[pinesboy88]

Hi everyone, I have been thinking about upgrading some of my reloading equipment. The first thing I’d like to replace is my old crusher style press and I am leaning towards a progressive press. The progressive styles make sense for mass loading pistol ammo. But, will consistency lack with this press when trying to load more accurate hunting and rifle ammo? What presses would you recommend and what have you had the best luck with?

Second,
What dies would be recommended for reloading every day pistol ammo. And what dies for hunting rifles (30-06, 25-06, 223, 243 etc.) where better accuracy will be expected.

 

[312shooter]

Uh oh, here we go again

In short, the Hornady LNL AP.

 

[X Ring]

Most competition shooters use Dillon presses, but the Hornady will also work just fine.

 

[myfriendis410]

Personally I see no reason to get a progressive press to load rifle. Here's why.

First, lube your clean brass and resize. Now you need to get the lube off, trim the brass, clean the primer pocket, chamfer the case neck, inspect for defects before you continue. So where is the benefit to using a progressive? Sure, you can load rifle ammo, but you said ACCURATE rifle ammo. You have to perform those steps to create accurate rifle ammunition. Most serious rifle loaders hand weigh their powder charges too, which also slows down the whole process.

You can spend a ton of money on dies, but unless you are shooting a custom chambered rifle, any of the major makers will work for you and they all offer advantages and disadvanteges over each other. I like RCBS "X" dies, but that's just me.

 

[CCHolderinMaine]

Hi everyone, I have been thinking about upgrading some of my reloading equipment. The first thing I'd like to replace is my old crusher style press and I am leaning towards a progressive press. The progressive styles make sense for mass loading pistol ammo. But, will consistency lack with this press when trying to load more accurate hunting and rifle ammo? What presses would you recommend and what have you had the best luck with?

Second,
What dies would be recommended for reloading every day pistol ammo. And what dies for hunting rifles (30-06, 25-06, 223, 243 etc.) where better accuracy will be expected.

Welcome to the forum from another Mainer.

 

[76Highboy]

I have both single stage and progressive style. However I only reload my rifle on my single stage. It is nice to have both.

 

[LDBennett]

Where is the advantage to the Progressive press for rifle cartridges??

To start off my comments here are only for RIFLE ammo. So lets not mix in pistol ammo as my reloading processes for pistol ammo are different and not represented here.

While it is important to clean your brass and trim it it is only necessary to trim it if it needs it. Most all rifle cartridges will go a couple of reloadings without requiring trimming. So with a progressive press you can most of the time just clean the brass and move onto progressive reloading. But remember to determine if the brass needs trimming you have to size first.

I keep my brass in lots of a 100 or so and reload by lot. I vibratory clean the lot of brass first. Then I take a sample of about five cases randomly out of the lot and size them. If any one of them measures outside of the max cartridge case length listed in the reloading manuals then the whole lot gets trimmed to the listed tirm-to length after the lot is sized in single stage press fashion on my Dillon RL550B. When I trim the brass, I clean the primer pockets. On my Dillon sizing only is easy as it has no auto advance like the Hornady LNL press and I can use the press as a single stage press if I prefer to (or even a turret press). Once the lot of cases are trimmed then I remove the sizing die from the Dillion and reload the whole lot progressively.

In reloading over the last 25 years on my Dillon I have not noted any accuracy difference between cases that had their primer pockets cleaned or those that did not (those not trimmed for this reload). De-burring the case mouth is only necessary if you have trimmed the brass.

So in short progressive reloading speeds up the whole process and minimizes your time and effort. The resultant ammo is as good as any ammo loaded on a single stage press or turret press. At least that is the case with ammo reloaded on my Dillon RL550B. I can not speak for ammo quality done on any other progressive presses but suspect that may not be true for ammo done on a LEE progressive. I had one of those years ago and it was a nightmare to use.

LDBennett