Time For Press Upgrade, Looking For Suggestions

Also, once your rifle brass is all prepped you can still load it on the classic turret and still give it all of that "special attention" that you would on a single stage. The only difference is that you are now inspecting round to round rather than batch to batch. This makes it a lot easier to work since you don't have to worry about leaving a partially complete batch on the bench if you need to stop for some reason.

Mad Chemist said:

Also, once your rifle brass is all prepped you can still load it on the classic turret and still give it all of that "special attention" that you would on a single stage. The only difference is that you are now inspecting round to round rather than batch to batch. This makes it a lot easier to work since you don't have to worry about leaving a partially complete batch on the bench if you need to stop for some reason.

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I can and sometimes do load rifle cartridges on my Classic turret press. I remove the auto-index rod and treat it as a single stage press but for all the dies already being setup. The linkage and the press are strong enough for sizing 30-06 and 45-70 brass without a thought... I was loading all my rifle brass on an RCBS Rockchucker but find myself using the turret much more often.

I wish that there was 1 more station though, because I want to run a powder cop, bullet feeder and separate crimp,

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The only presses that let you do that are the 1050 and 650 using GSI feeders.

+1 for the lee classic turret. As mentioned earlier, it's really easy to switch between single stage for precision rifle and auto-indexing for high volume pistol.

I can see going to a turret press.
I would not recommend going to a progressive press at any price regardless of the drivel you read on this sight.

A turret press puts all your dies where you need them, but requires you manual index the dies. It also requires you carry out each step in turn before indexing. Yes it IS slower, but slower is a GOOD THING when your gun doesn't blow up.

I'm a real fan of my Dillon 550b. The manual indexing doesn't slow me down, my thumb hits it as I'm reaching for a bullet. I prefer the flexibility it gives me on how I use my press.

I love my dillion 550b, never had a problem and they are local for me in case something does go wrong.

I would not recommend going to a progressive press at any price regardless of the drivel you read on this sight.

A turret press puts all your dies where you need them, but requires you manual index the dies. It also requires you carry out each step in turn before indexing. Yes it IS slower, but slower is a GOOD THING when your gun doesn't blow up.

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You won't get shocked if you don't have electricity fed into your home also...

Posting in a forum where it's members likely have thousands of combined years loading safely on progressives and saying they cause guns to blow up, is just as silly as posting in the general forum that guns kill people.

I would not recommend going to a progressive press at any price regardless of the drivel you read on this sight.

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Yet here you are on this site.

A turret press puts all your dies where you need them, but requires you manual index the dies.

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Lee turret presses auto index.

It also requires you carry out each step in turn before indexing. Yes it IS slower, but slower is a GOOD THING when your gun doesn't blow up.

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Actually, manual indexing can be just as, if not more dangerous than an auto indexing progressive press. You don't double charge on an auto indexing because when you raise the handle, the press indexes and moves the casing from the charging station. With a manual indexing press like a Dillon 550B, the possibility is there to double charge because the press doesn't index itself. I'm sure its possible on an auto indexing one, but not nearly as likely.

Wow. You speak of drivel, yet you packed a ton of it in a really short post.

I can see going to a turret press.
I would not recommend going to a progressive press at any price regardless of the drivel you read on this sight.

A turret press puts all your dies where you need them, but requires you manual index the dies. It also requires you carry out each step in turn before indexing. Yes it IS slower, but slower is a GOOD THING when your gun doesn't blow up

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If you don't think you can safely load on a progressive then so be it. A man should know his limitations.
I've seen just as many mistakes made on single stages, with progressives you can just do them quicker and in bulk.

Midway that stated the powder measure on the LNL was adversely effected by certain powders.

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I would also like to know the powder measure that works great with all powders? Some are better than others but some powders are just difficult to measure. Don't think you can hang that on the LNL.

I read a review on. Midway that stated the powder measure on the LNL was adversely effected by certain powders. Any experience with that?

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This probably is referring to what happens when you leave powder in the hopper for extended periods (like overnight) of time. The plastic gets discolored and actually shrinks/becomes loose in the metal base. CS will tell you to pull the plastic tube, invert, and re-insert it.
BTDT

My LNL measure didn't like old "long cut" 3031.

