The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

What's the reasoning behind mounting the press on a stand?

It brings it up to eye level, I wouldn't have it any other way now.

I prefer my press to be in the centre of the bench.

Since our monochromatic friend wishes us to produce pictures that words, I shall comply. The first picture is of my setup a couple of years ago complete with LED lighting. The press is on the right edge of the bench underneath a black towel. The orange buckets and metal wire shaker are what I use to separate and store tumbling media. There are some onions hanging in the top left, which will no doubt please Froggy.

The bottom picture shows my typical setup while loading. I usually load in batches of 100, but in this case it was 50. I have an LE Wilson case trimmer with a stand and I use G-clamps to clamp to my bench in use but put it away in storage when not in use. The tumbler lives under the bench when not in use. My shed is quite humid so I store my dies in my bedroom to stop them from rusting. Not pictured is a bar stool which is a great addition for the shed. Hidden on the top shelf is an MTM gunsmith vice which I use to hold the rifles while cleaning. It's funny how I manage to cram so much stuff into such a little place. Looking to move soon so will definitely have a larger man cave as a priority!

Hmmm, some nice pictures and plenty of useful information there, oomans. We're learning a lot. Thank you.

how do people positition themselves at their presses?

stand or sit?

to the left / right /or dead inline?

I find i prefer to sit to the left, at a sort of 45* angle, so the lever comes down towards my knee.

I stand at mine, ingredients on the left, press on the right. It's not a permanent setup though, takes 5 minutes to assemble it all then it gets packed away without a trace when done.

Here's how we finally organised things, oomans.

We have a storage box (from Aldi) for each of our rifles. We mark the box with the rifle name and calibre, and store empty cases and dies in the box. We clean our cases using an ultrasonic cleaner (from Aldi) and then dry them on test tube racks. When the cases are dry we pop out the primers using an RCBS Rockchucker Supreme and then re-can the bangs using a Lyman Gen 6 (very reflective ikkle pan !) and the Rockchucker. When the bangs have been put back into the cases we store them in MTM ammunition boxes. We have a selection of Lee and RCBS dies, and think the RCBS ones nicer though both seem to do a good job. Lighting is from two 4 foot T8 LED tubes over the bench.

Now oomans, your opinions please on Ramshot powders....

I've had great success with their Tac powder in my .223 but the issue is trying to find a reliable supply.....

Ram powder can be a bit hard to find at times so my RFD says.