Stop The Presses! Guide

Stop the Presses! – A Guide to the various types of reloading presses.

So you’ve read through our “Getting Started” guide and have decided to take the plunge into the exciting world of reloading? Well welcome aboard! Let’s talk about presses.

Now, you’re not going to be reloading bullets with a hammer and some pliers so your first and biggest decision is what kind of press to get. There’s various manufacturers of reloading presses each with their own quirks and such. No matter what, they’re going to fall into one of the following categories:

 


Single Stage

This is, arguably, the most basic of the reloading presses. They’re usually either a hand press or they’re bolted down to a workbench. You attach a die and go through all your brass. Then pull that original die off and attach the next step. Then you go through all your brass again. Wash, rinse, repeat until you’ve got loaded bullets. It’s a slow process and it takes a lot of work. It’s also the cheapest way to get started. A lot of long time reloaders got started with a single stage press and a lot of people won’t use anything else. If you get cracking, get the hang of things and get a good rhythm going, you can expect around 75 rounds an hour with single stage presses.


Turret

Glue a whole bunch of single stage presses together and you’ll have a turret press. The way it works is you put a single casing into a shell holder. Every time you pull the handle on the press, it will complete a stage of the process. It sets the primer, shapes the casing, drops the powder and then seats and/or crimps the bullet. The important detail here is that the casing stays in one spot and all the dies move. On average, you can reload about 100-200 cartridges an hour with a turret press, depending on the press and how you prep your parts.


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Progressive

This is the mamma jamma. You might as well refer to a progressive press as a bullet factory. We’re talking 300-600 an hour here! In this case, the dies and powder measure stay in one place and the bullet casings move. It’s a subtle difference between the progressive and the turret but it makes a huge difference. Instead of just working on one casing at a time, the progressive press works on multiple ones. That increases efficiency significantly. Believe it or not, however, the progressive press is the harder of the three to reload with in that you have to be keeping an eye on multiple things as you go along. We’ll talk a bit more about that in a moment. I should also note that progressive presses are the most expensive of the three styles.


A Quick Myth

Now, there seems to be this overall idea that you should always start with a single stage no matter what and there seems to be two common reasons:

  1. If you decide you don’t like reloading you won’t be out as much money.
  2. You won’t have an appreciation/foundation for how the process works if you go with a turret or progressive first.

I can see the logic with number one. Reloading does require a not-insignificant initial investment. Some people might just jump in feet first with little actual research ahead of time then decide it’s too much work. Others might not like the repetitive tedium of the process. The bright side is, for every person giving up on reloading, there’s a dozen wanting to start and they’d be more than happy to buy that equipment from you. Often times for close to the same amount you paid for it (provided you didn’t beat on it with a hammer before deciding to sell).

Heck, in today’s market, you might be able to sell it for more than you paid (even if you did beat it with a hammer). Point two, however, just doesn’t jive with me. That’s kind of like saying “well, unless you start programming with COBOL, you’ll never understand C++” or “unless you start with a kazoo, you’ll never be able to appreciate the flute”. When you’re looking at reloading, each different style of press is a lateral movement. No matter which one you choose, the foundations are going to be the same. Not only that but there will be different quirks and requirements for each style. The things you’ll have to pay attention to with a single stage will be completely different than the things you’ll need to pay attention to with a progressive. Ultimately, your speed and quality of work will increase as you get more experience with it regardless of which you choose.


A word, however, on starting with a progressive press…

Ok, with one hand, start juggling (or learning to juggle). With your other hand, tie your shoe. With your free foot (the one that isn’t getting its shoe tied), keep rhythm with the song “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5. Do all this while trying to keep track of a mosquito that’s been released in your house. If you can handle all that with no worries then Congratulations! You’ll have no problem using a progressive press.


Admittedly, that might be a slight exaggeration…

It’s time to be honest with yourself here: How good are you at multitasking? Here is what you’ll be doing in order to use a progressive press to its fullest extent:

  • Keep an eye on the casings to make sure they’re oriented correctly
  • Keep your eye on the primers
  • Make sure you use the correct force to seat the primers
  • Make sure there’s powder in the casing
  • Keep an eye on the flow of powder from the hopper
  • Place the bullet into the cartridge to be crimped
  • Keep the exit ramp clear so finished casings don’t get smashed

It’s a lot to keep in mind and you have to do all of that quickly with every pull of the lever. Granted, you can always work at your own pace but the idea of a progressive is to churn out ammo as quickly as possible. It’s kind of like learning to play the drums. You don’t just sit down at the kit and expect to sound like Keith Moon. With practice, however, you can master those tasks and turn into an ammo making machine!

If you don’t want to dedicate that much time or effort to reloading, then you can still do just fine with a single stage or turret press. Nothing wrong with that choice at all.


A Cartridge By Any Other Name…

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what press you choose. If you do your part right, a cartridge from a single stage press is going to be indistinguishable from a cartridge made on a progressive press. The different options really come down to one thing and one thing only: volume. If you take two experienced reloaders, one with a progressive and one with a single stage, and put them in a head to head race to 1000 loads, the progressive loader will win the race every time. It’s simple numbers. The question really comes down to how much ammo do you want to reload at a time and how long do you want to spend doing it.