Progressive automated press for long distance

[jwrowland77]

Huh? Works pretty well for me:

Worked pretty well for me as well.

 

[jwrowland77]

"...make sure to order in bulk..." But not until you have worked up a load.

The 'ladder test' tells you nothing about how accurate a particular load is out of your rifle. Only tells you how a particular load shoots in comparison to other loads.

One thing to remember is that the black on a standard NRA 600 yard target is 36" diameter with a 6" X ring. So one hole groups or even 1 MOA groups aren't that critical. Consistency is far more important.

Depends on what you shoot.

For me shooting F-Class FTR, I'm shooting at a 3" X-Ring, 6" 10-ring.

Ladder test have worked out fairly well for me. It's not to compare other loads, it's to find your barrels OBT aka accuracy node. Then you fine tune afterwards adjusting your OAL. I adjust based on base to ogive measurements on how far/close the ogive is to the lands.

 

[nhyrum]

I realize that a progressive press may not be super necessary for me, but saving time is definitely worth the few extra bucks, as I don't have a lot of down time. I also do plan on reloading 10mm when I get one.

Can someone link me to a set of decent dies for the 6.5 creedmoor? I don't really know what I'd need exactly

Also what practice targets do you use and where could I get some? A PDF of a target on 11x17 paper would be perfect to me as I can easily print a high resolution target on 11x17.

I may try to design something

 

[emcon5]

I realize that a progressive press may not be super necessary for me, but saving time is definitely worth the few extra bucks, as I don't have a lot of down time.

With a bolt rifle, you really won't save any time, not if accuracy is your goal. You just do each step in batches. My workflow:

Neck size/deprime with the press in the garage (one pass through the press)

In the living room, in front of the TV: Clean primer pockets, Prime with RCBS Hand primer. Every other loading, trim/chamfer

All the above can be done in advance. I normally have a big plastic tub full of primed ready to load cases.

Back in the garage to add the powder and seat the bullet.

You should clean the primer pockets after depriming, you can't do that on a progressive without stopping to take the case out. Trimming should come after sizing, and while that may be possible on a progressive with a really expensive auto trimmer (Dillon has one like this), it is not that practical for the comparatively small batches you load for a bolt gun.

If you FL size, you need to clean the lube off the cases.

For a straight walled pistol, a progressive is great (but the steps are the same, and you can still load prep/size/prime all your cases in advance).

For targets, this is my preference.

 

[nhyrum]

I am leaning more towards a single stage press now. It just seemed worth it to throw brass in one tub, primers in another and fill the powder "horn" throw a handle for a half hour and get 400 rounds out.

I was looking more for paper targets, but 100 bucks for the whole "long range" Steel target is a smokin deal