"Smart" brand Press, Case Tumbler, and Digital Scale - Product Review

[Land_Owner]

Sportsmen's Guide sells an inexpensive"Reloading" package; a single stage press, digital scale and case tumbler; manufactured in China (of course!) for the Italians.  It looked good in the ad and the price was "right" - or so I thought.

To call this a "press" is almost false advertising.  It isn't a RockChucker and to speak of both in the same sentence (or post) is practically a slur against RCBS, known to be a stable platform among reloaders, and I have one myself.

The "Smart" brand - isn't.  This press galls the main piston on both upswing and downswing as the piston wobbles in its race.  The case to be sized/deprimed (380 ACP in this instance) is used for upper piston alignmnet and this case is almost 1/4-inch off of true when the piston reaches the top of its stroke (bottom of the die).  That's a lot of wobble!  Putting stress on the sides of brass cases as they are rammed into the die by a piston that wobbles 1/4-inch off of plumb isn't inspiring confidence. 

The handle is cast and likely to be the element that breakes soonest.  Twin knobs that jut out from the circular terminus of the handle, less than 3/16" thick, cause the handle to stop if the piston does not "two-block" into the bottom of the die.  These knobs are certain to fail the soonest.

The knob on the end of the cast handle is a wooden ball that is pressed onto the end of the handle.  It came off in my hand.  Maybe that is a design "feature".  The amount of force necessary to ram the case into the sizing/depriming die by this handle is 5 times that of the other namded press.  After 1,000 deprimed cases I had achieved a blister in the palm of my right hand. 

If gauged only by its function, then it DID deprime cases and I got that part right.  I have not opened the scale or the case tumbler.  I don't know what to expect of those. 

If you have any experience with this brand, please reply


PLEASE NOTE:  This is not a vent about Sportsmen's Guide.  Please do not post your opinion about SG or I will ask the Moderator to delete your reply in its entirety.

[Troyboy]

Why buy Chicom reloading products when Lee is so reasonable? This is not the first time the Smart brand has been found to be lacking.

[cybin]

If the press is as good as you say it is--How good can the scale be??
 
cybin

[williamlayton]

Land Owner
We will never learn. Sometimes I think I buy some of this stuff just to have something to be mad at.
I have given so much of this stuff a shot, thinking, maybe this time--nope, never has happened.
I won't learn though---I will see something that I just know is too good to be true and here I will go again.
Why don't you run a test on their customer service?
Blessings

[possume]

well i like my smart hand primer the nano tumbler works great my sr750 scale is right on with my rcbs 502 scale ive never used my press i bought the kit with every thing for the scale and tumbler cheaper than i could buy just the tumbler

[hornady]

Not to start an argument, but there is a difference between a reloader, and a hand loader, and if you have never used good equipment you do not see the difference. I am not saying one brand is better than another, my bench has Redding, Hornady, Lyman and RCBS on it. It took over 40 years to find what works best for me. A lot of equipment came and went over the years. not yelling old eyes hard to see in te morning.

[topper88]

I tried two of their items.  The copy of the lee hand primer.  Liked the idea of not buying the special shell holders.  Didn't work all that well for a few dozen you could fiddle and get them done but any kind of production, forget it.  The hammer type un-loader so far has worked the under a hundred times that I have used it so far.  Nice that it came with two sets of collets.  I won't be trying any more of their items.

[Kmrere42]

Hi all,


I have one of the small presses.  At first I found that the lever was not made correctly to transfer the leverage properly.  So what I did was to order a handle from Lee for thier very similar cast aluminum press and just swap out the handle.  Worked perfectly.  I can now fully resize a 30-06 or 45-70 case with no more effort than using my rcbs partner press. 

I found that the fit of the ram to the bore is acceptably tight and does not have excessive woble.

Cost from Lee was $9.00,  $5. for the part and $4. for shipping.



Paul B.

[huntducks]

Not to start an argument, but there is a difference between a reloader, and a hand loader, and if you have never used good equipment you do not see the difference. I am not saying one brand is better than another, my bench has Redding, Hornady, Lyman and RCBS on it. It took over 40 years to find what works best for me. A lot of equipment came and went over the years. not yelling old eyes hard to see in te morning.

COULD NOT AGREE MORE.
 
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

[mdi]

Being a tightwad, I tend to try "deals" now and then and a few months ago I thought I'd try a Smart Reloader C press. This is nothing like the Lee press other than being a small C style press. I mounted the "press" on my bench and tried to size/deprime some .38 Specials. Very difficult; not enough leverage (carbide die and I even lubed some cases). So, I tried to prime some brass with my Ram Prime. The "press" ram had so much slop I had to guide the primer in each pocket or it would hit the side of the pocket and bend. The only operation I could complete successfully was to size some bullets with a Lee size die. But I had to guide each bullt into the die because of ram slop. The "action" of the "press" felt gritty and I tried to lube it but no improvement. The good things about this "press" is it had a complete paint job, no missed spots and I liked the shiny handle and wooden knob. Other than it is a total waste of materials and the lesson I learned may be worth $16.00, but I do know I will not purchase any thing with the Smart Reloader name on it...

[excavator13]

Bought a "nano" tumbler and it gave up the ghost in less than a month.  (tumbled maybe 600 9mm and 100 30-30).  Recomend you definitely keep away.  Also got thier Monster Powder Trickler, that so far has been servicable.

[SHOOTALL]

I have a lyman press that was given to me. The owner got in the 1950's it works fine. I have a pacfic press from the 1970's it also works great and was a gift from a friend when he was finished with it. I have different dies . A turbo 1200 that has to be 20 years old. Pacfic scales , RCBS powder dump . All old all work great. Why buy junk ? Why buy from a company that sells junk to reloaders / hand loaders ?

[Land_Owner]

williamlayton and I are on the same page.  Not to worry.  Experiment OVER.  I replaced it with a Lee 90998 Classic Cast Press and could not be happier.  The red press next to the green press on the reloading bench and they are both doing what they were purchased for.  Thousands of cases have been deprimed with  the Lee and readied for the RCBS Progressive, skipping the priming step, as I like to feel my way through that with each case.

[Steve E]

I also bought one of their 'O' frame presses just to have a spare press on the end of my bench for odd jobs that pop up. When it came in I sent it back the next day, it had so much play in it's ram you had to guide in almost every case or they would hit the bottom of the die. The press seemed to be made well with the exception of a crappy paint job and reasonably heavy but the play in the ram was unacceptable. Lesson learned.

Steve E............