getting your animal with a clean kill and have a chance of getting them hauled out with out having to take a frying pan in and eating it there to save time.

Hunting Rangefinder

The Hunting Rangefinder could be of great help for all of your partners because you could take it to different spots and write down the range from where each persons waits to where the game may come out. Just to have the info would be a great asset for hunting. I have never been able to afford to have all this stuff when I was younger but I want to do more when I retire and have the time. Precision reloading and RCBS Reloading have taught the skills to make the shots on the range but it is hard to carry this to the field and make the shots because the human eye is such a poor judge of distance.

The Hunting Rangefinder would give exact yardages  to the hunter in the field and could lead to a lot less wounded game being recycled back into the environment and more in the freezer.  This would be a fun way to use the slack time in the middle of the day when the game are resting a hunter could walk out and get all the information and have it ready for the evening or early morning hunts with out leaving a lot of scent around to make the game nervous.

The  Hunting Rangefinder could make a good hunting trip a lot more productive and save cash in the end.

My first experience with the Burris line of scopes was a friend who read up on them and he was checking off the good points of the Signature series of  Burris Rifle Scope what he liked on his was the click stops were very precise and the optics were comparable or above most scopes.  My friend also owned a Leupold Rifle Scope he was very proud of I my self was of the opinion that Leupold was going to be hard to beat.  He said most company’s had a pretty good line if you went with their best.

Burris Rifle Scope

The Signature line of  Burris Rifle Scope was a good line and had a adjustable setting for external use for ranging your shots we thought it would bee great for moose at long range .  I had actually ordered one and waited for ever for it to come in .  It was ordered from a private gun shop in a small town a few hours away.  The owner was a truck driver by trade and did imports for gun stuff as a side line because he knew about reloading bullets and gun repairs.  I do not remember what happened but the scope never came in or he never got back to me because I never wound up with the scope and heard that a friend of a friend wound up getting the scope because the guy who ordered it never picked it up. I was sure that was the scope because there were not to many people ordering them back then and it was exactly what I had wanted.

Burris Rifle Scope

My friend had his Burris Rifle Scope mounted on his three hundred Winchester Mag it was the one with the system for setting the barrel whip for accuracy I forget what it is called but the friend had that working for him and he used a computer program for long range shooting and getting precision reloading.  He had it all worked out and used a range finder and shot a big bull moose at six hundred and seventy five yards.

I was really impressed and told him so I did bug him about taking two shots though he laughed and admitted it was his fault because he did not believe his rangefinder when he first checked it.  I sort of agreed with him on that it is hard to range an animal in a scope at close range never mind way out there.  My longest kill shot is still just over five hundred yards but I do not mind that for a guy who is not a good shot and just does his practice and precision reloading I feel that is really good.  I still wonder what or if I could have done a lot better if I had got the Burris Rifle Scope I had wanted .

Leupold Rifle Scope

Hi I have a newer Leupold Rifle Scope that I bought a few years ago and have used a lot . When I bought I had a specific purpose in mind because I had been hunting north eastern BC and they have lots or regulations to follow in most sub regions. The first trip up there with my partner we used flash  cards because the rules changed when ever we crossed a river or highway it seemed and we wanted to cover a lot of ground to learn the area. It took us a while to get used to some things like that.  The hardest part was that we had to count tines on deer and moose in most areas and we were both getting to an age where we needed reading glasses so the idea of getting away with a cheap scope were about gone.

Leupold Rifle Scope that

The first trip there we learned the hard way about coming ready for the weather we were so excited to get there we drove all night and just rolled our sleeping bags on the ground by the road to sleep a few hours . Then we had the rest of the day to find a good base camp. We got set up all right before dark but the morning was a shock because  we woke up and fall had hit over night and there was two inches of snow. It was a bit of a wake up call for us but it also worked in our that favor the moose that were not due to rut for a week and a bit went into full rut .

Leupold Rifle Scope

We changed areas to take advantage of this and had to check horns for deer it was four points and better. Bull moose was wide open and and we found them right away. We tagged out in two days and rolled out of that north with a truck loaded with about twelve hundred lbs. of meat loaded.  We left because we were a lot worried  about sleeping next to all that meat . There were grizzly tracks along the cut block a few hundred yards away and they were about the size of Clydesdale horse shoes . But that hooked us on hunting the area and the Leupold Rifle Scope had started paying for it self that was my first moose at three hundred and fifty yards and I did it in one shot.  It is good thing I was in good shape in them days because that was the distance I had to pack it and six hundred pounds is no fun even with a good pack board. The years of reloading bullets and  precision reloading had paid me back in one shot.

