how much time is saved with a progressive press?

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So if you were not reloading what would you be doing otherwise? Placing a dollar amount on your time is fine assuming if you were not making ammunition you would be doing something else which actually paid you.

Can you load faster on a progressive press than a single stage? The answer is yes and with a good progressive, time and practice you can make ammunition faster. How much faster? Depends on you, the press and how proficient you are.

Do you enjoy reloading? Put a price on that. I reload because I enjoy it. Never saw it as work or something I could place a dollar amount on.

Me? Retired going on 8 years with plenty of time to do whatever I want, especially during winters. I never place a dollar amount on my time. Thinking about it even before I retired I never placed a dollar amount on my time.

Ron
 
I've loaded a lot of brass on a Lee "3-hole". All it is is a single stage with three positions that are manually rotated. Never could get the auto advance feature to work. Next up was a Lee Pro1000. Handles the brass A-OK but OH that priming situation. Next came a Lee Loadmaster. Another case of dreadful on press priming. It works but not without ISSUES. Finally, got a Dillon 550b. What a pleasure. Reliable, accurate, and gives a sense of completing a dependable round. But it is not THAT fast. Like others, I enjoy reloading and it is not a race. So the Dillon is my go to press. However, lately, I've been priming off press. With that usage the Lee Loadmaster is a SPEED Demon. With primed cases in the feeder I can really crank out some GOOD finished rounds. But I don't. I like the feel and reliabilty of the Dillon over the speed of the Loadmaster.
 
Having experience with a single-stage, a turret and a progressive - I can tell you that I would never go back to a single-stage.
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I'm on the opposite side of that coin. Having experience with a single-stage, a turret and a progressive - I can tell you that I went back to a single-stage, and sold my progressive.
 
I'm on the opposite side of that coin. Having experience with a single-stage, a turret and a progressive - I can tell you that I went back to a single-stage, and sold my progressive.
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Yep.
I traded my Dillon 550b for a check, a Remington 241, and some gun parts.

I only miss it when I want to load large quantities of certain high volume cartridges. The rest of the time, I'm happy with my single-stage and turret presses. And I still get the 'high volume' stuff done eventually.
 
kmw1954 said:
Estimating the value of my time at $XX.00 per hour I have still not been able to find anyone willing to pay me to reload! So I guess my true monetary value for this activity/endeavor is $00.00 per hour. I certainly am not going to pay myself a dollar wage.
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Same here. My time is so expensive that I can't afford myself, so I only reload in my spare time. ;)
 
For handgun you get a loaded round with every pull of the handle. It's a lot faster than loading single stage. I only load handgun ammo on my 550B so no lube, don't clean primer pockets, just load ammo. I still load rifle ammo on a Lyman Turret Press(single stage). If you really want to speed things up, the 750 with bullet and case feeder is the way to go. I think you could load 400 per hour without breaking a sweat with the 550 if you are in that big of a hurry. I usually load 2 or 3 hundred at a time. No way I'm going back to a single stage for my target loads. Set it up and load 500 or 1000 of one caliber, change the same for another caliber etc. It would be slower for rifle due to the case lube, cleaning primer pockets, cleaning off the lube etc but still faster than single stage.
 
Except for a brief period with a Lee Pro 1000 I loaded on a single state for almost forty years. Doing the brass in batches it worked out to 100 rounds per hour. Earlier this year I finally broke down and bought a Dillon 550C. Maintaining a leisurely pace I'm loading 300 rounds in an hour. I wish I had bought one 30 years ago.
 
My recommendation is always quality over quantity. Good solid process makes good reliable ammunition. And a progressive press means you finish one before starting another which is a hallmark of solid & reliable process. I have a 4 stage Lee progressive that I use to load up my rounds. I have a single stage Lee, but only ever use it for one step when I swage my own hollow point projectiles. And I have a Walnut Hill swage press - again, only used to make projectiles.
 
Can load 3k of 9mm in 2hrs 45 min on my 650, so it saves time for me.

Pretty impressive if true.

I can only manage 1100-rounds in that amount of time on my 750.
 
So I did end up getting a progressive press. Got lucky and scored a Hornady Lock-n-load. Just finished a batch of around 1000 9mm and I think I finally got thing running right and a reasonable rhythm going. It did take a bit of work and a little trial and error to get things set up, but now it s going smooth.

To help out whoever may come looking later, here are my times for comparison. no bullet or case feeder.

per 100
50-60min single stage, electric auto scale
45min single stage, with lee perfect powder measure
15min, progressive, Hornady lock-n-load.

Also placing a casing a bullet is a touch slower than I expected. If you had a case or bullet feeder I expect it would run a LOT faster.
 
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