Progressive vs Single Stage Threshold

[d31tc]

I am getting ready to set up a new reloading room. I have a Rock Chucker and a Pro Chucker 5. I've had the Pro Chucker for a while, but have been very patient waiting to get all the parts I need (OK - Want) and a new room to set the Pro Chucker up.

I have shell plates and tool heads set for 9mm and 223, so change out for those calibers will be fairly simple, I presume.

I recently added another caliber to the stable - 45 ACP. Since I shoot higher volumes of 9mm and 223, I plan to load those on the progressive. As for the 45, it will be shot less, I'm guessing 100 rounds per month. All of my other calibers are low volume, so definitely single stage.

Just curious - what would your threshold be to invest $150 into equipment for another caliber on a progressive vs just cranking them out on a single stage? I'll find out my threshold when I start loading 9mm and compare it to loading 45 quite soon!

 

[Mark_Mark]

I am getting ready to set up a new reloading room. I have a Rock Chucker and a Pro Chucker 5. I've had the Pro Chucker for a while, but have been very patient waiting to get all the parts I need (OK - Want) and a new room to set the Pro Chucker up.

I have shell plates and tool heads set for 9mm and 223, so change out for those calibers will be fairly simple, I presume.

I recently added another caliber to the stable - 45 ACP. Since I shoot higher volumes of 9mm and 223, I plan to load those on the progressive. As for the 45, it will be shot less, I'm guessing 100 rounds per month. All of my other calibers are low volume, so definitely single stage.

Just curious - what would your threshold be to invest $150 into equipment for another caliber on a progressive vs just cranking them out on a single stage? I'll find out my threshold when I start loading 9mm and compare it to loading 45 quite soon!

Just get the tool head! you know your going to anyways! We give you permission.

Beside $150 tool head today, $350 next year! inflation!

 

[Demi-human]

Zero. I wanted one so I bought it. It saves time no matter the work load.

Family time is important, maybe even more so than loading time, perhaps.
So to maximize my time handloading I bought a fun new toy, I mean, tool to save time actually loading, that I may spend it shooting with my children. Mine is red.

No human bats an eye at getting a cheap drill to spin a case trimmer or deburring tool. $150 is a mediocre drill. You are worth $150 dollars worth of time saving to spend it on your family.

Why, you might even be selfish with your time if you didn’t get your press running. The waste in effort and coin with just letting it sit. Tsk, tsk.

I’ll not mention the added wear and tear on your body of not using the progressive. Nope, won’t even say it.
But, please! Think of your health, Sir!

Yes, I’d say it’s the more prudent thing to get it up and spinning. Good all the way around.

Especially so with pistol cartridges. And rifle ones, too.

If your wallet says anything about it, just keep your money in your pocket. Then it won’t know when it’s spent on your good well being…


Hope that helped some. Let me know if you need any more, um, help.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Zero. I wanted one so I bought it. It saves time no matter the work load.

Family time is important, maybe even more so than loading time, perhaps.
So to maximize my time handloading I bought a fun new toy, I mean, tool to save time actually loading, that I may spend it shooting with my children. Mine is red.

No human bats an eye at getting a cheap drill to spin a case trimmer or deburring tool. $150 is a mediocre drill. You are worth $150 dollars worth of time saving to spend it on your family.

Why, you might even be selfish with your time if you didn’t get your press running. The waste in effort and coin with just letting it sit. Tsk, tsk.

I’ll not mention the added wear and tear on your body of not using the progressive. Nope, won’t even say it.
But, please! Think of your health, Sir!

Yes, I’d say it’s the more prudent thing to get it up and spinning. Good all the way around.

Especially so with pistol cartridges. And rifle ones, too.

If your wallet says anything about it, just keep your money in your pocket. Then it won’t know when it’s spent on your good well being…


Hope that helped some. Let me know if you need any more, um, help.

great Enabling! invoking the children and family time! NICE

 

[BBarn]

I generally run stuff I use at a rate of 200/month through the progressive, but I would think it would depend on an individual's finances, spare time, and level of enjoyment.

