Considering a progressive press.

[jmorris]

But emptying primers remaining in the feed is part of it.

Not if you load them out. I suppose boxing them back up would also be a part of it if you only went part way through the 100.

I did say in the video that the tube needed to be changed though. In any case that covered the “hard part”.

 

[Tilos]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

 

[AR-Bossman]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

Those are just measurements of efficiency or add ons that should up your efficiency. So it's just natural a conversation about progressive presses will focus on how efficient they are compared to each other.

 

[Reeferman]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

Yup they always do. It takes me anywhere from 10 minutes to near an hour to do changeovers on my LNL. I believe the most I’ve ever loaded would be about 300 rounds in an hour and that’s with a case feeder, loading primer tubes with Hornady’s 1911 primer loader and hand placing Bullets. If I try loading like some say they do (and I have no doubt that they are able to) everything goes for crap as it’s usually me who isn’t talented or coordinated enough to do it not the press.

 

[DRAINSMITH]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

Because if we went the other way we would be talking about single stages. And to be honest they are pretty boring.

 

[chingon]

I’ve owned 3 presses. The lee classic turret which I regretted. Then a Dillon 550 b and from there upgraded to the hornady lnl a.p. The hornady is more in line with the Dillon 650, not the 550. Really apples to oranges. One is manual advance and one is auto, the lnl and 650 is both auto. I prefer auto and didn’t care for the 550b. The price along with bullet rebate made it an easy choice. No tegrets, like hornady’s powder dump better. I forget how many years ago(10 or 11) the first version and a great press. Had a bunch of posts here but gone now.

 

[refuse2bafool]

Real gun makes a good point. If you had enough brass you could simply load more at at time, but less often. That would justify changing the set ups. Now instead of loading 100 for a caliber every week, you load a batch of 1000 every 10 weeks. Total time would be a lot less. Depending on your habits and range rules it's not hard to come up with that much brass.

 

[jmorris]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

I imagine because that is why people get progressive presses, to increase volume/reduce work.

Or from the post that started this thread,

...However , I’d like to be able to produce more ammo in less time...

Didn’t “progress to”, it was the point originally. The OP showed interest in loading 7 different chamberings on a given press and the ability to produce more ammunition in less time, if one didn’t include conversion time, they wouldn’t be telling the whole story.

 

[Nature Boy]

Even if you’re a guy like me who’s mainly making high precision rifle rounds where you’re weighing every charge, there’s still a good reason to have a progressive press.

Brass prep.

It’s a really nice time saver to load your brass in the case feeder and bang out a couple hundred cases through your resizing die in no time.

Also, you have your tool head set up for bullet seating, so you may not be taking advantage of all the progressive features, but you’re saving a bit of time in changing out dies.

And, when you want to make a large quantity of pistol ammo quickly in progressive mode you’re just a tool change away.

 

[RealGun]

Why do threads like this seem to always "progress" to... rounds per hour, brass feeders, bullet feeders, change over speed debates?

Statements have a context, and anything said about a progressive depends upon what is hung on it.

 

[joed]

Real gun makes a good point. If you had enough brass you could simply load more at at time, but less often. That would justify changing the set ups. Now instead of loading 100 for a caliber every week, you load a batch of 1000 every 10 weeks. Total time would be a lot less. Depending on your habits and range rules it's not hard to come up with that much brass.

And that is what generally happens when someone gets a progressive press. After getting my first progressive press I realized it was so fast and so much fun that I started buying lots of brass.

I have not used my progressive in 3 years because I have enough ammo to last probably 10 years.

 

[refuse2bafool]

I have not used my progressive in 3 years because I have enough ammo to last probably 10 years.

Sounds like someone got carried away!

I had the same issue so I load less at a time now. If I go that long without using it I forget some of the more subtle "tricks". But again, I only load one caliber on my progressive.

 

[Tilos]

I imagine because that is why people get progressive presses, to increase volume/reduce work.

Or from the post that started this thread,

Didn’t “progress to”, it was the point originally. The OP showed interest in loading 7 different chamberings on a given press and the ability to produce more ammunition in less time, if one didn’t include conversion time, they wouldn’t be telling the whole story.

I didn't really get that message when reading/rereading the OP.
600 rounds/month(sometimes a lot more), 6 different calibers, use Lee dies/Lee PM, Lee Turret, etc.
From that I get/guess 1200 rounds/month, 6 calibers, so 200 each caliber/month (I'm sure it's more of 1 caliber though).
Sounds like he has the right press for that, no primer stabbing/quick change over.
Further, if most/more of the ammo is 1 caliber, a dedicated press for it would be helpful, the reason I suggested a Lee Pro 1000 early on.
That's my take on the OP post, maybe he will weigh in here at some point to expand/clarify my assumptions/guesses

Edit: looks like OP is leaning blue:
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...progressive-press.831782/page-2#post-10744394
2nd Edit:
And now there's this, coming soon...

 

[Tilos]

And that is what generally happens when someone gets a progressive press. After getting my first progressive press I realized it was so fast and so much fun that I started buying lots of brass.

I have not used my progressive in 3 years because I have enough ammo to last probably 10 years.

