How to Save Money When Buying High precision press

Related Articles

This is part of a series of posts that highlight the gear the 200 top-ranked shooters in the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) are running in long-range rifle matches. (Learn about the Precision Rifle Series.) This group of competitors represents the best precision rifle shooters in the country.

For more information, please visit S-T Intelligence.

This article is Part 1 of a 3-part series where I’ll focus on the reloading equipment and process these guys use to load their match ammo. Here is how I plan to publish this 3 part series:

1. Reloading Presses & Dies (this article)
2. Reloading Powder Scales
3. Reloading Process & Each Step Performed

Subscribe via or follow me on Instagram to be the first to know when that next article is published.

This article will focus on the reloading press and reloading dies they use to handload their match ammo, including sizing dies and presses, as well as seating dies and presses.

How Many of The Pros Load Their Ammo?

When I surveyed these pro shooters, I asked if they handloaded their own ammo for most of their matches or if they used factory ammo or a custom loading service. Here are the results of that question:

97% of the shooters said they handloaded their own ammo! I’ll share more about what the other 3% use in an upcoming article, but this article will also discuss the reloading presses and dies that these guys use to load their match-grade ammo.

What Is “Good” PRS Match Ammo? What Kind of Precision Are We Talking About?

Consistency is everything when it comes to long-range shooting! Groups have to be relatively small, and muzzle velocity has to be very consistent.

Many veteran long-range shooters see the muzzle velocity consistency as one of the best indicators of ammo quality. Most people who are familiar with statistics believe Standard Deviation (SD) is the best measurement of muzzle velocity variation. In fact, Engleman says this plainly: “Extreme Spread (ES) is not a reliable statistical indicator. The best indicator of velocity variations is the standard deviation.” He goes on to explain, “The true extreme spread of a population is about 6 times the standard deviation.” To learn more about standard deviation and statistics of muzzle velocity, check out this article. I literally spent months writing that article in a way that even those who aren’t engineers or math nerds could understand because I feel like it’s important to know as a long-range shooter.

The table below is from ballistician Bryan Litz’s book Modern Advancements in Long Range Shooting Volume 2, and it provides a “summary of what kind of SDs are required to achieve certain long-range shooting goals in general terms”:

So, an SD of 15 fps results in roughly 15” of vertical dispersion at yards. That is likely enough to miss a target in a PRS match. A 10 fps SD results in about 10” of vertical dispersion at yards. While we aren’t typically shooting targets that are smaller than 1 MOA at yards, that assumes you broke the shot absolutely perfectly, your target range was dead nuts on, your ballistic solution was perfectly calibrated, and the adjustments on your scope’s elevation turret were also perfect. That is a lot of assumptions, which is why most of us who shoot PRS want our ammo to have single-digit SDs to be considered match-worthy. I personally would be okay with ammo that produced an SD of 7 or 8 fps or less, and I don’t think that would cause me to miss any shots at a match. Above that, I get uncomfortable. However, 5 fps is often seen as the gold standard among serious shooters – and lower is always better.

For context, the chart below shows ALL of the SDs reported by this group of top-ranked PRS shooters on my survey. Some cartridges make it easier to load ammo with lower SDs. So I also provided a more detailed breakdown of the SD these guys reported by cartridge, which you can read here.

85% of these shooters are producing ammo that has an SD of 7 fps or less! In fact, 66% are reporting an SD of 5 fps or less! That means these guys know how to produce some of the best handloads possible, which would only have 5” vertical dispersion at yards!

When it comes to group size, we aren’t necessarily talking about Benchrest rifle groups – but it still has to be precise. 80% of the top-ranked shooters report that their average 5-shot group size is 0.4 MOA or less, with 60% saying their rifle averages 0.3 MOA or less!

So the majority of these shooters say their ammo has an SD of 5 fps or less, and their rifle shoots groups that are 0.3 MOA or less! I hope that gives context for why this group of shooters should be considered experts when it comes to reloading! So, let’s look at what reloading equipment they use to produce extremely consistent ammo that is competitive at the highest levels.

Reloading Press for Sizing Brass

I specifically asked this group what reloading press they used for resizing brass and what reloading press they used for seating bullets because I wasn’t sure how many of them would use the same type of press for both. The chart below provides a breakdown of how many of these top-ranked shooters said they used the same kind of press for both operations and how many used a different brand for sizing than they did for seating:

65% of the pro shooters said they use the same type of press for both sizing and seating, but 35% said they use a different kind of press for seating. We’ll dive into that a little later in this article, but for now, let’s look at what kind of reloading press this group uses for resizing their brass for their match ammo:

The RCBS Rock Chucker reloading press was the most popular sizing press among this group, representing 28% of the 200 top-ranked shooters in the PRS. There were 8 shooters in the top 25 using an RCBS press for sizing, which meant it was also the most popular press among the guys at the very top, too. The RCBS Rock Chucker press seems to be the most common reloading press in existence, but it was interesting to see those at the very top of this list using it to compete at the highest levels of precision rifle shooting. What a compliment to RCBS’s timeless and affordable design! Many companies offer a press with a similar design or have tried to improve on it over the years, but the RCBS Rock Chucker is still the standard. The street price on the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme press is only $210!

19% of these shooters said they used a Forster Co-Ax reloading press for sizing, including 5 among the top 25. Bill Marr at RifleShooter.com says, “The Co-Ax differs from most single-stage presses in two areas: the shell holder and die insert arrangement.  Unlike my old Rock Chucker, you don’t need to invest in a series of different shell holders to work with cartridges; the reversible jaws simply open and close on most common cases without adjustment. Dies simply slide in and out of a notch in the front of a Forster press. No more screwing anything down to ensure your settings stay the same; simply lock the die’s lock ring around its body, adjust the die, and every time you take it in and out of the press, its setting stays exactly the same. This is my favorite part of the Co-Ax!” The Forster Co-Ax has a street price of $426.

There was also 19% using a Dillon press for sizing, including 4 of those in the top 25. Most of the other presses on this list are single-stage presses, but it’s likely this group used a Dillon progressive press. Switching cartridges can be complex (RifleShooter.com refers to switching cartridges on a Dillon 650/750 as “an engineering project”!