Anybody made the jump to a progressive press for reloading precision centerfire rifle ammo?

I’ve heard the progressives have gotten awful good???

Found a smoking deal on a Dillon. All my reloading as of now is single stage for precision centerfire rifle. But that could change with a good progressive press.

If i could make it faster id just shot it faster.... lol

I started using my 550 when the linkage on my old Lee single stage broke. Its all been accurate but I had not been shooting for extreme accuracy since then but do get sub moa groups and thats good enough im not chasing .25 groups these days and not sure if I could shoot them anymore anyway. I still weigh and tricked the charges for more accurate ammo. Its still much faster than a single stage.

I had planed on geting another single stage but don't see the point at this time

well sort of

technically that is my sons press

he has a Dillon 750 xl and loads 223 and 308 there was a mod that involved a thrust bearing to take up some space and make the carrousel go around smoother and flatter.

I load on a turret my 308 and 30-06 on my bench they both work fine

now I just buy him primers and projectiles and let him turn me out 9mm on the dillon

Know most of them f-class sub MOA @ 1000yd types are running. Dillon 750's now days , most with auto drives. Just push a button and go . Don't think you could really get anything too bad from something with the quality of a Dillion

Closet I got is my lil lee turret I'm using more and more

Interesting. I got a 550 for most of my stuff that I punch out in bulk, and a Rock Chucker for my CF bolt actions which I want to be more accurate.
I’ll have to try some 308 loads through the 550.

To go from trickler to auto drop is therapy involved?

There is a lot of used tools for sale these days.

Wolfdog what at you using for a auto drop?

Charge master light is what I use for everything, never really got over a issue I had with a traditional powder measure and some.bad loads so everything gets measured on the charge master

Why would it be any different in quality of load?

The only reason I have ever used a single stage was for loading for a specific gun reusing the same cases.

Because of it throwing the powder instead of weighing it. Now some people use a progressive press but don't have the powder throw attached and pour a measured powder charge down the powder thru expander die every rotation, in that case it should be the same, but you are also slowing down the process and defeating half the purpose of a progressive press.

I've used a progressive for some pistol rounds, but never for rifle. But I used to throw charges through a powder measure and then weigh them on a beam scale, before I bought an electric powder measure like Wolfdog pictures. From my experience of years of that, it probably depends on the powder, some powders will throw to a tenth or twentieth of a grain every time, others not so much.

Progressives ( mainly the lower cost ones ) have more moving parts and slack that means generally looser tolerances and less control which in reloading usually equals inconsistent loads . Not to mention powder measers can be finicky.

Now if you do the deal where you find a load that has a wide node .. meaning you don't get much velocity or precision loss between say 45.6-45.8 grains of power or 1.750-1.755 in length the. You can definitely get perfect ammo from a progressive and a auto power drop just because all that's within that loser tolerance.

But if you have a really finicky load where you can't be off my much at all then yeah a cheaper progressive won't do wall for you.

But that being said a lot of these guys using dillions and stuff for precision ammo are also shooting them in $5-10k guns that a 1" group at 100yd would constitute a barrel change and building ammo with components that just pain work so they have alot more room for errors since there rigs aren't as picky..kinda

Alot of it has to do with how accurate you and your gun can shoot and what kind of precision you are expecting. Theres a difference between loading for moa ammo and half moa ammo or smaller. To consistently shot below 1/2 moa you have less room for deviation.

The only deviation I can see is powder measurement accuracy.

I set up multiple single stage presses for my #1 in 22250 long ago. The presses are dedicated to that gun. A lot of time went into setting them up. They have never been removed from the presses.
The cartridge that is produced will only work in that rifle.
Same load. Some case. Same primer. Same powder. Same lube. Save approx temperature/time of the year for loading
The gun is a demon.

I believe that I could pull the dies, spend the countless hours recalibrating into my Dillon and receive very close if not the same accuracy.
The power feed available for Dillon’s stuff is petty good but would be the weak link.

I guess in conclusion….. why would you want to go progressive for something that is not intended for plinking?
if you have the space, buy more singles and set them up semi progressive…..

There is more to accurately then the machine.

In the progressive,
How do you know the overall case length
is in safe tolerance after sizing? A no-go thingy inline?

Can't help it, I been studying new trimmers.

I guess it depends on how much precision your chasing , at best on a 550 or 750 I own both is 1/2 moa at best but usually around 3/4 moa and that’s with my son shooting and he shoots well. With a single stage I get much better results, for 5.56 I use my 550 for pistol the 750.

there are a variety of case trimming options I have the little crow on a drill press

the thing with rifle is it isn't fully progressive typically , you basically have to decap , clean size and trim , then you can load progressivly

there are on press trimmer , they tend to need a vacuum running to keep the little brass shavings out of other sensitive places

then you start talking annealing also

so on rifle vs pistol you end up getting into a bunch of brass prep



I would say most people who reload on say a Dillon 750xl for rifle , they probably had it for pistol first and did a few upgrades to be able to make their rifle ammo on it also.
or they are very high volume rifle shooters like 3 gun competitors or possibly PRS guys

"the thing with rifle is it isn't fully progressive"
That answers that thanks Pete.

As far as indexing from shoulder
for case trim length, I'm not going that way.
I have comparators and understand the
concept. What I do not like is adding more
stacked tolerance, and the cost for multiple cals.

Thats the kind of info I want to hear.

Thanks

After stewing on it a day,
maybe indexing from shoulder
is a good thing.
If I could just get it to trim, debur, chamfer,
neck turn, and skin for me.

Pretty good articles on the trimmer
Pete mentioned,
World's Finest Trimmer, by LaFevers.