It's like a po' boy progressive....sort of...

[Freightman]

I have a Lee turret, a lee classic S-S, and a Lee small C press I load the pistol on the turret, and rifle on the S-S, and size with the C press upside down . Simple is good.

[Ken in Iowa]

I like it!

[izzyjoe]

I don't load as much as I did in years past, but I would set in front of the tv at night and use a Lee hand press to size 38, and 45 acp cases. And then use my Lee hand primer, till the handle broke, and I tossed it. Then I would go to the shop, and use the Lee powder measure to drop charges and then seat bullets after the cases we're charged. I could easily load a couple hundred and hour, after the hard part was done!

[Smk SHoe]

My Wifey loves to shoot also, but the only thing she knows about ammo is which shelf to take it off in the man cave. She does realize it must take a lot of time since I'm always in the cave ( 1 RCBS turrent, 2 RCBS Partner presses, 2 Lee hand presses and 2 Dillion 650's) reloading. Now the Daughter is a different animal. She's been sizing and depriming since she was around 12. She enjoys loading her 6mm BR rifle and pistol ammo, but I wouldn't let her do it unsupervised till she turned 21. Now she's moved out of the house, only time i see her is when i get home and she's in the cave trying to wear out the 650 that's set up for 9mm. Proud daddy when his little girl talks smack to her boyfriend about his shooting ability.

[HeavyMetal]

So here's the idea: haunt E Bay until you get a shot at a Pro 1000, I've picked up Two for under $80.00

Never ever never try to prime on one of these things!! I pulled all the priming stuff off of every machine I have and de-prime with a universal de capping die, then into stainless steel pins to clean.

This allows me to inspect case's as I go, then into my RCBS bench priming tool, then into the Pro1000 to load, you may or may not want use the single stage to crimp and final inspect, as needed!

Right now a Pro 1000 for parts is on Evil bay , cheap ! Suggest you start there and with luck you may nab one sooner than later, it has some rust but most parts are there and Titan has the rest pretty cheap.

If you don't get one with the 38 special shell plate PM me I must have three of them!

[TXGunNut]

I save my single stage presses for cartridges I enjoy loading; most pistol ammo is pure drudgery for me. My progressive has loaded upwards of 200K 38 Spls and probably over 50K 45ACP's. I justified my progressive when I realized the time I spent loading was time I couldn't spend shooting.
I used to think 380 wasn't worth reloading for but recent price increases and shortages changed that. My latest 380 carry gun is actually fun to shoot and I needed more ammo than I wanted to buy. I ordered a RD mould from NOE, a shell holder and set of dies from Dillon. 550 comes out of hibernation now and then for a good cause. Can't imagine loading .380 on a single stage with my clumsy fingers for more than just a short session.

[ironhead7544]

I knew a guy who had a few kids. He bought enough equipment to set up a production line. Worked great as all the kids like to shoot. And all he had to do was supervise.

[Budzilla 19]

I like your ingenuity in solving a problem and speeding up your process!!!! I made do with what I had (Pacific single stage)till my Dad brought home a Dillon RL 450, man,did things pick up then! It's retired now, and in its place are more blue presses! If you want to load mass amounts of pistol ammo, go Blue, brother! P.S. The last comment was from my own personal experiences and not intended to throw stink on the other brands of progressive presses which are out there! Just my .02 cents.

[LeadHead72]

Umm, the Pro1000 isn't bad, for the money, but can become an exercise in frustration due to the potential for priming issues.

I have found it to be a source of frustration even when NOT using the priming function. Not impressed.

[LeadHead72]

Bookworm, you may not have the money right now but the RCBS turret press like the one that NCBearman sold can save you a lot of time and is a well-built machine. Check for a used one on eBay or Craigslist or other places and you will eventually find a decent deal. Redding makes an excellent one as well.

[Bookworm]

I'm thinking there will be a turret press in my future. I don't yet know which one, but Christmas is nigh.
No telling what Santa may bring.
If that doesn't work, as funds become available I'll upgrade.

So far, tho, the dual-single setup is working okay. I loaded up several hundred .44Mag the other day.
As long as I have the cases primed and ready, it actually goes fairly quickly.

The small bench I have gets crowded, but I set a folding table next to me to give additional room.

[gundownunder]

You can speed up production on a single stage by using a little ingenuity.
A PVC pipe chute hung off the side of the press when you deprime and size lets you flick the finished round out of the press and into a bucket with your right index finger as you raise the press arm with your right hand and at the same time grab another case with your left hand to shove into the press.
Use the Lee, ram priming tool on top of the press and use a PVC chute the same way. As your right hand comes up one finger flicks out the primed round, another taps the primer reservoir, and the left hand puts in a fresh case.
Use your powder measure fitted to the top of your flaring die so you can flare and charge in the one operation. With 2 presses, like you have, I would flare and charge on one and seat and roll crimp on the other.
I don't think the old Challenger can do it but some of the other single stagers should be able to deprime on the down stroke and reprime on the up stroke using the Lee safety primer feeder.
The other aid to speed it to do long runs. Deprime and size 500 rounds at a time so you don't have to change dies every 5 minutes.
These mods will double your production speed without breaking the bank. All you need to ask yourself is "do I need 500 rounds an hour or will 100 do?".

[Bookworm]

You can speed up production on a single stage by using a little ingenuity.
A PVC pipe chute hung off the side of the press when you deprime and size lets you flick the finished round out of the press and into a bucket with your right index finger as you raise the press arm with your right hand and at the same time grab another case with your left hand to shove into the press.

Use your powder measure fitted to the top of your flaring die so you can flare and charge in the one operation. With 2 presses, like you have, I would flare and charge on one and seat and roll crimp on the other.

The 'deprime/size-flick' trick sounds like a plan. I'll try that. I have plenty of pvc pipe, bet I can figure something out.

I prime off-press, until a better way comes up.

As for fitting the powder measure to the flare die - I would love to do that, but I'm working with a Lee Perfect Powder Measure. Lee says that the PPM will not work with a Lee powder-through expander die.

I have 3 PPMs, one I purchased back in the late 80's, one I received as part of a trade a few years ago, and the third one just seemed to appear. Not sure how I acquired it.

Perhaps the other two got "in the mood", and....

[Walkingwolf]

I have been using single stage presses all my life, I am in no hurry, and wayyy to picky for a progressive.

[robg]

Now I'm thinking I could do with a turret maybe a Lee as I'm cheap and broke

[shoot-n-lead]

What you have works...and we have all, been there and done that.

It is kind of weird, as I load a pretty fair amount of ammo, now, and I have had a Dillon 550 for years...but, I tend to use it more as a turret, now. I tend to weigh every charge, a lot more than I used to...I guess it is the fact that I mess around with more powders than I did in the past and it ain't all about production, now. One reason for that is that I don't load nearly the 45acp quantities, that I did back when I was competitively shooting, a little.

Anyway, it is working for you...have fun.