I would like to hear from any of you that might have any experience loading precision ammo (sub 1 inch varmint) on a progressive press. I have a Hornady progressive which works great for pistol ammo. It is time for me to load my p-dog ammo, approx. 1200 rounds, 223 and 204. All of my brass prep, sizing and cleaning etc. is done on a single stage. I have always batch loaded this ammo on a single stage or T7 press. I would like to prime and load on the progressive as I think it would be faster. I know a lot of people load AR ammo on a progressive but I am loading for heavy barrel bolt action varmint rifles. Is it possible to produce precision rifle ammo on a progressive press????

I load sub moa ammo, for my 20" hvy AR, on my 550B, I would think the LNL is up to it as well. The whole runout thing is over done IMO. My buddy just ran a test on his Savage F class rifle in 308. Getting runout near perfect was more accurate, but barely measureable in group size.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I guess if you do the brass prep separately then use a powder the meters nicely like H335 you should be fine.


As a side note, we had a reloading party a couple weekends ago at my shop, a buddy brought his Lee 30-06 dies with the little yellow scooper, we weighed some charges poured from the scooper end they went from 45-49 grains using IMR4895 ouch! but Lee does claim its totally safe which it probably is since 49gr was the maximum. The never claim its an accurate way to reload though. At any rate, I am sure you could cook up some accurate loads on a progressive especially if you have some easy going rifles.

The problem with dippers, it's 75% technique to get uniformity. Manual measures are a little better, but still need uniform technique. Progressives better still as the machine sort of sets the technique.
I get good results in my 550 w/ short cut stick like varget, but better w/ ball powders like aa2520.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I have loaded a lot of ammo on the Dillon 550. In .223 if you are doing case prep such as resizing and trimming with a separate press and then feed processed brass to the Dillon A lot of precision ammo can be cranked out quickly. I also have a T7 and a coax. I cant shoot the difference in between the presses for .223.

Once you find a powder your gun likes and meters well like Ram Shot tac its easy.

__________________
The American dream is alive

H335 is what I use, fortunately I have a good supply now.

What is the problem with your LnL Hornady Progressive?? I've got the LnL, as well, and haven't experienced any problems what-so -ever with it loading sub-MOA ammunition.

The problem I find with loading sub-MOA cartridges is finding the right components!!!! when you know you have a rifle capable of that accuracy - not the press.

I purchased the BR LnL powder measure and I haven't found it to be any more accurate than the standard with the standard rifle drum installed - but your mileage may vary. When throwing some stick powders you'll get +/- 0.03 but I haven't found that to be critical in any sub-MOA loading I've done. I'm sure you know that you need a very sturdy bench for that LnL powder measure to throw spot-on charges, as a non-rock steady bench will cause one to throw inconsistent charges.

If you prep your cases on a single stage, you can load a bunch in a hurry but you can - if you want - just do everything for a 223 or 30 caliber round using a die with a carbide resize button so you don't need to lube inside the neck (if you do that) and everything will run smooth and then you just take the finished round and tumble them for 20 minutes removing the case lube and you're good to go.

Nothing is wrong with my LNL and all of my varmint rifles shoot sub MOA with the loads I make. I've been reloading on a single stage for 40 years. I acquired the LNL recently mostly for loading handgun ammo. But I have read numerous times in various forums that precision rifle ammo needs to be loaded on a single stage ????? Since I have a lot of p-dog ammo to load (an annual task) I was wondering what would be the problem with loading it (all small cal.) on the the LNL ? As long as you use a good press, dies, components and technique I would think there should be no/little difference?? ( I am not talking benchrest ammo) That's why I am interested in hearing those who have actual experience to prove whether it can be done. From what I have read in the above posts so far, it sounds like there should be no problem. This forum is a great resource.

You'll find the LnL an excellent progressive to load those prairie dog cartridges with and if you're going to use H335 you'll find that powder measure will throw spot-on charges.

If for any reason the powder measure doesn't throw charges right on the money with the H335 - and you have a rock solid loading bench - you might want to consider coating the powder measure and rotor/cylinder with graphite. I doubt you'll have to do that, but sometimes it will smoothen things up for better consistent throws.

I also load 308 & 30-06 on the LnL and with VV powder I still get spot-on powder throws from my LnL and the ammo made can shoot sub-MOA in one of my bench 308 rifles. My BAR '06 isn't capable of shooting sub-MOA but the ammo is and I can load a boat load of ammo for any caliber in a week-end and that's the advantage of the progressive IMO and accuracy is the same as using a single stage and hand weighing charges.

