Lyman Brass-Smith Victory Press

The Lyman Brass-Smith Victory Press is a sturdy, single stage, cast iron unit weighing in at 18 lbs. Its O-frame design enables maximum rigidity and consistency during the deceptively forceful, full-length resizing process. The 1” ram accepts all commonly found shell holders that may be supplied with your dies, exerting its power stroke through the compound leverage action through the 5” frame opening.

Base considerations

I cannot state strongly enough how much value can be put towards bolting the press securely to a solid bench, using the three 10mm holes provided. The corner of the frame is ground square to fit right up the bench edges, with minimal overhang and consequent unwanted leverage of the press towards yourself. A newly designed, straight-line primer feed is included, with feed tubes and ram punches for large or small rifle primers. It has a blast shield around the case when actually squeezing the primers into position, which will appease the lawyers.

I don’t like priming on any press, as it’s fiddley, slow and, if careless, you are using huge leverage forces to seat those tiny caps into the pockets.

The Lyman unit works but feels as clunky as any other in the industry, requiring all the primers to be stacked and clipped into the tube, which is then inverted and requires a fresh primer fed towards the ram every time a case is being lower onto it with a sprung button. Using the 14” steel operating lever capped with a 1 ½” ball end, any misfed primers will be easily crushed with virtually no pressure needed. I use hand priming tools regardless of the press I’m using, simple factor for me there.

Left or right

The handle can be positioned for right or left-hand operation and the planten (top) is cut for the standard 7/8th x 14 TPI reloading die thread. Plenty of force is available for full-length sizing with a polished steel ram that runs smoothly through the precisionmachined iron casting. This smoothness allows a good element of delicacy when neck sizing and is especially tactile when it comes to seating bullets into the case necks.

I was particularly pleased to see the compound leverage mechanism ‘cam over centre’ at the top of its stroke, this effectively means that the extreme force exerted between shell holder and die is mechanically limited, rather than being dependant on the physical pressure with which you are pushing on the handle. After loading calibres from 223 to 300 Win Mag, I’m very happy with the Lyman press, whose bright orange powder coat assures years of service. Maintenance requires just the dusting off the residue from spent primers, a wipe over with an oily cloth to maintain the ram and just a drop or two of oil at the bearing points of the linkage.