 

[d31tc]

You guys know how to answer my questions for sure! It really is rationalization to settle my continued cognitive dissonance.

I have a pistol caliber carbine (44 Mag) that I don’t think I’ll load extensively for - that might be in the running too. It’s really about the children. The more I load, the more they get to shoot.

 

[reddog81]

If shooting 100 rounds a month in a caliber I’d go for it. 50 or less per month would be a more likely threshold for me.

 

[Charlie98]

You never know... you might wind up shooting MORE than 100rds of .45 a month... and then where would you be?

In reality, and based on how much brass you have, in the same time it would take you to load 100 .45's, you could load 200 on a progressive. Personally, I batch load... I load 1000 .45's or 9mm, etc at a time, and then just burn them up as I go.

 

[lightman]

I guess I don't have a threshold. When I bought my Dillon 550 I got the caliber conversion kits for everything that I shoot in volume. Paying for all of those wasn't fun at the time but now I look at the current prices and availability and I just smile!

My dilemma is at what number of shells justifies a caliber change vs loading them on a single stage? For me, its somewhere around 500.

 

[Howland937]

Threshold=Time saved x factory ammo/π (4 missing primers) - the ballistic coefficient of the heaviest bullet you'll load.
T=TSxFA/π4-BC?

 

[thump_rrr]

I am getting ready to set up a new reloading room. I have a Rock Chucker and a Pro Chucker 5. I've had the Pro Chucker for a while, but have been very patient waiting to get all the parts I need (OK - Want) and a new room to set the Pro Chucker up.

I have shell plates and tool heads set for 9mm and 223, so change out for those calibers will be fairly simple, I presume.

I recently added another caliber to the stable - 45 ACP. Since I shoot higher volumes of 9mm and 223, I plan to load those on the progressive. As for the 45, it will be shot less, I'm guessing 100 rounds per month. All of my other calibers are low volume, so definitely single stage.

Just curious - what would your threshold be to invest $150 into equipment for another caliber on a progressive vs just cranking them out on a single stage? I'll find out my threshold when I start loading 9mm and compare it to loading 45 quite soon!

Even at 100 rounds a month that's 1,200 rounds per year.

I load most of my popular calibers once a year.
This is because I have both a case and bullet feeder so changing over and getting everything perfect takes close to 1 hour.
Christmas to New Year's is .45ACP I load maybe 4,000-5,000 rounds over the 2 weeks.
My friends even come over to load their .45ACP on my press during the holidays
I then transition to .357 Magnum.
I only load about 1,500 rounds so I do that in a couple of evenings.
I then go over to 9mm till about April then I will switch over to .223 and leave it there till the following Christmas.

My precision rounds are done on a Forster Co-Ax with an AutoTricklerV4 taking care of the powder dispensing.

I may not be the best person to take advice from.
I got a shellplate and powder drop assembly for 500 S&W today.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Threshold=Time saved x factory ammo/π (4 missing primers) - the ballistic coefficient of the heaviest bullet you'll load.
T=TSxFA/π4-BC?

You so didn’t factor the force of gravity! I re did your equations with a little g for a qualitative solution

T=TS(FA) / π4-BC(9.81m/s2)

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I load about 50 handgun rounds a year on a single stage. If I did anyone than those, I would buy the shell plate for my LnL progressive.

 

[Charlie98]

I was rooting through my Hornady shell plates about a year ago, and realized I had one for .45 Colt! I had just finished loading 100 of them the week prior (on the single-stage...) and was lamenting not having a shell plate. Dumb bell... I should have known I would have bought one.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Just get the tool head! you know your going to anyways! We give you permission.

Beside $150 tool head today, $350 next year! inflation!

This ^^^^ Exactly!

