Ordering New Press tomorrow... Missing anything?

[Chris Rhines]

Did I read that right? You're going to be loading 7-8000 (thousand) rounds per month?

That's a huge amount of reloading. Loading that amount on a Dillon XL650 or a Hornady LnL will take you ten to fifteen hours per month. Without the casefeeder, it could easily run you twice that.

You want either a Dillon Super 1050 with a bullet feeder, or else a Camdex.

Whew!

- Chris

 

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Chris,

I don't know what you're reloading on, but I can do 650 an hour without a casefeeder. Manually loading the cases isn't what holds someone up. It's keeping the primer tubes and powder measure loaded that's the hold up.

If you get a primer tube loader like the Frankford Arsenal Vibra Prime and have a buddy keeping the powder and primers loaded, you can roll out quite a few rounds off of a progressive. With a casefeeder, extra primer tubes, a primer tube loader and a buddy keeping those stocked, you can hit between 650 and a thousand per hour, perhaps a bit more, out of an auto advance progressive. But, that's still 8-10 hours of work per week. Quite a few rounds, for sure.

Of course, at those rates, you better have the press setup perfectly, regardless of what bran and pay attention to what you're doing. NO music or distractions and pick a good powder and good primers to minimize headaches.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Shoney]

Joevilla71: I bought a used 550 at an estate sale in the early 90's for $75 with lots of extras parts, tool heads, bullets, primers & powder. They had no clue of its worth.

If you include the time involved in loading primer tubes (most testimonials omit this time), I could only load 200-250 rounds /hr on a good day. As my volume of shooting increased, I invented lots of reasons for needing to improve upon the 550, but I ran into your problemo of dealing $ $ $ $ to Dillon. When I first saw the LNL, my Dillon product loyalty bias was badly shaken, and it took about a New York second to see the advantages of the LNL’s quick change system.

I still load on the 550, but it's relegated to one cartridge 38/357. The LNL is used for 5 pistol and two semi-auto rifle cartridges. I still load all my bolt rifles on the Pacific single stage press I bought in 1960.

You can leisurely load 6-8 rounds/min, and easily get a 1000 rounds in 3 hours on the LNL, more if you have a cast iron bladder , and really move those Roman hands with Russian fingers .

You will enjoy the LNL, and when you have problems Dave in FB Ga will give you lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of very useful verbage to bring you thru the crisis. LOL Sorry Dave, I couldn’t resist.

 

[Idano]

Joevilla71,

I don't want to rain on the progressive parade but a more realistic throughput number for safely reloading on a progressive press is between 400 and 600 shells an hour. I am loading on a Hornady AP like Dave and Shoney but I also have a case feeder and I average about 400 hour if the brass has already be prepped. By prepped I mean deprimed/resized and the primer pockets cleaned ready to be loaded. Here are the limiting factors that limit throughput:

1. The primer tube only holds 100 primers
2. The shell bin only holds 50 cartridges of 9 mm less on .223
3. The Powder measure can only go 2000 cartridges if dispensing between 6 and 7 grains of Unique.
4. You need to check your powder measure every so often and use this rule of thumb:
   • Ball powder every 50th round
   • Flake powder every 25th round
   • Extruded powder every 10th round.

To save time I always top off the powder measure when I refill the primers. I think two major fallacies that plague progressive presses. First so many people and manufactures tout these ungodly throughput numbers so when users don't reach the 600 to 1000 cart rides in an hour they try to go faster and end up having mechanical issues and breaking parts. Secondly, many people don't check their powder dispense as they are suppose to and they worse don't bracket their loads properly for progressive reloading. I don't use a powder cop, because I think it is a waste of money and it provides a false sense of security. If you want to load safely on a progressive press find a load that fills at least 60% of the case or more and can tolerate twice the standard deviation of you powder measure with powder being thrown. Lastly, consistently check your powder measure while you are reloading, yes slows you down but your life and limbs depend on it.

I have noticed a lot of posts by re-loaders who carry factory ammunition for defense, that tells me they don't trust their reloads. The only factory ammunition I shoot is shotgun everything else is 100% reloads.

 

[1911user]

I'm estimating that you'll spend over $500 every month just on reloading components (not even counting brass). For that large of a quantity, it's worth getting your reloading setup right up front. You are doing high volume loading by most personal standards. To put such a low cap on the budget honestly seems penny-wise and pound-foolish. I don't mean that in a bad way, but worrying about a one-time $200 expense compared to years of your component costs seems short sighted. Is it possible to lower the shooting roundcount for a month or 2 and get more budget for the reloading equipment?

The used 550 is a steal of a deal and would be a decent backup press to have around. If your monthly volume is relatively constant at 7-8K, I would consider a backup press to be almost a requirement unless you can load a month or 2 ahead of the need. Worst case means you could easily resell the 550 setup for $100-$200 profit. 2 presses also opens the option of 2 people loading at once if time was short.

There is no way I'd go without a casefeeder on the main press be it a 550, 650, or LNL-AP. That is a ton of cases to be handling every month.

Based upon your calibers, my minimum setup would be a 650 with a casefeeder and a quick-change setup for each caliber. If that truly isn't an option, I'd buy the casefeeder setup for the 550.