Reloading input

Which is more practical?

  • Buy two presses, a single stage and a turret/progressive

    Votes: 46 76.7%

  • Buy one press, a turret/progressive for everything.

    Votes: 14 23.3%
  • Total voters
    60
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M

mdThanatos

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To start, it has been about seven years since I did any reloading and all my experience was pistol rounds on a Lee classic turret kit from Kempfs. Since then I have moved, gotten married, changed jobs, flip flopped with my schedule, had a kid, and put shooting on the back burner. Recently I have been able to start shooting more and have started to get more focused on my shooting, instead of just plinking away for fun.

With that out of the way, I am looking at getting more proficient with my rifle shooting and plan on hitting up a range that has targets between 100 and 1000 yards. Not looking at any competitions but I would eventually like to get a better rifle and caliber combo to shoot 1000 consistently, and in the mean time want to load for my current rifle to try and maximize my accuracy. I also have a few pistol calibers that would greatly benefit from reloading.

The issue I am having is trying to decide what route I want to go. I know that many rifle shooters will load their rounds on a single stage press but it can be done on a turret or progressive press. I also know that in order to load pistol rounds I am going to want a turret at the very least, if not a progressive.

Would it be more practical to get a single stage for more accurate rifle loads and then a turret or progressive for my pistol fodder or can it really be done on one press, a turret or progressive and bypass the single stage altogether?

My gut is saying I should bite the bullet, in a manner, and buy two presses and be done with it. It would be nice to just be able to get one press for everything, but would there be any benefit or excess trouble trying to go that route? What say you?

Additional info that may or may not help:

The calibers I will be reloading for rifle will be .223, .308, more than likely 6.5 creedmoor down the road, and 6.5 grendel is a very real possibility

The calibers for pistol will be .38 special/.357 magnum, .44 special/.44magnum, .45 acp, and possibly .45 colt.
 
Buying new from scratch. A Dillon 550 at minimum.
750 if possible. The progressive will load every thing up to 50 BMG.
A single stage is handy for chores like de-capping primer pocket swaging, brass prep and maybe early load development .
 
If it were me starting over I would get whichever looks good and fits the type of shooting I do.

If you stick with it this round you'll be having to build a bigger bench for the rest of the presses you accumulate! Your plan sounds solid regarding the turret and single stage. Most can get by with this and never feel the need to go progressive.

Keep in mind the turret like a Lee classic will work in single stage fashion if you ever want to go that method. Im guessing you scrapped the old classic?
 
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Get what your heart desires. How we would do it may be different. If money was no object I would be looking at a Dillon for pistol and 223 and a coax for precision rifle. Get the press that supports your shooting the most first.
 
Depends on what type of shooting you intend to do, not necessarily what you do now. Social shooting (with wife, kids, friends), informal fun, research/load development, competition. How often you shoot or "must you replace supplies", weekly for the next comp (maybe 1K per week), or <2X a month.

Don't forget, baby needs shoes....
 
A Forster Co-Ax beside my RCBS single stage is perfect for me.. I use them in tandem. Size in one, expand in the other. Seat in one and crimp in the other. Size in one and swage primer pockets in the other. You can do two operations to a case before going to the next case. Sometimes it requires 2 die sets.
 
I need my progressive to feed my pistol(s) calibers. I need my single stage to feed my very-much-lower-volume rifles.
You can do all on either, sure, but doing volume pistol on a single stage gets old fast, and doing high quality lots of QC rifle on a progressive may not work for your long range.
 
Years ago when I got into reloading I thought the Lee LCT was all I needed and because it was indexing could make 200 rounds an hour. It doesn't and I found out that I preferred to do things a certain way, such as decapping, then cleaning. I then came to find out that I didn't really need the auto indexing and I barely use that feature. It's still a nice press, I like how cheap the turret heads are compared to something like a Redding or Lyman turret press head costs.

However, with Lee now making the APP press, I can resize and mouth flare so fast I doubt a progressive would be able to keep up. I mean, I don't use bullet feeders, I feel taking a bullet out of a box and inserting it into the mouth by hand is more of a sure thing, so I don't need a progressive to do bullet seating.

Same for crimping, I'm always going to crimp, then turn the case a quarter turn for more concentric crimping, and crimp a second time.

Now, if it turned out that the APP press isn't as fast as I'd thought, I would get a progressive because we know those are fast.

The thing about reloading is that all the presses have their strengths and weaknesses. The Lee C frame press that's $40 isn't a press made for doing heavy volumes of rifle reloading, but for simple stuff like bullet seating, mouth flaring, crimping, sizing bullets, it works very well. If I wanted to load ammo that was nearly perfectly concentric, I'd use the MEC Marksman single stage. If I want production and large round counts, I'm going progressive.

It just makes sense to play to each presses strengths instead of tasking it to do something it wasn't designed for.
 
SS stage for the accurate ammo, and AP for your blasting ammo. I use a SS press for all my rifle loads except my blasting ammo for my AR. All handgun ammo is loaded on the LNL-AP with brass feeder. I also use the AP press ( with universal deprimer die) to deprime all my spent cases before throwing them into the FART (SS wet pin cleaning). I have the primer seating punch removed so all the debre fall clear.
 
You can use a progressive as a single stage press. The highpower shooters I am around mostly load on progressive presses for everything 300 yards and shorter. 600 is where the split of single vs progressive comes into play. The advice I'm following is to use one load for everything off my progressive and if I start noticing 600y is not great, then change. If I never notice anything, then no big deal. I thus far have no shots that cannot be explained by wind!

For pistol, you'll be loading more for bulk, so the speed of the progressive will pay off big time. I mainly shoot bullseye and would bash my head in loading all the ammo I need on a single stage.

