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Three - Progressive Press
This is part of the About Hunting & Shooting online Reloading Course. Check my Ammo Loading Course Index for links to other existing articles, and be sure to bookmark it and check back there from time to time, since I'll be adding more as time goes by.
Hand
Press
Up to now, I've discussed only bench-mounted presses, but that's not the only
type of press available to loaders. Some of the earliest handloading tools available
to the general public were hand-held loading tools. Their portability makes
them attractive to folks who like to be able to load on the fly (such as at
the range), and they're fairly easy to use. Cost is usually less than a standard
press.
Hand presses, while convenient, sometimes make loading a bit of a pain, but that's the price you pay for portability, and some steps can actually be done faster with a hand press. I have a Lyman 310 tool, which I've used to load a couple hundred rounds of .222 Remington... it was my only reloading press at the time. It came with the dies I have now, but I did have to buy a priming die for the rimless .222 Remington.
What made me buy a "real" set of dies for .222? Well, the neck expander for my 310 tool is undersized, which makes bullets very hard to start. Couple that with a bullet seating die that doesn't support the case walls while seating the bullet, and you start getting deformed cases (the force of starting and seating the bullet causes the case to expand outward) which don't like to chamber in my rifle.
This
is Lee's Hand Press, which takes standard dies.
(Photo property
of Lee Precision Inc.)
This
is my Lyman 310 tool, with dies for .222 Remington.
(Photo by Russ Chastain, all rights reserved)
Since the 310 only neck-sizes the cases, rather than full-length sizing, I had thoughts of using the 310 for everything but bullet seating (neck-sizing is better for accuracy in most cases, and prolongs case life), but the neck expander button is just way too small, and seating always causes distortion of the case neck. I could probably size the necks with the 310 tool, then expand them with my RCBS die, but that's a pain in the rump -- or I could most likely get a properly-sized expander from Lyman. At any rate, I've retired the 310 tool for now.
Advantages
- Lower cost than even a standard single-stage press
- Easily portable
- Low maintenance - a good hand press should last at least as long as a good
single-stage press
Disadvantages
- Some take proprietary dies (such as the 310)
- Some models will not function as precisely as a conventional press
- May be hard to handle when loading larger cartridges due to greater force
required for sizing, etc.
Page One - Standard
Single-Stage
Press
Page Two - Turret-head
Single-Stage Press
Page Three - Progressive
Press
Russ Chastain
