Wm Cook
posted this
19 February 2023
When interesting threads appear you sometimes have to read others opinions and think about where you came from and where you are today before you can fully wrap your head around the topic. So having thought about progressive vs single stage press I thought I would add a second comment about Eddie's OP.
I started reloading/casting which was around 1990. I was a late bloomer. My first press was a nice Redding turret press. Soon after that I added an RCBS junior press. Thinking about how much use each of them had I'm pretty sure that about 99.99% of everything I loaded back then was on the Jr press. By now its pretty worn and the ram binds if I'm not smooth and straight about bringing it up into position. It'll has to be replaced this year. It'll probably be a Harrell or a Forester.
When I started shooting PPC benchrest I started using a Harrell press, Harrell in line seaters and Wilson loading dies. Today I use the Harrell equipment and Wilson neck and seating dies for most everything.
Life through me a couple curve a few years back and I had to rethink what I really needed and would realistically be able to have time to use in the remaining years I have left. My priorities have always been bolt guns, SA revolvers, lever guns and pump guns. That's always been my sweet spot and didn't have a need for anything else. But with this crazy world we're living in I felt the urge to add some home and property defense into the mix. Something simple you could point and shoot so that even my wife could use to hit a tin can at 50, coffee can at 100. So when I consolidated and fleshed out my armaments I decided to fit in a 9mm and a 7.62.
So for the first time I considered a faster way to load one cartridge, with one powder, one charge and one bullet. I kind of set a pretty low bar for expectations. I spent too much time cleaning up spilt powder, shot with my MEC shotgun reloader.
Once again I agree with Ken:
..single stage all the way ... BUT : ... the Lee Classic Cast turret is almost a single stage ... and for some reason, I believe the single station Classic Cast is listed as more $$ than the CC Tu
The only use I can imagine for a progressive press is if it is dedicated to one cartridge, powder and bullet. With all the futzing around you have to do I wouldn't have the patience to tweak a load by changing components or worse case going from a 9mm to a 308. So when I changed out my equipment I included a Lee Classic Turret press and a couple of those four hole aluminum things that hold the dies. Most everything with Lee is cost effective enough that I got a second powder measure so when I changed from 9 to 7.62 it would be a plug and play scenario.
But the relationship between the Lee turret and me has been tentative. I've had everything for a couple years and am now just getting round to working up 9mm and 7.62 loads. Neither rifle has been shot. I was kind of like an old man looking at an espresso machine still in the box sitting unused on his counter for a couple years as he continues to use his old percolator coffer maker and drinking his coffee black.
But the both the 9mm and the 7.62 are going to come on line in the next couple of months. I'll use my single stage press to get the powder, charge, bullet, COAL. Then I'll take a week and see if I can get the Lee up and running. First the 9mm then the 7.62. If I can get that far I believe the Lee turret may work out.
But for the second time I want to stress that the only way I could ever get a progressive up and running would be with a single stage press and the needed equipment.
By the way; I gave that Redding turret press to a new reloader about 10 years ago. With the manual turning of the turret it would make a fine starter press. I fell in love with the RCBS Jr press because it was compact and portable and let me load at the range.
An all said and done, I still rather be working a bolt gun trying to get all 5 shots through the same hole. So for me I'm opening up to new ideas and way of doing things. My wife is always encouraging me to grow my interpersonal feelings .
Good luck to the new reloader. Watch them double charges!! Bill Cook.
Patience isn’t a virtue, it’s a delay tactic.