When does it become worth it to go "Progressive"?

[Pinsnscrews]

My wife bought me a lee turret press kit last year. I wanted a single stage, but saw the major advantage to the turret press. I used it strictly in single stage all last year, manually rotating the head through each stage. I prime off the press at the couch using the Lee Prime Tool.

A note about the lee thru die powder measure. As long as I did my part, and not rush the powder stroke, it dropped exactly 9.6gr Longshot in 600 cartridges...(checked initially every 10th cartridge for the first 200, then every 20th after that) it does however leak powder out the sides of the discs.

About August of this 2014, my wife talked a shop into letting me have the Lyman Turret Mag press kit(powder measure. Case trimmer, balance beam scale, digital scale, case prep tools) 9 die sets and a heavy bench grinder table that the press was mounted to for $200.

It pays to keep your eyes open. That Lyman has turned case forming for my Herret and removing the bulge from 10mm so much easier because it has no flex in the head. That flex and shift in the turret head can bother me sometimes, I feel it can, and does, throw off bullet seating or case forming. I can adjust for it when seating bullets, but when case forming, it has cost me a couple of peices of brass due to visibly being bent, and I couldn't get the rounds to load right with the bend in the case. I was able to straighten one by resizing it on the Lyman. But the other I had cut down for a project.

[gandog56]

You need 4 Dillion 1050's and lots of help at least.

Doug

And if those are military cases, a primer pocket swager!

[sqlbullet]

The 1050 has an on press primer pocket swage.  Hence that press being called out.

And yes, they are military brass, complete with crimp.  I have also picked up about 15 unfired blanks from processing so far, and am only about 1/3 done.

[gandog56]

Unfired.....??

I have some 7.62X39 blanks somewhere. I got them to play with my grenade launcher on my Yugo SKS.

[Taterhead]

How do you know when you're ready fr a progressive? For me it was when I got tired of batch processing higher volume pistol and 223 ammo on the Rock Chucker. Don't get me wrong,I love the Rock Chucker and use it for a lot of things.

One consideration... as tempting as it is to buy a price point unit, take the long view and "buy once, cry once." Amortized overa lifetime, reloading gear is not that expensive. Another huge consideration is that if you have multiple ccalipers and will only have one machine... you want simple changeovers and inexpensive conversions. That led me to the Pro 2000. It is designed to use the same powder measure. You dont need to dedicate one per tool head. That saves time and money.  A Uniflow with the small dum will cover pistol through 223 ammo, and it is so simple to reconfigure for a different cartridge.

It takes only 2.5 minutes to convert from 10mm to 223. Priming, powder, everything. APS priming is not widely adopted, but I love it. Of course the Pro 2000 is about to be superseded by the Pro Chucker 5/7 so some closeout deals might be forthcoming. Great press.

[gandog56]

I tried a progressive. Took most of the fun out of it and kept spitting out completed shells with no primers. (Had so many problems getting that primer feeding thing working correctly) that I just gave it up and went back to my single stage press and prime them using a Lee hand primer.

[control_the_trigger]

Long story short for me it would be high volume of one or more calibers, like competitive style shooting.  This would translate into at least 2,000 rounds or more a year in one or more guns (likely higher then that).

My father and I have came to the conclusion that I could never do a progressive.  I know there are ways to ensure you don't double charge and load squibs, etc.  However, I like knowing that every cartridge in my possession has been inspected at every step, usually twice for charges.  I could never have the confidence on a progressive that I do on a single stage.  I shoot several calibers, I usually shoot 1-2 times a week.

That being said, I have a decent amount loaded and brass prepped so I am ready to go, I load a decent amount during the winter, and my father loads with me.  I only load on the weekends since my father and I split the costs of everything and I keep the stuff at his place, if I loaded during the week I would have even more done.

[Dieselman]

I got into reloading about three years ago. A family member gave me a hand me down reloading bench already set up with a RCBS Rockchucker complete with a PiggyBack II progressive kit installed. So I began reloading pistol rounds on the progressive. First thing I found was that the priming system was horrible! Like others have mentioned already, I would wind up with primers upside down or crushed into place sideways. I wouldn't know it until it spit out a completed round. I wound up purchasing a Lee hand primer and priming everything off the press.

Then when I got into loading my first rifle rounds, I found the progressive to be full of more shortcomings and wound up removing the PiggyBack II adaptor and using it as a single stage. I liked this so much that I ended purchasing another single stage press and reassembling the original one with the PiggyBack II setup so that I could choose to either go progressive or go single stage.  Since then I have purchased another single stage press and have found that I use these two much more than I do the progressive.  In fact the progressive doesn't get used much at all anymore unless I'm doing a large run of 9mm plinking ammo.

One of the driving reasons for doing so much of my reloading now on the single stage presses is control and quality.  I have had nothing but difficulties keeping things consistent on the progressive Cartridge Overall Lengths and powder drops with certain powders was never as consistent as I would like it to be. For light target loads, that is ok, but for maximum loads or accuracy loads, the single stage works better.

