Is it crazy to load .45 ACP in a single stage press?

[xmanpike]

So, a few years back I finally convinced my buddies to invest in the RCBS Rockchucker Reloading kit. I had handloaded for awhile with a friend and mentioned to them how much cheaper it can be for rifle, but more importantly the accuracy differences I was able to achieve. Things have gone great and they have been happy with the press. We have been reloading .45 ACP in it, but it is a painstaking process. I usually break it up into different sections and try to get brass cleaned, sized, primed. Then next time, flare, load, seat/crimp bullet.

I guess my question is, how much easier are progressive presses? I have never seen one used. Only glanced at them in the store. I've heard decent things about the LEE, better about Hornady LNL, and the best about the Dillon 550. I value most of your opinions on here. Tell me what my plan of action should be if I am going to continue to load 500-1000 rounds a month.

Thanks

 

[highlander 5]

I've loaded several handgun cartridges on a single stage press and at one point doing all the steps could load 100 rds an hour.

 

[GT1]

Batch loading 50 rounds an hour is the norm, 100 rounds an hour is working pretty hard on a single stage.


I guess it depends on what one is looking to spend, what other if any calibers you might load, and and if you are looking at a certain number of rounds per hour(how much time you wish to spend loading per month.).

 

[Starter52]

A Lee Turret press would be a good investment for you. I've had mine for 20+ years. I use my turret press in a semi-automatic fashion.... I resize the brass on an old C-H cast iron monster, and do the rest on the Lee.

 

[Fishslayer]

How much ya wanna spend?

Dillon's the Cadillac. Lee will gitter done for a lot less.

Also how much time per month do you want to spend reloading? For me, 500/month is easily done on a turret. 1K/month and I would be eyeballing a progressive.

My Lee Classic Turret is dead simple and can turn out a liesurely 150/hr.

Not sure just how fast the Dillon progressive is but I would guess you could turn out those 1K rounds in an afternoon.

 

[Mike 27]

I love my LNL and it doesn't completely break the bank....

 

[SourMash]

I would do a little at a time with my Rockchucker, an hour or so every evening, and it took me a week to load 450 rounds. I'm relatively new to reloading but I came across what I felt was a good deal on a Dillon 650, and it was already set up for 45acp. I mounted it to my bench and loaded the powder hopper, and then proceeded to crank out 450 rounds in an hour. The Dillon is going to be expensive to change calibers, but I like it so far and feel it was a good investment. Progressive is the only way to go for bulk.

 

[rikman]

As had been said,Dillon is a Cadillac. I strongly recommend saving for a 550B. If you're on a tight budget. A turret press is nice.

For my high volume calibers ie 45acp,38spl,44Spl I load on my 550B's. For lower volume cartridges ie 41mag & 44mag I load on a Lyman T mag turret with Lee deluxe dies which basically includes the factory crimp die and I've combined a step of belling cases & charging with a Lee Auto Disk.

IMHO the Dillon holds its value. If you want to get rid of it ... It will sell fast on the high road or eBay , my first was a used machine. I just had dillon refurb it and it was only $68.

Good luck


Sent from my iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

 

[R.W.Dale]

In the past month I've loaded 900 rds of 9mm and I have 800 pieces of completely processed 38 waiting for bullets.

I work an hour here and hour there as I have time to kill working the entire batch of brass through each step as a complete lot.

Since I've never shot 1000 rounds of any one caliber in a year this method remains fairly cost effective for me. Now if I started shooting 1000 a month a progressive would quickly pay for itself in time spent.

posted via mobile device.

 

[Cherokee]

I loaded all my rifle & pistol ammo on non-progressive presses for about 40 years, always had all the ammo I could shoot and then some. 357 & 45ACP were my big pistol cartridge volumes. About 10 years ago I got a Dillon 650 - with case feeder. Now I am retired and get to shoot a lot more and the Dillon keeps me in ammo.

 

[blarby]

Is it crazy ?

No.

Are there faster ways ?

Sure.

Comes down to the "why" and "how much" argument all the time..... And thats somethin ya gotta answer for yourself.

 

[beatledog7]

Is it crazy to load .45 ACP in a single stage press?

If a SS is what you have, it'd be crazy not to.

 

[xmanpike]

Yeah. I guess I need to talk with the two friends I reload with and see what they are willing to do $$$ wise. That is probably the only caliber I would reload on the progressive. My rifle cartridges I just want more control over. They would prob both reload plinking rounds for their AR's in the progressive or turret so maybe I can sell them that way. Unfortunately our reloading setup is 90 minutes away at my buddy's ranch. Otherwise this wouldnt be as big a deal. I just hate spending my outdoors time inside reloading when all I want to do is shoot!

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I guess my question is, how much easier are progressive presses? I have never seen one used. Only glanced at them in the store. I've heard decent things about the LEE, better about Hornady LNL, and the best about the Dillon 550. I value most of your opinions on here. Tell me what my plan of action should be if I am going to continue to load 500-1000 rounds a month.

Thanks

It's not crazy, you use what you have but like you said, it is very slow...

Why are you thinking about jumping right to a progressive press from a single stage press? That's like going from a scooter to a race car. There are good choices in between. Like mentioned above, a Lee Classic Turret Press is a good alternative for what you're looking to do. With requirements of only 500-1000 rounds a month instead of each week I feel the expense of a progressive is excessive. I can safely load between 180-200 rounds per hour which is just about what you need for each week. That might be a good choice for you.

