I bought the Lyman Crusher II Kit a few weeks ago. I am very satisfied with all the equipment except for the press. The thing that I don't like is that it "snaps" or "toggles over" at the top of the press stroke. It really bothers me and I'm thinking of just buying the Lee Classic Cast Press, which I now know doesn't have this "feature", if you will. Does anyone else have a press that does this? If so, what is your opinion on the matter. Any advice will be appreciated. ~Marc

You can usually avoid feeling toggle-over at the top of the stroke by adjusting how far your die is set into the press...

If you are loading handgun ammo, it is seldom a problem to screw the die a little "too far" into the press...then the ram will rise up to where the shell-holder touches the bottom of the die, without allowing the ram to rise high enough to toggle over. The brass will be full-length sized, but with straight cases that is likely no big deal.

With rifle or other "bottle-necked" cases, you should be setting your die so that it sizes the full length of the neck, but does not push the shoulder back. That way your brass will headspace on the shoulder without blowing the shoulder way forward every time you fire it.

To do that, screw the die in 'til it is a couple of turns shy of reaching the shell-holder. Lube and size one cartridge case. Look at the neck and see how far down the neck the die has pushed the lube. It will usually show as a faint, dark, ring around the neck. Then adjust the die down farther into the press maybe 1/8 to 1/4 turn at a time, until the lube is pushed just to the shoulder, but there is no dark ring around the outside bottom of the shoulder indicating that the shoulder itself is not being pushed back.

Then try chambering the empty brass in your rifle just to make sure it is sized enough to easily fit into your chamber.

By doing a careful adjustment, you will extend brass life AND at the same time, it will greatly reduce the amount of "toggle-over" you will likely feel when the press ram reaches the top of it's stroke.

After a number of loadings, you may need to set the shoulders of your brass back just a couple of thousands, so for that sizing you may need to set the die 1/8th-to-1/16th turn deeper into the press, but still it may not need to touch the shellholder even when the press ram is all the way up.

While many press instructions say to screw the die in until it contacts the top of the ram (shell-holder), it is usually not the best way to do it. It WILL produce safe, useable ammo, but the cost is often reduced brass life.

As the other poster noted it isn`t a big deal to stop the press from "camming" ovr. I don`t know which ones do or don`t do it but it is common with single stage presses, Lee may not but I think I have heard of at least one of them doing so. My Lyman OC, and both the RCBS Jr, and my old RockChucker do this. My Co-Ax doesn`t but it is a different press altogether then the others.

The new Rock Chucker Supreme does not "cam over", and the reason I bought it was because I had a Crusher II and didn't like dealing with that feature.

Geronimo

If you are starting out with 1X brass from a unknown rifle or if you're loading the same calibre for several rifles, you need to fully full length resize the cases. And so, you need to cam over the press at the top of the stroke.
If not needed, it's easy to set up so the press doesn't cam over. Read the instructions.

I beg to differ, you do not need to cam over to full length resize a case properly. I did read the instructions on both presses. The quality of the reloads was the same, I just didn't care for the feature.

Geronimo

If you decide you can't get by with the feature, buy the Lee Classic Cast, you will not be sorry.

A very underated press by folks who've never tried it . Honestly, the only single stage presses I would buy if I lost my equip would be a Classic cast or the Coax.

Good Luck

Reloader