Which hand press?

Rob,

Based on experience, I would say the Lee. Of course I have not used the Lyman so I am somewhat biased. In all seriousness, either should do you well. After much use it is now getting a little loose in the ram. If you do want to be able to full-length re-size, the Huntington hand press is worth looking at. Another to consider would be either the RCBS Partner press, or the similar one from Lee, they don't cost much more than the hand tools. The hand presses will full-length size, but the effort is very high. Also, a hand press isn't really good for rifle length cases as the effort to pull over the expander button comes at a point where the mechanical advantage is very low. For small cases, and straight ones like .45-70 or .38-55 which are expanded as a separate operation this isn't a problem.

I have had my Lee for over 25 years and use it mostly for loading in front of the TV. I am not recommending watching TV while loading as it can be a real distraction. Until you have loaded for years and have a set pattern for doing the various steps I would strongly recommend that only non-critical steps, size, expand, prime, be done where such a distraction exists.

A safety hint, since you indicate this is new to you. Powder charging is potentially the most dangerous aspect of re-loading. Buy a loading block, and when you are charging cases do all at the same time. After charging all of your cases, then check the powder level in them before attempting to seat bullets. One of the most problematic ways to load is to charge a case and then immediately seating a bullet. You will be amazed how often a bullet gets seated without powder!!!!

I second all of Alk's points.

I load .357 mag, .357 max, .307 Win and .375 Win - all with my Lee handpress.

The key is to do all of the case prep at once (deprime, size, prime, expand mouth) all of which can be done sitting on the couch.

When you are ready to the final assembly, fill up your loading block and WEIGH EACH CHARGE before puting in in the case.

This is tedious I know, but until you get the hang of things - this is the only way to go unless you spend $$s for one of the really good powder measures.

Even then you should wiegh every 10th (5th?) charge depending on how confident you are.

When all of the cases in the block are charged, you can easily spot a missed case or double charge.

Then seat the bullet, crimp.

I like to use two loading blocks, after each bullet is crimped the finished round goes into the Loaded block.

This allows another inspection before boxing.

I have both the Lyman and Lee. For a purely dedicated hand press, go with the Lee unit, as recommended above. It's more ergonomically designed for hand operation .

The Lyman Accupress is actually a bench mounted press with the option of operating it as a hand press. You flip around the arm depending on the mode of use.

You may come to a point where you will have to full length resize eventually after a number of firings or at least having to bump shoulders back depending on the tightness of your gun and heaviness of your ultimate loadings.

You are also talking about neck sizing dies to be purchased separately if you are going to necksize only as most sets come with full length sizers.

You could also set up a bench press on a piece of framing lumber so it can be clamped temporarily to a sturdy surface like a table, desk, etc.

Plenty of things to think about


Regards