Upgrading to a progressive press

[futuretrades]

When loading either the 38's or the 357 magnums, I run each and every round thru 4 dies. I use a taper crimp die. I go thru a lot of 38 rounds every month and when I get a wild hair, I go thru quit a few magnums. So I have to pull the press handle 4 times for each round
Not being a novice reloader, I finally decided to upgrade to a progressive press for my revolver loads. 38 and 357. So I looked around for best price on a Lee Loadmaster. No problem, but what I did find is everyone I checked with, the press was on back order, and so were the Dillon's, Hornady's, and RCBS's! Seems like all the manufacture's are way behind in production , at least on the progressive presses. I did not check on single stage presses because I have my Forster coax press and I still have my Lee classic cast press that served me exceptionally well for a long time.
Looks like the shortages in the industry, are even affecting some of the tools we use as reloaders.

[Valar]

Dont feel like the lone stranger. Im in the same boat we all are. The current political mess has amo reloading tools and supplies cleaned out! Hopefully it will calm down soon and manufactures will catch up. I was going to get a progressive press for 45 and 380 as well I cant find one Midway had the lee on sale but when I scraped up the cash, out of stock! Good thing i have a decent supply of amo on the shelf.

[futuretrades]

I got lucky, and scored some H110 powder for my 357. The FFL guy I buy from uses this powder also, but not that much anymore, so he got into his 8lb jug of the stuff. He made a couple bucks and I got my powder. He also, grudgingly, went into his "hoard" of primers and sold me a thousand small pistol primers. I didn't really need them, but I will need to resupply sometime anyway.
The primers are PMC manufacture. Never used PMC primers before, but I do like their brass really well. Does anyone here have any experience with them? Any comments would be appreciated.

[Rick in Oregon]

Kevin - I went through the same thing a while back. I've been using my old semi-progressive Ponsess-Warren Metal-Matic for all my handguns since graduating from single-stage loading around 1982. Anyway, last year when I saw all this coming, I sprung for a Dillon RL-550B, and I've never looked back.

Even if they're B/O right now, get your order in now while you can before the backlog gets any longer. I'd also strongly suggest getting the Dillon dies.....I tried to use my old RCBS dies, but they're really not properly designed for progressive use. The Dillon dies have a unique, highly polished funnel opening on the bottom that never, ever binds or jams, and produces ammo as or more accurate than I ever loaded on my single-stage press.

My Dillon during a session of loading .45's with the H&G 200gr SWC:



I can easily crank out 500 rounds in an hour if I've got all my stuff on the bench, ready at hand. Also consider the EGW chamber guage, offered by Midway, Dillon and others. It's cut with actual chambering reamers, so you'll never have a ill-fitting round in the field if all your ammo was checked at home. Dillon also has customer service that rivals Leupold.....real humans answer and actually help you with whatever you need if problems or questions arise. Two thumbs up here.

[Bodei]

Just think if you could crank out Vartargs on that thing, the rats shore would be hurtin'!

[Rick in Oregon]

Just think if you could crank out Vartargs on that thing, the rats shore would be hurtin'!

Maybe, but my rat ammo gets loaded over the winter when I pay LOTS of attention to the little stuff and take my time with every step. A belt-fed weapon would be efficient for rats too, but what fun would that be?

(Back 'in the day', a long time ago, we used to go out into the open desert and shoot jacks on the run F/A with our select-fire XM177E2's.......the old 'Nam version of what is now the M4. Talk about a hoot! I just wish I had a Dillon back then for 5.56! )

[Bodei]

http://youtu.be/jaBpeTRL1QA

This should work on a kamikaze rat charge.

[Valar]

Dang I thought I had a wellstocked loading bench! Looks like you have the market cornered! Now I know who bought all the supplies up! Awsome !

[futuretrades]

Update for my quest on the progressive press; I cancelled my order on the Lee press. The same outfit that had the Lee on back order, surprisingly had a Dillon that I was considering, in stock, so I ordered the Dillon. Problem is now that they are so backlogged with orders , will be unable to ship to me for 6 to 8 weeks. Checked with Dillon direct; same problem
Will be laid up for a few weeks anyway, another procedure on my back, so I guess the wait won't seem so long

[Pmoper]

I managed to score on a used but not abused Dillon Square Deal with 9mm dies and .40/10mm dies that seems to fit my needs nicely...got lucky on this as many reloaders are going for more used than a new one would go for....Got mine for $225....shipped.....Now have to find components.......

[Sidewinderwa]

Dillon has excellent products and would be the one that I would get. I have a pistol champ from when I was competing. You can only use Dillon dies on the pistol champ. Lots of my cowboy shooting friends that reload for multiple people have the 550.