Doea anybody have one of these?
I was given this press by a relative. He says it must of been built in the 70's. I would like to know where I can find shellholders for it. The shellholders are bolted on , I have the modern type so i'm wondering how this works.
Thanks

The original version was made by a company with the name of Universal. It was the first turret press and appeared sometime in the 1930's. Sharps book would list the year of its introduction. Had a three position turret.

Lyle Corcoran bought the rights to the Universal and pretty much stuck to the original design, at least initially. Lyle owned the Hollywood Gun Shop so his machines were called Hollywood Universals.

Lyle made several major variations. The first was a turret with only three die positions but, unlike the earlier Universal model, the first Hollywood Universals didn't restrict motion of the tool head. You could turn it in a complete circle. That didn't really accomplish anything but it was a change. Also the front raise on Lyle's machine were cast into the frame whereas on a Universal they were metal plates bolted in place.

Lyle almost almost made machines in batches of 100. With his first machine, however, he split the batch in half. 50 were three position machines and fifty had a twelve position tool head. Both are rather rare.

Next Lyle altered the primer posts and shell holders. On the next batch there were turrets for shell holders with places for four and a turret for the primer posts, again with places for four. Back then there were two styles of primers (one of which has completely faded away by now), so there was a post for a small and large primer of each style.

This generation of machine, like the earlier ones, were made of iron. The base was magnetic.

Next came the aluminum machines. Again three turrets but a scaled up size. The thought was that by switching from iron to aluminum the machines wouldn't be as strong unless they were enlarged. There are two ways to spot these, their larger size and the fact that the base wasn't magnetic. You could order this machine with 12 7/8x14 holes, 8 or those and four larger holes for the Hollywood shotgun dies, or 12 shotgun die size holes. I don't remember the thread size on those shotgun dies but they were big! Big enough, in fact, that many of these machines have been used to load 50 BMG.

Next came the REALLY large Hollywood. Massive compared to anything seen before. AND I DO MEAN MASSIVE! It had three turrets, two dies down rods for locking the turret in place if you wanted to do case forming and twelve die positions all of which were sized for the shotgun dies but with 7/8x14 adapters. You had to see one of these turrets to believe it.

Incidentally, though beautifully made, expensive and complicated, the Hollywood shotgun dies weren't worth the effort.

Next came the Hollywood Senior and Hollywood Senior turret. The former was an unspectular, overpriced single stage machine. The later was a rather overpriced 8-position turret. Both, I think, are still made by M&M Engineering. Not worth the money but available, at least the last time I knew.

Lyle also made progressives though I've forgotten the details. I think that they were available for both metallic cartridges and shotgun shells. EXTREMELY expensive, mechanical overkill big time and definitely NOT worth the effort.

Perhaps the weirdest machine Lyle ever made was a variation of his metallic cartridge progressive but with two concentric sets of dies and a shell plate that handled two concentric shells. A manual progressive meant to load two entirely different cartridges simultaneously.

I owned at least one each of all these over the years (and knew Lyle) except for a true Universal and except for the progressives.

Many of these machines had their own shell holders and primer posts. Finding the right ones for a particular machine would be very unlikely. A good machinest, however, can make whatever you need with little effort. I certainly had any number made to match all the machines I use to own.

Boy!!! Did you ever bust my bubble I've been using my Hollywood senior for over 47yrs. and was so proud to own it. Now I find out it is held in poor sted. Imagine how much more fun I would have had all these years if I just had a better press. Iguess I'll go and eat some worms. But it was a good history lesson and thats sincere. roger

Bartche,
I have had one of those old massive single stage jobs for 50 or so years, made bullets on it, reloaded all manner of wilcats, resized some real tough ones...and its still cooking...It is the best press and the strongest one I have ever used...My other press is a RCBS A2 Single stage that I have to use for my big bores like the .470....

I have a set of Hollywood reloading dies in 7x57 that I aquired off of ebay for 10 bucks + shipping. They seem to be of good quality. Rojelio

I have owned a Hollywood eight hole turret press for several years and found it to be a very good press. I find that the turret indexes very well. The throw is very long giving me plenty of room for loading 375 H&H + length brass.

Steve

Why I guess I'll just keep it Than. Thanks Ray. roger

oct71,

I've got a Senior I was going to get some more shellholders for, but decided to just use my other presses for those caseheads.

There was a guy in CA making them about five years ago; I'll see if I can't find his name and address....

Steve! I now use a universal shell holder in my Hollywood senior. Try one of those. If you can't find one, I'll donate a #3 that if you're handy on a lath and mill you can rework to make a universal. roger

Steve,
I would appreciate that very much. thanks for your time.

oct71