Took it all off; rekindled old flame!!

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Bang!

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Just shootin' the breeze. Pun intended. Nothing serious here.

My reloading has been on hold for a few months while I built a new reloading addition to my garage. Before shutting down I reloaded enough ammo to last while building it. I load my 9mm ammo on a Loadmaster. Complete with case feeder and bullet feeder. I had everything tuned in real well and it was running flawlessly. Just kept refilling and cranking the handle. Ran 6k+ plus with few stoppages. YMMV, let's skip the color wars:rolleyes:. It was pure drudgery, though. I would go in the house in the evenings mentally tired. There is so much going on on a progressive press and I have to OCD watch it all. Look in every case every time, check primer fill, check case fill, bullet fill, new dropped case for alignment, and on and on...then pull the handle. Constantly moving head and eyes to peer everywhere and at everything. Peeking between the bullet feeder linkage, powder measure chain, and a mounted light to see into the case while pushing production. I didn't like it. That was a far cry from the single stage press I enjoyed in the beginning. Single stage reloading is relaxing and enjoyable. You go step by step with each and every case. Feel every part with feedback from each pull of the handle for that step with that one round. Progressive reloading is work.

Fast forward. Reloading addition is complete and I'm setting up the presses. I brought the Loadmaster out of mothballs and disassembled it for a complete cleaning. Dies, powder measure, press, everything. Spent a day tuning it in. Loaded up all consumables and started reloading. Everything is working fine but it doesn't feel as smooth as I would like it. Took it all back part. Little filing on indexing rod. Yep, that feels better. Adjusted case feed assembly. Yep, that's really smooth, now. Checked all functions separately. Ran a few cases to check all functions together. Everything is fine, but it feels like work. Looked down the bench to the LCT press. Maybe I'll just use that one for everything. I like using that press. No, we shoot too much 9mm for that. Back to the progressive grind.:banghead: Oh, well.

I resolved myself to get back in the soup kitchen and just work. Then a thought. A friend of mine has a Hornady progressive. He puts a case in one side, puts a bullet on a case on the other side, pulls handle, looks relaxed. So I take off the case feeder, and all that bullet feeder stuff. Rob the LCT of the powder measure with the spring return (I look in every case to check powder anyway) to get rid of that chain. With that stuff gone I don't need the light, it's outta here, too. I like it. I can see thru the press. It's so open now. No clutter.

Time to run this around the block. Couple minutes into it and the fun is coming back. Rhythm starts to build. Both hands reach forward. Right hand picking up a case. Left hand picking up a bullet. Give new case a lookin' over and then position it in shell holder. Look in case to check powder, place bullet, pull handle. Slow and relaxing. Feeling good about quality of completed rounds, also. The fun is back! And still one pull equals one completed round. No time studies in any of this but I don't think it's that much slower.

Took all that busy stuff off and the fun is back.

Anyone else feel this way about progressives?
 
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I don't use a progressive press, I use a Lee classic cast turrent. When I decided to start reloading I did alot of reading and research. In the beginning I thought I would get a single stage to start with and upgrade to a progressive later. Then I learned of the Lee turrent and decided to go with it. I'm glad I did for the same reasons you stated for stripping down your press. The process remains fun for me with no hint of feeling like work. I enjoy the whole process and I can load more than enough ammo for myself and the wife with out living in my reloading room.
 
I also use a Lee Classic Turret Press and love it. Works just fine and dandy for me, I have no desires for any kind of progressive press.

And there's no "n" in turret, BTW. Can't believe how often I see that.
 
Bang! said:
9mm ammo on a Loadmaster. Complete with case feeder and bullet feeder. I had everything tuned in real well and it was running flawlessly. Just kept refilling and cranking the handle. Ran 6k+ plus with few stoppages.

It was pure drudgery ... I didn't like it. That was a far cry from the single stage press I enjoyed in the beginning. Single stage reloading is relaxing and enjoyable.

