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444 · December 26, 2002, 07:44 PM

The Lyman 310 has been around a long time, and I always though they were neat. However I can't get past the fact that they take non-standard dies. If you are starting out in the reloading hobby, why limit yourself to a die that won't work in any other press when you can buy a small hand press that uses standard dies that can be used in just about every other press made ? I guess if you were only going to load one caliber and you turned out to be the only person in history that actually did only load one caliber, it wouldn't matter much if you never bought another press. Most people that begin loading on simple equipment, especially for handguns, upgrade to a press that allows a little more speed. With the Lee press, you can upgrade to a single stage bench mounted press, a turret press, or a progressive and still use the same set of dies you bought for the hand press. That seems a little more practical to me, but I have often thought about buying the Lyman just because it is cool. You don't need a seperate priming tool for the Lee handpress either. But it speeds up the operation and only costs about $20. I began loading with a Lee Loader back in the late seventies. My first upgrade was a Lee priming tool. Later I bought a RCBS Rockchucker and the priming tool speeded up that operation also. Now some 20+ years later, I still have that priming tool and it still works great for those occasions when I use the single stage press such as when I am loading rifle cartridges.
If you are really trying to save space, consider using a scoop powder measure. Lee offers a set of them for a few bucks, I mean less than $10. It includes a sliding card thing where you select your powder and it tells you the charge each scoop will throw. I tested my scoops using an electronic scale that was calibrated with test weights. I filled a salad bowl with powder. I made every effort to use the scoop the same way each time. I leveled off the scoop with a business card. I dipped 100 charges and only one varied by greater than 1/10 grain. That is every bit as good as my RCBS powder measure or my Dillon powder measures. The disadvantage is that you don't have a lot of latitude in charge weights for pistol cartridges. Odds are that you will only find one charge that is appropriate for each caliber/bullet weight/powder. If for some reason this particular powder charge doesn't satisfy you, you can make your own scoop to throw the charge you want, but you will have to have a scale to make it (maybe borrow one). You can take an expended cartridge and cut it off and file it until it throws the charge you want. Then solder a piece of coat hanger wire onto it for a handle. With a hand press and a scoop, you can have a practial loading set-up that will fit anywhere.

December 26, 2002, 07:44 PM	#11
444 Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 3,968	The Lyman 310 has been around a long time, and I always though they were neat. However I can't get past the fact that they take non-standard dies. If you are starting out in the reloading hobby, why limit yourself to a die that won't work in any other press when you can buy a small hand press that uses standard dies that can be used in just about every other press made ? I guess if you were only going to load one caliber and you turned out to be the only person in history that actually did only load one caliber, it wouldn't matter much if you never bought another press. Most people that begin loading on simple equipment, especially for handguns, upgrade to a press that allows a little more speed. With the Lee press, you can upgrade to a single stage bench mounted press, a turret press, or a progressive and still use the same set of dies you bought for the hand press. That seems a little more practical to me, but I have often thought about buying the Lyman just because it is cool. You don't need a seperate priming tool for the Lee handpress either. But it speeds up the operation and only costs about $20. I began loading with a Lee Loader back in the late seventies. My first upgrade was a Lee priming tool. Later I bought a RCBS Rockchucker and the priming tool speeded up that operation also. Now some 20+ years later, I still have that priming tool and it still works great for those occasions when I use the single stage press such as when I am loading rifle cartridges. If you are really trying to save space, consider using a scoop powder measure. Lee offers a set of them for a few bucks, I mean less than $10. It includes a sliding card thing where you select your powder and it tells you the charge each scoop will throw. I tested my scoops using an electronic scale that was calibrated with test weights. I filled a salad bowl with powder. I made every effort to use the scoop the same way each time. I leveled off the scoop with a business card. I dipped 100 charges and only one varied by greater than 1/10 grain. That is every bit as good as my RCBS powder measure or my Dillon powder measures. The disadvantage is that you don't have a lot of latitude in charge weights for pistol cartridges. Odds are that you will only find one charge that is appropriate for each caliber/bullet weight/powder. If for some reason this particular powder charge doesn't satisfy you, you can make your own scoop to throw the charge you want, but you will have to have a scale to make it (maybe borrow one). You can take an expended cartridge and cut it off and file it until it throws the charge you want. Then solder a piece of coat hanger wire onto it for a handle. With a hand press and a scoop, you can have a practial loading set-up that will fit anywhere.