bob
Member
I'm too old to be nice but never too old to learn!
Posts: 1,457 
Location: Northern California
|
Post by bob on Nov 17, 2014 23:49:30 GMT -5
The reason for posting here is I'm not going to get a progressive press. Right now I sure wish I had one though,I'm in the process of loading 300 identical .30'06 cartridges it is a long process with a single stage press. When they are done they will be loaded into 8 round clips and stored.
|
|
|
|
Post by krwada on Nov 18, 2014 0:21:21 GMT -5
That is about 3-days of work for me. Usually; I pre-prep all my .30-06 brass. Then, I store the pre-prepped brass in 1 gallon zip lock bags.
Then for the loading session; I usually prime, charge and seat 100 at a time.
All of this on a single-stage Rock Chucker press.
|
|
|
|
Post by erjdriver on Nov 18, 2014 9:12:34 GMT -5
Awwww maaaaaan...you need a "Merry Christmas to me" gift!!  Years ago, I used to reload .38 Special/.357 Magnum on a table-top single-stage; can't remember what brand the press was...it was my friend's. Fast forward about 20+ years when I got back into reloading and now I THOROUGHLY enjoy my progressive, but soon discovered I'm glad I also added my little single-stage to the work bench. Like GWS, I have RCBS products; both a JR2 and Pro2000. Even with the Pro2000, however, I don't complete my pistol rounds all in one "run". Since this case bulging issue came up for semi-auto brass (and even some .38 Special), I do the bulge busting on the JR2 (soon to be replaced with a Rock Chucker Supreme  ) in lots of 500. Next, I prime that lot of brass on the Pro2000 in its own "step". By this time I've had enough fun for one day so next day I complete the process and size, expand/charge, powder check, bullet drop, and seat/crimp. I would rather do all those last 5 steps by PULLING the handle for each station, i.e., I don't have to think about having to PUSH the handle to prime the case in the second sequence; just keeps things consistent. I have found in my VERY short experience with the Pro2000 that if something is going to screw up on the progressive, more than likely it'll be in the priming step...that's why I like to do that step separately. In addition (specific to the Pro2000), I'm still getting my Tube Priming Conversion Kit set up, adjusted, and fine-tuned. Until I'm comfortable that it's going to prime a piece of brass properly EVERY time (still having some issues), I really want to isolate the priming process so that I can pay specific attention to that step. Fortunately I can always fall back on APS strip priming if I have to. If I had a chance to sit down with RCBS for an hour over a Jersey Mike's Original Italian sandwich and a bag of chips, I'd offer 2 suggestions... Suggestion #1Design/Manufacture a 7-stage progressive press: 1. Size 2. Expand 3. Prime 4. Powder Drop 5. Powder Check (Lock-Out Die) 6. Bullet Drop or Bullet Seat 7. Seat/Crimp or Crimp only, if you Seat separately Suggestion #2For ALL their progressive press models, design it to where the handle is PULLED in ALL stages, including priming; I just like the concept of consistency. I think...think...Dillon presses are like that, but I don't have the dinero for those. I'd also like to see someone manufacture an affordable IN-LINE progressive press. But I know that's a pipe dream.....  Great day to all!!! |
|
gws
Member
Posts: 969
Location: NW New Mexico
|
Post by gws on Nov 18, 2014 11:51:27 GMT -5
Count your blessings that you missed the inline home progressives. RCBS had one....it was a pain in the ass. Dillon came out with their first rotating station press, and everyone else eventually followed suite.  |
|
gws
Member
Posts: 969
Location: NW New Mexico
|
Post by gws on Nov 18, 2014 12:46:24 GMT -5
Bob, I here ya. Unless you have such to do every week it's probably not worth the bother. That said, I can tell you my dark secret.......I let my reloading get backed up so far that I had two choices....get a progressive or find another hobby. I just couldn't face all the work on my Rock Chucker....old age does that, as if you haven't noticed! It all started with a desire to get me my first AR for Christmas about September time 6 years ago. I put off buying one until November...timing stunk...Obama got elected the first time!....and in 2 days there were no more black rifles on the shelves, or factory ammo for them. Sigh, Santa had one chance... there was ONE Remington camoed R25 in .308 for sale period (overlooked because it wasn't black)! Well the "panic buying" was in full force. Did I panic? Well yeah.....but only because I had NO AMMO to shoot in my NEW Christmas GUN! So yeah, I bought 4 whole 1 pound bottles of IMR 4895, 4 boxes of 168 grain Nosler partition tips (expensive bullets to sight in a new rifle), and a carton of CCI primers...and I found those...barely! Merry Christmas to me (inspite of Obama)!  