Originally Posted by
megasupermagnum
I singled out this quote, as you seem a little confused on what is being discussed here. The APP press is essentially a single stage press, however it has been outfitted with a case/bullet feeder, as well as having holes on both top and bottom (where most presses only have thread on top). The ACP priming set listed above is NOT a press. It is a die set for use in the APP press, as it requires both a top and a bottom to work.
I may have been a little enthusiastic about my reloading estimate. I should have said I load around 200 a week at at the best times of year. Usually that would be May-July. I don't do hardly any shooting in the fall beyond hunting practice. Winter I do shoot, but not in such volume. I know I don't do 10,000 rounds a year. Last year I shot around 1,000 of 45 ACP, and 1,000 of 327 federal. I also shot around 2,430 rounds of shotgun, mostly 12 gauge (based on having gone through 18 cases of clays), but do not load 12 gauge target ammo. The rest of calibers was comparatively minor. I did put about 400 rounds of 308 through my M1A, and loaded each on a single stage.
I bring that up, as a non-competition shooter, but with a variety of calibers. Let me tell you that the Lee APP with their primer pocket swager is a LIFE CHANGER. I dread the thought of swaging 400 cases with the RCBS dies. With the Lee APP, I had all my brass, 1000-1500 cases all done in an hour.
You grossly underestimate time simply because you are willing to load brass with dirty pockets. That's fine. I've done it myself plenty of times, and I would do it too if I had to load 15,000 rounds in a year with a standard progressive press like a Dillon 550. I want to shoot more than a single stage reasonably allows. Sure, you could load 200 rounds a week on a single stage, but that takes more time from my life than I'm willing to give. I've never timed it, but I could probably load 200 rounds on a SS in about 4 hours. Even my measly Lee pro 1000 loads 300-400 rounds in an hour. The intangible is that loading 200 on a single stage is exhausting. You can get little do dads like a shell kicker, priming like the Lee safety prime, etc., but you are still handling every case over and over. By the end, your hands and wrists do not feel good. By comparison, I can fill the powder hopper on my Lee pro1000, dump some cases in the collator, and I'm loading ammo. 203 pulls of the handle later, and under an hour later, I've got ammo for the week. The intangible with a progressive is that you need to watch 3-4 things all at once with only two eyes. Feed/eject cases I trust by sound, but I keep an eye on bullets, and most importantly I have a little camera looking at every case guaranteeing I have powder, and that it isn't a double charge. Powder cops, powder checkers, and other things are good things to have, but I do not fully trust anything more than my own eyes. That's where priming comes in. So in this perfect cycle where you place a bullet, check powder drop, make sure powder hopper is full, make sure brass tubes are filled, etc. Now you have to keep an eye on primers too, including feeling the primer seat every time. Maybe I have a pea brain, but I like to make things easy on myself. If I can think of ways to reduce the number of things I have to keep track off all at once, I'll do it. Off press priming is one way, and worth it to me. If a good on press system existed, I would use it. I'm not about to dump $2000+ on a Dillon 1050, I can hardly bring myself to spend that much on a truck.
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DougGuy
