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Star History / Re: Every Star has a Story
« on: July 24, 2014, 12:10:19 pm »
I'd like to reactivate this old topic with my own story. It begins back in the late 1990s when I visited the home of a casual elderly friend who was a lifelong shooter and reloader. I went to look at some early Ideal™ and Lyman™ tools I knew he had, but then went on to buy a like-new Star Progressive. The back story was that the tool had been sent to John Amber for testing at the time of the writing of his first edition of Handloader's Digest. It came with most of a Hulme case feeder and of course the Lifetyme sizing die, standard powder magazine and standard primer feed with a strange rotary plastic add-on to carry about an extra 800 primers.
I bought it mostly on advice of a friend and shooting mentor who had used Stars while on the Navy pistol team, and we contacted Cunningham for information and instructions but had no further dealings with him. Meanwhile, my friend had a horrible recurrence of cancer and passed away, so the press sat around gathering dust for over a decade, with me only occasionally moving it from one storage site to another and slowly gathering parts to complete it. Somewhere along about this time I joined this forum with the (correct) idea that I could get ideas and encouragement.
By two years ago I had everything I needed for the basic operation of my Star, so I took it to a friend with extensive reloading (and especially Star Reloader) experience and he cleaned it up and set it up to operate at his place. Since then, for one reason or another, I didn't finish setting it up at home, but having gotten the last puzzle pieces from rbwillinj and maurilew recently, I had no further excuses. I found a strange single drawer unit intended to sit on top of a dresser(?) and am mounting the press on that and after another learning trip to my mentor's place in OH, it's up and running. Now to get the operator's skills up to the standard needed for smooth operation and I'm there! Thanks again to the folks on this forum (especially Bruce and Ma) for all the help and encouragement!
Froggie
I bought it mostly on advice of a friend and shooting mentor who had used Stars while on the Navy pistol team, and we contacted Cunningham for information and instructions but had no further dealings with him. Meanwhile, my friend had a horrible recurrence of cancer and passed away, so the press sat around gathering dust for over a decade, with me only occasionally moving it from one storage site to another and slowly gathering parts to complete it. Somewhere along about this time I joined this forum with the (correct) idea that I could get ideas and encouragement.
By two years ago I had everything I needed for the basic operation of my Star, so I took it to a friend with extensive reloading (and especially Star Reloader) experience and he cleaned it up and set it up to operate at his place. Since then, for one reason or another, I didn't finish setting it up at home, but having gotten the last puzzle pieces from rbwillinj and maurilew recently, I had no further excuses. I found a strange single drawer unit intended to sit on top of a dresser(?) and am mounting the press on that and after another learning trip to my mentor's place in OH, it's up and running. Now to get the operator's skills up to the standard needed for smooth operation and I'm there! Thanks again to the folks on this forum (especially Bruce and Ma) for all the help and encouragement!
Froggie
Would a Universal be significantly less expensive to buy either as or a 32 or to convert to 32? I would love to hear from anyone with experience in this direction. I've only had a couple of (relatively discouraging) comments on the topic here or elsewhere to date. Thanks in advance!!