Progressive for moderately high-volume 8x57 loading.

I believe the Dillon 550 series is quite capable. I just got one as my first progressive (Redding T-7 for years), but have yet to set it up.

Another vote for the Dillon 550.

The Blue birds have already spoken so I will suggest the Hornady LNL-AP. A much simpler machine will fit your needs just fine. You end up with 5 stations instead on 4. And a lot less plastic.

One of you objectives is how to deal with case lube.
The insides of the necks need some lube for the expander unless you use a bushing die. However residual lube should not be allowed to contaminate the powder.

You might use a carbide bushing in a bushing die and a carbide expander ball. Use graphite or some other dry lube on the necks.

I just decap, resize, clean and hand prime off the press.
I only use the Dillon to charge and seat bullets.

I would say 550 too, unless you wanted 5 stations, then a 650.

I bought my first LNL and loaded about 200 rounds of 308 before I switched to another machine.

The problem I had was with the half index of the LNL. More specifically it indexes half on the down stroke and the other half on the up stroke.

With the combination I was using, if I sat a bullet on the case and raised the ram the tip was already too high before the press finished the index, so the bullet was knocked off the case by the bottom of the die.

I wound up having to put the bullet up into the die, raise the ram until it finished the index, set the bullet on top of the case and get my fingers out of there to complete the stroke.

moderately high-volume

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Depends on how much volume, Lee Classic turret is faster than a SS but less money than a progressive might be worth considering.

Second vote for the Lee cast. It doesn't have the volume of the Dillion's but you will save a good chunk of money.

Dudedog said:

Depends on how much volume, Lee Classic turret is faster than a SS but less money than a progressive might be worth considering.

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Now now, you’ll have the Dillon fan boys screaming. I’m surprised they haven’t gone nuts as the LnL was already mentioned! You know when Lee is mentioned they go nuts!

Seriously though. OP didn’t define what they feel is a moderately “high volume”.

Personally, I think the LCT is one of the best values out there. It may be a good option if they don’t need a true progressive. I think if OP can say how much ammo they need per week or per month, and what their budget is then they could get much better recommendations. Then they can decide if a Dillion makes sense, if a LnL is. Good option or if a LCT is even a viable option.

OP did say progressive, just threw out the Lee as an option that might not have been considered, most 8X57 are bolt action, but who know the OP could be into "mad Minutes"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute

Of course that was with SMLEs.

Nothing wrong with progressives, I own a LNL, just depends on volume needed vs time vs $

I’ve heard some call the LCT a SEMI progressive press due to the auto indexing. So it really just depends on how much loading they’re doing.

When I was looking onto what to buy, I saw all sorts of recommendations. Most said start with a single stage. Some said progressives were ok if you are good with attention to detail. I was seriously leaning towards a progressive until I saw how much they cost. After playing around a little with a Lee hand press, I learned about the LCT and it’s worked well for me. In fact, I don’t see a need for me to get a progressive right now and probably not at all this year. Next year though, it could be a different story.

Anyway, I think we agree OP should think about how much they shoot and how much ammo they want to make each week. Then they should make a budget and a get the press that makes the most sense to meet their needs no matter the color.

I’ve heard some call the LCT a SEMI progressive press due to the auto indexing.

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Must be the same people that think a 550 isn’t a “true” progressive because it doesn’t auto index.

If you can utilize all the dies with each stroke, it’s a progressive, if you can’t, it’s not.

Personally, I think the LCT is one of the best values out there.

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I agree.

morcey2 said:

So I'm sitting at home going back and forth between freezing and feeling like my face is going to spontaneously combust along with all sorts of other nasty symptoms so it seemed like the perfect time to do some work in my reloading room. In the middle of it I realized that I only have about 400 rounds of yugo surplus 8x57 to feed my large number of rifles chambered in 8x57. I believe that I have 10 or 11 mausers chambered in it.