Todays, “Maybe I should get it,” is tomorrow’s unobtainium du jeur.

 

[twarr1]

Of course the OP knew that any time the question is asked here, “Should I buy [Insert firearm related item here]? The answer is always “Yes”

 

[nettlle]

Purchasing a Dillon 550 with additional tool heads was the best reloading money I ever spent. Without a second thought I would buy another tool head for the progressive.

 

[AJC1]

Even at 100 rounds a month that's 1,200 rounds per year.

I load most of my popular calibers once a year.
This is because I have both a case and bullet feeder so changing over and getting everything perfect takes close to 1 hour.
Christmas to New Year's is .45ACP I load maybe 4,000-5,000 rounds over the 2 weeks.
My friends even come over to load their .45ACP on my press during the holidays
I then transition to .357 Magnum.
I only load about 1,500 rounds so I do that in a couple of evenings.
I then go over to 9mm till about April then I will switch over to .223 and leave it there till the following Christmas.

My precision rounds are done on a Forster Co-Ax with an AutoTricklerV4 taking care of the powder dispensing.

I may not be the best person to take advice from.
I got a shellplate and powder drop assembly for 500 S&W today.

Wow you must have buckets of brass...

 

[JJFitch]

Don't ask me I have 5 Dillons and 2 Hornady progressives! But I've been reloading since the late 60's and my Dillon's are over 30 years old, bought 2 new and 3 used!
I don't like changing stuff. I have one for each cartridge that I shoot. I can reload 400 an hour or 100 in 15 minutes. I'm retired from competitive shooting now but for 30 + years I was a high-volume shooter.

I'm only saying this because dedicated reloaders shoot so they can reload so they can shoot more!

Get the tool head and figure a way to get another progressive reloader so you can shoot more!

 

[dcarr]

Just get the tool head! you know your going to anyways! We give you permission.

Beside $150 tool head today, $350 next year! inflation!

Line up for birthday, christmas, fathers day, some excuse

 

[Mark_Mark]

Line up for birthday, christmas, fathers day, some excuse

yep fathers day coming soon! gun or gear?? hard choices

 

[thump_rrr]

Wow you must have buckets of brass...

My friend owns an indoor range.
I get any brass I want already sorted.
I’ve never bought a loaded round of ammo with a few exceptions such as a few crates of Chinese Norinco .223 about 12 years ago. I think it was $229/1,600 rounds and some 5.7x28.

 

[d31tc]

By the way

Don't ask me I have 5 Dillons and 2 Hornady progressives! But I've been reloading since the late 60's and my Dillon's are over 30 years old, bought 2 new and 3 used!
I don't like changing stuff. I have one for each cartridge that I shoot. I can reload 400 an hour or 100 in 15 minutes. I'm retired from competitive shooting now but for 30 + years I was a high-volume shooter.

I'm only saying this because dedicated reloaders shoot so they can reload so they can shoot more!

Get the tool head and figure a way to get another progressive reloader so you can shoot more!

Might be the answer to the next thread - “What’s the threshold to buy a second progressive press?” I have a line on a Pro Chucker 7 with 4 shell plates and a case feeder for a really good price.

 

[thump_rrr]

By the way

Might be the answer to the next thread - “What’s the threshold to buy a second progressive press?” I have a line on a Pro Chucker 7 with 4 shell plates and a case feeder for a really good price.

No threshold needed.
One for small primer and another for large primer.

 

[d31tc]

I guess I don't have a threshold. When I bought my Dillon 550 I got the caliber conversion kits for everything that I shoot in volume. Paying for all of those wasn't fun at the time but now I look at the current prices and availability and I just smile!

My dilemma is at what number of shells justifies a caliber change vs loading them on a single stage? For me, its somewhere around 500.

Maybe this was really my question. But I think, as it was pointed out here, just load more at a time to make it worth it and store more live rounds vs storing components. Can’t wait to get my reloading room all set up.