Progressive press worth it?

[Camo]

Been shooting more lately. Reloading 223 mainly and 300 blackout, always used a rubs single stage so everything I own is green.

Considering upgrading to a multistage unit and start reloading 9mm as well, only other caliber I reload is 308.

Anyhow is a progressive press worth the investment?

 

[dennishoddy]

Been shooting more lately. Reloading 223 mainly and 300 blackout, always used a rcbs single stage so everything I own is green.

Considering upgrading to a multistage unit and start reloading 9mm as well, only other caliber I reload is 308.

Anyhow is a progressive press worth the investment?

One has to shoot a ton of ammo to justify a progressive, but if one is flush with some cash I think it's a pretty good investment especially if you're getting into volume pistol shooting like competitions.
Straight walled cartridges are a breeze to run through a progressive, but the bottle neck cartridges as you well know from a single stage take a lot of prep to resize, deburr, de-prime and so on before getting into the press.
Shot a ton of .223 through the AR in matches over the years, so I would take a week every evening to prep a thousand cases and a few hours to run them through the progressive.
Then a couple minutes to expend them all.
Amazing how that works! LOL.

 

[XYZ]

Keep an eye out for a used one.

I picked up a couple for a great price.


Economics are purely based on volume of shooting. Prices have definitely increased over the past 5 or so years. So jumping into in buying new stuff can get pricey.

 

[Hooper]

You can always finance a Dillon as low as $28.95 a month on up to $60.00 plus.
Load 4-800 rounds an hour.

I have a Lee single stage cost me $140 new. $30 to $40 spent on dies per set. Plus resizers and stuff.
Have loaded thousands of rounds different calibers rifle and pistol.
I move like a turtle probably 100 rounds an hour at top speed, not counting case prep time.
I would be like a Chicken with a fox in the hen house trying to run a progressive press.

All that said, you can always set up multiple presses for each step, to cut down adjusting after every step, which for me seems pretty economical. In fact I have two presses, but just use one. For me Powder measuring seems to take the most time, of course it is one very critical step. Speed might cause a problem in that area.

I don't shoot every day so I always have rounds ready to go. I can shoot 4-500 rounds at times on a day out.
I can see if a fellow shoots an AR and a pistol a few times a week where you might need a speedier process for reloading.