Dillion verses Hornady

DRAINSMITH said:

Well, you have all noticed I have not been on the site much. 2018 was a bad year for me I had two strokes and fell and broke my back. Sitting at the computer for more than five min. kills me.

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Sorry to hear that. Glad you are still with us.

Then set that Lee turret press kit up I bought for $35.

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Please let us know if you think it was $35 well spent.


Welcome back DRAINSMITH, missed you.

Well guys, here's my story fresh off the "press".

I got a XL650 at an auction but it had no accessories. Got my accessories and little pieces missing and just ran some 9mm to size it, M die swage and prime it. ( I did add the roller bearings on the shell plate and cam rod, I think it's called)

I also have two Hornady LnL presses as tricked out and buffed and polished as I can make em.

I now understand WHY Dillon guys feel like they can run their press like crazed chimps. It's because it gives you that feeling of total confidence. My Hornady LnL just can NOT be trusted the same as this Dillon.

My Hornady presses have a "motion" that you get to know and feel. The Dillon just DOES IT. UP.. DOWN.. You don't need to slow down just hair here and there to make sure the case is doing what it's supposed to. It's there every time and you know it.

Now I'm not gonna jump ship or anything because my Hornady produces awesome finished product, which I HAVE NOT done on this Dillon. I don't know how consistent it is when actually seating bullets. The way I load (two stages, even pistol rounds) and with my mods on the Hornady will produce .223 all within .002 (ogive) at most, regardless if the deck is loaded or not.

Waldog

What a great comparison and post between the two. I also have both and agree with you on everything but I have a little fix for those that want the LnL but not the headache of crushing the case retaining spring. Get an oring and never need anything else not to mention the little friction from the oring smooths the press out. I hear about everyone not being to happy with the priming system but mine has been great but I did take flitz to the primer slide and beveled the loading hole.

Revolver do you lube the oring and did you have to adjust timing?

didn't do anything but put it on. Now I do spray the bottom of the plate with case lube hornady one shot but only when changing calibers and I guess it could get lube from that.

Before i bought my first press I looked over the shoulder of a reloader who has a Hornady LnL AP and even made some rounds on his press.

After considering MY mediocre at best mechanical abilities, I decided to get me a Dillon XL 650.
Why?
It just works. Hassle free.
I pulled it out of it's transport box, put it on my bench and since then it did thousands after thousands of handgun rounds. Each and every round that fell in the blue box to the right was working in my handguns flawlessly.
Is the Dillon perfect?
No! The spent printer catch is a joke and some other small things are ..... annoying.
But those things one can come buy with cheap 3D printed parts if you feel the need to. I did not.

For rifle ammo (strictly precision shooting) and handgun competition (precision, too) shooting I got myself a Forester Co-Ax. Now this press IS perfect but single station.

So if you don't have a problem with doing some tinkering from time to time with your tool (and the press here is definitely the tool) then the Hornady is really a good choice.
If you want to make ammo and not think about your press, get yourself a Dillon.

Totally disagree on work right out of the box. The Dillon requires some tweaking as well I do not know why people come on and say this.

I certainly can only take about the one I have. And not for all others.
Thought that was clear from my listings.
YMMV

Dillon set up the press before they ship it. So most all adj should be close. If the end user had to assemble and adj the press it would take them a good bit of time, into hrs and maybe days for some. The Hornady press is not setup at the factory. The end user has to do that. So it's not s good comparison unless you have the press start off in the same state.

Love me some 550's..................... Kinda crowded but I make do.

Bill

Blue68f100 said:

Dillon set up the press before they ship it. So most all adj should be close. If the end user had to assemble and adj the press it would take them a good bit of time, into hrs and maybe days for some. The Hornady press is not setup at the factory. The end user has to do that. So it's not s good comparison unless you have the press start off in the same state.

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I think it's almost funny that Hornady owners lament that Dillon gives their customers pre-configured machines whereas Hornady customers receive a tinker tool.

So why is this not comparable??
You know what you get from Dillon and you know what you get from Hornady.
It all depends on what you expect and are willing to do after unboxing.

Mr.Revolverguy said:

Totally disagree on work right out of the box. The Dillon requires some tweaking as well I do not know why people come on and say this.

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Both of my 650 presses ran right out of the box.