What would be a good progressive press for a rifle cartridge like this? This would probably be a dedicated press simply because of the number of rifles it would be feeding. I realize that getting to a load that works with all of the rifles is going to require some serious work on the single-stage. And lots of shooting. (I'm trying to see a down-side to that. )

Or is it just a combination of cold medicine and fever-induced hallucinations making me think this way and I should wait until it passes?

Matt

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One thing about 8x57 is that a lot of reload data out there goes by SAAMI max pressure. IIRC, 35k psi. So you won't get the thumper loads that you're use to from the Yugo stuff.
I think, but not certain, that CIP pressures are around 55k psi.
VV powders may have load data for the 8mm Mauser.

But I'm going by the assumption that you're about to start reloading for the 8x57.

Edit: Just looked at Western Powder's data and their pressures go up to 57,500 psi.

Cool
Since you’re planning on getting the LCT anyway, get it. Get a spare Turret and you can switch calibers.
If/when you feel you need a progressive you can then read through all of the stuff to decide which to get! While you’re doin* that you’ll still be able to make rounds.

With the right powder, I believe the LnL AP should fit the bill, I really like mine

I can easily load 308 win on it, although I need to guide the bullets Into the seating die because of the length and indexing concern already mentioned, I escaped a bunch of 30-06 a few weeks ago without second thought

I usually use my single stage for 308 because I use Varget and it doesn’t drop consistently enough for what I want in that load, but imr 4895 or 8208xbr meter well as do ball powders

Do you shoot 1000 rounds or less in a year with the 8mm? If so, a slow paced week or two can get you all the ammo you need, from starting setup to everything cleaned up I can load 300rds of 223 in 2hrs, going slow

morcey2 said:

8x57 was the reason that I got started reloading about 8 or 9 years ago. I was sick of using Rem/Win/Fed rounds that had 30-30 performance in a cartridge that should have been closer to a 30-06. Hodgdon, Nosler, and Western powders/Ramshot all use higher-than-SAAMI max pressures for their loads. I think Hornady and Lyman loads also use closer to CIP max pressures.

Matt

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lol I guess I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

Hokie_PhD said:

Now now, you’ll have the Dillon fan boys screaming. I’m surprised they haven’t gone nuts as the LnL was already mentioned! You know when Lee is mentioned they go nuts!

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hahahaha... You’re the only screamer, so far. Seriously laughed out loud on this one. I have a Lee press on each side of my XL650. Nooooooo the sacrilege!

OP The LCT is a great press. It’s relaxing, inexpensive, easy to use, easy bench setup, and just a joy to operate. From time to time I’ll take mine out of the cabinet to just to load something, anything with it. Something about it is soothing. But, it spends most of its time in the cabinet. 1000 rounds is 4000 pulls of the handle. If you want to load in volume you may want to load progressively. One pull for one completed round. That’s for you to decide. Personally, If I needed 50 rounds for this weekends outing I would load that on the LCT and enjoy doing it. If for whatever reason I needed to load up a bunch of rounds (500?) to stay ahead of the game then I would go progressive. I load in 1000 round batches and that’s how my LCT ends up in the cabinet. I’ve even told a new reloader he can have it and will hold it until he moves to new house.

Be careful of the blue cool aid. You can never go back. It’s also a lot cheaper in this case to just buy the best tool in the beginning. No need to waste money slumming around with the lesser presses. I cried when I wrote the check for my first Dillon. Now I laugh each time I use them. I slummed around with the lesser presses. What a waste of time, money, and hair.

From the info you’ve given so far the Dillon 550, my opinion, is the best match. If you go the LCT route you will enjoy that journey, too. That may even be the best answer if you load in small batches. Good luck.

As for the "one pull for each complete round," that's not really the case for bottleneck rifle loading, is it? I mean, you have to trim after sizing (or at least measure), so there's at least two pulls.

The difference between a progressive and an LCT for straight-walled cartridges is 1:4. That's a big difference. The difference between a progressive and an LCT seems to be 2:3 (plus a reset of the turret - which is a wash if you're talking about a manually-indexed 550). That seems like a much smaller difference to me.

