Pacific Reloading

Redding, pacific or lyman one stage press?

My uncle is going to teach me reloading since hes giving me a pistol and wants to give me a press. Its a one stage press meaning it only does one thing at a time. Hes offered me one of his extras he doesnt use any more. All I know is the name, not the serial number of the presses. Is one better than an the other?

Any of the above should suit you fine, most single stage presses work pretty much the same, and have solid reputations. The dies and shellholders are all interchangeable between brands, so no need to worry about that. However every company does number their shellholders differently.

Redding is regarded as a superior brand for most things reloading related. However I can not vouch for this as I’ve never used any of their equipment except for a case trimmer.

Lyman is one of the more common brands in reloading. My press is a Lyman turret, and I use a few Lyman dies and some other smaller equipment, and have never had any problems.

Pacific is no longer in business by that name, Hornady now owns Pacific and markets their products under their own name. I have zero experience with these under the Pacific name, however every piece of reloading equipment of theirs that I’ve tried under the Hornady name has been wonderful.

Any of these will do just fine, and work similarly. There really is no right or wrong choice here, assuming all are in similar condition. Personally I would go with the one that either seems to be in the best shape or seems the heaviest. The only issue I can foresee with any is if you were to ever need parts that aren’t easily made they might be harder to find for the Pacific. However these presses are straightforward enough where there’s nothing that can be lost or broken that’s not either easily either commonly found or can be jury-rigged (handles, pins, etc) or can be done without (primer arm, spent primer catcher, etc)

Setting Up Reloading Dies and Reloading .44 Magnum