old press

[themightyhawk]

a few years back, a friend gave me this press. i cannot find out much about it. it is big heavy and looks kinda complicated. anyone have any insight on this press.

 

[BMur]

Industrial

Very interesting piece. It doesn't actually look like a loading press to me. It looks more like an industrial Multi-stage die reamer.

Murph

 

[Ruger 13]

Dunbar possibly.

 

[824tsv]

That is a CH Auto Champ.

 

[glenwolde]

My first reaction was also CH Auto Champ. But I'm not sure. There's no markings anywhere?

I had a similar press, an RCBS Green Machine. It was fast, but kind of a nightmare. I tried a caliber conversion once and had to call RCBS. After talking to one of the RCBS engineers I got the issues cleared up and after some use successfully converted it back. The engineer told me they quit selling conversion kits because everybody had problems pulling it off. That one machine was responsible for most of their support calls. But they are fast.

One problem was if a case failed to feed it would dump powder in the rails and it was disassembly time. Plus the primer magazine was right on the front, directly below your face. No shield.

I bought a Dillon RL450 and sold it.

 

[2152hq]

I'd guess it's a home made version of the CH.
Lot's of machinist types around in the gun hobbys. Not unusual to find home built reloading presses, reloading dies, casting equipment, ect.

 

[mikld]

My first thought was a C-H "H" press. Very good, heavy duty, 5 station press. "H" presses were very popular 40 or 50 years ago but I believe manufacturing costs raised the retail prices pretty high...

IIRC some presses of this type had a sliding shell holder and after each step the case would slide to the right after each step, pull of the handle (??)...