At the reloading clinic I illustrated how I use the progressive press to process brass during the season. I have a decapping die, an RCBS X-die without the expander ball, and an Lyman M-die to flare the case mouth in the tool head. Resizing brass is as simple as putting the case in the press and pulling the handle. Each piece progressively transfers through all the processes, being decapped (deprimed), re-sized, and then having the case mouth correctly sized and also flared a bit to take care of any burrs that might form on the inside of the case mouth. The whole process is extremely fast and efficient with a progressive press. Of course, powder-charging and bullet-seating are done using other tools and a single-stage press. The progressive press is a modern marvel, and many people use it from start to finish to load all their ammo at every step of the way. The reason I use my Lee progressive only for the brass is because it doesn�t work very well at anything else�in fact it makes life harder when used for anything other than resizing brass. Other manufacturers such as Hornady, RCBS and Dillon produce progressive presses which are of much better design than my Lee, and these presses may be used from start to finish on rifle ammunition.
I would also like to add a few additional comments on brass preparation. These comments are not meant to illustrate or indicate right or wrong, merely what I do and why. In particular, all my .223 caliber 600 yard loads are loaded on the single-stage press, from start to finish. I shoot only three different loads in .223: and one is a 100 yard practice load using the 52 grain Sierra Matchking bullet. Another is a match load for 200 and 300 yards using the Sierra 77 Matchking bullet, and the final one is a load with the 90 grain JLK bullet for shooting at 600 yards and beyond. The most important point to make is that I shoot a very hot load at the 600 yard line, and over the years I�ve had some primers puncture or blow out of the case. (The loads for the other yard lines are mild, are taken right out of the Sierra manual, and have never given me any trouble.)
I have solved my problems at 600 yard with three changes: first, (obviously) I decreased the powder charge (duh!); Second, I went to moly-coated bullets (debatable importance if you read Rifle Accuracy Facts by Harold Vaughan). Third, I never re-use a piece of brass at 600 yards. Apparently the loads I shoot are hot enough to stretch the primer pockets, and further use with the same load can cause primer pocket failure. On the other hand, these same pieces of brass work just fine for three or five additional firings with mild loads such as my 200/300 yard loading.
I shoot once-fired surplus brass, and the first thing I do (after cleaning) is run it through my Hornady re-sizing die; then I trim it, process the primer pocket, and lightly deburr the flash hole. For the 2000 pieces of brass I bought in November, that takes about a month working after dinner, but what else can you do in December and January? Then, during the shooting season, I will use a case only once for my long-line loads. After that it goes in a can to be reloaded for the 100, 200 or 300 yard line. From this point on it will probably be reloaded another 4 or 5 times, then I will discard it, usually because of the neck splitting or cracking.
Maybe the main point of the reloading clinic should be that if you do things by the book, everything will be fine, but if you insist on hotrodding or pushing the limits a bit, you should be prepared to also alter your techniques to re-introduce safety as the first ingredient.