Which of the two presses will give you the best accuracy? Or maybe there is no difference? I have loaded many a round on a single stage and I have a gun that when I do my part will make one hole with 5 shots. I recently got a progressive press, using the same formula will I see any difference in accuracy? Thanks

The .308 ammunition for the 800/900/1000 yard Palma matches is loaded on Dillon 550 Progressive presses and shoots 2 inch groups at 600 yards. 1/3 MOA ammunition on a progressive press is impressive to me.

For a single stage, if I was looking for pure accuracy I would get the L.E. Wilson hand dies and an arbor press. IME this is the most accurate way to produce ammunition, the same method Benchrest shooters use to get 1/8 MOA or better ammunition.

To answer your original question, hand dies and an arbor press will be more accurate than a progressive, but WAY slower. Unless you are a Benchrest shooter, 1/3 MOA ammunition will handle just about any shooting scenario I can think of.

Also keep in mind the quality of the firearm and the quality of the shooter play big parts in achieving accuracy levels like the ones mentioned above.

Weighing every charge is the sure fire way to get the most consistent ammo. And weighing it as fine as you can. My Charge Master has a +/- .15 gr error. I moved to the Auto Trickler with a .02gr accuracy. You can achieve the same consistency with a good beam scale, but it's slower. All the ammo I've made for testing, all the ammo I've made for myself and lots of other people is weighed charges. Because it produces the most consistent ammo. I have not used a progressive press yet, and I only will for my own pistol ammo.

I can't comment on the arbor press. I know Judd uses one, and praises them. I use a Forster Co-Ax, and love it! It is done great for sizing as well as seating.

Big difference in a quality progressive like a Dillon vs a Lee or something..
I use a rcbs rock chucker and a Harrels precision (copy of a hood press) with Redding FL bushing dies for sizing and a wilson seat for all rifle ammo.

I had a progressive set up for 45 acp, it made ammo but left a lot to be desired damaged primers, in consistent powder charge.. it was fast but kinda a pain to keep running.

My opinion is rifle ammo should be loaded one at a time with the utmost control.

Single if you are OCD.
Progressive if just slinging ammo or standard hunting range.

One challenge that you should be aware of is that no volumetric powder thrower will work with stick powders. You either need to be very selective with your powders, choosing ball or flake powders, or measure powder off the press. If it's the latter, I'm of the opinion that the progressive doesn't matter as much. Most of my time with rifle reloading is spent on brass prep anyway.

With the right powders you can do awesome stuff with a dillon and their powder dump. Other option is to run a funnel stage instead of the thrower and throw your own.

Tab nails it.

I even load 9mm on a single stage. I don't trust the turret press for charging or myself to set/keep it set up and functioning perfectly. I used a powder thrower early on in my reloading to throw light and trickle up and couldn't fathom how some just throw a charge with it load and go. I'm not high volume like many others are, but its single stage for me.

I have three progressive machines and while I won’t claim that I load just as accurate ammo on them as single stage it can be done. You would just have to pour powder thru funnel after weighing each charge as Dee mentioned above.

With that being said I have been loading some 223 with Benchmark powder and just running it with the powder thrower that came with the Apex machIne and in my Tikka it shoots 1/2 MOA groups with Lake city brass.

I can’t even imagine loading something like 9mm on a single stage. I just leave aDillon setup for 9mm and can run up a few hundred in an hour. I know they are as accurate as factory 9mm maybe a little better an that’s been good enough for my needs.

There's no voodoo involved. Just like anything else mechanical...assemble and maintain properly and the results will be there.

A cordless electric impact wrench may slightly vary torque on lug nuts but you'll never know... it's sure faster than a breaker bar and socket with nearly identical results.

If you don't trust yourself or the machine, do it the slower way that you are comfortable with. I don't have a progressive but I do have an auto-indexing turret as well as a Lee APP for processing. Try de-priming, sizing, and swaging primer pockets on 3K pieces of 9mm with a single stage. Nope. The APP did it pretty fast using a four-tube collator. Buy for your needs, not others'.

Can you tell me more about this press? I'm a low volume 9mm shooter and don't want the investment of a Dillon but I don't want to load 9mm on my Rock Chucker either. Time is money, so I'm looking in the middle.

I hesitate to mention it because of the anti-Lee bias some people have (Lee is not perfect). My Lee Classic Turret (LCT) does really well for what I need and has for ten years. I usually prime off press but I do have the large and small primer tools for the LCT if needed. I keep all my dies in their own turret plate with a note what I last set them up for. I have the AutoDrum measure so after it's set, I put a piece of brass in manually and put the bullet in place manually and everything else happens with four pulls of the lever.

I buy from Titan Reloading ---> CLICK HERE FOR WEBPAGE

Thanks Guzzler

I'm new to reloading. Have collected hardware and components for more than five years before I loaded my first live round. Also cleaned sized and decapped thousands of brass cases up front to get used to setting up and operating my Hornady lock-n-load turret press before I ever dropped powder and seated a bullet.

Although I'd read several handloading manuals over the years, it wasn't until my two good friends and forum members, who are experienced handloaders, worked with me on building my first rounds, now all the books and videos make so much more sense and I'll be revisiting in depth.

Also started with 45 acp, as a previous poster said, its very forgiving. I have never used a single stage press.

I only run every other round on my 5-station turret press... works for me and allows me to double check everything.

I use a Hornady powder cop die too...awesome for quickly noticing over or under powder charges.

+1 for the Lee Classic Cast turret.
I am neither shooting dimes a mile away with a rifle, nor handgunning so much at a time to justify a progressive. I'll usually auto index handgun rounds. For rifle rounds, pulling the indexing rod lets me use it single stage, but with all of the dies I will use already in the turret and adjusted.

Turrets along with each individual preset powder drum in the wooden rack I built.

Very cool right there.