Lee hand press & Creedmoor

[mnguyen84]

Full case resize on a rifle cartridge like the creedmoor with a hand press seems like a bad idea. Has anyone tried it?

[croue]

[mnguyen84]

I used to resize 308 on a single stage and recall some tough moments. But they were military brass. I mostly resize just the neck too.

[NapalmCheese]

I've done 7mm-08, .30-30, .223, .25 WSSM and .243 with the hand press. My buddy did .30-06.

The key is having more muscle than a 2 year old.

[BajaJames83]

No reason you cant do it the press is capable. Might get a little old if you have a ton to do.

[mnguyen84]

Great! thanks for the insights

[parap1445]

Are you talking about the Lee hand press? The little Lee Press can do a lot, but you don't have much leverage, and it's not ideal for volume sizing. Your choice of lube and the degree of necessary resizing will play a large role in the force needed. If the fired cases are coming from a bolt gun with a SAAMI chamber and you use a good low-friction lube like Unique or Imperial sizing wax, it should be no problem. On the other hand, if you fired them in an oversized semiauto chamber and used a cheap spray lube, then it might take a lot of force to get the case sized.

[Jason_2111]

I've experimented with the hand-press for various single stage operations while being forced to watch lame romantic comedies on Netflix by Mrs. 2111. It really can be handy, but for full length sizing rifle brass, it becomes quite a workout.

One thing that is actually worse, is the Lee APP press. Great little gizmo for brass prep, but the shell holder doesn't have enough grip to handle FL sizing on rifle brass (even when very well lubed), the lips of the case like to rip off.
(For pistol brass, the thing is a miracle worker, but rifle... yuck... unless you're just decapping ONLY.

What's really sped up my processing is getting the Lee portable stand, and mounting either my 550 or my old single stage RCBS press to it. Rather than be out in the cold garage during winter swaging, priming, or FL sizing... I can do it from the living room and just put it away after.

For 6.5 or 308 or 223... I'd run lubed cases through the 550 with only 2 stages active... universal decapper on 1, full length sizing on 2. Keeping these ops on the progressive instead of the single-stage saves me about an hour per 1,000 cases.

YMMV.

[QED]

I have one and it seems to work fine, but for a small, portable press, I settled on an RCBS Partner press mounted to the corresponding RCBS accessory aluminum base plate. It is light, portable, and can be mounted anywhere with just a pair of small c-clamps.

[silvertriple]

It can be done and have done it (pistol, 223, 6.5 grendel, creedmoor, 308, 30-06, 7 mag) but just not that fun if it was a large batch. Much easier on a single stage though. As Napalmcheese mentioned you need a lil muscle.

[stand125]

Good case lube makes all the difference with the hand press. Another trick is to size and then relax pressure but not open the press and squeeze it again. I used one for load development at the range and worked great.