Who knew a Rock Chucker could break in half???

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Citadel99

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So I headed out to do some reloading last night. Had a little extra resistance on the down stroke and this happened. So much for my holiday reloading time... Emailed RCBS and will see what they have to say.

I don’t think they are supposed to do that!

Mark




1641057F-9040-4B21-A63A-B076B1C4D1DC.jpeg
 
Dang, what a bummer.

RCBS will fix you up, but there's gonna be some downtime with no back up press.
 
Wow, I didn't know that was possible. The casting must not have been aged enough after it was cast. Cooled down to quickly or something to make it brittle.
That's the first Rock Chucker failure of that kind I've ever even heard of.
I don't see any dark areas which is usually the last part of a casting to let go before it breaks when there are cracks present, but it may just be the pictures.
 
Yeah, I usually load up a lot of ammo this time of year. I have a Dillon 550B but no spare tool heads and don't really want to adjust the ones I have so it looks like it'll be a pistol loading holiday for me. Was really wanting to try out the .308 Barnes TTSX on hogs and deer at the end of the week but I think that might be tabled at this point.

Maybe a little duct tape?!?!?

Mark
 

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tightgroup tiger said:
That's the first Rock Chucker failure of that kind I've ever even heard of.
Click to expand...
Seeing that's a first for me too.
Bad casting I reckon.

Here's a photo of my 40 yr. old 'portable' press that I would haul to work (bondocks)
and use during the week after work for something to do.
A log butt was used to plumb the press up.
rcbs press1.jpg
Bounced around the back of the truck in the rain and snow and has fell out (or down) more times than I remember.

mcb said:
I have seen a RCBS break but it was being used to do some aggressive bullet sizing.
Click to expand...
I've used this one with a cheater pipe attempting to swage '06 cases in a .35 Remington die.
Cracked the sizing die, but not the press.

JT
 
Were you using a 3' cheater bar trying to resize unlubed 50BMG brass???? :rofl:
 
George P said:
Were you using a 3' cheater bar trying to resize unlubed 50BMG brass???? :rofl:
Click to expand...
Funny you ask that, I was about to comment, I know a gun shop owner who has an old Rockchucker he sizes 50 BMG cases on with a 6' cheater bar and no breakage. He has used the same press for at least 20 years too.

I also have never seen and press of that type break let alone a Rockchucker. Like already said, it must be a bad cast to break like that. Good thing is the OP will end up with a shinny new Rockchucker!
 
Just to hold it until the JB Weld cures.
Click to expand...

If, and know it won't happen, but if RCBS doesn't honor that with a new press, I would have to see how strong JB Weld is. If they don't honor it I would experiment with it to find out, after buying a new Redding Big Boss. I'll bet it's a first for them to. They're going to be baffled.
Howard J hit on something I was wondering about also, but I really didn't want to believe.
Chinese?
Click to expand...
How old is this press? I've heard that the newer RCBS presses are made in China now.
Sad state of affairs.
 
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