Arbor Press vs Regular Press

[rick983]

I've loaded ammo for more than 40 years and have come to a few conclusions. First, components are better now than ever before. I've done some benchrest shooting and during that period, I used Wilson inline dies and an arbor press. I have also used a regulat Lyman single stage press with benchrest quality dies and have found that the ammo made with the inline dies and the arbor press are much better than the regular press can produce, even using benchrest dies. I measured the bullet run out on some arbor press made ammo and it never exceeded .001. On top notch press made ammo, it ran between .002 and .006. I noticed all the benchrest shooters in my area seem to favor the arbor press and inline dies. That being said, I use a single stage press for my informal target and varmint loads, and keep the arbor made ammo for when every .001 means something in competition.

[Unclenick]

When I first switched to the Redding Competition Seating Die in a standard press, all my ammo runout was within 0.001" except where the neck wall uniformity was worse than that. This was loading .30-06 shooting 168 grain MatchKings. I've subsequently moved to the Forster Co-ax press, but am still using that die and getting the same result. What I don't know is how different ogive shapes will do in the die. The Sierra 168's and 175's work great in it, though.

John Feamster, writing in the Precision Shooting Reloading Guide loaded some .308 ammo with an RCBS standard seater, and RCBS match seater (the kind with the side window), and Wilson dies in the arbor press. The standard seater did best for him and the Wilson did worst. I have no idea why that's even possible, but I'm just passing it along. Unexpected things can happen.