Which Progressive Press to buy and why?

[dmar]

Skip, I agree with your 'need' assessment. I fall into your case #1 category. I've got two little ones, which means I don't have much time to reload these days. My progressive has given me the ability to crank out quality ammo quickly, and get back to hanging with the family. It's really a time management thing. How much is your time worth?

Love being able to make a bunch of ammo fast. Today was a great example, I spent about 40 minutes and ended up with around 350/400 rounds of 9mm. This finished me up with 9mm for now (got about 1k made up...), so I'll switch over to .45 tomorrow, and spend an hour/hour and a half, and probably have 600+ rounds done. And, this is not "rushing" things, either, I'm very careful as I go. Works for me...

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Well, I thought my turret press would be enough but now that 2 of my sons are actively shooting and I'm loading for a lot of rifle calibers now my reloading time is now extending more than I want it to.

I can safely load 180-200 rounds of handgun ammo per hour on my turret press but now that I need ~800 rounds a week it's getting hard to keep up. I'm also having a hard time keeping up with my .223 ammo which also takes hours a week. Add the 30-06, 30-30, 45-70 and a few more, well you get the idea...

I'm a little surprised the RCBS Pro2000 has gotten only 4 votes. I was taking a hard look at that press. It looks more solid that any of the others and it's easy to change everything on it! The die plate changes in seconds and the primer change is a snap. Watch the youtube video and let me know if it changes anyone's mind... RCBS Pro 2000 Auto Index Progressive Press - YouTube

 

[RIKMAN]

I have two 550B's one in large primer for 45acp & 44 Spl the other small primer for 38Spl. When I load it's not a race & if I think I screw something up just stop & pull pins take out charged case & dump powder and start over.


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[Hammerdown77]

My opinion. If you load many different calibers, and typically crank out couple hundred of each (or even as little as 50), then change out to another caliber, you should buy the 550B

If you are one who wants to sit and crank out 2000 rounds of one caliber in a session, before changing over to something else, buy a 650 or a LNL.

IF you buy a 650 or LNL, you should buy the case feeder. There's no point in having a fully auto indexing progressive without a case feeder. Otherwise, you should just buy the 550B

I've said this before, but the real speed difference to me between the 550B and 650 is not having to index the shell plate manually on the 550B; rather, it's having to take your hand off the handle and insert a case, which you'd have to do on both if you didn't have a case feeder. Previously the 650 was the only one between the two that could use a case feeder, and that's really where you picked up the extra rounds/minute. Now, you can get a case feeder for the 550B, so the speed gap between the two is drastically reduced.