What's the bloody point of progressive presses?

diopter said:
Have original Piggyback. Took two years to find a used 45ACP shellplate.

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Ebay, Amazon always have more than a few options, you can always give RCBS a call and have them ship you... RCBS won't take online order from Canada, but will take a phone order...
 
I got into dillon presses this year and regret not doing it earlier in my reloading experience 5 years ago. The amount of time making 12k rds of 223 in a week with a d650 got me investing in other dillon presses all setup for my most used calibers. I even reload for calibers I don't even shoot yet which makes stock piling for the days to come valuable.
 
I have time and would love a Dillon 650 to replace my RCBS Rock Chucker single stage press. I reload and shoot about 20,000 different rifle/pistol Caliber rds per year. This does not include Shotshell reloading either. I have the time to use single stage, and one of the big things I have found WRT reloading is brass prep. It doesn't matter which press you have you will always have brass prep which takes most of reloading time ...always.

What I do all the time now is: Total Brass prep

All rifle brass is deprimed, tumbled, sized, trimmed, inner/outer chamfer, primer pocket and stored in the state of needing just the primer, powder, bullet head and crimp.
All pistol brass is deprimed, tumbled, sized, case flared, primer pocket and stored in the state of needing just the primer, powder, bullet head and crimp.

I do batches of brass a thousand at a time in 9mm, 45 ACP, .223 and .30 Cal brass, put on some good tunes, crack a beer and do all the tedious work to point I just have to prime, powder, bullet head and crimp. Set up like that, I can crank out 200+ X 9mm in a hour.

I also cast and powder coat all the same calibers above, which means I never leave the house to search for parts and these cast bullets are the bulk of shooting. I do buy commercial bullet heads for Large Game and Coyote's
 
Janeau said:
Been reloading on a Dillon 550 for 38 years and a 650 for 10 years +.
The 550 get out 300-400+ rounds an hour EASY and the 650 - 600+ EASY.
Thats why..
The 550 has over 500 K rounds done over both pistol and rifle caliber.(.308 - 30-06 and .223)
Thats why I use a progressive…fast - efficient - quality ammo.

I still use a single press for 6 PPC, 6 BR and 30 BR on my benchrest gun…but this is a different game that need different tools - dies set ect..

As for your press trouble..maybe it’s not for you or you need coaching to set it up and make it working…and the saying..’if nothing work read the instructions’ remain true…
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I use a dillon 450 which is a 550 basically without the switching of entire die set easily. I have similar experience as you and found I can crank out this volume even manually indexing the shell plate and feeding the bullets into the brass manually..

I have owned a lee turret in the past and as other have mentioned you have to tweak them and watch for predictable times when the plate will go out of index. For a budget minded person Lee works fine as long as you are prepared to diagnose and tweak along the way. Since I switched to dillon my problems have gone way down and I can still get warranty on most components as they interchange with a 550.

I wouldn't crap outright on Lee products but recommend dillon ahead of them for sure.
 
I remember years ago I ran into Ken Kupsch from Wild West in Edmonton. I was thinking of getting a Lee progressive press for faster pistol cartridge reloading.
He blatantly said to get a Dillon and save the headache. I got a 550 and never looked back.
 
Only ever reloaded for rifles and single stage reloading never got in my way - average 100 cartridges/hour for all calibers, I was fine with that. Picked up a pcc in 45 and wow can i squeeze then out of it fast if I want. Decided to try progressive and went with Lee - steeper learning curve than I expected but I'm about 5k rounds through it now with no real complaints. Lee has never let down at all really, but that's not the popular opinion so I'll leave it at that.
If I could change one thing I'd take the straight press arm with a simple round wood ball on the end the single stage has over the perpendicular handle but that's more of a niggle than a complaint. It's never failed but I wouldn't want to decap with it.
 
Astute Observer said:
Lee

I guess that's the problem?
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I have two, without the bullet feeder. One is set up with Large primers, the other with small primers. I use the cheap auto-disk powder measure, and load 9mm, .38/.357, .40 S&W, and .45 acp.

Yes, they are meticulous to set up, and yes, you do need a mechanical or engineering mind-set, but I don't get too would up and can consistently load 300-400 per hour.

Biggest issue for me is the priming system; keep it clean. I have an air compressor with an air gun at hand, and I can "puff" any flakes of powder that get into the primer system. Keep it clean and it will run. Keep an eye on timing; it can "drift", also the hex head bolts in the body can work lose. Keep an eye on them.

I bought both mine used and have no regrets; I know a range operator that has 4 and he leaves each one set up for a specific caliber all the time. He has the 4 of them and paid less than a Dillon, and no changeovers.

I use a single stage for my rifle ammo; I spent more on the single stage press than I did on the two progressives. I am happy.
 
This post is what is known as "operator error".

You may know what you are doing w a single stage press but you don't have any experience with an automated press. Each stage requires setup and sometimes tuning to get everything to work properly. Probably the most important aspect of multi-state reloading is the handle throw. You can't just slam the handle up and down. Lots of things are going on that may require a more nuanced touch with the handle.


Astute Observer said:
Lee

I guess that's the problem?
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I've had a Lee Turret Press for 35 years and can run 100-125 rds per hour no problem. It has been reliable and generally flawless for 3 1/2 decades.
 
I agree the Lee is workable. I just wouldn't recommend it to someone who wants to just pull the lever. You have to keep a close eye on things, and some of the setup requires a bit of tinkering. It might just be the powder I use, but I can't crank the powder dump screws tight, or else the metering plate sticks.
 
A Lee Turret is not a progressive press. It's a single stage on steroids.
They are decent presses.

The Lee Pro 1000 and Loadmaster are progressive presses.
They are junk.

After years of reading this forum, I have yet to see the post.
"Gee, I sure miss my lee pro 1000 since getting a Dillon."

I have, however - seen hundreds of these posts...
"Why the hell didn't I get a Dillon in the first place?"
 
When you're learning how a progressive press works, or working up a load, it can be helpful to give it just one round to work on at a time so you can focus on how it's doing. Pull out the pin at a station so you can take out the round to check, too. Primer seating? Weight of powder charge? OAL before crimping? Once you can send it right around with everything working as it should, then start feeding it a piece of brass and a bullet on each handle cycle. But I always work where I can see down the round at stage 3 and confirm I see powder before seating a bullet there (granted, I'm doing pistol rounds on a Dillon SDB where that's easier to see than it would be with for a rifle).

Another trick is that at the end of a run when I have to disable the primer beeper, skip a round then do two handle cycles each time you add a bullet at #3 and, only as long as you see a primer waiting at #2, a case at #1.
 
Freedom Ventures said:
A Lee Turret is not a progressive press. It's a single stage on steroids.
They are decent presses.

The Lee Pro 1000 and Loadmaster are progressive presses.
They are junk.

After years of reading this forum, I have yet to see the post.
"Gee, I sure miss my lee pro 1000 since getting a Dillon."

I have, however - seen hundreds of these posts...
"Why the hell didn't I get a Dillon in the first place?"
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Gee, I am sure glad I have my two Lee Pro1000s; thousands of rounds through both since I got them (both bought used).
 
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