Do RCBS rockchucker's have sloppy tolerances?

For part the highpower class I went to last week we determined the optimal seating depth of our ammo. At home I had 110 rounds loaded up .010" off the lands and had to bump them down to .030". My set up was my very old school rockchucker from the mid sixties (green bicycle grip handle for the old schoolers out there) and a new Forester micrometer seating die. I had no problem and checking every so often with my comparitor on my RCBS dial calipers showed them all within a needle width (ie less than a thousandth).

My classmate had the same die and a new looking rockchucker, it had "IV" cast into the upright. If he gently operated the handle they were too long and he would re-seat them with a bump and usually they would be right but other times he would have to adjust the die, the same type Forester that I had. His seated length was changing from .002-.003 on most to some up to .020"! I looked at his setup and the die was set right but then I noticed I could shake the handle side to side with noticeable slop all in the linkage and said it is impossible to have consistent ram height because just pulling the handle slightly to either side on the down stroke would cause random take up in the slop but rather than just using my press, still tight as a drum after 45 years of use, he toughed it out.

If resizing with the shellholder touching the die I don't guess it would matter, all the slop would be taken out.

Are all new RCBS presses like this or does he have a lemon?

The IV is the Rockchucker Supreme and it should not have slop in it. I have been using one for 2 years and am using Redding Competition dies. My rounds are consistent on the ogive length from round to round. Try checking the tightness of all connections. It may be an issue with the press. RCBS stands behind their equipment. So have him contact them.

RStewart wrote:The IV is the Rockchucker Supreme and it should not have slop in it. I have been using one for 2 years and am using Redding Competition dies. My rounds are consistent on the ogive length from round to round. Try checking the tightness of all connections. It may be an issue with the press. RCBS stands behind their equipment. So have him contact them.

Thanks. All the pivot points had slop, I could move the handle laterally 2" or so and when I did everything but the ram moved.

He (or someone) might have worn the pivots points by setting the RC press to cam-over too much when sizing. I set the sizing die so the press cams-over slightly.

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Redding also makes some different sized shellholders you can use to take up some of the slop...Kinda like using a washer for a spacer on a nut and bolt

msredneck wrote:Redding also makes some different sized shellholders you can use to take up some of the slop...Kinda like using a washer for a spacer on a nut and bolt

I agree with you for a sizing operation but this was with a Forester comp die with the spring loaded sliding chamber. Also it was a random dimension, not a constant,