I want to start loading my own 270WSM and 22-250 rounds. Any opinions on who has the best press for the price? RCBS, Lyman, Hornady, Lee...? I would like to keep it under $300 if possible. Any suggestions are appreciated.

The RCBS Rock Chucker kit is probably your best bet. It will come with a press, scale and powder drop.

I'm a fan of the Lee dies personally, though the opinions on these vary as much as opinions on rifles.

If you get the RCBS and Lee die sets (be sure to get the set that includes the factory crimp die), along with a RCBS hand priming tool, an inertia bullet puller and a set of calipers, you will be in your $300 range, plus or minus a few bucks.

A good option is to check out craigslist, pawn shops, ebay or gunbroker for used presses. A single stage press is just about impossible to mess up, and a used one can generally be had for about half price. Both of mine are used, but work extremely well. One of them is about 50 years old and has loaded up about a million rounds between myself and my grandfather - can't go wrong with RCBS presses.

I have to second the RCBS kit.

As far as dies go, I use RCBS, Hornady Custom, Redding and CH4D.

Now that I have been reloading for 25 years, I would choose Redding. They seem to size brass closer to original specs than the rest do. After that I would go with RCBS. Both have lifetime warranties, but it's hard to beat RCBS customer service.

Even though they are fairly inexpensive, I would not waste money on a crimp die, unless you also plan on loading a straight wall cartridges and will be using a pistol or tubular magazine. It does very little if anything on bottle neck brass.

I shoot a 7mag and a 308 norma mag and have yet to have any bullets jump from recoil, from where I seated the bullets. And I do not crimp these.

The rock chucker comes with a priming tool built into the ram, but I opted for the RCBS priming tool that screws into the top of the press and installs the primer on the down stroke of the press.

Just watch out, it will get addictive, when you see what you can get out of those calibers.

[This message has been edited by Doc Hayworth (edited 3/20/2009 3:38p).]

schmellba and Doc,

Thanks for the excellent replies. I will certainly look at the RCBS.

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Just watch out, it will get addictive, when you see what you can get out of those calibers.

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There is just something about those fast, flat shooting cartridges that appeals to me.

I agree with you about crimping, Doc. I know many guys who swear by crimping their rifle loads, but I don't see the reason for it. I do crimp my 44 mags, but that is about it. It works the hell outta the case mouth. I like to use neck sizing/tensioning for conformity though