I was at Bass Pro yesterday, I wanted some case lube and decided to browse the reloading section. I stumbled on a guy looking at a Hornady press kit and we talked for a while. He was getting it for his son as a present and was wondering if it was a good deal (he and his son had no experience in reloading). Since I am relatively new to reloading, only a couple of years and lots of discussions here and with a coworker who has been reloading for close to 40 years, it appears that he was comfortable with getting the single stage kit instead of the progressive next to it, I explained the difference between the two. I did stress that it is important to understand each step of the process and the single stage press helps develop that and minimizes the potential for a big oops.

As a side note I also let him know that now is not the optimum time to get into reloading as most everything is hard and expensive to get.

Good for you to give such advice. A single stage is far better for a beginner and one will never outgrow a single stage even if he advances to something more sophisticated. There is always a place for a single stage machine.

I started with a single-stage press, and the last round I ever load will probably be on that same Herter's Model 3 press.

I have a single-stage Lee that I have been using for about 8 years. It's been a great press. My Father recently upgraded to a Lyman turret press with all the bells and whistles, but I like my Lee and plan to keep using it.

Good advice though to the prospective buyer!

If they just now getting into reloading I suspect that press will sit collecting dust for quite some time since no primers can be found.

I used to think the ss press was the way to start, hell I started that way. Today though, we have better choices. A good turret press is almost twice as fast & can be used as a ss press to learn.
The other choice is a Dillon 550C. It can be used as a ss press too or more like an inverted turret. So I have no qualms about recommending a progressive for a new reloader that is loading mostly handgun ammo.

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