reloading press

[houston 49]

I am interested in buying a Forster or Redding Ultra mag press. Anyone have experience with these, any suggestions. I would like the one that produces the best loads with the least runout. Also any info on dies would be helpful.

[cal74]

Take a look at the Forster CO-OX, supposed to be one of the most accurate presses available. Both the ones you mentioned get great reviews as well

[jaguarxk120]

Your looking at very high quality presses, either one will load great ammo with out fussing about, tuning, breaking in, jiggling the parts into alignment, or having parts that need to be fitted by you. No plastic or die cast parts to deal with, just well made tooling for reloading.

[flashhole]

I have two Ultramags on my bench. I had a Forster at one time but it was not finger friendly when I was loading large cartridges so when I finally got tired of pinching my fingers I sold it. That's not to say it's not a nice press, it is, but if you are loading large cartridges it's an issue you might want to consider. If I remember right I had to stick the bullet up inside the seat die and drop it down onto the case when seating them and I did not have good visibility of the bullet being aligned to the case/die. The handle clearance was insufficient to accomodate the Forster Ultraseat die, the one with the micrometer. That was horribly inconvienient. Having said that I wish I had not sold the press because I now load a lot of smaller cartridges. The Ultramag has incredible mechanical advantage when it comes to sizing or reforming brass, no other press I've tried even comes close. The ram alignment is spot on and the mechanics are very tight. I have been very pleased with the Ultramag. They've gotten a bit pricey but still a very good investment.

[flashhole]

This is a shot of my bench. You were asking specifically about runout. Any decent quality press will make good ammo but you will get more bang for the buck controlling runout with the dies than the press. Forster Benchrest Dies with the sliding sleeve alignment and tight tolerances work real well to control runout. The same can be said for the Redding Competition Dies.

[VaFisher]

I use the forester myself and like it alot, it's a very precision built press and load's precision ammo the way it should be loaded. I saw above post complaining about pinching fingers and I don't understand why. I load large long cases like weatherby 30-378 for example without and issues. I would purchase a forester again if it were me and with that said Redding Ultra mag press is a nice set up also but not my first choice.

[gearheadpyro]

If I'm not mistaken Forster recently resized the co-ax and added an inch or two to handle clearance and stroke.

I have a co-ax, would buy it again in a heart beat. It is very strong, I'm not sure about case fit as I only load short action cartridges on it. It has a very unique feature for minimizing runout, the shell holder automaticlly aligns itself perfectly with the die due to its floating design.

That being said, I'm going to agree with the other posters and say that runout is more a function of dies. Good quality dies will be much more helpful in this pursuit as long as you purchase a good press.

I've not used the Redding Ultra Mag, but in general I trust Redding. They are a good company with top of the line stuff.

[amamnn]

Presses that allow the case head to float, which thereby allows the die to center the case, will not necessarily form more concentric ammo than any given "C" or "O" press, but the latter are much more likely to be inferior in that regard due to the method of construction. Anyone who is truly interested in forming the most precise and uniform cartridges possible will want the
Forster and/or the Corbin presses or any new ones like them.

The differences are explained in detail on the Corbin website.

[wncchester]

I've always found it a little amusing that so many of us agonize over any slight looseness or worries of precision in the ram fit of a threaded press when there is several thousants of slop in the fit of shell holders in the ram and more in the cases in the shell holder. And then most will say the CoAx, with it's none threaded, loose fitting die holder system and sliding shell holder is the best press for accuracy! Wellll....maybe. But, can that be statistically proven? The CoAs is a really good press and I like it but doubt it's any better for accuracy than any other. ??

Truth is, no press can make sure our ammo concentric so the press is just not all that important. I've tested several presses by different makers and never been able to see ANY difference in the concentiricty or OALs of any press at all assuming equal care in set up, dies and components. Seems clear that any tapered round object will self center in a like die unless the tightness of an off centered press prevents it. So far, I've not found any press sufficently out of line to do that.

[BigJakeJ1s]

All the pieces are important: dies, press, and most importantly, technique.

A conventional press's ram-top travels in a banana shaped arc due to the inevitable play in the ram-press fit and the geometry of the lateral forces as the toggle inverts on the bottom of the ram in mid stroke. Thus the cartridge and shell holder must readjust multiple times while under pressure and considerable friction which resists the readjustment.

Unlike a conventional press, the co-ax ram travels in a perfectly straight vertical line, regardless of the amount of play in the ram-press fit. This means that once the shell holder and cartridge align with the die early in the stroke, when little or no pressure is applied, they stay aligned for the rest of the stroke.

You can compensate for this by pausing several times, and releasing pressure & friction during the stroke on a conventional press, or you can get an unconventional press...

Andy