Could use y'all's input again...

[T. O'Heir]

"...prefer cast iron..." That'd be pretty much all of 'em. Although I believe they're cast steel not iron. Doesn't matter one way or the other. Neither does cast Al. Engine blocks are made of cast Al. Seems to work.
You really don't need a special press to just decap 5.56 or anything else.
"...the RCBS Rock Chucker..." Is kind of awkward to use quickly. It's an 'O' shaped press. However, which brand really doesn't make a lot of difference, except for the warrantee. The Rock Chucker is good if you ever plan on forming cases, but otherwise a 'C' press is faster(two handed manufacturing technique). Whose makes no difference.
"...found on ebay..." Is irrelevant given that E-Bay gives money to the likes of the Brady Bunch who want to take your firearms away from you.

[hounddawg]

Just found out the the Lee Classic Cast press is indeed cast iron with a street price of about 120 USD.

Just me but I prefer Lees primer catching design over RCBS's for depriming, it works as designed and does not spit primers all over the place like the Rockchucker does. I keep a Lee 'O" style that clamps onto my bench for range reloading. I used it to deprime with at home until I made some satisfactory mods to the Rock Chucker so that my bench and floor would not be covered with spent primers. Call me fussy but I think a primer catcher should actually catch the spent primers

Say what you want about Lee but I FL resized thousands of .308, .260's, .223's, and .204 on one and had zero issues. Even necked down a few .308's into .260's on one. It was well up to the job for average day to day reloading tasks and I produced some decent match ammo on it. Now to be honest I would want something beefier for doing any major case reforming. But lets be honest, the vast majority of reloaders, myself included, will never be wildcatting cases. Probably less than one percent of reloaders overall will ever do anything more exotic than fireform or maybe neck up/down

That's just facts, not opinion

[Dufus]

Midway had the Partner, not Partner Jr. and I was working from tha

The Partner press and all its variations is aluminum. RCBS fazed out the original Jr series of presses some years ago. This is what I am talking about.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...BS+Jr&_sacat=0

And this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/very-nice-v...wAAOSwPHZayRTa


All 100% cast iron.

You don't need to buy a new one (you can't anyways). I bought my first one new some years ago and have subsequently purhcased 2 more on the used market.

[PunisH2Live]

Originally Posted by Dufus

The Partner press and all its variations is aluminum. RCBS fazed out the original Jr series of presses some years ago. This is what I am talking about.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...BS+Jr&_sacat=0

And this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/very-nice-v...wAAOSwPHZayRTa


All 100% cast iron.

You don't need to buy a new one (you can't anyways). I bought my first one new some years ago and have subsequently purhcased 2 more on the used market.

Thanks, Dufus. I have a bid on a Redding Boss and a Partner Jr. Just waiting for the auction to end to see how it goes.

Edit: That's a bid on the Redding and a purchase on the RCBS. For the price on the RCBS, I can dedicate one of the presses to an operation

[44 AMP]

, instead, used a thread title that summarizes your question.

Giving us some idea what the thread is about, in the title is useful it lets us know if we might have a reason to read further.

be as friendly and conversational in the body of the thread as you feel comfortable with, its all good with me.

For what you describe (.223 & .270) I don't see where any basic press wouldn't be good enough, even a (gasp, ) "C" frame like the old Lyman Spartan would work, it did for me in the 70s, and things haven't changed that much, since, have they?

I'd say its a matter of your personal preferences and aesthetics. and's there absolutely nothing wrong with getting what you like, better than what you don't.

I won't comment on Lee presses use, I've never had or used one.

Some say they're great, some say they're crap, I don't know, nor care.

I will say that one possible reason you see so many Lee presses for sale used is that lots of people get into reloading, get LEE because its less expensive, then later get out of reloading, and sell the stuff off.

[J.G. Terry]

I wonder if many suggestions stem from what a reloader started with (bad grammar). For me it's RCBS. Also got Lyman and Co-Ax set up now in the Skunk Works. Forgot the Lee turret. Frankly, I do not see my Co-Ax as being equal in strength to the "O" press. The Co-Ax has many positive attributes. On the down side its a "C" press on steroids. As good as that press is the Co-Ax has been oversold here and elsewhere. Keep in mind I own both Co-Ax and RC's. A strong single stage press is a basic reloading tool. I have formed cases on the RC that took four passes though the die to finish. Could have cut this to two passes with a cheater. Personally, I would never abuse my Co-Ax with a job like that. YMMV

[briandg]

One of the things that gets ignored are the simple fundamentals of sizing and seating a case, and a proper die and shell holder count for a lot. A shell holder will have just enough tolerance to low the die to align properly . Pressing die flat to shell holder is going to give absolutely consistency. Aligning die and shell holder properly and having close tolerances in the seating die Will keep everything aligned as bullet and case neck meet.

A good set of dies can compensate for a little sloppiness, but not much..if you can wiggle that ram at full extension, it's not good enough for accuracy. If that die and shell holder don't meet properly, again, you will have poor alignment and run out.

Don't kid yourself, folks, precision loading requires precise equipment, and sloppy dies and sloppy press fit will lower accuracy. There are no real answers for how much, but I am sure that a bad set of tools could cause enough misalignment to make groups spread by an moa or more.