RCBS Piggyback II...The Final Analysis
Joe Chimento
on this NG. Why? Well because it was so cheap and I had some faith
in RCBS to back up their product. Here is my final analysis of how it
works mounted on my 19 year old Rock Chucker. For the most part, I
can see how people would feel this unit is poorly designed due to the
nylon indexing bushing. It can be easily damaged. Combine this with
the fact that I am one of the unfortunate "mechanically challenged"
individuals out there!
In my last post, I was running the the Piggyback II one stage at a
time to get a feel for how each stage operates and to see what types
of failures I would see at each stage. I think this is the best
thing I could have done in the set up. It allowed me to actuate the
ram a few hundred times without damaging the nylon index bushing. I'm
not a patient man and would have normally just gone ahead with the set
up as found in the instruction book, but the words of caution made me
take things really slow. For this I am forever gratefull to all of
you who wrote to me advising me to exercize some caution.
This afternoon my older daughter and I made 500 .38spl rounds using
the Piggyback II in the fully progressive mode. I must say I was
quite impressed. The ram and indexer operates very smoothly now and
there were virtually no problems. My daughter's first 3 rounds, had
high primers, but that was until she got the feel for the press.
We took the ammo we made to the range where I am a Range Safety
Officer and shot them all. Very nice loads. I used 3.9 grams of
Unique (4.3gr was the maximum recommended load) with 158gr. LSWC. I
ran out of Winchester primers and only had CCI 550 magnum primers but
they worked fine. The brass was 4 times fired originally bought from
Stareline brass (http://www.starlinebrass.com/)
We started recording data on the bullet accuracy, but since we had the
range to ourselves, we decided to forget about physics and have some
fun instead. We threw away the pen and paper and set up the steel
plates and pepper poppers and started blasting away! I have no idea
on how accurate my loads were, but man were those plates falling down
fast! What fun we had!
Anyway, in the final analysis, I would highly recommend the RCBS
Piggyback II as long as you take your time in assembling the parts and
operate the ram a couple of dozen times "dry" to break it in. This
affords you the opportunity to get aquainted with its operation
without being concerned with actually making safe loads. Once you are
comfortable with operating the unit "dry", start adding your
components and go!
The unit comes with certain parts preassembled and factory adjusted
for small pistol primers. There are parts in the kit for the large
pistol primers, but I must admit, I was a little intimidated by the
instructions. The cost of the New Piggyback II was $104 plus $16 for
the #6 shell plate all from T&T reloading supplies
(http://www.tntreloading.com/). I think for the price it was well
worth it. The Piggyback II has made my Rock Chucker a much more
useable reloader. This will really come in handy for this years
league shoot.
Once again, thanks to all the knowledgable people in this NG who gave
me the "heads up" on the nylon index bushing. It definately made the
difference between success and failure!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please find out about rec.guns at http://doubletap.cs.umd.edu/rec.guns
dave...@my-deja.com
Welcome to the Piggyback II family. As I said in an earlier post my
wife and I are more than happy with our Piggyback II.
Maybe one of these days we'll take the time to figure out the primer
mechanism.
Have fun reloading and shooting.
Dave & Vicky
In article <7s5fdo$mqr$1...@xring.cs.umd.edu>,
sy...@bayonne.net (Joe Chimento) wrote:
# Ok...I purchased the Piggyback II against the advise of most posters
# on this NG.
--
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear ar
as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson
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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Bruce Rowen
I have the PBII and also love it (9mm, .45). It does take a
bit of a technique to watch everything, but it is doable.
For priming, the PBII primes on the downstroke of the press
(handle moving up). To ensure good primes, I grab hold of the
vertical member of the "O" frame on the rockchucker with my
left hand for leverage. This gives very good feedback on priming
and you can tell when the primer is properly seated.
-Bruce
Socorro, NM
In article <7saphi$c5f$1...@xring.cs.umd.edu>, dave...@my-deja.com writes:
#Joe,
#
#Welcome to the Piggyback II family. As I said in an earlier post my
#wife and I are more than happy with our Piggyback II.
#
#Maybe one of these days we'll take the time to figure out the primer
#mechanism.
#
#Have fun reloading and shooting.
#
#Dave & Vicky
Joe Chimento
#Maybe one of these days we'll take the time to figure out the primer
#mechanism.
The primer mechanism is one of the pieces on the Piggyback II which
were factory pre-assembled for the small pistol primers. I didn't
have to mess with it at all. It works great. The instructions to
switch it over to the large pistol primers seemed a little involved,
but do-able.
I still think its a great way to squeeze a little more use out of a
single stage Rock Chucker! I'm very pleased. Last night I made
another 500 rounds for next Saturday. No problems...well I am going
through a ton of powder now! :)
keith whaley
for once!
It's a well-designed and capable reloader, and I tire of folks who have
succumbed to the Dillon hype so thoroughly they can't believe anyone else
makes a good press.
I've used a PB-II for years, and am well-pleased with it.
One thing, to be honest, it is not designed for ham-handed operators,
reloading speed-demons or mechanical idiots.
The shell kicker design could have been better accomplished, as it is
definately a weak point.
Also, you cannot partial stroke the charging handle and change your mind. The
nylon bushing won't take much of that nor much horsing of the operating handle.
On the other hand, the bushing is cheap and fairly easily replaced.
The only thing I have done is add one of RCBS' Lock-Out® dies to the second to
last stage.
No matter how careful you are, it's possible to miss a powder charge. This die
stops everything, and won't allow you to continue until you solve the problem.
It also detects a double charge.
All in all, I like the press a lot, and see no need to change over and go to
Dillon, just because it's the "new guy on the block."
For all the Dillon owners out there, understand I am not knocking Dillon. No
doubt in my mind the product is a nice one, and the excellent customer service
lends an aura to the product it might not otherwise have had.
Keep in mind, it was RCBS that almost defined the term, with their most
excellent customer service, before Dillon was born... <g>
Keith Whaley - gunsmith/owner
WHALEY's Gunsmithing
Westchester, CA
* * *
Joe Chimento wrote:
#
# On 22 Sep 1999 10:36:34 -0400, dave...@my-deja.com wrote:
# #Maybe one of these days we'll take the time to figure out the primer
# #mechanism.
#
# The primer mechanism is one of the pieces on the Piggyback II which
# were factory pre-assembled for the small pistol primers. I didn't
# have to mess with it at all. It works great. The instructions to
# switch it over to the large pistol primers seemed a little involved,
# but do-able.
#
# I still think its a great way to squeeze a little more use out of a
# single stage Rock Chucker! I'm very pleased. Last night I made
# another 500 rounds for next Saturday. No problems...well I am going
# through a ton of powder now! :)
#
# --
# Joe
# http://www.njguns.com
JEB
Amazing, I use the same technique for seating primers and it works well for
me as well. I have been using my PiggyII for over 10 years and like it very
much.
JEB
Bruce Rowen wrote:
> ...
JerryO
#
# I have the PBII and also love it (9mm, .45). It does take a
# bit of a technique to watch everything, but it is doable.
# For priming, the PBII primes on the downstroke of the press
# (handle moving up). To ensure good primes, I grab hold of the
# vertical member of the "O" frame on the rockchucker with my
# left hand for leverage. This gives very good feedback on priming
# and you can tell when the primer is properly seated.
#
# -Bruce
# Socorro, NM
That's also an exact description of priming on my pro1000. The machines
feed primers to the priming pin differently though. I think the dillon
550B is the same also.
--
JerryO
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Before you buy.