I am a beginner at this and getting ready to buy some stuff. My main purpose is to be able to dial in some really accurate hunting loads for hunting with my 7-08 and lots of accurate pistol rounds as well, I do hope to own a long action magnum round as well some day. Am I destined to multiple presses for this a progressive for the many pistol rounds and a single stage for the really accurate loading. Or can one of the progressives do it all, quantity, extreme accuracy from pistol to long action magnum?

as a beginner what you don't need is to go out and buy a progressive. yes they can do stuff, but get some experience under your belt 1st. you can load your pistol rounds one at a time too. eventually if you keep reloading you'll end up with a whole bunch of things to clutter up your reloading bench

quote:

yes they can do stuff, but get some experience under your belt 1st. you can load your pistol rounds one at a time too.

+1 I would not use a progrssive for accurate rifle ammo. I've loaded pistol rounds for over 35 years with a single stage press. With a hand auto primer and then sticking the brass in a tray and using a powder thrower you can still load a lot of pistol ammo in a hurry.

quote:

Originally posted by m_walker:
...My main purpose is to be able to dial in some really accurate hunting loads for hunting with my 7-08 and lots of accurate pistol rounds as well, ...

+2 on the above advice.

Once you learn the fundamentals, then you can consider a nice Progressive. The same Pistol/Revolver Dies you will use in the Single Stage Press will work in the Progressive Press "if" you decide you need/want one. So, you will not spent money on Dies that will need to be re-purchased to work in a Progressive later on.

How many Cartridges do you normally shoot, or plan to shoot, in a month?

Welcome Aboard and the best of luck to you.

+3

A newbie has enough new stull to learn without all the hassles of assembly and tweaking a progressive, or even a turret. And everyone needs a good single stage press even IF they eventually get a progressive anyway.

Everybody is going to concur on this. I'm relatively new and load mostly rifle cartridges. I don't shoot enough pistol ammunition to make a progressive worth it's money at this point. If that changes in the future, I'll consider one then. I get very good consistency from my Forster Co-Ax press loading for 257 Wby, 30-06 and 338-378 Wby. When I bought my setup I did want the Co-Ax and I bought the RCBS Advanced RC Supreme Master Reloading kit which contained the RCBS Rockcrusher Supreme press as well. I can have one setup for one cartridge and the other setup of another. Neither of them take long at all to change over to another cartridge.

Start with a single stage and get that experience under your belt first .

Ken....

To be honest, I haven't noticed a big difference in accuracy between my single stage and measuring each load as opposed to loading on my dillion 550B, which is why I now just use the dillion.

I can also use the dillion as a single stage, which is what I do when I neck or full length resize the brass.

I suppose you can start out like the rest of us and spend a bunch of money on things you won't use later as you learn, but since you are a pistol shooter, I would consider jumping in and getting a progessive that can do both things.

Is their anyone around you that already has this experince? It would save you a bunch of time and money.

Start off with a Lee classic turret press--remove the auto indexing linkage and go for it. It could be the only press you'll need for hunting and plinking loads. It's also a fair compromise between a progressive and a single stage press, without the unwanted flex that other turret presses have.

You're exploring the extremes in your handloading/equipment aspirations. I would suggest your considering what your anticipated process in terms of volume, case prep, and preciseness in results will be. Then you will be better able to determine your equipment needs. The powder dispensing requirement will be a major determinant in the formulation of your reloading process.

You may need to contact the progressive press mfrs to learn if their equipment will accommodate the long-action magnums.

If you cannot easily pre-determine your needs, initially providing flexibility in your process will be economically beneficial.

I began reloading just s few months ago, with a hornady LNL progressive. I was loading just 308s at first but have moved on to do every round I shoot. If I could go back a few months, I would have bought a single stage instead. It's slower, but with a progressive there are about 20 things that can go wrong every time you pull the handle, and you're very likely to duplicate the mistake many times. It's just too much to watch for when you're starting out. With my rifle rounds, I'm moving more and more away from the progressive functions, I'm now decapping, sizing, and priming serperately, then powder droping/seating in one run.

Pistol rounds I do more as intended with the progressive, but I still prefer to hand-prime.

Trying to do it all in one pass led me to a lot of frustration, I started shooting a lot less for a while because I was frustrated with the reloading. After a while I'm sure you get better, and can automate a bit more, but I'd keep it simple at first.

A lot of good advice here. Pay attention to it.

But to answer your question as to the ability of a progressive press to load quality accurate ammo.
Yes they can load very accurate ammo. Not bench rest accuracy. But you can produce ammo that will shoot better than most people are able to. Producing ammo that is easily able to group at or under 1 inch @ 100yds even 1/2 inch @ 100 yds is very doable with a progressive press. As alluded to above, by several posters, a progressive loader is finicky to get adjusted. There are numerous reloading actions going on at the same time.
In setting up the press you need to be patient and as finicky as the press is. You also need to have a very good understanding of the whats and whys of all operations that are happening all at once. That is why every one is suggesting you gain experience loading single stage first. But with care and good equipment loading accurate ammo on a progressive press is quite possible.

muck

quote:

Originally posted by m_walker:
I am a beginner at this and getting ready to buy some stuff. My main purpose is to be able to dial in some really accurate hunting loads for hunting with my 7-08 and lots of accurate pistol rounds as well, I do hope to own a long action magnum round as well some day. Am I destined to multiple presses for this a progressive for the many pistol rounds and a single stage for the really accurate loading. Or can one of the progressives do it all, quantity, extreme accuracy from pistol to long action magnum?

You need to learn a lot about handloading. No one can answer the questions you are asking as to what will be best for you. Read the manuals. Get curious about the capabilities of equipment to produce results to specific requirements, and you need to know what those requirements are. When you have learned most of the nuances of handloading, then you will have most of the answers to the questions you are asking. Until that time, you are better off getting involved at a less complex level.

If you want recommendations for equipment, I offer the following (others will disagree):

PRESS: Redding Big Boss
POWDER MEASURE: RCBS ChargeMaster Combo
DIES: Redding Match Set or Forster FL set
CASE TRIMMER: Wilson
DIAL CALIPER: economical
OTHER STUFF: learn enough to make a choice

Others will disagree.

If I may make a suggestion, a very strong single stage press capable of swaging and reforming brass might be a good place to start. Then later, that same press would still have its uses as a swaging or reforming press.