First Progressive Press Input

[warnerwh]

A progressive press creates a new round with every pull of the lever. A turret press needs 3 or 4 pulls per round and only holds one shell in the shellholder at a time. The progressive will have a shell plate that rotates with a shell in each slot which is usually 4 or 5 slots depending on the press. Turrets have a turret head holding all the dies but each die needs to be rotated for its particular function. Hope this makes sense. On youtube there are many videos on the various presses that you can watch and see how they operate. Progressives are quite a bit faster than turret presses but turrets are much faster than single stage presses.

 

[jmorris]

Care to differentiate between a turret press and a progressive press?

A turret performs the operations sequentially one round at a time, while a progressive performs all the operations simultaneously with a number of rounds.

 

[GW Staar]

Care to differentiate between a turret press and a progressive press?

Put another way to load 100 rounds: Turret-400 handle strokes, Progressive-104 strokes.

......If you can’t pay attention to what you are doing, you are going to have problems no matter what machine you use.

And that's the most important truth in this thread.

When I bought my first progressive, my thinking was:

1. Long term price.....meaning beyond what the initial outlay was, what the continuing outlay was going to be.....every time I wanted to add a caliber, as well as maintenance.
Dillon's initial requirement on a 650 was no steeper than Hornady or RCBS, but adding new calibers was expensive. Besides a new shell plate, tool head, and set of dies....such required additional parts for case feeding & powder measure. Dillon's p.m. wasn't that fun to change back and forth, so they offered "kits" that included a new powder measure for each new tool head. All that adds up. The RCBS was simple and cheap by comparison. (this is before the Pro Chucker changed all that!)

2. I didn't think case feeders were that important.....least not on the RCBS. The Dillon 650 on the other hand, NEEDED a case feeder, since pulling the press handle and feeding cases happens on the same side. No surprise that Dillon "includes" the case feeder (minus the optional collator) with the basic press. Other presses use the left hand to feed cases, the right hand to pull the handle.

I was premature in the thought that I didn't need a case feeder.....and that has everything to do with brain overload, and nothing to do with ergonomics........so I made my own eventually. But.....

3. Bullet feeding was most important to me. It wasn't "required" but again brain overload was the factor......so I bought Hornady's version, and it worked great for pistol at least. For rifle I started using RCBS Gold Medal seaters which rather than feeding a bullet to the top of each case....then coaxing it into the die on upstroke, just required me to drop a bullet in the hole above the tool head (die head). I am not the only one, who, trying to move things along quickly, pinched the hell out of fingers trying to place a bullet on a case before the ram made it to the tool head.....G.M. dies solved that bottle neck admirably.

What I finally realized after some months, was that my pea brain did much better only having to focus on the important stuff......powder and primers. With that in mind, I automated both bullets and cases.....and highly recommend that to anyone wanting to start loading on a progressive.....which ever brand it is. As good as Dillon's 650 case feeder is....and it is very good and reliable...Dillon doesn't do bullet feeding. So you have to look elsewhere for that. The most reliable is Mr. Bullet Feeder......expensive but great.

I still don't think collators are that important (some like jmorris, who process much larger batches than me disagree.) For me, I just don't think they are worth the money and the hassle to change calibers. I use tube feeders, including RCBS's Tube Rifle Bullet Feeder.....a brand new (since January) product that combines an "M" die neck expander with a bullet feeder that is just as failsafe as Mr. Bullet Feeders. They work on any progressive....

Side note: speed of caliber change was and still is important to me.....and I think that is partly why collaters are least important to me.....and why the 'ole Pro 2000 was so inviting.....nothing changes calibers faster.....unless you want to add two collaters.

But I'm playing with the new RCBS seven station press now. Room for powder cops, "M" dies, and both feeders....tube style. Having room for everything is really nice to have. Having great fun learning this new system.

 

[GW Staar]

The O.P. decided on the 4 station manual advance Dillon 550. You can buy a case feeder for it at least, but one is limited when it comes to powder cops, bullet feeders and separate crimps.

Therefore if you load rifle, it makes sense to have an additional single stage press for depriming/sizing. Then once you prep and trim the cases off press, the 550 can 1-charge, 2-inspect (powder die), 3-seat and 4-crimp.
(the Gold Medal seater's drop-in feature is almost as handy as a bullet feeder...it of course works fine in a 550.)

No single stage? One can use the 550 with a tool head dedicated to sizing, but then you have to buy extra tool heads for each caliber you reload for. I think a dedicated powder cop station is pretty important, unless you are 100% able to look inside each case.

The main thing? Have fun.....you can do that with any press.