[Taterhead]

I got into reloading about three years ago. A family member gave me a hand me down reloading bench already set up with a RCBS Rockchucker complete with a PiggyBack II progressive kit installed. So I began reloading pistol rounds on the progressive. First thing I found was that the priming system was horrible! Like others have mentioned already, I would wind up with primers upside down or crushed into place sideways. I wouldn't know it until it spit out a completed round. I wound up purchasing a Lee hand primer and priming everything off the press.

Then when I got into loading my first rifle rounds, I found the progressive to be full of more shortcomings and wound up removing the PiggyBack II adaptor and using it as a single stage. I liked this so much that I ended purchasing another single stage press and reassembling the original one with the PiggyBack II setup so that I could choose to either go progressive or go single stage.  Since then I have purchased another single stage press and have found that I use these two much more than I do the progressive.  In fact the progressive doesn't get used much at all anymore unless I'm doing a large run of 9mm plinking ammo.

One of the driving reasons for doing so much of my reloading now on the single stage presses is control and quality.  I have had nothing but difficulties keeping things consistent on the progressive Cartridge Overall Lengths and powder drops with certain powders was never as consistent as I would like it to be. For light target loads, that is ok, but for maximum loads or accuracy loads, the single stage works better.

My guess is that you may have a different experience if you were to work on a progressive press designed to be a progressive from the beginning. Being that the Piggyback is a bolt-on setup, I was wary of it not being what I wanted. I strongly considered it a while back.

My progressive is not commonly known, but I really enjoy it for pistol and 223 loading (I have the auto-index RCBS Pro 2000). APS priming is very reliable, the press is simple in design and very stout, and my caliber changes from small rifle to large pistol takes 2.5 minutes to do everything. Some presses take 5-10 minutes just to swap priming sizes. It has been a while since I can remember a primer tipping sideways, and I'm pretty sure that was in a 223 case that I missed a primer crimp. Powder drops are just as precise through a Uniflow mounted on my progressive as that one in a standalone stand.

I also keep my Rock Chucker busy too with bolt action rifle, primer pocket swaging, and other odd jobs. I agree that if you're trying to do something like bump the shoulder on a rifle case a couple thousandths, that a single stage is better. But you can create great ammo on a progressive once everything is setup and locked down.

[Dieselman]

I got into reloading about three years ago. A family member gave me a hand me down reloading bench already set up with a RCBS Rockchucker complete with a PiggyBack II progressive kit installed. So I began reloading pistol rounds on the progressive. First thing I found was that the priming system was horrible! Like others have mentioned already, I would wind up with primers upside down or crushed into place sideways. I wouldn't know it until it spit out a completed round. I wound up purchasing a Lee hand primer and priming everything off the press.

Then when I got into loading my first rifle rounds, I found the progressive to be full of more shortcomings and wound up removing the PiggyBack II adaptor and using it as a single stage. I liked this so much that I ended purchasing another single stage press and reassembling the original one with the PiggyBack II setup so that I could choose to either go progressive or go single stage.  Since then I have purchased another single stage press and have found that I use these two much more than I do the progressive.  In fact the progressive doesn't get used much at all anymore unless I'm doing a large run of 9mm plinking ammo.

One of the driving reasons for doing so much of my reloading now on the single stage presses is control and quality.  I have had nothing but difficulties keeping things consistent on the progressive Cartridge Overall Lengths and powder drops with certain powders was never as consistent as I would like it to be. For light target loads, that is ok, but for maximum loads or accuracy loads, the single stage works better.

My guess is that you may have a different experience if you were to work on a progressive press designed to be a progressive from the beginning. Being that the Piggyback is a bolt-on setup, I was wary of it not being what I wanted. I strongly considered it a while back.

My progressive is not commonly known, but I really enjoy it for pistol and 223 loading (I have the auto-index RCBS Pro 2000). APS priming is very reliable, the press is simple in design and very stout, and my caliber changes from small rifle to large pistol takes 2.5 minutes to do everything. Some presses take 5-10 minutes just to swap priming sizes. It has been a while since I can remember a primer tipping sideways, and I'm pretty sure that was in a 223 case that I missed a primer crimp. Powder drops are just as precise through a Uniflow mounted on my progressive as that one in a standalone stand.

I also keep my Rock Chucker busy too with bolt action rifle, primer pocket swaging, and other odd jobs. I agree that if you're trying to do something like bump the shoulder on a rifle case a couple thousandths, that a single stage is better. But you can create great ammo on a progressive once everything is setup and locked down.

I imagine you are probably correct about the dedicated progressives.  The family member who was kind enough to give me this setup, (which I'm really greatful for, don't get me wrong) went with a dillon progressive as his replacement and it appears to work much better than the piggyback system.  And in all honesty, the piggyback can be made to work well with a lot of patience and tinkering.

[sstewart]

I learned on Hornady  lock and load press. We are all biased by our experiences. I think if you skeptics had a dillon or hornady you would feel differently about progressive.

[Taterhead]

Yep. When a progressive press reliably works, it is a pretty nice too to work with. Pull the handle and a completed round drops into the bin. I even prefer to prep 223 brass on the progressive. I de-cap station 1, size in station 2, then M-die neck expand in station 4.. Auto-index makes it way faster than it is on the Rock Chucker.

There is a lot going on so one little hiccup could make the whole experience a bit aggravating. No doubt.