Help me. I am in limbo between hornady l n l and the Lee loadmaster. Lee is much less expensive. I will do mainly .308 win and .38//357, but occasionally 30-06 maybe

Hornady. The bushing system is nice.


What kind of precision do you need out of your 308? The quick powder measure do not do as well as the single stage throwers

I like good accuracy in my gap-10. Are you saying it will diminish greatly on a progressive? That saddens me and defets my purpose. This single stage over the last five years takes forever!

It depends on what powder and and powder system. if you are going out to 1k with a 308 than it could matter. If you are talking 100-200 not as much.

What powder do you use?


I load all rifle on single stage and pistol on progressive

I'd say it matters whether you are using spherical or extruded powders. Spherical on a progressive, okay. Extruded? Forget it.

Fwiw, ive loaded quite a bit of match grade ammo for my 260, 223, 243, and 308 on a dillon 550 and 650. Ive used ball and extruded. I put charge weights against a rcbs 1010, and it was very very accurate. Havent tried the hornady, but here great things. Needless to say ive havent had a problem with a dillon progressive getting to a 1k with the ammo its always me.

I use varget

I've always wondered why I have never been able to get a UniFlow, or any other measure, to drop consistent charges of something like 4198 or 4064. Benchmark or sphericals, no sweat. Pistol and shotgun flake powders have always been easy too.

When you checked on a 1010, Jorge, what kind of variations did you get? When I see one or even two tenths of a grain variation, I call it unacceptable. I have tried a number of different measures over the years and not one of them could drop 58.5 grains of H4831SC consistently enough to suit me.

Had a Lee. Sent it back to midway. Get a Dillon or Hornady and you'll be happy.

Dillon.

Dillon have a 650 and a SD love both.
Dk

Dillon does offer a solid product. I use the 650. The only thing I'm not thrilled about, is the auto indexing can be a bit rough causing powder to be slung out of the cases if you move to fast. The other gotcha is setting up a tool head and powder throw for each caliber you will load for. if you do it right and have a dedicated setup for each caliber, it will run you close to $300 per caliber. Still, once you have your setup dialedin, there is nothing like pulling the handle and dropping a finished round in the bucket.

DX

well i cant afford a dillon...

Dillion is nice but full caliber change kits are expensive, but fast

leaning towards hornady

You'll be fine with Hornady equipment. And as a bonus, the big box store, Academy sells Hornady's line too (at least the stores in my area do). Don't be surprised if you ask for technical advice and no one can offer it

You can load lots of ammo fast, but consistency of powder charge will go down with an extruded powder. You can load single stage and quality goes up. If you plan to load 308 on a progressive using Varget, your powder charges will be all over the map. Easy 1.0 to 2.0 grain spread. I sampled 50 rounds of powder throws of Varget run through my Dillon 1050. The powder charge on 50 rounds was like 1.8 grain spread. Varget is an extruded powder, and will not meter well. If you go to a progressive press, you will have to change up the type of powder you use to get the powder more consistent. I run a ball/spherical powder in my bulk 308 ammo. It meters like water, and has about a .2 grain spread. For a progressive load, it does very well.

Some shooters load on a progressive, but weigh the powder charge out when they are loading on a progressive. It's faster than a single stage, with the benefit of a weighed powder charge.

I've had good luck metering varget, 4895, and 3031. 4064 is iffy, and ball powders are the best. I use a 550.

chad, so what is a good substitue powder for my 178 amax's in my gap-10?

Anything in the burn rate you want to use. If it's Varget you are trying to match, AA2520, BLC-2, CFE223, Win 748, are all very similar burn rates that will meter well. If you go to a little faster burn rate, Ramshot TAC, IMR 8208 (very tiny extruded powder), H4895 will meter decent. AA2520 is a really good one, as well as W748 for metering. You don't get the temp stability of Varget with 2520 and 748, but they meter great. It's a trade off. Varget weight it out, vs a different powder that will meter well.

Look at there 550 instead of the 650. It's a great press for rifle.

Benchmark is a very finely cut extruded powder that will meter well. It also happens to have some other outstanding qualities. Its burn rate is similar to H335, TAC, and W748 but is a single-base powder and not so temp sensitive.

Good news! After modifications I am throwing varget +\- .1 out of 100 test throws on a rcbs 505. I can handle that for 200 rounds or so an hour