My LNL worked right out of the box. Now my case feeder when I added it took some tinkering to get working and some as it wears. After tens of thousands of rounds I’ve had to tweak the pawls a bit. The only issue that irritates me is is when loading 45 Colt. 9mm, 38/357, 44 special and 44 magnum all go around every die perfect. With 45 Colt the case catches the resize die as it tilts outwards on almost every round. If I time the pawls to get it perfect then the others do the same.

The case feeder seems to have been made for 9mm, 38 special and especially 44 special as every case will load in the tube faster than I can load them. However 357 is the absolute worse as most times I end up hand feeding cases into the tube. My friends Dillon 650 had the same issue with 357 when he tried loading them.
If I was loading 1000’s of one caliber every week then a Dillon 650, 750 or 1050 would be the way to go. My friend who has two 650’s loads 1000’s of 9mm and 45 acp every week as his family of four shoots every week. But he has had issues to get them to run and has spent money on after market items to make them work like they do and they do work.

I only load 50 to 200 of any one caliber that I load for and the LNL works for me. Now I think if Hornady would have put a little more quality into the LNL especially into the case feeing mechanisms it would have been a rock solid press.

I did not come here looking for a fight fellas but owning both I think both camps can say they worked out of the box or have to tinker out of the box. These things are man made tools I think wulf is the closest to fair review and feature parity of both.

I find it funny nobody ever includes the RCBS series in these discussions. Sorry GW Staar.

Reeferman said:

However 357 is the absolute worse as most times I end up hand feeding cases into the tube. My friends Dillon 650 had the same issue with 357 when he tried loading them.

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I think you need a spacer for that .357 It's too tall for the plate and does funny things. There's a spacer out there for the Dillon which means it should work for the Hornady.. not 100% on that. When I made my case feeder, I had to fab up a spacer for .357 brass and taller.

AR-Bossman said:

I think you need a spacer for that .357 It's too tall for the plate and does funny things. There's a spacer out there for the Dillon which means it should work for the Hornady.. not 100% on that. When I made my case feeder, I had to fab up a spacer for .357 brass and taller.

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how thick of a spacer did you use?

Well damn Bossman I googled it and think that will make a difference. Duh can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Old age really sucks sometimes.

Anyone know of a 3D print file for the case feed plate spacer?

I finally did some actual loading on my XL650. I loaded up some .223. All 5 stations loaded. I was really expecting to have a OAL variation of .020" and that would confirm loading on my Hornady would be a better idea.

I did my initial setup single round. Micro adjusted the stem +.005 for a fully loaded plate and that thing turned out ammo that was + or - .002 ( Ogive ).. easy. I did learn a single grain of ball powder can hold up the primer tube.

I had a couple go through without a primer and it seeded the entire system. I don't know how I didn't feel it. And since the cases are raised it just empties like crazy.

I really do enjoy using it. You NEVER have to worry about case feeding. The primer system really is much better and solid. I don't mind the rotary disc thingy. I've got a 3d printed deactivator. I'm also using a Hornady powder measure.

This really has me thinking about what I want to do. Keep both my Hornady AP's or ditch at least one of em.

I haven't tried 9mm yet to see if I have a powder spilling problem.

AR-Bossman said:

I find it funny nobody ever includes the RCBS series in these discussions. Sorry GW Staar.

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Nothing to be sorry about. RCBS just flat introduced the Pro Chuckers before they were ready. (I personally blame Vista Outdoors....I think they forced the introduction 2 years early.) Mine works great.....but I can't mod everyone's so I keep out of it. RCBS knows mine works.....they've been included in the loop, but I'm not going to push a machine that the company won't fix and push themselves. I'd make jmorris happy and buy my own 650, but I keep my brother's running for him. He's an ER doc and has had me to help him get through the learning curve...and I get to go through my own curve in the process. While that press is years of solid experience and support, it isn't perfect either, as you will find out.

AR-Bossman said:

......
I really do enjoy using it. You NEVER have to worry about case feeding. The primer system really is much better and solid. I don't mind the rotary disc thingy. I've got a 3d printed deactivator.

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Please help me - what is this 3D printed deactivator??

I found some deviation on OAL in my Square Deal B, the first Dillon I owned. I now have the Square Deal and a 650, and I talked to Dillon about the deviation, and they told me that no machine can be affordable with no measurable deviation. So I asked him how accurate the Dillons are, and he told me plus or minus .007.