The next few years were not as fruitful for me hunting that area because I was with out my partner and just hunted with my brother and we had to learn to hunt together and match equipment. Just to be sure we had it all together for camping in the north. It was then I got to really appreciate the light gathering of the Leupold Rifle Scope. It has a fifty mill front objective lens and twelve power and now we have to count tines on the moose in low light levels . It gets dark early that far north and six o’clock is dusk. we had to count tines on moose and elk and get the m standing in the light  and being able to get a look at a six point bull elk was turning out to be a challenge. We had to learn to bugle elk and just let the moose go or hunt them on another trip.

The game was so plentiful that it seemed we were just kicking the deer out of the way to get at the elk  and moose. The idea of counting six points on a bull elk with the animal moving was not easy and we did call a few out and the Leupold Rifle Scope did work excellent  but it was a lot of thought and preparation to get the  hunting skill working.

My Reloading  Components are a mix or old and new from my Ohaus 5-0-5  powder scale to my can of Hornady One shot case lube. I have a collection of  stuff ranging from nearly thirty years ago to now. Here we have to store the components separate like the powder and primers have to be in different rooms or should be just for safety anyway and I have to store my rifles in a lock up away from the bullets. I am building a safe for the rifles this year  in my home.

Reloading Components

The Reloading  Components I will store in my new desk for computer and reloading and fly tying. just looking at the space available I will have a desk-reloading bench about nine feet long.  This desk should hold all of what I need for everything and still be comfortable. The only big reloading components are the brass polisher and the RCBS Rock Chucker press. The lap top and screens will take up a lot of space but I can just roll over and set up the bullet reloading stuff at the rest of the desk with the option of going floor to ceiling I can create an efficient working space for reloading and fly tying.  The components for fly tying can just be r&r on the desk and just go into storage when not in use because I have not had much time for tying now.

Reloading Components

The other thing I will need to get the reloading bench set up will be to have my desk wired for all the electricity I may want I am thinking of just running wiring to each Reloading component or just putting the plugins up right on the desk. This should be easy because I have  three plug ins under the temporary  table I want to build on now. The Reloading Components I have now I have bought on advice from others and stuff I have read up on like the Reloading Manuals for Hodgen and Speer reloading Manual I have more but I use those the most the Hornady one is a very good reference also. What I do is start with a idea for a use for a hunting round and then check the books and reloading manuals and see what they say  because they have great information on uses for rounds along with the reloading data to figure out what may work best. I will have to buy some updated reloading manuals for the new reloader  powders . I have yet to unpack a lot of the Reloading Components and wish to wait until it can be done right.

Compact Rifle Scopes were the first kind I bought for my .257 Roberts this rifle is a Ruger model 77 and just about the most fun gun to shoot. The idea of the compact rifle scope was for me just a convenience to carry it did not snag on everything and just is a light scope that is just as accurate as any I have.  I owned this scope in a Bushnell scope Chief and it was one of the first gun scope set ups I had ever purchased new. This was a very tough scope and lasted through some of the roughest hunts I have ever done.

Compact Rifle Scopes

I think it bounced around in more Fords than enough and I can remember forgetting it in the gun boot and going through a game check. The compact saved me a big fine that day because it was when I was young and had left it in the truck by mistake but the compact rifle scope fit into the gun boot below the bench seat and out of site and had slid all the way to the right and was almost impossible to see at a glance.  I got away with it that day because I was telling the truth when I went through and stated I was not hunting and had not brought the rifle with me. At least I thought I was but when I went to find my gun I was scared it was stolen because it took a bit to find it . I still think back to that and laugh about it now and then. I had no spare cash in those days and a fine would have taken me a year to get paid. I also dropped  the gun and scope of the Skidoo and bent the scope down and had to straighten it out and did so with out  wreaking the scope.  That day I thought It was the end for the Compact Rifle Scope.

