progressive press

[Bmi48219]

Seating dies with a built in crimp are designed to do both in one step so no need for a separate crimp die. The only issue would be if your brass is not all the same length but then again this is simply a poor reloading practice……

^^this^^
As MostlyLeverGuns has stated seating & crimping in one step is easy enough, once you get the die properly adjusted. That takes a little time and IS NOT something I like to do often. Ninety five % of the time I’m loading the same weight and profile bullet, weight and brand of powder and have settled on one brand of brass. Thus removing most of the variables that can screw up the finished ammo.
With enough turrets / or die heads I can have my dies preset and locked in so changing the cartridge I want to load is a matter of swapping turrets / heads and running a few test loads to verify everything is where and what I want. Also gives me the chance to check consistency of charge weight and crimp tension. Once I’m good to go I still check every tenth charge weight, OAL and crimp tension, even when loading on a progressive.
I also mark five loaded rounds with a slim point sharpie, then cycle them through my semi-autos (with safety engaged) several times to confirm my crimp is tight enough to prevent the projectile from being pushed back into the case. To me this is critical especially when seating and crimping in one operation.
All this checking and QC does add some time / effort to the reloading process, but since I’m loading 500 or 1,000 rounds at a time thoroughly checking every tenth round isn’t a big deal.
Not compared to blowing up a firearm.

An after thought.
I too find live ammo when recovering my brass at the range. I treat it as an unknown risk and always pull it down to salvage the primers, brass and lead content of projectiles.

[jetinteriorguy]

Many years ago I switched to seating and crimping in two steps. I mostly shoot Copper plated or Hitec coated bullets and found that seating and crimping in one step would cut through the plating/coating on the bullet exposing the lead core. This is due to the die continuing to being pushed down as the case mouth is squeezing the bullet and this would cause it to cut/shave off a little sliver of the coating. This isn’t a problem with either lead or jacketed bullets, since a little lead being shaved off won’t really have a detrimental effect and a jacketed bullet is basically unaffected.

[jsizemore]

I used a single stage press when I started hunter pistol silhouette. I'd load 100 rounds for a 40 round match. Sometimes I'd get behind from work and have to stay up late loading for a match. The trade off was that my ammo shot really small groups. A fella from the state just north of us started traveling south to teach us a lesson and if you missed 2 of the 40 shots you weren't going to win. Sometimes he missed 2 and he went home with his tail tucked but he sure did win his share and a few others. After a year or 2 of this, while eating a after match meal, I asked him about his loading technique and equipment. He had automated a Dillon 550 and his ammo was for his 2 guns, his wife's 2 guns and his buddy's 2 guns that actually paid for all the components they used for 3-4 matches each month. Seems he spent about the same time loading for 6 guns as I did for 1. I shortly had a Dillon at the house. He wasn't very good with a rimfire rifle though, so I got my payback. A bunch of companies offer a 4 die set so you can seat and crimp separately. That crimp die is nothing more than a seating die without the seating plug.

[Moonie]

for revolvers I seat and crimp at the same time, for semi-auto's I always use 2 dies, one to seat and another to crimp.

[onelight]

Most of the time I seat and crimp with separate dies , but not always it depends on the cartridge bullet and press I am using to get the results I am looking for.