there's been a bit of discussion about this press so I thought I cover a bit of history on it. The origin of the press lies with 2 gentlemen no longer with us. Sid Gerbig and Clarence Purdie were hunting and shooting buddies. Sid owned a fairly large machineshop and clarence owned Gopher Shooters Supply. For those that don't rmember gopher shooters, it was one of the nations largest wholesalers of guns and related items. Anyway clarence has always been credited with the invention of the coax, but really it was sids idea. As originaly made the press was much smaller and laid horizontally. My father in law still has one of the originals and it is still in use. Clarence modified the entire thing and started Bonnanza sports to manufacturer. Bonnanza got its name from his favorite airplane the beechcraft bonnanza. The costs to start a production machine shop, advertise, distribute etc. was astronomical, but clarence stuct with it. He had 3 sons, bruce, dean, and keith. All 3 were active in gopher shooters, but only dean was really active in bonnanza. There was a full line of reloading equipment made by the shop, and all of it was 1st class stuff. Don Graves was actually in charge of the shop and Dave Ferris was the head machinist. After clarences death, the 3 sons had little interest in keeping bonnanza alive, since it really wasn't a money maker and clarence had the imagination to keep it going. They closed the place up and put it up for sale. They wouldn't sell it to just anybody. They did want to keep the ideas and product alive, so they would only sell it to a major manufacturer, who had the capital to advertise etc. It took awhile to sell, and when forester bought it it was really more than given to them. The price they paid was about 75% of the cost of the inventory alone, but such was the boys desire. For those who have them, the coax is usually a treasured item, having features unavailable on anything else. While it's painted red now, the old ones were brown. Hope you enjoy this little history. How do I know. Well I grew up 3 doors down from the purdies & grew up with the 3 boys. My shop sat nextdoor to gopher and just down the street from bonnanza for several years. Living next door to gopher was sometimes an expensive thing, but always rewarding. (such as buying a 450#1 churchill double for $450). Gopher is no more, the boys having sold it to outdoor sports years ago. Don Graves is now retired, and Dave Ferris is now my head machinist. The building that held bonnanza is gone, replaced by of all things, a walmart. I think that if clarence knew that he'd roll over in his grave.

Ah, now there is a piece of historic insight for you. Thanks for contributing that - from a devoted Co-Ax fan!
- mike

Thanks for sharing the history! I'm also a happy owner/user of a co-ax.

Thank you very much for that bit of history. I will put this with my papers to my Co-ax. Kudude

Thanks for the history lesson. My first press was a Co-ax I bought used at a gunshow. I was nervous about crushing primers while learning the correct feel to seat them, the Co-ax primer setup made the learning process easy and safe.

Thanks Butchloc !

I was the one who got the latest thread started
about the Co-Ax, asking about the rings.

Got one coming in the mail.

I can remember the first person who mentioned
the Co-Ax to me years ago. It was a benchrest competitor. He said it was the only press to have for serious work. Other than it he said to use Wilson hand dies.

I love my co-ax press. Great design.