Compact Rifle Scopes

I still shot quite a few deer with the .257 after that. I also shot a moose with it but that was really pushing the caliber to get the power to do the job. I hit the bull five shots and I never found a broken bone on that animal when I dressed it out I still think I scared him to death that morning when I broke the silence with the first shot at the crack of dawn.  The bull had just stepped onto the clearing and was only about eighty yards away in a spot I could drive to and I wanted him to stay there.  Anyone who has packed a moose any distance knows the value of anchoring the animal in a spot that is accessible with a vehicle. The amount of times I have had to cut roads to get a moose out is just to much.  I do not think the forestry service would let you get away with that nowadays.  That and the trucks would not do that kind of work now my old truck took a hell of a ride back then with the Compact Rifle Scopes.

Reloading Bullets

Reloading bullets is a pass time that works well for me because I have hunted for many years and it saved me a lot of money first because it is cheaper than buying factory ammo. I t also saves me a lot in not having to get close to the game because precision reloading has taught me to shoot at distances that I never dreamed possible for me. It increased my skills so

Reloading Bullets

I am more success full at hunting and spend less time having to camp travel to different locations to find the game. It has also given me and my friends a time to plan hunts and recapture past memories. It has taken over a small part of my home and life for many enjoyable years. The time I have spent as a reloader has served me well  and taught me to see the potential of a hunting rifle. The reloading data I have collected will last at least my life time and I can learn from it and teach my sons and grandsons. I may even tell them the stories of a lot of great hunts they may not remember. The amount I have learned about precision reloading from a bench rest reloader has taught me to see that even the Reloading bullets part of shooting can be really enjoyable.

Reloading Bullets

When I started Reloading I used to think a four inch group at a hundred yards was good enough for hunting accuracy. I can laugh about it now that I can shoot this group at five hundred yards on a good day. The old Rock Chucker press is still ready to do the job and with out a hitch or flaw. I remember the first time I used it when I bought it thinking  how is this ever going to pay for it self.  It was under two hundred dollars way back,  but money was worth a lot more also. For a while when I had not many people Reloading bullets with me st got to be a little taxing but the thought of hunting and just target shooting at long range was enough to get me into the swing of it again.

Speer Reloading Manual

I still have my first Speer Reloading Manual and I have used it for many years and learned most of my best long range shooting skills on their rounds. I have a Hodgdens reloading manual and a Hornady reloading manual also the new ones have some of the new powder loads I want to try and I read a review of the #14 edition of Speer manual and it is larger and hope fully larger print for us senior reloaders.

Speer Reloading Manual

I still remember when I found my first Speer load for the seven Mil Mag I have. It was back when the Speer boat tail idea was big news. I still use it mostly because I have not seen a reason to change and I get great bullet performance. The Speer spbt has a bullet coefficient of 560 or so, it is the highest I have found for that gun although there may be one better out now because I have not purchased the 14 edition of the manual. I like the load because I have done some of my best precision reloading with it . The groups I got with the Speer spbt I may not ever be able to shoot again.

Speer Reloading Manual

I have found the Speer Reloading  Manual has become a stand by for my reloading bench and I have to get a new one to upgrade but the old book still has a lot of good knowledge on the calibers I have used and loaded for . I remember the first load I tried with the speer book it has been a winner and has been hard to beat. The new powders are going to take some of the old ones out of use I can see but it will be a growth thing and learning experience for an old reloader like me.

Mec Reloading is all about shot guns they have been making  some of the best in progressive presses for quite a while now.  There are others out there and some very good shot shell reloading presses .  The choices are great but I just remember when I tried shooting trap the guys that had the big progressive presses had mostly Mec products. The advantage in going with the biggest is obvious here because that is probably the only one most shops carry. With the internet and shopping online this is all changing and fast. It seems that every time I get in a conversation some one else is starting to shop online and happily finding the best deals.

RCBS Reloading

RCBS Reloading has been around and well known since I started reloading they were good then as they are now and they stay there through good engineering and product quality. I am just getting set up in the retirement home we bought and want to build a big reloading bench and computer desk that is eight feet long and floor to ceiling.

RCBS Reloading

I really miss having the RCBS Rock Chucker set up I just have a temporary computer table and Rubbermaid shelving. After reloading bullets with RCBS products for 20 + years I can say they may not be the best at everything but it’s not from lack of trying. The value in their products has become a standard that people measure the quality of all reloading products. I have a few RCBS die sets and a Rock Chucker Press and I am not sure what else as I do not have time to inventory it all. I nave not had trouble with any of it that I can remember. I still load a few hundred rounds per year. I have cut back because I do not have a gun for varmints.

RCBS Reloading