hey progressive loaders?

[FlyinBryan]

just wondering if any of you size and deprime batches then run them through and prime, charge, seat, and crimp?

it just seems to me that it would smooth up the loading portion of the proccess, as well as keeping the lubing and charging in seperate sessions.


in what order do you do each step?

maybe im making to big of a deal in wanting to eliminate the possibility of contaminating the charge with case lube.

lee tube lube and wax are my 2 lubes.

edit: i was thinking about setting up a single stage for size and deprime, then remove the decapper from a sizing die and move it to station 2. it might help hold the round in place better during the primer install, and would leave station 1 empty

 

[evan price]

That defeats the purpose of having a progressive in the first place, by splitting the work process.

I'm not too concerned about a little leftover lube.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I regularly size, deprime and reprime on one of my single stage presses and then when I'm in the mood to actually load ammunition, I run it through my Hornady Pro-Jector Progressive. It makes it much smoother and since I also clean each and every primer pocket, it wouldn't be conducive for me to do all my loading on the progressive. I also don't care for priming on a progressive, and prefer to do that on my old Hollywood, where the priming is very, very precise.

On the progressive press, I bell the case mouth, if necessary, on station 2, add powder on station 3, seat the bullet and crimp. The seating and crimping are done on 4th and 5th stations on the press.

Some people will say this isn't necessary, but since it's my shop, I can do it any way I want.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[donttellthewife]

I size/decap and trim the first time thru the press, then clean the lube off and finish the loading. I use a couple Dillon 650s and their power trimmer.

 

[FlyinBryan]

yes it does help fred

and you too donttell.

it just makes sense to me to get the hurky jerky part out of the way so the actual charging is as smooth as possible.

i think im gonna just get a little single for the size and deprime.

im using a powder through expander so i will only have 3 dies in the press.

1 and 2 will be empty
3 will be the powder through expander
4 for the seater and 5 for the crimp.

 

[RUDY850]

I also size and deprime first in my L&L AP press with a case feeder. The case feeder makes this part go very quickly. Then I reprime on a lee single stage press.doing it this way I get to handle the casings a couple more times and catch any bad ones that I might have missed after my first inspection of the brass.It also frees up a station on the press when I remove the sizing die.

I will do this with a couple thousand casings and I will have some ready to go the next time I want to make some reloads. It is a VERY SMOOTH OPERATION doing it this way.

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

I just primed 1500 rnds of .223 on my 650 just so I wouldn't have to deal with the Lee hand primer.

 

[jmorris]

I try to use progressive presses to there full benefit and with pistol rounds I perform every operation at one time. Bottle neck brass is a different animal, unfortunately Dillon needed to make the 1050 9 stations instead of only 8. In order to trim it takes another operation, I too use an extra 650 to make this go faster. I post load tumble before case gauging to get rid of any lube.

 

[ochmude]

Right now I limit my reloading to 9mm. I'll sit down with my pile of newly tumbled brass and sort out all those which have a crimped pocket. I'll deprime all those to swage the pockets. Everything else gets run through the 550B as is.

I tried depriming and priming in batches once. But for me it tends to mess with my rhythm too much. I'm just really used to doing it the standard way. My concern is that sheer force of habbit will cause me to try and deprime a live primer.

 

[Walkalong]

I tumble my brass, run it through the progressive to size/decap, & then hand prime.

Then I run it through the progressive to load. I feel like I get better priming and without the sizer in the equation when loading I can really feel the seating and crimping going on.

Like Fred said. My place, my rules.

 

[MinnMooney]

That defeats the purpose of having a progressive in the first place, by splitting the work process.

Certainly not !!

There are so many processes that should be performed on brass (like tumbling, de-capping/sizing, champhering, reaming, lgth checking and case inspection) that it's rather cavalier to skip all of the safety steps just to be able to produce as many semi-finished - &, I might say, possibly unsafe - cartridges in a given amount of time.

I've watched "demos" on YouTube that skip all of the safety steps that, to me, are essential just because they got a new toy (a progressive) and are bragging that they are capable of producing "x" amount of ammo per hour. I don't want to be at the range while they are shooting this loosy ammo!

Prepare your casings properly and THEN start loading on your progressive.

Priming, charging, powder checking and bullet installation can all be done in succession on a progressive and the result should be an entirely safe, inspected cartridge.

 

[snuffy]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I use my 650 as it was meant to be used, full progressive mode. For the pistol/revolver shells, they get tumbled if needed, then dumped into the case feeder. Then picked out of the bin after station 5.

For rifle, I use RCBS case slick spray lube. It will not contaminate either powder or primers, so no worries there. If they need trimming, I run them through a lee FL sizer, (in a lee chalanger), then trim using the lee case spinner/trimmer. Then run through the 650. I'm using a Hornady FL die, so the elliptical expander button enters the already sized neck easily. I do inspection while checking trim length, after tumbling. For lube removal, I tumble the loaded ammo in bare corn cob.

 

[FieroCDSP]

Sometimes if a I have a large batch of brass but no bullets or primers to put in them, I'll sit and size/decap the brass on my progressive. It's just something to do, ya know. That also helps if you got a bunch of mil-surp that you need to swage. C'mon, there's no law saying you can only use a progressive for all the steps of reloading. What's great about this hobby is the freedom to do whatever you want with whatever gear you want.

 

[snuffy]

C'mon, there's no law saying you can only use a progressive for all the steps of reloading.

I guess my natural stubborn English roots wouldn't let me consider any other approach than my above statement. But your post made me consider putting that lee FL sizer in a spare tool head, then use the case feeder to run through one sizing step! Has to be faster than handling each case through a single stage press.

