herters reloading press

nightwatchman

nightwatchman

New member
is a herters reloading press any count??? and if so what would you guys pay for one it good shape..

i had mentioned before in a post an old friend of mine had some stuff for sale , he used to reload his zipper rifle with it.. anyway, he just got back to me on it and told me it was herters press...

can i use the other dies and accessories from other makers in this press..?
 
Herters was making good solid reloading presses for years. I dont know when they went out of business. They made lots of stuff. I think that if you were to get the press at a fair price you would be just fine. You didnt say if it was a "C" press or an "O" press. If it is a "C" type I may be a bit leery of it, but an "O" press I would feel pretty safe buying. It should take standard dies and shell holders, so at least it will work with any dies on the market these days.
 
Herter's sold a lot of different presses. I used a C press for quite some time. The only major problem was that they used their own proprietary shell holder, which was held in the ram by set screws. If you want to use a regular, more modern, snap in shell holder like those now available, you had to buy an adapter which fit into the ram of the Herter's press, in place of their shell holder. You put the "snap in" shell holder in the adapter. And, it worked fine that way.

I wouldn't spend much on one because of parts availability, or rather, the lack thereof. And, if it wasn't fitted for the regular snap in shell holders, or have the adapter, I wouldn't buy it at all.

The press should be set up to use the standard 7/8 X 14 thread dies which are standard now.
 
RCBS still offers an adapter for Herters presses, so you can use standard shell holders. As for value of an older press, well, current stuff, used, goes awfully cheap. I've heard the term "get the scale" used to evaluate some of it.
 
Herter's presses use standard dies, but as has been previously mentioned, proprietary shell holders. Adapters are available, but you cannot prime cases with the press using these adapters. For this reason, the value of the press would be less than currently manufactured presses that use the standard shell holders.

Having said that, I wish I had a penny for every round I have loaded using my 1956 vintage #3 Herters C press. While most of my ammo is now loaded on two Dillon 550's, I still rely on the old Herter's to load my hunting ammo (such as 243 WSSM, 300 Win. Mag, 338 Win Mag, 375 H&H, and even 470 NE).

I sure wouldn't worry about the durability of the Herter's C press.

100_1753-1.jpg


Original type shell holders are a bit pricey, but can be obtained from:

Vega Tool Co

A good machinist or gunsmith can make you a bushing to adapt the RCBS style shell holders to work in the Herter's ram. I had one made for the 470 NE recently.

Regards,
hm
 
I have had one for several years and it is my go to for any of my large rifle stuff. I believe the only reason herter's went out of the reloading business is they made their stuff TOO good and it never wore out. UGLY yes, reliable YES, worth the money YES!
 
I learned on my herters press handed down from my dad. Model 3 just like hm1996
I sure wish I knew how old it was. He had it handed down from an ol timmer in town who taught him to reload back in the ??60's?? I still use it along with my rock chucker. Nothing like getting whacked in the knee by the handle!!
 

Quote:
I sure wish I knew how old it was.



Can't remember when Herter's went under but I bought my press new in either 1955 or 1956. I have a 1975 Herter's catalog, which is probably the last one I received?????

Regards,
hm
 
Quote:

Quote:
I sure wish I knew how old it was.



Can't remember when Herter's went under but I bought my press new in either 1955 or 1956. I have a 1975 Herter's catalog, which is probably the last one I received?????

Regards,
hm



That's one thing I really like about this place...I don't feel nearly as old! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

BTW, I bought one in 1957.
 
Back
Top