Progressive press better?

I own a progressive, and it rarely sees my bench; my Rockchucker does 99% of my loading. The LnL comes out when it's time for a 300+ production lot of a proven recipe; anything smaller and the setup time overwhelms the advantage.

If all you are going to load is a couple boxes of hunting rounds each year then a progressive is not worth the cost in my opinion.

If you are going to do any kind of bulk loading I think a progressive is very much worth the investment.

I have had my Dillon 650 for 25 years now. I reload all my ammo on it... .380, 9mm, .45 acp, .44 Mag, 50ae, .223, 6.5x55, .308, 30-06, 8x57... probably another cartridge or two that I can't think of off the top of my head. I have always gotten excellent accuracy out of rifle rounds... especially after I have worked up a load that a particular rifle likes.

I pretty much only use my Rockchucker for my Dillon case trimmer and case forming one cartridge out of a different cartridge.

This is gonna be a long one.....

I have a single stage and a Turret press, a progressive is not good for what I do. I deprime and prime off the press and I load a lot of 223 that I have to trim.

You will get a LOT of divergent opinions here.

Depends on how much you shoot, how accurate you are trying to get and what powders you like to use

I don’t really run my progressive for 308 win because I can’t get varget to drop consistently enough to meet my accuracy goals

I run 223/556 progressively and it’s so much nicer, I will load it in two passes. Pass one is to resize then I sort and trim as needed and put the brass in storage

when I’m ready to load I take that prepped brass, prime, drop powder, and load/crimp all on the press. I can resize 500pieces of brass an hour and load 200-300 rds of rifle or pistol in an hour without pushing hard and ensuring I visually check the powder in each case

mid you shoot or like to load 100+ rds at a time, I’d say it might be worth it,

also, progressives shine with handguns, take clean brass and do all the actions in one pass

Hannah42 said:

I was thinking about a progressive press but do i really need one for hunting rounds.

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I don't. I can't speak for you.
I like to weigh each powder charge for hunting rounds.

I only use progressives for handgun rounds. When I just need to zip out a few hundred of the "same old" to replenish my supply, the progressive shines.

I never have used them for rifle rounds. I suppose if I had a "blasting" rifle or some such the progressive would be useful, but as I only fire a few dozen rounds (at most) through a rifle during a range session, the single stage press is ideal.

Unless I'm loading up some range fodder for spray and pray, I use a single stage for rifle. Progressive seems best suited for high volume pistol.

That said, I will leverage the case feeder on the LNL for certain operations like de-priming when processing large numbers of rifle cases.

.40

I have two single stage presses and a progressive. I use the progressive for blasting ammunition. That is 9mm, .38&.357, and.223. For the other cartridges I can set up both single stages next to each other. It's not quite as fast as a turret but I figure it's close. This also allows me to weigh each charge.

Is a hammer better than a screwdriver? Depends on the job it's needed for.

Having used a progressive, I would say that unless you shoot competitively or at least a comparable volume then a progressive is absolutely the way to go. 300-400 a month is turret territory. 1000 or less over the course of a year is single stage.

There's a very interesting article in The Blue Press this month about using a progressive for precision rifle reloading.

As long as you're not using a big stick powder like Varget a progressive can load some really accurate ammo. Dillon powder measures are very accurate powder measures.

I think the answer is simple. For hunting rounds (or any rifle rounds where all you need is a box or 2), just stick with the single stage press.

If you ever do start reloading for pistol and you are shooting more than 50 rounds at a time (I typically go through 300 rounds in an hour or so), then you will need a progressive. At that point, you still might not want to bother getting the caliber conversion kits for the rifle calibers unless you will be going through more than a box or 2 at a time.

Single stage for rifle loads as I want to trickle loads for best accuracy; progressives for handgun and shotshell when close enough is good enough.

For most of my bottle neck rifle loads, I use a single stage press.

For most of my straight walled hand gun ammunition, I use a progressive press but I resize at one time, prime off the press, then load the cases at a different time.

Just don't ask which brand is better!!! You will start the never ending war between Dillon and Hornady LNL and a few others. Everyone has their favorite and I've used both and they are both great presses.

Progressive press better?

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For beginners learning to reload? No
For target loads? No
For experienced reloaders who just need a lot of range fodder? Yes
For competition action shooters who aren’t good enough to have an ammo sponsor? Yes

The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of our host.

ymmv

Eddietruett said:

Just don't ask which brand is better!!!

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Oh, that is easy, just pick the press whose color matches the decor in your reloading room. It will serve you well.

If my LNL is setup for whatever handgun caliber I want to load test rounds for I just run one case through at a time and it is just as accurate as doing it on my Rockchucker.

I use my turret press for all my pistol ammo and for 223 range fodder. For rifle ammo that I'm going for accuracy, I usually use my single stage. I personally don't shoot enough to justify getting a progressive press at this time.

Dillon 550 rarely gets used, I hope to load more handgun ammo on the Dillon this year. The Lee CC is mounted and gets no use. The Forester Co-Axe gets the work done.

edwardware said:

I own a progressive, and it rarely sees my bench; my Rockchucker does 99% of my loading. The LnL comes out when it's time for a 300+ production lot of a proven recipe; anything smaller and the setup time overwhelms the advantage.

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Absolutely. I regret selling my single stage once I got my LNL. The LNL is great as you mentioned, but I find I shoot much more magnum rifle cartridges than handguns. It does come in handy with 44 mag though. I think I’ll have to find a single stage again to compliment it.