Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Progressive or Single Stage

Hey guys, am leaning toward a single stage press (probably forester co-ax but have not ruled out redding ultra mag). I am not concerned about producing quantity, but extreme quality reloads. I have been under the impression the single stage is the only way to go for precision. However, a good friend of mine reloads for his .308 on a Dillon 650 Progressive and swears it is the only way to go, laughs and scoffs when i talk about purchasing a single stage. am i off track, should i consider a progressive (oh by the way, will be reloading for 300 Rem Ultra, 7 Rem Mag, 25-06, and .223). Your advice would be appreciated. thanks, butterball

I like the single stage for my style of reloading rifle cartiges. I load for consistancy and i like the single stage for that.

For precision, and full control with checks, I much prefer the single stage system. I like to check, and verify, each primers seating depth, for instance. Your friend's loads with the .308 are not indicative of the system. I load .308, and get an average of just under .5 MOA. I use cheap, mil-surp. Midway cases. I must full lenth size, not neck size them. Since I use ball powder, I don't bother to weigh the charges. I do this this way because it is faster, and gives me what I want, or need. But I really should use better brass, experiment with seating depths, neck size, and weigh my powder charges. I do trim my brass. And I use high quality bullets. It's your call. E

Butterball:<BR> I agree with your friend with the Dillon 650. I too was a "singe-stager" until wife bought me an RL-550B for X-mas a couple of years back. EXCELLENT press, EXTREMELY accurate. Will load with any single stage press around--EXCEPT, hell man, if you are shooting 1000 yard competition, you better check a helluva lot more than just powder charges etc as there are more variables involved at that point. I have found my Dillon rounds rival ANY single stage rounds and you can load MUCH faster and have more fun. It is more complicated to setup for a round so make sure you study the manual (RTFM) but if you have ANY problems with operating it, with ONE call to Dillon they can usually straighten it out.

Go with the single stage, both for sccuracy, ease of switching calibers, and cost.<P>THEN, after learning what does what and how and why you should do it, if you find that you need volumes of a certain caliber you might go to a progressive, but you will always need a single stage press.<P>As far as extreme accuracy goes, no serious benchrest shooter uses a progressive to my knowledge, for his BR rounds, of course.<P>This is not to knock a Dillon or whatever, just for starters use a single. My problem these days is finding the time to shoot what I can load, not the other way around, worse luck.

Get the single stage, because it sounds like you plan on loading smaller batches. If you are loading in groups numbering in the 10's, then the single stage it for you, if you are going to be loading in batches of hundreds, then consider the progressive.