RCBS Rebel Press - Initial Impressions

[Glaciers]

Well I like Redding products, but at $80 per turret head I’ll stick with The LEE Classic Cast and $10 on sale for a turret head which drops in in 10 seconds. I load mostly pistol cartridges and a couple of rifle cartridges on the LEE, which does a fine job. For most of my rifle cartridges I used a couple of single stages side by side on the bench.
But lots of people load more then I do. No progressives for me.
If LEE would make a “Classic” with 5 positions, I’d be on it, but when I need that fifth position I have a single stage 12” away.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Addictive: You know, it;s too good a deal to pass up! One is too many and a thousand not enough. My addictive downfall is bringing home pre-owned reloading gear. I'm of a mind that the real reloading loony has all sorts of duplications. I am thinning the pile down on Ebay. At my age this stuff needs to be thinned out. It's grand but no Rebel Press here.

I'm a bit guilty of that duplication, but I've got it under control now.....really.
I've managed to thin the excess and now opperate under the mantra of, "when one comes in, one must go". But with some gear, I still keep a spare on hand.
My father had a friend that had 3 of everything. One to use, a second in case the first one broke and a thrid to loan out.

Well I like Redding products, but at $80 per turret head I’ll stick with The LEE Classic Cast and $10 on sale for a turret head which drops in in 10 seconds. I load mostly pistol cartridges and a couple of rifle cartridges on the LEE, which does a fine job. For most of my rifle cartridges I used a couple of single stages side by side on the bench.
But lots of people load more then I do. No progressives for me.
If LEE would make a “Classic” with 5 positions, I’d be on it, but when I need that fifth position I have a single stage 12” away.

I'm a huge fan of Redding equipment but I agree thier turret press and extra turrets are pricy. Furhermore, you almost never see used Redding gear for sale. People hold onto that stuff.
I purchased a Dillon 550 many years ago and that handles most of my handgun cartridge loading. The single stage still gets used for rifle cartridges and the occasional odd ball batch of handgun stuff when I don't want to reconfigure the DIllon.
I will never be without a good single stage press but I don't need 4 or 5 of them.

I came very close to buying a Redding T-7 but at $80 a pop for spare turrets, I came to the same conclusion you did.

 

[Mowgli Terry]

The three of everything excuse is grand.

 

[Glaciers]

The three of everything excuse is grand.

Yeah but I’m trying to get over it.

 

[Mowgli Terry]

I sent much of my excess good stuff to other owners during this famine. In the near future I expect that there will be all kinds of new in the box reloading gear in the market all pre-owned. At that time I will stay home. Only leaving home to look for another iron turret press. My old original T-Mag had the shoulder bolt brake and the turret came off in my hands. That's a legit replacement. Having three RC's at one time is not. Talk about powerless! Plan is to leave home with no credit cards and fifty bucks!

 

[Mowgli Terry]

I wonder where the RCBS Summit Press fits into this dance. That press looks like a knockoff of a vintage Hollywood press.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Its sure solid. I have one. I like the compact size and leverage.

I also am really liking the LEE turret. I told myself it was gonna be a hand gun machine. Straight wall as it has no cam over. But I loaded some BO dies and was actually able to get shoulders set with a .002 variance. Good enough for plinkers. I have multiple die sets for the lil 300. Its set up on the 550 as well but I wanted to build some ladders with 5diff cast. So didnt wanna deal with the Dillon for five cartridges ea of 100 cases.

CW

 

[Mowgli Terry]

I had used a Lee Classic to assemble cast loads for 308. Loading slow had some of the preliminary things outside the Lee. The Lee press held a Universal Expander die with an expander plug from NOE. Also installed was an RCBS powder checker. I was running a charge of 16grs. o 2400 in a 308 case. I used a Vickerman bullet seater. A 308 Lee factory crimp die was carefully adjusted to tidy up the case mouth. The press had to be manually advanced becase of cartridge length. For the heavy duty stuff it's the iron "O" press. Point being the Lee Classic can be used for many different loading functions. This can be done without going broke. For the heavy duty stuff it still an RC or similar.

 

[Glaciers]

Well finely received my new Redding Big Boss press. Mounted it up on the bench and moved the LEE Classic Turret a few inches left. Things were a bit tight so the new BB was moved a couple inches right as well.


Nice almost shiny green press.

 

[Glaciers]

I really put that picture in right side up. How, or better yet why does it get flipped and what can a guy do to avoid or fix it?

 

[Brad]

It will be OK in May When it thaws

 

[RicinYakima]

If you took it with a cell phone camera, mine does the same thing but sideways no matter how I hold the phone.

 

[RBHarter]

Its bad local gravity inverting the pixels .

 

[Glaciers]

Well my phone was good the first picture that was upside down was taken with an old iPad

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Good pixels or bad pixels, that's an excellent press.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

I just reviewed several websites for companies that sell reloading gear. The RCBS Rebel is available in the $213-$232 range. This is a promising sign in terms of reloading gear availability. I also took note that the latest version of the Rockchucker is available, which is also encouraging.
While these prices aren't fantastic, it is good to see the products are available and not priced ridiculously high by current standards.

I also found the RCBS Reloader Special 5 was available at nearly 75% the cost of the iron presses. The Reloader Special 5 is an aluminum framed press and one of the better aluminum presses, IMO. The price difference between the aluminum presses and the iron presses seems to be tightening and it's the aluminum presses that appear to be rising in cost.
Even the Lee Classic Cast press, which is one of the lower cost iron framed presses, is retailing for around $150.

One of the side effects of high labor and transportation costs is that the cost of the materials becomes a smaller percentage of the overall cost of the product. While this trend probably will not continue in the face of overall inflation, there may be a window of opportunity in terms of value.

 

[seagiant1]

Hi,
I looked for a decent priced RCBS A2, for really, years.

Finally met this Doctor that had one, but wasn't happy cause he said he wanted to put a RCBS Piggyback on it and it would not work, he needed a Rockchucker.

I told him, I would have a brand new Chucker going his way, if he wanted to trade and he agreed.

That Rockchucker was $150 at the time and I was happy to pay it and get that A2!

Sometimes, things work out for everyone!

 

[Petrol & Powder]

I was just cruising around the internet and saw new RCBS Rebel presses being offered for sale for $195.

With inflation and the corresponding loss of buying power of the U.S Dollar – that’s a pretty good deal. IMO

I don’t have a dog in this fight but if you’re in the market for a strong, single stage press in the league of a Redding Boss – this is probably as good as it’s going to get in terms of money.