Interesting. I've gotten some Dillon powder funnels with a bit of surface rust. I just cleaned them with WD40 and fine steel wool and called it a day. Mine seem to work just fine and didn't need to be replaced. They are harded steel and hard enough that once the surface rust is off, the tolerances are still fine, and that seems to be the consensus I've read online - remove the rust, polish, and it's good to go. Pretty sure they didn't need to be completely replaced, which might be why the guy at Dillon suggested that to you.- Also when I first got the Dillon I ordered a bunch of parts for converting between calibers, and got new powder funnels direct from Dillon with surface rust. I when I called Dillon the service rep argued with me for a while that the powder funnels would work just fine despite rust, and it took persistence to get Dillon to process the replacement.
Genuine question: what does a "better" single stage get you? My only beef with the Lee Classic is that the priming system is awful. Everything else seems acceptable enough.
The one thing you can't really get on the Lee Challenger is that it doesn't bottom out like Rock Chucker, so when you are setting up a die for a slight cam-over, it's not something you can really do - it doesn't have that same hard stop at the end of the ram stroke. There's a little bit of flex in that press, and there's absolutely no flex in the Rock Chucker - it's built too heavy.
Could well have used steel wool or sandpaper to clean the powder funnels. Still, given the price of Dillon components, I was rather disappointed to buy direct from the manufacturer, and receive parts with visually obvious rust. It was also not a light dusting of orange that should come off with a couple wipes, but more like the wet tool you forgot to dry and wipe some oil on, and got pushed back on your cluttered workbench and forgotten for a while.
I get it - I had at least one powder funnel that came that way - I'm not sure why they aren't oiled or placed in oil paper before they get stored, but for whatever reason, they had some surface rust on them.
I have used a Rockchucker since I started eons ago. They are solid, not real pricey and just flat work. I have loaded thousands of rounds, pistol, rifle, all calibers, precision rifle, plinking.. you name it. I have not tried any of the newer offerings, but I did just finally make a quantum leap into the progressive movement. I'll post some pics soon, think all my parts will be getting here tomorrow
I have a RCBS JR3 which is similar to the Rock Chucker. I bought it used and it didn't have all the priming parts so I never got to try it out. But it came with a separate RCBS hand primer all for $25 or 30 at a gun show in the 90's. I watched some videos recently to see if I wanted to get the primer parts for it. I'm still hand priming. Initially I used it for depriming before vibra cleaning (all my cases) and loading low volume 45 Auto Rim for my S&W 625. Now I'm using it in higher volume for 45 Colt for my New Vaquero and added a roller lever from InlineFrabrication to the setup. All the equipment is mostly beefy metals with tight tolerances that you could drive a Smart car over and not damage.
