[Dred]

Well,

I haven't been at it long. Started collecting the tools in October and had the min required to produce a round collected by November.

Today, I own 3 presses. My first was a Lee Hand Press which I used to decap several hundred rounds yesterday. I actually added the Lee Breechlock Single stage before I had produced a functional round. Then a couple weeks back I decided to pull the trigger on a Hornady LNL AP, but was unsuccesful thanks to the panic buy following Sandy Hook - my local sold all three of the Hornady's they had in stock the day before I showed up waving cash. I thought about it for a week and discovered the Lee Loadmaster could be had for half the price of the Hormady (my original consideration set only included Dillon & Hornady, so I hadn't even priced the Lee. Read extremely mixed reviews, but determined that I could make it work. I'm becoming fairly proficient. Took me two evenings with the net and the press, but the timing is now right and I've succesfully added a caliber (45 ACP kit now loading 10 as well). Will also be adding 22 TCM and 38/357 plus 9mm if this panic endures too long.

Ok, so I actually responded 'cause I'll be happy to help you find a single stage if you don't want to wait for the backorders. I've seen Lee and Rock Chuckers local in the past couple days. And, just confirmed that there's an abundance of presses on Ebay as I type using "lee press" as search term. There are some buy it now offers that are fairly priced sprinkled among those that priced for the collectors' market.

Good luck, and I will suggest you seriously consider a turret. It offers the ability to work single stage, but the flexibility to complete complementary operations together without excessive die changes. My biggest concern for larger batch work was separating charge and bullet seating operations a turret would solve this by allowing those operations to be stacked more efficiently. I can do this on the progressive, but it can be accomplished more precisely on a turret.

I'm glad to have each of my rigs, but if I could only keep one - it'd be the progressive.

Finally, if you are committed, start buying components now - they are becoming scarce and who knows how long this little panic episode is gonna last? Till the bad guys and loonies declare a stop shooting folks day, the media is gonna keep this circus rolling. There really is a sucker (or a naive, misinformed expert possibly sporting a poorly concealed agenda) born every minute.