Concerns about a possible purchase of a progressive press.

[darcy32171]

Hey guys, I`ve been reloading now for a short while. I`ve been using a Lee single stage and was thinking about the possibility of going to a progressive press to speed things up. I have a huge problem with "attention to detail" when reloading, With this said: on a progressive press - when does the primer pockets ever get cleaned and when does a guy trim cases when they need to be trimmed. Every "youtube" video I see, guys are running shells through without the "desire" to check "case length" or "primer pockets".

Am I just to darn fussy when reloading OR is there no need to check case length/primer pockets. What do you guys with progressive presses do?

 

[Slowbalt]

All that is done beforehand.

 

[acrashb]

Am I just to darn fussy when reloading OR is there no need to check case length/primer pockets. What do you guys with progressive presses do?

What are you doing with the reloaded ammo? Plinking with a 9mm service pistol at 10 yards? Or precision shooting with your accurized bolt gun at 600 yards?

If the former, just clean the cases in a tumbler, pour into your case feed hopper and load - as seen on youtube. If the latter, case prep is required, most or all of which you will do off-press. There is a spectrum in between. Note my video where cases are trimmed on-press, which is more a speed thing than an accuracy thing.

Having said that, with bottleneck cartridges you must periodically check case length regardless of intended use, as over-length cases can (will) cause dangerous over-pressure.

 

[darcy32171]

"all done beforehand", but with a progressive press....you are depriming/full length resizing which means you then need to trim if necessary...am I correct?
Its a 22-250 and mainly used for coyotes in the ranges 150-500 yards.

 

[tjhaile]

Use either your single stage or the progressive with the sizing die only installed to resize cases. Inspect/prep cases as required and use the progressive press to assemble loaded ammunition from the previously prepared cases. While I don't think it is necessary to clean primer pockets, you do have the opportunity to do so, given that trimming requires the process be broken into two parts.

 

[darcy32171]

What are you doing with the reloaded ammo? Plinking with a 9mm service pistol at 10 yards? Or precision shooting with your accurized bolt gun at 600 yards?

If the former, just clean the cases in a tumbler, pour into your case feed hopper and load - as seen on youtube. If the latter, case prep is required, most or all of which you will do off-press. There is a spectrum in between. Note my video where cases are trimmed on-press, which is more a speed thing than an accuracy thing.

Having said that, with bottleneck cartridges you must periodically check case length regardless of intended use, as over-length cases can (will) cause dangerous over-pressure.

Watched your video, love that set-up!!!! Would I be close to ball parking the set-up at around $1800 taxes in?

 

[stevebc]

I have also been convinced that there is no need to clean primer pockets. Stopped doing so a couple of years ago and haven't noticed any difference except the time and effort saved.

 

[acrashb]

"all done beforehand", but with a progressive press....you are depriming/full length resizing which means you then need to trim if necessary...am I correct?
[...]
Its a 22-250 and mainly used for coyotes in the ranges 150-500 yards.

1) yes. Also primer pockets if you think it improves accuracy (I do).
2) for that, essentially precision hunting, I would suggest full case prep. That means two passes: one to size / deprime, then other case prep (trim / debur/etc, pocket cleaning/ uniforming), then final pass for the rest of it. Past 300yds you might want to weigh the power charges off-press and just pour them in with a funnel on the progressive.

And get an accurate progressive. That means either Dillon or Hornady - not Lee, too much variance round-to-round.

 

[acrashb]

Watched your video, love that set-up!!!! Would I be close to ball parking the set-up at around $1800 taxes in?

When I put it together I had more money than time, so it was worthwhile. If I added up the dollars (and the time spent setting everything up).... I would be unhappy. That's a bad thing, so I have never totalled it up, not even mentally.

This kind of volume I am setup for would burnout a 22-250 barrel promptly - I don't think you need the same setup.

 

[hunter64]

I have also been convinced that there is no need to clean primer pockets. Stopped doing so a couple of years ago and haven't noticed any difference except the time and effort saved.

What I have noticed in cleaning primer pockets is that the primer arm/assy. on my Dillon 550/650 doesn't need to be cleaned as much as before. I would get about 200 rounds of .223 and would start to notice that the primer arm would start to stick and need to be cleaned.

I can now go well over 1000 rounds before cleaning the primer rod because there is no junk coming out of the bottom of the case to contaminate the primer arm.

So what I do now is on the single stage press I deprime and size with the sizer die. Trim if needed (if there is a crimp then that has to be removed now) and then into the Dillon 550/650 to be loaded. When I am done reloading then the finished round goes into the vibrating case cleaner to get all the spray on lube of the finished rounds.

 

[stevebc]

What I have noticed in cleaning primer pockets is that the primer arm/assy. on my Dillon 550/650 doesn't need to be cleaned as much as before. I would get about 200 rounds of .223 and would start to notice that the primer arm would start to stick and need to be cleaned.

Good point- hadn't thought of that, but I use a single stage press only, so it's not an issue for me.

 

[thump_rrr]

I have pretty much the same setup that acrashb has.
I clean all my brass in a wet tumbler so I load in 2 steps.
First step is to deprime with a universal decapper. During this step I remove the primer punch so that nothing gets on it.
If I'm depriming .223 it is done with the sizer die backed off so that it only deprimes and expands the necks.
On station 3 I have the Dillon rapid trim which trims and sizes the cases.

Loading is then done after the cases are wet tumbled.