Of course, I've never tried bottleneck reloading on a progressive, so this is just abstract thinking, not personal experience. (Although I do have a LCT and a 650, and have no intention of getting the 650 set up for rifle rounds.)

ATLDave said:

As for the "one pull for each complete round," that's not really the case for bottleneck rifle loading, is it? I mean, you have to trim after sizing (or at least measure), so there's at least two pulls.

The difference between a progressive and an LCT for straight-walled cartridges is 1:4. That's a big difference. The difference between a progressive and an LCT seems to be 2:3 (plus a reset of the turret - which is a wash if you're talking about a manually-indexed 550). That seems like a much smaller difference to me.

Of course, I've never tried bottleneck reloading on a progressive, so this is just abstract thinking, not personal experience. (Although I do have a LCT and a 650, and have no intention of getting the 650 set up for rifle rounds.)

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You’re right. Guess I was thinking more of straight walled cases. But, wouldn’t the LCT be 1:5? One pull to resize. Do what ever case prep you do. Back to the LCT. Once on the LCT you have to pull the handle 4 times, even if it means pulling the handle to advance past empty space on turret. Still a pull of the handle. You could advance it past empty spots by hand, or back forth over your die setup, but that still has to count for something. That’s the way it works for me with .223. Resize on single stage. Powder, seat, crimp,pull round, handle pull past empty turret spot while reaching for next case.

Sometimes I set up the Loadmaster and use it for .223. That makes it two pulls for completed round. One on the SS and one on Loadmaster (after shell plate is full).

Yes, I spend a lot of time just playing with the presses. Would really like to do .30-06 on the XL650 just to watch those big cases go around and fall out completed. Trips my trigger. Just can’t justify the cost to set that up. Do think I’ll move .223 to the XL650 this summer. Plan on shooting a LOT more of that this year.

I don’t plink with large rifle and do all my large rifle on a single stage. I like the idea of plinking with something like a 8x57, though.

Bang! said:

You’re right. Guess I was thinking more of straight walled cases. But, wouldn’t the LCT be 1:5? One pull to resize. Do what ever case prep you do. Back to the LCT. Once on the LCT you have to pull the handle 4 times, even if it means pulling the handle to advance past empty space on turret. Still a pull of the handle. You could advance it past empty spots by hand, or back forth over your die setup, but that still has to count for something. That’s the way it works for me with .223. Resize on single stage. Powder, seat, crimp,pull round, handle pull past empty turret spot while reaching for next case.

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Yeah, you're right about that, although with a 550, that's a wash since you have to advance by hand as well - actually, slightly worse, since the LCT is at least giving you the advance for free in between charging and seating!

I guess my point is that, since rifle rounds require batch processing anyway, the time savings of a progressive aren't as large as they are for straight walled cases. You're throwing big bucks at a proportionally small improvement, though over large enough volumes it might be worth it.

But I think if you are used to auto-advancing presses, I'd be nervous about a 550. I see a LOT of squibs come off of those things from people who aren't paying perfect attention.

As for the "one pull for each complete round," that's not really the case for bottleneck rifle loading, is it? I mean, you have to trim after sizing (or at least measure), so there's at least two pulls.

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Yep, with the Dillon trimmers I keep them mounted on the “prep” tool head.



Pass 1 size/deprime and trim. 1000/hr is pretty easy because there isn’t anything to do except stroke the handle and keep the collator full, on the 650 or 1050.

Then the load pass can be as fast as any pistol round.



But I said 550 based on a WAG on what “moderate” meant to the OP running just shy of a dozen turn bolts.

I load rifle on a 550b. Its very nice being able to do the progressive parts on it. In that respect, it is faster than a SS by quite a bit, with a caveat - the prep work is already done.
With the amount of prep work required, I find it's best to do the prep work on a SS to avoid typing up the 550b the whole time.

And having said that, I really wish I could get a second 550. Who was it here who said "you can never have too much or too many?"