Anyone load pistol bullets on a single stage press?

[xsn10s]

I've bought a Glock 40 for an upcoming trip to Idaho to visit family and do some hiking. The pistol is for bear and cat protection, the chances of needing it are small, but still there none the less. By the end of the week everything to load for it should be here. I have a Lee progressive and a Rockchucker, the Lee is currently set up for my .40. Years ago I had a delay fire in my .44 Mag from ammo loaded on the Lee. Not a big problem shooting in my yard, big problem if you have a charging bear or cat.

My thoughts are to load the ammo I'm taking on the trip on my Rockchucker, I'll weigh every charge and will know exactly what I have.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Justin

One thing about your "delayed fire" round it could be for a variety of reasons. None of which are necessarily related to a progressive press. A bad primer or contaminated primer. Poor primer seating, or even some gunk left in the cylinder chamber of your revolver, assuming the 44 mag is a revolver. But if you feel more comfortable reloading defensive rounds on a single stage press there is nothing wrong with that. I'd pay careful attention to how well the primers are seated and powder charging. Good luck!

 

[justinp61]

One thing about your "delayed fire" round it could be for a variety of reasons. None of which are necessarily related to a progressive press. A bad primer or contaminated primer. Poor primer seating, or even some gunk left in the cylinder chamber of your revolver, assuming the 44 mag is a revolver. But if you feel more comfortable reloading defensive rounds on a single stage press there is nothing wrong with that. I'd pay careful attention to how well the primers are seated and powder charging. Good luck!

The case was bluish/purple on the bottom. Ny thoughts were and are light powder charge. I haven't loaded 44 mag ammo on the Lee since.

 

[74honker]

I load EVERYTHING on a rockchucker, it's all I have lol. Takes more time but I do 9mm in batches of 50-100 and use a hand priming tool so not too bad.

 

[justinp61]

My thoughts are to load my practice/plinking ammo on the progressive loader and load 30 or so that I'll carry on the trip on the single stage. This way I know what's in the load, yes, I can still have primer failures, but so can the factories. My handloaded rifle ammo shoots better than anything I bought off a shelf and I see no reason the pistol will be any different.

Thanks guys. Justin

 

[74honker]

My thoughts are to load my practice/plinking ammo on the progressive loader and load 30 or so that I'll carry on the trip on the single stage. This way I know what's in the load, yes, I can still have primer failures, but so can the factories. My handloaded rifle ammo shoots better than anything I bought off a shelf and I see no reason the pistol will be any different.

Thanks guys. Justin

As others have stated my 2 legged defensive ammo is factory but everything else is my loads. I tuned my pistol loads just like any other round.

 

[Lapuatom]

I've bought a Glock 40 for an upcoming trip to Idaho to visit family and do some hiking. The pistol is for bear and cat protection, the chances of needing it are small, but still there none the less. By the end of the week everything to load for it should be here. I have a Lee progressive and a Rockchucker, the Lee is currently set up for my .40. Years ago I had a delay fire in my .44 Mag from ammo loaded on the Lee. Not a big problem shooting in my yard, big problem if you have a charging bear or cat.

My thoughts are to load the ammo I'm taking on the trip on my Rockchucker, I'll weigh every charge and will know exactly what I have.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Justin

Early in my reloading career, I experienced a couple of duds that didn't go off after multiple tries. I changed how I handle the primers and everything was fine after that. Thinking that I was tainting the primers by careless handling, now only handle with tweezers/hemostats. No problem for the last 40 years.

 

[del2les]

We've been loading for 50 years, and early on, everything except shotshells was loaded on single stage presses. Eventually, we bought the Dillion progressives for much of the handgun, AR, and varmint volume loading, but even to this day and hundreds of thousands of rounds later, we still occasionally use a single stage for lower volume (100-200) handgun loads or testing rounds.

There are various techniques that speed up handgun case loading on a single, and in the days before Dillion, we would load several hundred to a thousand handgun loads a sitting.