I grew up on a lee turret press, so for me, auto index is a very desirable feature. Sorry dillion 550, I've used you, I don't like you. Might be fine for rifle, but not for handgun.

The lnl and the 650 are both presses I wold love to have (with case feeder) but I just can't swing the money. Which brings me to the loadmaster, which is what I have spent a lot of time on and with.

Pro's: cheap. I got mine from lee in their blemished section for 180 shipped, with dies and powder measure. add in the case collator and I'm still in the press with case feed for under 200 (vs 600+ for lnl and 650) The case feed is a marvel of simplicity. I'm hooked and think it is awesome. In theory, the primer tray is brilliant. no tedious loading of primer tubes: just a bump and a shake and you're ready to go.

Cons: setup is best done by tossing the directions and going over to loadmastervideos. There is a learning curve, but it's not much worse than for other progressives. While it is technically a 5 station press, since it primes at the top of the stroke you can't prime and decap at the same time, so effectively it is a 4 station press. (not a big deal for me since I run cast lead and don't factory crimp or separate crimp).............and priming. The real weakness with this press is the priming. Priming at the top of the stroke means you have very poor feel for the primer seating (I've crushed dozens of sideways primers) and the tray doesn't feed primers very well. Especially small primers. Lee has redesigned the primer feed mechanism a couple times in the past 5 years or so,and it is improved, but I still get maybe 1-2% failure rate with 9mm. .25% with 357's. (I think that is a primer pocket issue. 357's all have nice bevels around the primer pocket, whereas 9mm has all kings of weirdness going on: crimped pockets, bevel free pockets, tight pockets, lose pockets, you name it)

So if you can live with a little fiddling, money is tight, and especially if not loading 9mm, the loadmaster is a great press. If somebody offered me a straight up trade, my loadmaster for an lnl or 650 with case feed and a vibra prime tool I would take it in a heartbeat. If they offered me $500 to keep my press I would take the $500 in a heartbeat.

Load-Master Low-Down

I hope you don't mind if I throw my 2 cents in here. I reloaded with the Lee Classic "whack-it-with-a-plastic-hammer" Loader for years. I bought my first pistol last spring and found out I go through a lot more rounds with a pistol!! I've never even had a powder measure before - weighed every charge on my scale. I did have a Lee hand-priming tool.
So, I was in the market for a press. I looked at a Dillion 550B for a long time. Hand indexing, no case feeder or bullet feeder and it looked like at least a $750+ investment to me!! But I was pretty sure I wanted one.
I looked at the Load-Master - Reviews on Midwayusa showed people either loved it, or hated it. It was obvious to me that if you buy a Load-Master and expect it to work perfect out-of-the box, you were going to be disappointed!! And the priming system is the weak area, for sure.
And the reviews told me this: If you are mechanically inclined and have some patience, and don't mind tinkering with things, you'll be fine with a Load-Master. If you are not, then forget it. I've been a mechanic, and a machinist and I'm a Draftsman now in the engineering dept. here at work, and that Load-Master didn't scare me!! Plus, it went on sale at Midway for $215, with all the stuff to reload 45 acp. So, I ordered it!!
I'll finish this up in another post soon - break time is over here at work!

Load-Master Low-Down part 2

Well, I ordered a brand new Load-Master, and after it arrived I opened the box and studied the instructions. I mounted it to the bench and went on-line to loadmastervideo's and watched several pretty helpful video's and got the dies all set and primer depth adjusted correctly. I also bought the Lee expander die and the Factory Crimp Die too. So all 5 turret locations are used on my Load-Master. And remember, I was a total newbie with a press!!
A progressive press has a LOT of things going on at once!! One excellent suggestion loadmastervideo had was to just hand feed 1 piece of brass at a time and watch each operation and get used to how it works. So that's what I did. The very 1st piece of brass - it tipped and smashed the primer. I get it cleared and the same thing - tipped and smashed primer. After studying how the primer system works, I determined the primer arm pusher wasn't pushing the primer far enough under the brass. I took an bad piece of brass and drilled a bigger hole thru the primer pocket and I could see what was happening. I have a picture if I can figure out how to show it!!
This is the brass I drilled out:



