Progressive rifle reloads

[Dishonored]

Right now I load for .308 on a single stage press using a hornady auto charge.
I know you lose accuracy loading with a progressive press for rifle, my question is how much do you lose?
Are we saying a hand load on a single stage that has proved to shoot .6" moa groups will open up to 1.00" or much greater?
This is assuming all parts are quality and on taking into the process into account.
I am thinking about returning my single stage kit and ordering a Dillion or other quality press. If the difference isn't much I don't mind sacrificing a little for having one press that can do it all and quicker.
With work, class and trying to get a small business going I don't have as much time as I wanted. If I really ever wanted to go back to that thousandth precision a friend has a RCBS kit im sure he would not mind me using it.
Just trying to cut some corners but would like to know if these corners can be cut and still produce accurate ammunition for my rifle.
Thanks in advance

 

[Storm52]

Have you ever worked up a load, after trips to the range, tweaking the OAL-powder measurement-seating, using every bit of repetition control available and get it to shoot sub MOA consistantly? I very well could be wrong, but I'm not sure that can be repeated on a progressive. I wouldn't, even if I had capability to load rifle rounds on my Dillon SDB. 223 is a different animal in my opinion and can see the benefit of progressive. My 2¢

 

[Request Dust Off]

I would keep the single stage. If I only had one press it would be a single stage. Add the progressive when cost is a non issue.

That is not even taking accuracy into account. Powder & thrower would be a factor in any case. I you are going to weigh & trickle charges going progressive won't help.

You don't really gain that much speed on bottle neck rifle cases by simply going progressive. Case trimming is what you need to get solved to really gain any speed on bottleneck rifle cases.

That said I can roll some .223 through a 550 B. It takes 2 separate cycles but is still fast. 1st run sizes. Then I handle trimming & delubing. Then prime, charge & seat bullet. .308, .270 & .30-06 I just single stage them. I have a hand primer, 2 SS presses & 1 550B.

Options such as neck size only or an X die may help.

 

[Barney88PDC]

As states above. Where you are really going to lose consistency is in the powder charge. If you use a dispenser then the charge is going to fluctuate. If you dump the charge by hand you just lost the speed of a progressive and you should just stick with a single stage.

There my be better throwers than others and different powder types flake, stick will vary in consistency as well.

 

[mickey]

As states above. Where you are really going to lose consistency is in the powder charge. If you use a dispenser then the charge is going to fluctuate. If you dump the charge by hand you just lost the speed of a progressive and you should just stick with a single stage.

There my be better throwers than others and different powder types flake, stick will vary in consistency as well.

+1

 

[Dishonored]

Alright thanks. This is what I was looming for. I didn't know if the consistency would be a huge drop in accuracy but better than buying some surplus to shoot out of a semi. Then the prep work adds to the time but I also sit down and prep 100-150 cases at a time then do the priming another night and so forth.

 

[bakerman]

when I was shooting benchrest, I used my Dillon 650. Did all my case prep work ahead. As to powder charge, I would remove the powder system, weigh out each charge and just fill the case through the powder charge die manually. I found the Dillon excellent at being able to maintain the repeatability in tolerances I needed, as long as I did my part. Then in just a matter of few minutes, with the right accessories, I could be turning out 100's of rounds an hour of pistol rounds or loading up a bunch of .223 just to throw down range through my AR's

 

[45auto]

I load .308 for my 700PSS on my Dillon 650, using the Dillon powder measure. It consistently shoots .3" at 100 yards with the bullets .010" off the lands, unfortunately they're too long to load through the mag at that length.

 

[Ellis1958]

I don't have a single stage press. I do it all on a Dillon 550.

For all rifle I resize and decap at the first station. Then case prep. Here I split off into two modes. Mass quantity ball and precision loads.

For mass quantity ball I just run it like I'm doing pistol cartridges. The powder measure is a Redding 3BR and works light years better than the stock Dillon measure. Yeah I lose the auto feature of the powder drop but the increased consistency of the powder measure makes it worth it. This method produces 1.5 MOA .223 using Hornady 52 A-Max in a rack grade Armalite upper. Only case prep besides resizing is trim to length, chamfer and debur.

For precision loads I do all the usual case prep plus primer pocket uniforming, and flash hold deburing. I run the press much like the mass quantity method except at the powder charge station. Here I take the case out at the charging station, weigh each charge, fill, return to the charging station. Sub MOA out of that same rack grade Armalite using 69 SMK.

Myself I can't see where going to a single stage is going to significantly increase the accuracy of the ammo I produce.