The CH/4D "444" press

[SoupOrMan]

I was looking through a list of reloading equipment links last night and took a look at CH/4D for some reason. I knew they were makers of specialty rifle dies so the company wasn't exactly in my immediate orbit for reloading equipment. Then I saw their 444-X press set up for pistol shooting. Since most of my firearms are in one pistol caliber or another this intrigued me. Has anyone used their products before? Is it more compact or less compact that a regular turret or progressive press like the Dillon 550 or Lee Classic Cast Turret Press? I have a very small space that I could use for reloading, so I need something on the smallish side. More importantly, do you get your money's worth?

The "Semi-Progressive" tag amused me though. "Fewer springs and fewer moving parts that will break or go out of alignment when you least want them to do so" was too long, apparently.

[Fivetoes]

I have no familiarity with this press. It appears that the user has to manually move the case from station to station. I suppose if you can keep three balls in the air at once you would have no trouble making a cartridge with each pull of the handle. It also appears there is the chance of dumping lots of powder on the floor or worse, double charging. I would search for some reviews before commiting to it.

[cu74]

From the picture, it doesn't look to be any more "compact" than my Lee Classic Cast 4-Hole Turret. The Lee only takes about six square inches of bench space. A Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure and a Safety Prime Feeder attach to the press/turret, so you don't need "extra" room for them. With a 4-hole turret, you won't have to move the case from one location to another.

The price list for the different caliber set-ups looks exorbitant to me. Lee carbide pistol dies run $30 or less and extra turrets are about $8-9 apiece. My Lee set-up, with pistol-caliber carbide dies for .38 Special/.357 Magnum, 45 ACP and 9mm, cost less than $250.

All of us want a reloading bench that is at least eight feet wide and four feet deep, but most of us make do with a lot less. It really doesn't take very much room to reload pistol cartridges - room for the press, a box of bullets, a scale to check powder weights and a box of brass. My bench is four by two and I actually use about half of the space when reloading.

As far as getting your money's worth, that is up to the individual. I looked at Dillon, RCBS, Lee and some others when considering reloading, and I decided Lee was the best value for me. Others may be better, but they are considerable more expensive than Lee, (IMHO you are paying a premium for customer service with most of them). If I was a lot younger, or expected to reload several thousand rounds per month, I might have gone with one of the "better" brands. I'm in my sixties and I only reload a few thousand rounds a year, so I figure my Lee equipment will outlast me.

[SoupOrMan]

I looked at it and saw that you'd have to manually move the cartridges from station to station on there, it basically turns out to be the equivalent of having four single-stage presses put together. That's not too big of a problem for me. As for reloading, I might use 200 rounds per week combined between my IPSC shooting and other range time. A turret press would fit right there without any trouble since I want to have more control over each round loaded with less time switching dies out. The difference in ease of reloading, ability to fix problems as they occur while reloading and overall quality of the finished reloads are what I was looking for. The price that CH/4D wants doesn't seem to match up with those three, which is why I was wondering if the press was good enough to justify being so expensive.