I personally have a 550 and a Lee Challener press that I mainly use to deprime with a universal die. This is to keep all that grit out of my 550, so I see it as $60 well spent. I also use it to resize 223 which makes reloading 223 much easier on the progressive.
 
I’m sorta amazed of the correlations being presented here on the style of press used to load “ accurate” ammunition and ammunition. A progressive won’t turn out “accurate” cartridges. ?? Anybody tell those hundreds of competitors in the competition world using these machines that. :(
 
whughett said:
Buying new from scratch. A Dillon 550 at minimum.
750 if possible. The progressive will load every thing up to 50 BMG.
A single stage is handy for chores like de-capping primer pocket swaging, brass prep and maybe early load development .
Click to expand...

I don't know of a progressive press out there that will go up to .50 BMG. Can you provide a link?
 
No. Rephrased. Dillons will load up to, but not included 50BMG. They sell a 50BMG Press not sure it’s a progressive. Just remember seeing in in the Blue Press.

Sorry bad sentence structure, grammar was never a strong point.
 
It's not that a progressive cannot load long range ammunition, it's just very common that people who do have tons of Qc points and inspections throughout the process. A lot of br guys also load at the range making adjustments on the fly. If those things dont effect you then progressively load and be happy.
 
Bought a Rockchucker single stage to get started and the a Redding Turret when I got a few bucks together, Still have and use both. It was best choice for me.
 
I have a Lee single stage for rifle, and, until recently, the Lee ABLP for pistol. I sold the progressive to free up room on the bench, to donate the funds to the VCDL, and, since I shoot way more rifle than pistol, I will just load everything on the single stage. While I had both, my father started loading, and he got the Lee Classic Turret. I still think he has the better setup. You can disconnect the auto advance and use it like a single stage forbbatch loading, or run it as a turret for more volume. For my needs, a full progressive was overkill. YMMV.
 
I do everything on one press, a Dillon 650, from pistol to precision rifle rounds.

My methods will be different depending on my goals (using the press more like a singe stage when loading for a rifle match) but the flexibility of the 650 allows me to do it all.
 
It really breaks down to how much of each cartridge you're going to shoot.

There's a setup cost on a progressive that makes it hard to justify if you're only going to shoot 100 rounds per year.

Also just how much precision are you going to need?

Let's take the Dillon 750 as an example. Conversion kits run $90 or so. You'll need one for each cartridge you're reloading. If you want a separate powder measure for each one you'll need to add another $90. Oh, if you want to leave the dies set you'll also need a tool head for each, add another $40. Or just get the quick change kit which runs $125, that includes the tool head and powder measure, so $215 for each cartridge, not including dies.

I figure $250-$300 in parts cost for each cartridge, unless you can find a deal. If you swap powder measures then you're still figuring $170-$220 for each cartridge.

Don't get me wrong, I own a pair of 650s, I have setups for 9mm, .327 Federal, .38 Special, .357 Mag, 10mm, .44 Mag, .45 ACP, .45 Colt, 300 Blackout, and .223. I have one press for large primers and one for small. I also have two or three single stage presses and a turret press. Some of them haven't been touched in years. Some cartridges like .44 Mag I haven't done a run in 2-3 years as I don't shoot that much of it. My .308 and .30-06 loading are done on the single stage, I need to unfreeze that second hand turret press!

What's funny is I don't even own a .45 Colt!
 
When I started decades ago. In the 70’s it was with A Lyman “Expert” kit at $200.00. A Lyman’s TMag Press, powder measure. Scale, case trimmer, lube pad, tube of case lube , manual and a set of 30/30 dies and shell holder. Still have and use it. It’s one reason I’d advocate the age old rule of acquiring tools for the long run. Buy the very best you can afford.

In 82 I acquired the 550. Between the two Ive never needed another set up until 03 when wife and I started spending winters in Florida. I acquired a Lee Classic Turret and one of their basic, very basic single stages. Those two will probably get junked in a few years when we stop wintering down here. The TMag and Dillon some else will wind up using them as long as I have.
 
Practical depends on your budget. A good single stage press together with a Lee turret press will cost less than a nice progressive press.
 
Gee IDK, I have a single stage, Lee turret and a progressive and I use all three. I also use all three differently. If I had to go to just one then the one I'd keep would probably be the turret because of the versatility..
 
I started with a Lee Loader, got a single stage and used it for roughly 15 years. Then got a Lee turret and used it for over 20 years and was able to do everything on it I would expect to do on a reloading press. I reloaded for 380 ACP through 7.63x54r and 30-06. I sized bullets and primed with a ram prime on it too. A progressive press does not fit my lifestyle so I hand indexed my turret and batch loaded (no need for a lot of ammo quickly and I enjoy reloading).
 
If you load a lot - your decision - of one caliber, a progressive is going to ease your problem. I find it works well for most all pistol rounds, and most of the common rifle rounds.
At the same time, a progressive is a pain to load five rounds at a time for 'working up' a load. So a single stage or turret or the Dillon AT 500 press (their answer to a turret type) is handy, if not needed.

What sort? I've had Dillion XL650s for years. They are great for mass production of 'established' loads. The Dillon powder measure is well within the charge tolerances of most normal pressure loadings.
I find Lee presses good as single position presses. I do NOT recommend their powder measures. But they are convenient and handy for dealing with small batches of 'test' ammo or 'target ammo' for precision work.
I use a Dillon AT 450 in this capacity. But one needs the shell holder plates, which are a proprietary item.

Long ago, I had an RCBS 'Jr.' press and found it worked well. But it has been years ago. I current have (found at gun show) an old CH three holer good for serious case re-shaping for outside the norm work. Oddly, I haven't found the need to further explore a wild variety of other presses.
 
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