With a 1000rd/week habit, you're gonna kill yourself for not buying a progressive 3-4 days after you set up the single stage and use it.
M1911joe has the best advice so far:
I started by using it like a turret press put one shell in and do each step on it till I got to under stand what I was doing.
A progressive press is nothing more than several stages mounted in a ring, and the shellplate (with multiple slots for X number of empty brass casings) rotates to allow the user to service these several casings simultaneously. You can use the progressive like a single stage press [admittedly it is slightly inconvenient, but only slightly, as anyone who's backtracked because of a foulup can tell you]. All you need to do to revert a progressive to single stage is load a single casing only, and remove it when you've finished whatever stage is being performed--you don't
need to let the casing rotate and continue cycling in the press; just take the casing out and replace it with another at that same station to learn how each station works and why it functions the way it does.
In my opinion, there are 3 big progressive-press manufacturers out there--Dillon, Hornady, and RCBS. Stay away from the RCBS 2000; users are running into an unforeseen 'marketing' problem--RCBS requires a special 'priming strip' to load primers into their machine. At one time, these were bountiful, and provided with the primers when sold. However, the strip method has become 'unpopular', and they're becoming both harder to find and are no longer free (I can't remember the surcharge; for some reason $2.50 sticks in my head; CCI sells them with the primers if you can find them, but they'r now charging for the strip. Savvy RCBS 2000 owners are saving the strips, but it means the user has to spend time loading the primers into these strips.)
Everyone touts the Dillon 550 and 650. Some like the Hornady LNL AP. Dillon has the corner on the market but in my opinion the Hornady is the better product for the money. In my opinion, the reason Dillon has the majority of the market is marketing savvy. (I liken it to the difference in popularity between the television-related VHS and Beta formatted recording tapes--Beta was acknowledgely better--but it was poorly marketed and just slightly late.)
The Dillon 550 is a 4-stage progressive (~$329), requiring a little ~ >$100 per caliber for true "3 minute change-outs" to switch from one caliber to another (this includes a separate powder-measure for each toolhead to allow for a 'no-hassle' caliber swap). You might find this press discounted by middle men. EBay 'buy it now' is $269.
The Dillon 650 (~$430) is their more capable machine with 5 stations instead of the 550's 4-stations, requiring the same ~ >$100 for "3 minute change-outs". You might find this press discounted about 10% new from middle men. $389 on EBay
No Dillon press is sold by any online "vendor" that I know of (i. e., Midway, Midsouth, Natchez, Widener's, etc.) That's not to say the middlemen aren't trustworthy; it's just to point out that really deep discounts may not be available. Also, most guys will tell you to buy the stand (called 'Strong Mount) and handle. This will set you back an extra ~$65. The common opinion is the Dillons are 'under-leveraged' without these add-ons. Nothing that doesn't come warrantied with the initially purchased Dillon package comes free. That's my biggest beef with Dillon. It's a great marketing scheme, but as a consumer, I steer clear of it. A Dillon system can 'nickle and dime' you to death in $25 increments.
Hornady LNL AP is a 5-station progressive (~$400) requiring about $45-75 per caliber for true "three-quarters of a minute change-outs" to switch from one caliber to another (this includes a 'no-hassle' powder
meter swap. The variable $45-75 depends on if you need a different shellplate. Powder meters cost ~$6.50 each and takes 4 seconds if you're a monkey. The comparable changeout on a Dillon is to replace the entire powder measure (or, alternatively, one buys an adaptor 'wing-nut', swaps powder bars, and moves the powder measure from toolhead to toolhead; but the wingnut is somewhere ~$10-20 as I recall, and you still need a powder bar for each caliber, plus allow for the time to swap all this out every time and adjust it all for drop height and throw.) Or you could do what some users do, by a Hornady LNL powder drop, the different powder meters, an adaptor, and mount it on the Dillon press. (I might add that the reason most of these users switch out the Dillon powder measure for the Hornady version is because they say they get more accurate and consistent powder drops with a Hornady.) But what would you do with your Dillon powder measure? Hmm. My bias is showing
. The LNL AP is sold by all the vendors I mentioned above, and sometimes they're on sale. A quick check shows them selling for $315-330 now. A year ago, I got mine from Widener's on sale for $290 including shipping (Widener's ships everything except ammo and it's components free if the purchase is > $100.)
If you tally up expenses (for changing calibers) and the price for the 650 vs. the LNL AP, I'd guess that it would cost about $175-200 more to set up a Dillon 650 (with mount and handle) in 2 calibers; add an average of an extra $50 for each additional caliber, over a Hornady setup. I doubt anyone will argue too much with what I claim here.
