New Reloader and Reloading Thoughts

It was time for an upgrade on a reloader. I finally made the jump to a progressive press. Only because I got a deal on it of course. I upgraded to the Dillon RL550B. Dillon claims 400-600 per hour but we'll see. I'm sure this speed is at the cost of quality. You can't beat the "feel" of the single stage press. I've decided to only load my high-volume loads like the .45 ACP and the .223 Remington. My line of thought is that a semi-auto needs a progressive press to feed it. I will continue to load precision rifle rounds for bolt and lever guns on the Rock Chucker 4 single-stage. We should be up and running in a few days.

I was reading up on the .338 federal yesterday. I think an encore barrel in this chambering is in order. There's something magical about a short-action case that can put a 220 grain bullet on target at .308 velocities. The .338-06 didn't make it on the commercial market but I think the .338 federal might do it. I believe that it will be more popular for the same reason the .308 edged out the 30-06 as the military round back in the 1950s. It's a lot shorter with similar performance. The word is efficiency. I wonder how long it will take an AR-10 manufacturer to introduce this chambering. My money is on Panther Arms being the first.

I haven't forgot the 6.8 SPC. I think this might be another encore venture. There is something cool about a round designed specifically to kill enemies of the United States. Patriotic. I'm not sure if I could justify the single-shot with a round designed to fit the AR-15 platform. We'll see. I may just have to call it a .270 short. I wonder if there is a .270-08 out there somewhere?