 

[lordgroom]

I only have a progressive press. I have a Lee Decrimp die that I run all brass through prior to tumbling to reduce any lead dust created during the tumbling process. I then tumble, resize, tumble, trim, de-burr & clean the primer pocket, then run the shells back through the progressive for the remaining steps. My press does not auto index so I am easily able to use it like a single stage.

 

[Jacka L Ope]

Looks like there are as many procedural differences as there are reloaders. Not at all a bad thing considering the ultimate goal is to produce safe, reliable and accurate ammunition.

Progressive presses are great for speed and all, especially with brand new cases, but there are a several operatons that may interrupt its use in that manner.

Rifle cartridges:

A couple of notes on the process I use for reloading for the rifles:

1. Re-sizing rifle cases requires lubricant. After resizing, the lubricant, IMO, needs to be wiped off due I don't want that stuff amywhere near my primers nor fouling other dies.

2. If after re-sizing cases, they require trimming due to being over maximum case length, that operation will be done separately along with chamfering and deburring case mouths. Case length/headspace gauge use follows both 1 & 2.

3. Removing primer crimps from military-type cartridge cases and/or uniforming primer pockets requires separate operations.

3. If one is using an alternate powder measure, such as a digital scale/dispenser as I do, that operation will be performed separately as well.

Pistol cartridges:

Carbide pistol dies require no separate lubrication operation and, as long as no trimming is required, one can reload pistol cartridges all day long and whip them out by the hundreds or thousands. For these cartridges, I use the press's powder dispenser.

Cheers!

 

[DEDON45]

I just take brass out of the bin and reload it from start to finish on my LnL AP, no separate deprime / size operations for me.

 

[Idano]

IMO there are two reasons you can't run metallic cartridges through in one cycle. First there there is the need to reload responsibly and to do so you need to verify that the brass you reloading is within specification and to do this in one process is impossible without wasting your time. I say this because brass needs to be properly processed in order to prevent failures. Pistol brass needs to be gauged after resized and before you reload it or else you're wasting your time pulling bullets on cases out of spec. Rifle brass needs the trim length check after resized. The second issue is more of a personal issue and that is many of us don't like to contaminate our case feeder and drop tubes with case lube and some of us like to keep primer pockets clean.

 

[lee n. field]

just wondering if any of you size and deprime batches then run them through and prime, charge, seat, and crimp?

Kind-a misses the whole point of a progressive.

I will do the opposite, run a single round through all stages, when I want to watch very carefully what's happening.

 

[rino451]

Using my LNL-AP

For pistol it's two steps:
1. Tumble.
2. Dump in case feeder and process: stage 1= universal decap(cases get primed on the down stroke after 1), 2= resize , 3= powder, 4=seat, 5=crimp. (Can also decap and resize in one step in 1 if you want to use the Lee FCD in 4 instead of 5.)

For rifle:
1. Tumble.
2. Dump in case feeder and process: stage1= universal decap, 2= Lee lube die, 3= resize. A large reservior with gravity feed/drip into die would make the lube die the cat's ass.
3. Trim on Giraud trimmer.
(I might tumble with polish if I want pretty ammo)
4. Dump in case feeder and process again: stage 1= universal decapper (for media removal if I tumble after trim), 2= powder, 3= seat, 4= crimp, 5=empty.

 

[lgbloader]

If there is one thing we can agree on, it's to agree to disagree. As long as you load safe ammo, that's the bottom line.

 

[trinydex]

IMO there are two reasons you can't run metallic cartridges through in one cycle. First there there is the need to reload responsibly and to do so you need to verify that the brass you reloading is within specification and to do this in one process is impossible without wasting your time. I say this because brass needs to be properly processed in order to prevent failures. Pistol brass needs to be gauged after resized and before you reload it or else you're wasting your time pulling bullets on cases out of spec. Rifle brass needs the trim length check after resized. The second issue is more of a personal issue and that is many of us don't like to contaminate our case feeder and drop tubes with case lube and some of us like to keep primer pockets clean.

so what's the point of progressives? i don't get it.

i watched a few vids on youtube of different people and their reloading procedures. from what i gathered it's "most" efficient to do things in a few "groups" of action.

clean recently scavenged and inspected brass

run through a deprime and resize (there is something that does this in one step right?) press.

clean primer pocket and trim case, possibly on the same machine

clean/bumble again some time plus final inspection

prime, charge, seat bullet and crimp

so are progressives just good for that last "group" of actions? because that's like 3 stages right?

 

[FieroCDSP]

A progressive press is best utilized with brass that is not prone to stretching (most pistol brass doesn't stretch appreciably in normal loads) and does not need swaged (second load mil-surp or most commercial).
You've already done the swaging and trimming if needed, so you load the press down with components and crank out a few hundred in no time. Again, the progressive has it's place, but to say it's the only one you need, or that you don't need one at all is ignoring the variability of the hobby. I've done large batches of pistol ammo on a single stage, and I can safely say I'm glad I broke down and got the progressive. What was once five or more hours over several days is now an hour or so in one afternoon.

I can't say this well enough: You have to find the reloading method that suits your personal habit.

 

[Griz44]

I too run in two batches now. I will de-prime and size in the first pass. I use the progressive for this as the case feeder will do a 100 cases in a 3 minutes. Then I tumble and polish, that helps get the primer pockets clean. Then inspection and measuring (I built a saddle from copper plate to do quick case height pass through) The brass is then ready for reloading. In the 5 station progressive, I put a universal decapper in #1 just to make sure I did not miss a corn cob media plugged flash hole on the inspection. Station #2 primes and does a roundness check on the case mouth using a universal flare die set to flare only .001 on the very top of the case. Station #3 does final flare for the bullet and drops powder through the die to charge the case. #4 and #5 seat the bullet and factory taper crimp respectively.

 

[trickyasafox]

I prime my hi-power 223 ammo by hand then run it progressive.