Twenty years ago gunwriter Wiley Clapp published an article explaining how to make the ultimate loading bench. The ultimate.

At the time, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment, 21 stories up, in downtown Toronto. My rifles dwelt in one corner of my closet with a handful of Lee Loaders on a shelf, and my dining-room table (with the computer shoved to one side) was as close to a bench as I was going to get.

Still, I read and reread the article and was reminded of it every time I pulled out the paraphernalia to concoct another half-dozen rounds. "A bench," thought I. "My kingdom for a bench!"

When I moved to an old farmhouse in the country a couple of years later, I bought (in this order) a pickup truck, the complete Skeeter Davis collection and the wherewithal to build Wiley's shimmering vision of the perfect loading bench. Oh, yeah--I also acquired a red tabby cat. As any devoted reader of Dean Grennell will attest, no loading bench is complete without a cat.

Power tools are a great help in making cuts that are straight, even and located where they are supposed to be.

Now, over the years any number of articles have attempted to show readers how they can have room for a proper loading bench anywhere from a palace to a pup tent. Some designs are even portable--contraptions you can transport to the firing line and load every round fresh.

That is not the goal here. This is a bench to be installed with loving care and attention to detail in your primary abode where, with any luck, you will live happily ever after. It is solid, heavy, affixed front and back to the floor and wall, and, if an earthquake strikes, if anything is left standing it will be your loading bench with you sheltered safely beneath. It's that good.

In fact, your bench could become a family heirloom. My first one did. My son lusted after it so mightily that I finally unbolted it from the wall, handed it over and set out to build another--with a few modifications.

This article is rather heavily illustrated, so I will not attempt to describe what the photos readily show. However, an explanation of principles:

LIST OF MATERIALS

Four plywood sheets, 8'x18"x3/4". These can be cut from two standard 4'x8'x3/4" sheets. Oak or birch is recommended. Two plywood sheets, 8'x12"x3/4". For inserts. These are left over when the above sheets are cut. One 8' 2x4, high quality, straight. For wall mount. One 1"x2"x8' oak (for trim along back of bench). 3/4"x3" oak facing (for bench). Ten feet total length. 3/4"x1 1/2" oak facing (for inserts). Eight feet, approximately, depending on number of inserts. Three 1 1/2-inch steel pipe (38 inches approximately, depending on desired height, threaded at both ends). Six 1 1/2-inch pipe flanges. Wood glue. Lag bolts (for 2x4 wall mount). Wood screws--assorted lengths (for fastening layers together, fastening bottom layer to 2x4, attaching leg flanges to bench and floor, fastening trim strip along rear of bench and attaching oak facing).

The first requirement of a loading bench is stability; it must be solid. Full-length-resizing, swaging bullets and working a multistage press all require some serious mechanical advantage. A bench that lifts, flexes or buckles is useless.

After stability comes a whole host of secondary requirements: good lighting, room to spread out, secure storage areas, electrical outlets and an efficient layout that allows error-free loading operations.

A scale drawing of the author's reloading bench.

Your bench must also be versatile, and therein lies a problem: Versatility and stability do not readily coexist. When a press is attached to a bench with four heavy bolts, it does not easily move out of the way.

With the proliferation of loading tools over the last 20 years (and every one of them essential), this demand is more urgent than ever. Wiley Clapp designed his bench with a system of inserts that allows the user to move tools readily here and there, yet have them securely fastened when they are needed.