OK, so I have to ask, Are you a reloader who shoots or a shooter who reloads
I find myself shooting my oldest reloads to get the brass to try a new load
On my last range trip I got tired of walking down range to hang targets, so now instead of reloading that brass, I'm fabbing a center fire dueling tree target with paddles I bought a year ago
sorry for the drift
it never ends,

 

[RealGun]

Not if you load them out. I suppose boxing them back up would also be a part of it if you only went part way through the 100.

I did say in the video that the tube needed to be changed though. In any case that covered the “hard part”.

I am more likely to stop because I depleted my bullets or brass, with little chance that the supply of primers would be coordinated.

 

[thomas15]

I think an industrial engineer doing a time motion study might find that if you are only loading small amounts of rounds between caliber changes, the LCT is actually faster.

Would said industrial engineer say this before or after he/she advised that the handloader load up a couple thousand rounds of one caliber and having a stock before making any kind of tooling reconfiguration? Or would the mythological engineer advise that the handloader load 100 rounds 9mm, then change to 100 rounds 45 ACP, then 50 rounds .223 then 100 rounds 38 SPL?

 

[joed]

OK, so I have to ask, Are you a reloader who shoots or a shooter who reloads
I find myself shooting my oldest reloads to get the brass to try a new load
On my last range trip I got tired of walking down range to hang targets, so now instead of reloading that brass, I'm fabbing a center fire dueling tree target with paddles I bought a year ago
sorry for the drift
it never ends,

I'm probably a little of both. I still remember how difficult it was for me to buy my first progressive, money was basically another gun. But, the progressive sure free'd up my reloading time. But you keep getting lazier all the time. As an example look at the picture of Drainsmith's bench with all those presses. Do you know why so many? Laziness, pure laziness. I'm guessing that instead of changing primers, dies, tool heads, shell plates he just set every one of those presses for a cartridge he reloads.

How do I know the above? Because even I was guilty of it. I've since sold off a 550 and 1050 and just exist with a 650xl now.

 

[TheDomFather]

Real gun makes a good point. If you had enough brass you could simply load more at at time, but less often. That would justify changing the set ups. Now instead of loading 100 for a caliber every week, you load a batch of 1000 every 10 weeks. Total time would be a lot less. Depending on your habits and range rules it's not hard to come up with that much brass.

Exactly what I do on my LNL AP, I setup a caliber load up as much as I can (between 500-1000) or whatever will get you buy depending on how much you shoot then switch to the next caliber and do the same. Round per hour is irrelevant you should go at whatever pace you feel you can go and still keep a close eye on everything you are doing.

 

[jmorris]

I am more likely to stop because I depleted my bullets or brass, with little chance that the supply of primers would be coordinated.

If you enjoy emptying the primer system, there is no problem with that.

If I am going to load less than 100, I just figure out how many I want and pull the sleeve back off the primer box that much (in multiples of 10 or with a finger covering part of a row if I want less) and dump that amount into the tube filler.

 

[ATLDave]

For whatever it is worth, I recently added a Dillon 650 to the bench after years of getting by on an LCT. There is a huge increase in productivity/ease of generating a pile of rounds. Huge. I managed to carry over my Lee dies and auto-drum, though you need thin Dillon lock rings for them (Lee dies are kinda short).

There's also quite a bit more complexity to the machine itself, and changing over calibers is about 100 times more involved than simply swapping the dies atop the LCT. The way I'm currently operating is that the Dillon is dedicated to my high-volume USPSA load. Everything else still gets loaded on the LCT. Since I'm not sitting there sweating about getting the LCT back onto my high-volume load, cranking out 50 or 200 rounds on the LCT is not at all stressful. Having the 650 for the "workhorse" role made the LCT fun again! I think it's a great bench combo.

If your shooting is more evenly dispersed between calibers, then this approach may not be sensible.

 

[Reeferman]

If you enjoy emptying the primer system, there is no problem with that. If I am going to load less than 100, I just figure out how many I want and pull the sleeve back off the primer box that much (in multiples of 10 or with a finger covering part of a row if I want less) and dump that amount into the tube filler.

That's how I always do it.

 

[RealGun]

If you enjoy emptying the primer system, there is no problem with that.

If I am going to load less than 100, I just figure out how many I want and pull the sleeve back off the primer box that much (in multiples of 10 or with a finger covering part of a row if I want less) and dump that amount into the tube filler.

I am not going to count my bullets and brass so I know how many primers to load. Unless I want to box the cartridges I don't predetermine exactly how many I want to load. We're talking progressive here, on which ammo is loaded in bulk.

If my point about unloading the primer column is a bother, just ignore it.

 

[jmorris]

It’s not a bother to me just suggesting a method that avoids the issue all together.

This is my most used method.



That said, I do run single stage, turret presses and sometimes even progressives for less than 100 rounds or a box of primers and I know from 30 + years of operating them that the tube fed progressives are not as easy to unload, so I just avoid doing so. It’s just faster for me to load enough to start with than unload the left overs after I am done.

No right or wrong answer, just different methods of getting to the same goal.

 

[ICE1210]

I have two 550s, one set up for small primers, one fro large because I'm to lazy to change primer systems. They've worked well for 20 years. I have no complaints.

 

[hdwhit]

No, CrankCraig, it's not too late to turn away from the dark side and return to embrace the purity and simplicity of the single stage.