Good luck with those dogs next spring.

I loaded 20,000 or so 223 Rem on a Dillon 450 with the push powder drop and push priming in the mid 80's. I thought it was only so-so ammo as I was shooting a Mini-14 and accuracy was about 4" at 100 yards. A friend has a Cooper 21 in 223 and tried some out and was getting 1 hole groups. I have about 6000 rounds left and get tiny little groups with this ammo in my Cooper 21 and about 3/8" 100 yard groups from my stock pre 2nd ban Bushmaster AR-15 A4.

The powder is ball WW 748 (quite like H335), primers are CCI (can't remember reg or mag) but not BR, Mixed mil brass, and Winchester Mil surplus 55 gr FMJ BT (left over when the Army went to 62 grain steel core.) Brass was deprimed and pocket swadged before run through the Dillon, using RCBS small base die and a spray lube for sizing.

When I load with extruded powder I weigh every charge for my Varget loads in 223 and 308. Hope this helped. Ivan

Depends on what "precision" means. Since you say you're not talking benchrest, the Hornady should certainly do fine.

The press inherently produces highly concentric ammo within the parameters of your components. The PM should dispense H335 very consistently minimizing the biggest problem.

The only problem you might face is OAL variation of a few thousandths that can occur when seating bullets with versus without a cartridge in the resizer. A few measurements at the beginning and end of a run would allow you to correct any differences, if they are significant enough to bother you.

The CH 444.

You right. Always scoop in the same depth and action. I can get +/- a grain with a scoop of 4895 but if your sideways shake technique won't work, try striking off the overage with a card for best accuracy with scoops. Manual measures can be knocked a couple of times (consistently every time) for the chamber fill phase. I'm pretty good with manual charging because I am cheap.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I competed in Benchrest for several years. The most important thing I leaned was really good benchrest shooting techniques. I was faced with loading 1,000 rds. each for 3 custom rifles I was to take on a once-in-a-lifetime prairie dog hunt. All were HB Rem 700s. A Rem. 223, a 22-250 and a 250 Ackley Improved Savage. The first two were 1/2 moa rifles and the Ackley is a 1/4 moa. I had a Dillon 550 and a Dillon 550b on my reloading bench. As a middling machinist I had my suspicions about the 'repeatability' of the tool mount design on the 550b. I made up a batch of the three cartridges on each of the Dillons. I went to the range on a couple of early morns for minimal wind and did my testing. The ammo loaded on the fixed tool position 550 was more accurate across the board than the same load and components loaded on the removable tool mount 550b. As I remember, the lesser accurate ammo would have been 'good enough' for the average prairie dog hunt, but I wanted the 'best' possible. I just didn't want to handload 3,000 rds. of match ammo using the RCBS Rock Chucker. I did the loading with the Dillon 550 and went on to have one of the best P.Dog hunt/vacations I have ever had. When I quit competing in USPSA and IDPA, I sold the Dillon 550b.

Back when I was active in Benchrest Competition, Dillon sponsored a competitor who loaded his benchrest ammo using a Dillon 550. He did fairly well as I remember. There was another competitor who used the largest Hollywood press for his match loads. I don't recall how well he did.

I now have a Redding T-7 Turret Press that looks very sturdy to me. I have been meaning to set up an experiment checking potential accuracy of the 6PPC cartridge as loaded on the T-7 vs. the usual hand load method. I still own a Stolle Panda Benchrest rifle and enough new 6PPC brass to do both. But, other projects keep getting in the way of that one. ........ Big Cholla

I load all rifle on my Dillon 450 converted to a 550.
Jacketed 223, 308 cast bullets, 7.65 arg, and 30.06.

Its a fine machine.
For me and the way I shoot its great.

^^^^^^ What he said. ^^^^^^

YESyou can load deadly accurate prairie dog ammo on a Dillon. I do every year.

__________________
S&WHF 366

David Tubb uses/used a progressive (550 Dillon) for his eleven NRA High Power Rifle Championship wins at Camp Perry.
I would say that counts for something.

I have no problems loading 1/4 minute of angle ammo with one.

I have not experienced as accurate of a load comparing my progressive's to my T-7. Maybe due to using stick powder which measures better with the Redding measure and less movement of the mounted T-7 compared to the progressives (LnL-AP and RL550B). I really wanted the progressives to load as good or better even with ball powder but it has not worked out that way.