Fast forward. I take off the case feeder, and all that bullet feeder stuff. Rob the LCT of the powder measure with the spring return (I look in every case to check powder anyway) to get rid of that chain. With that stuff gone I don't need the light, it's outta here, too. I like it. I can see thru the press. It's so open now. No clutter.

The fun is back! And still one pull equals one completed round. No time studies in any of this but I don't think it's that much slower.

Took all that busy stuff off and the fun is back.

Anyone else feel this way about progressives?
My reloading sessions run typically 500-1000+ rounds and sometimes 2000-3000+. Yes, it can get monotonous and boring.

Since I need high production rate, what I found helps is breaking up the progressive steps in batches: Resizing, priming, reloading separately.

I would resize brass separately and either press prime or hand prime. This allows me to inspect the primer pockets and clean as necessary. Also, using resized/primed brass allows me to focus more on setting of the bullet on case mouth to minimize bullet tilt for more consistent OAL/COL along with silky smooth effortless progressive reloading as effort needed is only to flare case mouth/powder drop/seat bullet and crimp case whether I am using Dillon 650 or Lee Pro 1000 (If you get OAL variation from shell plate tilt, using resized brass will decrease the OAL variation).

Sometimes when I am distracted and cannot focus enough to reload, simply resizing the brass mindlessly is actually therapeutic. So is press or hand priming cases. I can play music in the background or watch something on the TV/computer while I resize or prime cases.

I have a flat screen TV mounted in my reloading room and planning to use a small camera to output powder charge inside case so I don't have to peek inside the case before setting the bullet. Now I can really kick back in the comfy chair and reload with more consistent OAL. :D
 
I have never used a progressive press, but I started this journey on a Lee 4 hole Turret press. Love the control. Later changed to an older Lyman Spar-T Turret, and now use a Lyman T-Mag plus. I do use a single stage Lyman for priming though.

Butch.
 
I only use a brass feeder this way I can look and verify the charge even though I run a powder cop. Normally when the powder cop indicates the charge is off it's due to a different head stamp, case volume. I now sort by hard stamps so this never show up anymore.
 
Well my progressive is an old RCBS 4x4 that my girl got me before we were married back in the 80's. Gotta hang on to something like that ya know, we both really, but I meant the girl.:D

It isn't fancy, set one up to size and put the bullet on the last one and pull. The biggest issue I have had with it is when getting in a hurry, I usually forget to put the pin on the powder lever after the last round clears. But hey I found out that was why they invented canned air in the first place.;)

I understand about al lthe atachments though as I have a friend with a high dollar blue press that throws out more than I cna shoot up in a month. Looks good if I were shooting like I used to do, but even with that I can easily load up 500 - 1K a week IF I wanted to put forth the effort. Nowadays though I load up 2-300 round batches on it and when those are shot up I repeat. Takes about an hour, so if I start when I get in from work, I'm done befoe supper.
 
When I win the Powerball tonight, I might just quit reloading and buy factory made by the pallet load - lol
 
Started with an RCBS Rockchucker in the mid 70's. I was on it this morning. Its hard to keep up with semi auto guns but...thats what I load on.

Mark
 
I have a Dillon 650xl, a 550b, and a Lee Classic Turret.

I've got the LCT setup for light .38 special loads using a 158 LRN and 3 ish grains of Red Dot. Mainly for my Dad and his wife to practice with. I got them each a police trade in Model 10 for Christmas. Along with a 12 gauge pump and my Marlin .357 Cowboy they are now well armed!

The 550b is currently setup for 45 acp and the 650 is setup for .223 brass processing.

I find myself loading a lot of .38 special lately :). I get tired of keeping up with all thats going on with the other presses. Besides if I keep cranking them out, I'll have nothing to reload for later this year...
 
Well I use the afore mentioned 4x4 to load the auto rounds that i shoot a LOT of.

For the revolver and rifles yes it is either the Rock Chucker, the old Well's that was my pop's, or the RCBS turret. I load my revolver rounds like I do my rifle ones, for accuracy. I WANT them all to go into the same hole, trouble is I don't seem to be able to hold them to it as well as I used to...:uhoh:
 
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