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View Full Version : Lyman Ideal press review


gunluvr
03-27-2022, 09:57 AM
So I wanted a second press to my Rock Chucker, mostly for a dedicated bullet puller press so that if I seated a bullet too deeply, I wouldn't need to remove the seater die, install the bullet puller, pull the bullet, remove the bullet puller, you get the idea...
Picked up a Lyman Ideal press on Friday. It looked like a decent little press and not a bad price.
Tried to pull a 30-06 bullet. Forget it. The press's short stroke, short lever arms and short, thin handle just won't generate enough power to pull a 30 cal. bullet.
This press is probably inadequate to even resize 30-06 cases, though I expected that.
It's probably an ok press for handgun ammo opertations, de-capping, priming, and bullet seating for most rifle cartridges but it's a no-go for bullet pulling for larger calibers. BTW, I pulled some 223 bullets and that worked just fine.
I read many reviews before I bought it, but saw none that mentioned bullet pulling. I really didn't realize how much force it takes to pull a bullet until now as it's practically effortless with a Rock Chucker.

Dmay
03-28-2022, 06:47 AM
Why do you pull so many bullets that you want to dedicate a press to it?

gunluvr
03-28-2022, 09:34 AM
Why do you pull so many bullets that you want to dedicate a press to it?

'cause I can.
Don't need it often but when I do, there's usually a seating die in the other press. It happens.

Dean2
03-28-2022, 09:53 AM
I have a very small Lee press that I use for seating 17 and 20 calibre rounds. It has a reasonable amount of leverage and will pull bullets just fine using a Hornady bullet puller. It doesn't appear to have any more leverage than the Lyman. Very surprised the Lyman is having trouble doing that.

I have an ancient Texas Turret press, similar to the picture below, Lyman and a few others make modern versions. To me they are the answer for being able to have the sizing die, seating die and bullet pullers etc mounted without having to switch out all the time. My bullet puller just stay mounted in one of the 7 holes.

https://www.lymanproducts.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/600x800/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/7/7/7726500_press_white_03_4.jpg


https://leeprecision.com/images/P/90045-01.jpg

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n190/Thompson-Fan/TexanLoadmaster1.jpg