progressive press

The Pro 1000, 4000, and the Six-Pack Pro presses. We also include the "Legacy" progressive presses; the Load-Master, Auto Breech Lock Pro
kmw1954
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Re: progressive press

Post by kmw1954 »

I don't use or own a Lock-out die myself but from some of the stories I read there are some people reloading tat should not be allowed anywhere near a press w/o one. Seems some just refuse to look into the cases.

I have a progressive press because I want to handle each case as few times as possible and to reduce the number of handle pulls to a minimum. I truly have no interest in how fast I can go or how many rounds per minute/hour. If I wanted to fondle my brass I'd have stayed with a single stage press.
larryw
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Re: progressive press

Post by larryw »

kmw1954 wrote:I don't use or own a Lock-out die myself but from some of the stories I read there are some people reloading tat should not be allowed anywhere near a press w/o one. Seems some just refuse to look into the cases.

I truly have no interest in how fast I can go or how many rounds per minute/hour.
+1 +1

Not only stories I have read but a couple people I know should not
be allowed anywhere near a reloading room.

Although my loading has been reduced drastically the last several
years, I still load single stage sometimes, & sometimes Pro 1000
sometimes turret???? All depends on what my Swiss cheese looking
brain decides. As far as handling brass, I don't mind, I thoroughly
enjoy full & complete brass prep. Wet tumbling, for me anymore is reserved for unknown brass, range pick up, trades Etc. My known brass gets the buzz bucket for a few minutes. The more times I handle brass, the more I know it's the best it can be. Even after all my OCD brass
prep & handling I have on occasion found a piece or two I still wasn't happy with.
As far as depriming goes, when it comes to the progressive, I'm an off press guy, keep the crud out. Priming, I do see a difference & like
hand priming, just hope I don't blow another one up. Also like & use the old Lee Ram Prime & Auto Prime II.
I guess the bottom line is, if the final product is quality, & you have
enjoyed the process, & that process is as safe as possible, & you have a big grin on your face whenever you press the trigger then, all is well!!
I know, I know!! Shut up Larry & go back to sleep..
A day late & A dollar short? Story of my life +guns
PBaholic
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Re: progressive press

Post by PBaholic »

Fyodor wrote:
PBaholic wrote:I find better consistency with hand priming off the press.
I found water in primers after two weeks of drying time.

I check every single cartridge before storing. With .45Auto I have about 1% high primers. I reseat them (I know, not good practice) on my LEE bench prime. Worst cartridge to load is the .38spl. About 3-4% high primers and 0.5-1% flipped primers. I really don't like small primers a lot.
I NEVER have high primers anymore. I still find an occasional flipped primer (maybe 1 out of 1,000), but since I switched away from the square primer trays to the triangular ones, this doesn't happen too often. The square trays would flip the primer in the feed. It seemed like it did it 1 out of 100 and %@*&$ me off ever time it happened.

I don't wet tumble with old primers in. I de-cap and size my fired brass and then Ultra-sonic and wet tumble. This way my primer pockets are perfect too. I have a 4" 120V box fan mounted on my radial arm saw facing down, where I dry the brass in a screened basket. It's good to go after only an hour.
PBaholic
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Re: progressive press

Post by PBaholic »

kmw1954 wrote:My philosophy is if I was going to take the time and decap then wet tumble then prime all off the press then why bother with a 4 or 5 position progressive press? Might as well just go back to using an old Lee 3 hole turret press. Charge, seat, crimp, all done! Or Charge, lock-out, seat/crimp, all done.
The Breech Lock Pro is only a 4 hole press. It's designed to De-Cap and prime in the 1st hole, but I now use that for powder. Hole #2 is for the RCBS Lock-Out. Hole #3 for Bullet set, and #4 for Crimp.

I can easily make 800, 45 ACP's per hour on the Breech Lock Pro. I used a Lee Turret previously, and could only get maybe 1/3rd of that, and had to do 4 times the cranking.

Again, I'm splitting up the process for consistency.
PBaholic
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Re: progressive press

Post by PBaholic »

Fyodor wrote:When you don't use a bullet feeder, I find the lockout die not necessary. You'll have to check every case anyway, when placing the bullet.
I actually can't see the powder level when I'm placing the bullet. I find this with 45 ACP, 38/357 and 45 Colt. I guess maybe I'm sitting to low.

My biggest issue used to be no powder rounds. You would get cranking away, not paying enough attention, and realize you've been out of powder for some time. That's enough to really ruin your day...
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Fyodor
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Re: progressive press

Post by Fyodor »

PBaholic wrote:realize you've been out of powder for some time
[/quote]

My process is to always refill primers and powder at the same time. Even with large capacity cartridges, primers are empty way before powder. So when I refill primers, I also top up the powder level.

I've beeng doing this since the beginning of my reloading career. Before I rolled my own, a friend made the ammo for me. And he brought me 8 boxes of ammo to one match, with three boxes being without powder. It was pure luck, that I used the "right" ones for the main match, but when I wanted to shoot some side matches, I cycled over one hundert rounds through my rifle without any one going bang. That was embarrassing and taught me a lesson.
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Ranch Dog
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Re: progressive press

Post by Ranch Dog »

Fyodor wrote:
PBaholic wrote:realize you've been out of powder for some time
My process is to always refill primers and powder at the same time. Even with large capacity cartridges, primers are empty way before powder. So when I refill primers, I also top up the powder level.
Very good measure and what I use. The exception, for me, would be if the bullet feeder dictates the reload sooner. If that feeder requires the reload, then powder and primers are reloaded at the same time.
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nagantino
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Re: progressive press

Post by nagantino »

The simple answer is that the Lee Pro 1000 is a simpler priming system. I note you spoke of finally getting the Loadmaster sorted.....don't worry it won't be long before it's not sorted. The Pro K does occasionally flip a primer or something, but once you find your slow, positive rythme, they Load all day. I did find a problem recently reloading .45. I could reload with no problems untill I had to change powder. Bullseye is no longer available in the U.K. So I changed to Vectan Ba9.5 which is very fine. The shudder of the press was letting powder into the primer pin causing problems. I hand primed for .45 which is surprisingly, a lot of fun. For 9mm, .357, and .38 Special I run a press for each calibres and I can deliver finished rounds with ease. The Loadmaster is an ill-designed product because of the priming system.
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