Trouble was, I saw the handwriting on the wall.......no ammo reappeared in December....and components were starting to disappear. The only thing I had plenty of was brass. So in December I bought components....not as much as the hoarders, but enough to fill my brass.....then components disappeared. That's when the real panic hit. Not what you think.....I had all this work to do and only weekends and my arthritic hands to do it with. That's when I started researching Progressives. Went to a friend's who had a Dillon 650....and he gave me a demo on loading 9mm. Neater than heck!! So I asked him what he had to do to change it to load .45. What a pain in the ass. Then I asked him what had to be done to load my new .308!!! Ugh!!! Double pain in the ass and expensive too. So I started researching and found a press that changed over in a couple of minutes with minimum expense. That'd be the RCBS Pro 2000. So January I attempted to buy one. Only manual advanced models were left. (Zero Dillons BTW) So I found a Auto-Advance kit for the manual model and bought the press and the kit. Hoooray! Only was out an extra $40 that way. Been happily loading on it since. Only one problem.....bottlenecks are glaring after you go progressive. Things that didn't really bother you before suddenly become aggravations and annoyances.......things like case prep, and trimming, and annealing, even feeding brass and bullets. So that started a new hobby......removing bottlenecks! Oh! It's almost Christmas time again.....and the Demos are still trying to demo America.....but at least the midterms slowed them down. So what's for Christmas this year?   Wife ordered me a new CED Millennium 2....before the rush even. Double
|
|
|
|
Post by erjdriver on Nov 18, 2014 14:15:30 GMT -5
OK...that looks dang complicated!!!  I'm just looking for something that will do this, though it has a handle instead of being motorized..... And I don't know why, but I could sit here and watch this for HOURS!!! |
|
|
|
Post by springfieldxdm on Nov 18, 2014 20:50:04 GMT -5
I do enjoy my progressive press for my plinking needs. In the beginning I could load everything on a Lee reloader press. It was one of those magical times in life where I had way too much free time and absolutely no extra cash. As life progressed so did my reloading and shooting needs. Now with time being crazy short and money not as big of an issue the ability to keep up with my range time almost requires a progressive press. During the summer I very seldom sit at the presses with kid sports, coaching, and the farm. So I count it as a blessing to be able to sit down for a couple hours in the winter here and there and crank out just about everything I will shoot the next year. I don't load like a monkey and have never even come close to the advertised speed rating of the press, but it's awesome to pull the lever and see a round kick out. I would highly encourage you to consider a progressive, best part is now all the jokers that bought them in the panic days are starting to sell them cheap because they aren't really into loading. I picked up a case feeder for my hornady l-n-l with all 4 case feeder plates for $150, guy set it up but never used it. Once you start with one it's really hard to go back to the single stage route IMO.
|
|
dangun
Member
I love the smell of burnt gun powder.
Posts: 517
Location: SW Florida
|
Post by dangun on Nov 18, 2014 22:18:20 GMT -5
The Green Machine Inline. I spent many a horrible weekend trying to get mine running right. When it did it was great. That didn't happen very often. It makes a decent anchor for a canoe!
|
|
|
|
Post by hacker54 on Nov 18, 2014 22:27:50 GMT -5
Springfield,
I like and use both types for my needs. My plinking rounds for 38spl; 9mm; and 40 S&W are done on the progressive as I do shoot these more often. Now for 357 Mag I will use my single stage as I don't shoot this as often as my other handgun rounds but if it does increase then I'll do them on the progressive. All my rifle is done on the single stage. My son-in law want me to do his .223/5.56 on the progressive and I told him he needs to get the shell plate carrier for it.
|
|
) in lots of 500. Next, I prime that lot of brass on the Pro2000 in its own "step". By this time I've had enough fun for one day so next day I complete the process and size, expand/charge, powder check, bullet drop, and seat/crimp.
Wife ordered me a new CED Millennium 2....before the rush even. Double 
My daughter came from Missouri, my son and grand son, my wife and I had a nice dinner of grilled "porter house" pork chops, corn on the cobb, my son, G'son and I share 10/5. G'son is 4 minutes early though @ 10/4.
Pooh I hope you find to right house . 
