9mmepiphany said:
1. Depriming on a single stage press for less wear on the main press/die/decapping pin and less dirt in the progressive mechanism.
I use Lee Universal Depriming die with rifle cases so I can clean the cases (I use fine grit walnut media with NuFinish polish) inspect the primer pockets before I resize/trim/chamfer the cases. I hand prime rifle cases to ensure the primer cups are seated slightly below flush (.004") -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=7813399#post7813399
With pistol case and carbide dies, I don't worry about press or carbide resizing ring wear. I do prefer to resize clean cases and I clean the cases before resizing.
Would this be counter productive to the idea of a progressive press...speed/time?
Since I know you shoot matches, I would focus more on producing accurate and RELIABLE reloads so they don't slow you down during a match stage from failure to feed/failure to fire rounds that require a racking of the slide to chamber another round (see comments below for reloading for match shooting).
With pistol cases, for match and defensive rounds that must go bang, I will resize the cases first (which also happens to deprime the spent primers) and chamber check in barrels with tightest chambers to cull out overly expanded case base (hot loads fired in loose/less supported chambers) that won't allow fully chambering of the finished rounds (slide not going to full battery that requires a rack of the slide during a match stage will rob you of precious time off of your score).
I prefer to hand prime match and defensive loads so I can "feel" the tip of the anvil set against the priming compound. If you use mixed range brass, the cases may have varying primer pocket depths. Since primer cup/anvil feet length varies by primer brand, just seating primer to flush may not ensure reliable primer ignition. I have seen too many "clicks" instead of "bang" on match stages that required a racking of slide to eject a reloaded round with high primer as the offending round fired on second primer strike after the match stage.
Wolf/Tula/Fiocchi primers have slightly larger diameter primer cups than CCI/Winchester/Magtech primers and especially in once-fired brass or S&B/RWS cases with tighter primer pockets, the primers may not readily seat below flush. If you end up bench priming your match loads, you can test different brand primers on the Dillon 550B to see how the primers seat and ignite with the brass you are reloading with (One benefit to larger cup primers is that they can extend the life of cases with loose primer pockets).
With range practice/plinking rounds, I don't hand prime.
2. Clean primer pockets before reloading, while others feel it isn't needed ... Has it been your experience that this is good idea or is it wasted effort?
I have done comparison tests with cleaned primer pocket vs uncleaned primer pocket pistol loads (9mm/40S&W/45ACP) and I really could not tell any difference in the shot group size or accuracy (see posts #80 - #98 on the link) -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=7810685#post7810685
Unless your load is really dirty burning, residue in the primer pocket tends to flake and compress when you seat the new primer. Even for match pistol loads, I would not worry about cleaning primer pockets.
With rifle cases, I simply clean primer pockets because I deprime and clean the cases before I resize/trim/chamfer them. It's just a habit for me to inspect the primer pocket as I hand prime the rifle cases and clean as needed.