bad375, that's great.. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Experimentation is half the fun of anything anyway.
I find it odd though that many folks will get a geewilliker progressive and then size only before polishing, seat primers by hand etc etc.. what's the gain/point?
Because I can.
I load more on my progressive my way than I shoot. I eliminate some of the extra case handling that is required on a single stage and some of the extra handle stroking required on a turret.
I size and expand the mouth at one time. I like the way expander dies epand the case mouth. I do not like the way the "powder through the expanders" do their job.
Since I separate the process, I have the option of hand priming. I can hand prime 100 cases as fast as filling a primer tube plus I never, I repeat, never, feed a case with a miss seated primer to the powder drop since I get 100% inspection of the seated primers. I hate re-work more than trimming cases.
I even sometimes charge the cases off the progressive when I am making a small run and do not want to set up the press mounted powder measure.
I find I have more problems with upsets in the process in the resizing die. Cases not lining up with the dies, primers not fulling decapping and the such. By separating the resizing/mouth expansion from loading, I can better monitor the process without the chance of making a faulty round.
I reload some cases on the progressives that require case lubricant (357 Sig and 38/45 Clerke). I would rather not have greasy, gooey hands when handling powder and primers. So, I resize/mouth expand then clean the cases.
Sometimes, I wet tumble to clean my cases. I might as well be done with resizing, mouth expanding and decapping when I do that.
It works for me and makes me happy. It adds to the enjoyment of reloading for me.
It may not work for you and that makes me happy too.
I did not buy a progressive until I figured out that I did not have to operate the press "from fired case to loaded round". I am just offering options to folks on the fence for buying a progressive.