All my defense or dangerous game loads, 2 and 4 legged, are loaded on my single presses, not that I have ever had an issue with a proper setup Dillion, but I prefer the single for close inspection of every round at every stage. Never had an issue with confidence in my handloads.

 

[Ol' Red]

I have loaded loaded thousands of rounds on a RCBS single stage press for my handguns, just like most here. I have a T-7 turret press and a RCBS turret press on the bench, just so I can leave a few dies that I use a lot set up. The single stage press is still used frequently and will never leave the bench. Primers are installed with an RCBS hand primer tool and never get touched by my dirty fingers.

 

[David_h]

I've bought a Glock 40 for an upcoming trip to Idaho to visit family and do some hiking. The pistol is for bear and cat protection, the chances of needing it are small, but still there none the less. By the end of the week everything to load for it should be here. I have a Lee progressive and a Rockchucker, the Lee is currently set up for my .40. Years ago I had a delay fire in my .44 Mag from ammo loaded on the Lee. Not a big problem shooting in my yard, big problem if you have a charging bear or cat.

My thoughts are to load the ammo I'm taking on the trip on my Rockchucker, I'll weigh every charge and will know exactly what I have.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Justin

My plan is to load my Glock 20 on my single stage RCBS. I've been using the same press for 40+ years for rifle and pistol (44 mag & .357). Not yet loaded for a cartridge which headspace's off the case mouth so the 10mm Auto will be new.

In my early days I learned that my reloading practices were allowing case lube to contaminate the primers. I had one misfire on a deer. Recocked same round and dropped the deer. Cleaned up my reloading practices and no more problems.

So for 10mm- confirm proper headspace and double check proper powder charge.

 

[436]

Mostly .44 Mag on my RCBS Summit press for my rifles. Cheers

 

[Lefty38-55]

• Started on old 3-hole Lee turret press
• Would process all (50) in a batch of each operation
• Primed off press via Lee handheld prime tool
• Powdah by RCBS Lil' Dandy (love it, still use it!)
• When I got in the groove, I could do a a box in 20-25 minutes ...

Now have the 4-hole turret press for those cartridges where I seat, then taper crimp as a separate operation

 

[01Foreman400]

I just recently developed a load for my Glock 40 for deer hunting. Did it on an RCBS Rebel which is the only press I own. I'm using the 140 gr. Barnes Tac-XP bullet. This is a group at 40 yards.

 

[BrentM]

I've bought a Glock 40 for an upcoming trip to Idaho to visit family and do some hiking. The pistol is for bear and cat protection, the chances of needing it are small, but still there none the less. By the end of the week everything to load for it should be here. I have a Lee progressive and a Rockchucker, the Lee is currently set up for my .40. Years ago I had a delay fire in my .44 Mag from ammo loaded on the Lee. Not a big problem shooting in my yard, big problem if you have a charging bear or cat.

My thoughts are to load the ammo I'm taking on the trip on my Rockchucker, I'll weigh every charge and will know exactly what I have.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Justin

I have only loaded on a single stage..... takes longer, but its just the same careful process as rifle and I have never had a delay or misfire due to a single stage. For the absolute life or death ammo...... I would prefer a single anyway..... I will be ensuring the ammo is exactly the same round for round just like precision rifle ammo.

 

[thomasbangs]

After having a close encounter with a black bear sow with cubs at dark while coming back to his truck after bow hunting one of my sons decided to start packing his Glock 40 S&W which is legal where we live. I loaded up some Nosler 170 gr. HP. Not sure if they still make the 170 gr. but they still make a 180 gr. HP. Anyway he tested it out over a bait on a bigger than average size black bear. He double tapped the bear behind the shoulder and the bear collapsed on the spot, both bullets were recovered just under the hide on the opposite side, classic perfect mushrooms, after cleaning the bullets they both weighed 169 grs. each. Since all the bullets from that box of 170's were loaded, I don't know if they weighed 170 grs. or not but that was as close to 100% weight retention as you can get. I load all pistol and rifles on my old Lyman turret press and I do one operation at a time, except 45 acp, I have a Dillon Square Deal set up for 45 acp.