 

[xmanpike]

Can someone tell me the difference between a turret and a progressive? I am very familiar with my sigle stage as it's all Ive used for 15 years. Honestly never even looked closely at either of the others

 

[Hondo 60]

I reloaded for several handguns for over a year on a Lee Single Stage.
Is it crazy? NO, not unless you shoot so much that 100% of your non-working, non-sleeping time is consumed by reloading.

Now if you shoot a lot, it would certainly be worth your time to upgrade to a turret or progressive press.
And don't worry, you'll find uses for that single stage.

I still use mine for correcting mistakes & for load development.

 

[MMCSRET]

I load everything on single stage presses. I load and shoot about 7000 rounds of hand gun ammo a year and do it all on single stage. When I retired I sold my progressive and became one, again with my guns and ammunition. "Single stage Forever"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BYJO4]

I've been reloading for over 35 years and have always found it to be a relaxing hobby. However, I began to shoot more monthly when I retired and found that I was spending more time than I liked at the loading press. I finally convinced myself to get a progressive press about 2 years ago for loading my handgun calibers. I can only say that I wish I had done this years earlier. I decided on the Hornady LNL AP and I can easily load 350 rounds per hour without using a case or bullet feeder. Reloading is once again fun and relaxing.

 

[Hondo 60]

Can someone tell me the difference between a turret and a progressive?

A Turret press holds the case still & the dies rotate.
So you're still doing one operation at a time, but with all the dies loaded, it's still much quicker than a single stage.

A progressive does 3-5 operations all at the same time (depending upon how many dies you loaded).
The case turns so you add a new case after every pull of the handle.
Once all stations are loaded, you have a completed round after every pull of the handle.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I loaded for nearly 20 years on a single stage. 500 rounds was a lot of work. I'd guess close to 10 hours. I finally wised up and bought a progressive. 500 rounds is a couple of hours.

I bought a Hornady L-N-L and have been 100% satisfied. Their customer service has been great. I have gotten free replacement parts several times and had them in my hand in about three days. I really like it's auto indexing compared the manual indexing of some of the other guy's presses. Auto indexing makes it very difficult to double charge.

 

[moxie]

Not crazy at all. By your own account it's cheap, accurate, and you and your friends are happy. Why mess with that?

 

[gahunter12]

I would go with a Dillon RL550b. Yes it's expensive, but they hold there value, and come with the "No B. S. Warranty". Dillon and Hornady both build great presses. I think the Hornady is a little more economical when you start adding calibers. The biggest reason I went with the Dillon RL550b was I wanted a "manual indexing" progressive press. Dillon's 650, and Hornady's LNL progressive are both "auto indexing". The difference is you have to rotate the carousel by hand on the RL550b, and it rotates automatically on the 650, and LNL. I like the manual index because it allows me to back up if need be and I have more control of the press.


With my RL550b I can load 100 rounds in about 16 min at a steady pace, or 400 in just over an hour. I usually set down on Sunday afternoon and crank out 1000 rnds in about 2.5 hrs. Total setup to clean up runs no more than 3.5 hrs. There are many more guys with a heck of alot more experience than me cranking out rnds faster, but I like my pace.

 

[Blue68f100]

I have had my LNL-AP for over 4yrs now. I was loading 9mm on a SS press. It was pain staking slow. With a progressive you will get one round with every stroke of the handle once all the stations are loaded. I wanted the 5 stations that LNL offered over the 550b. With a progressive it's pretty easy to do 300-400/hr w/o brass feeder. With a brass feeder you can get toward the 600/hr mark just depends now hard you want to work.

Are they worth it buy all means. Saves wear and tear on your elbow and saves you lots of time..

Even with a progressive you will still have use for the SS.

 

[beeenbag]

Unfortunately our reloading setup is 90 minutes away at my buddy's ranch. Otherwise this wouldnt be as big a deal. I just hate spending my outdoors time inside reloading when all I want to do is shoot!

This makes very little sense to me... If you are driving 90 minutes away to reload on a single stage press, then driving another 90 minutes back to the house with gas at $4 a gallon, you are spending enough money on petrol to buy you a nice turret setup for your own place. I would say in all fairness, if you are loading jacketed bullets and doing all that driving, you are probably goin in the hole or coming close to even, as opposed to buying factory ammo. Unless of course you are driving once a month and doing it all in one setting which is doubtful.

I understand the "loafing" factor of loading with your buddies but if you really want to get serious about it, buy your own setup.

 

[T Bran]

No it is not crazy to load pistol on a SS as mentioned above it is a bit time consuming. It really depends on your goals. Some [ like me ] really enjoy the reloading process and make it a seperate hobby while others just do it for accuracy or volume and just want to get back to shooting. There is no rite or wrong in either as long as you make sure that safety isnt sacraficed for the sake of speed. This is not a process to be rushed.
From your statements above I would agree that driving long distance can cut into your time on the bench and with the cost of fuel cut into the savings on ammo cost.
In your shoes I'd either go with an auto indexing turret press or try to find an inexpensive SS to keep at home and do partial batching there also maybe a hand held priming tool.
Have fun with it.
T