I bought my Herter's #3 in 1962...it was $13, at the time from their old Red and Yellow catalogue. I paid for it from a trapline's profits ($.35 for muskrat pelts, and a penny a day to deliver papers). It's a grand old press, strong as an ox and capable of great ammunition. Here are a cpl tips that I've used over the decades.
Don't tighten the set screws against the shell holder or the adapter...tighten them just enough that the shell holder/adapter is allowed to float. This allows the case to center itself.
Keep the ram clean & greased for ease of operation, and hose out the spent primer hollow in the ram with WW40.
Forget the primer seating assemblies. They don't allow enough feel for seating primers without crushing them. Get a hand held one from Lee, RCBS, or my favorite...Lyman.
Spent primers will litter your shop floor. Get a can or plastic butter tub, cut one side of it out to fit around the handle/ram and loop a wire tie or rubber band over the plate to hold it in place. The tub catches the spents.
If you look on flea bay or other source, you can find adapters that will allow you to use Lyman 310 Tong Tool dies, or even shotgun sizing dies. Handy if you want to size bullets, or load just a few of an off beat caliber.
My press will load .30-06 match ammunition with M72 173 gr BT's to less than 0.003" run out. I get MOA groups with it in a Match conditioned '03 Springfield. It was my only press, aside from a Lyman Tong Tool that I took to college, from '62 til I bought my first Dillon 550B just before the turn of the century.
HTH's Rod
