Re: Suggestions with first progressive
How many rounds a week will you be firing in practice?
A progressive can crank out rounds once they are set up and tuned up, but there is a learning curve too, and that all takes a lot of time and money, so unless you are shooting over 2k rounds a week a progressive is not really a big time saver.
Consider that here is the set up and maintenance time of the machine, and with the same level of quality and safety a progressive is only double what I can do on a single stage press, but crafting ammo is not where I am concerned about racing and being fast.
I'm more interested in loading high quality ammo, and I'm somewhat meticulous. I like to clean primer pockets at least every other loading. I don't like the priming systems on either single or progressive units and I prime on a separate dedicated unit...it's faster and easier.
I know that many progressive users think this extra step is a waste of time, but I also see a lot of jams and FTFs at matches from other competitors guns, and it seems to me that 90% of those are somehow ammo related.
Anyway, I like my progressives and they do save time for some tasks, so if you have the spare cash they are good tools to invest in, but for under 1000 rounds a week the time savings would not be a big deal to me.
If you do go progressive, I recommend to visually check the powder level in each round as a safety procedure.
TC