This is looking down at the drilled brass at the priming station. No primer, but you can see the primer pusher is a little off center. I use the expander die here. It seems to keep everything aligned:



This is what a tipped primer looks like with the shell plate removed:



The next picture shows a black hex-shaped rod the points down and the ram is in full up. The rod is machined to a point and pushes the primer arm over and the primer arm locates the primer under the brass for priming.
Like this:



So, I need to modify the rod or primer arm to push the primer further under the case. So what was my master plan to fix this?? Well, I haven't yet... When I'm reloading, I just stick my finger in there and push the plastic primer arm in all the way!! So far, as long as I remember to do that, the priming system has worked literally 100% of the time!!
The only other issue I've had is most likely not the fault of my Load-Master. I've been using 700X powder and it's pretty coarse stuff. And the powder charge I'm using 4.1 grains. So I have to keep a good eye on the case to make sure it has the correct amount of powder before seating the bullet. Tapping the powder measure helps a lot, but I still have to watch for a light charge. I think most any powder measure would have trouble with such a light load of 700X - It's like trying to meter corn-flakes!! It was kind of hard to see in the case and I don't have that good of lighting in my reloading area. So, I fixed that with an Inline Fabrication 2 LED light set up. I totally recommend it for any turret press owner that wants to see what's going on under the turret.
A picture or two:





I can easily see the bottom of the case:



And one last thing. The case feeder - It's is a marvelous bit of engineering!! It works great!! I hand fed the first 500 or so rounds and then put the case feeder on. What a difference!! I haven't tried the bullet feeder yet so I can't say how well that works.
The case feeder:



So, to some this up, I totally love my Load-Master!! Compared to the way I was reloading, it's like a freakin' rocket-ship!! Is it for everybody? No it isn't. But, with a total of $350 invested, (including the light kit) I have an auto-indexing, case feeding reloading press that does everything I want! And for the price, I couldn't be happier with it. It does a lot more things than a Dillon 550B, for way less than 1/2 the price. The Load-Master is actually a pretty well designed yet simple reloading machine.
If you aren't mechanically inclined, and have no patience, look elsewhere. If you enjoy tinkering with mechanical things and have a little patience, you can't go wrong with the Load-Master. 2,500 rounds reloaded so far!!
Thank you for reading my posts here and if I can be any help to any Load-Master owners out there, just let me know!! And, If I strayed off-topic, I apologize.

jason, have you tried putting a piece of electrical tape on the primer assembly where it fits into the hole in the carrier to tighten it up? have you tried loosening the screw or putting a drop of oil on the o-ring for the primer arm assembly? that helped with mine.

I've been reloading for over 40 years and I've used several different presses. I have Lee presses, RCBS presses and I have a Dillon 550. All of them are good presses, but the Dillon 550 is by far the most versatile of them all. I load thousands of 9MM, 45 cal, 460 Mag. and .223 cartridges. I can change calibers in just over a minute and be loading. If I could have only one press it would be the Dillon 550. I can load over 500 rounds an hour with mine. I have recently add a Lee factory crimp die to all my setups and it makes a tremendous difference in my final product. My loads, except for minor markings from previous firings can not be identified from factory loads. The only problem I have had with my Dillon 550 was that with new brass or brass that has been really cleaned and polished good, I had a slight hang up in the powder/flaring position. I simply started lubing the inside of the necks with a little Hornady one shot lube and it's smooth sailing. This lube will not contaminated your powder or primers and it actually makes seating the bullet smoother.

Jason, I also have a Lee Load Master setup to load 9MM, and Lee Pro 1000, setup to load 45ACP. I agree with you, on the cost of a Load master vs a Dillon 550B, and they do a great job once you get all the kinks worked out. The Lee Load Master wasn't designed to load larger than .223. I do love my Lee Load Master, and for the price you can't beat it. As for your primer problem, save yourself a lot of time and aggravation. Take the primer system off, get a RCBS hand primer be done with it. You can hand prime 500 cases in a hour and enjoy a good TV show while your doing it. I hand prime everything, mostly because it gives me one last chance to look at my brass and I know all my primers are seated correctly. The number one cause of miss fire is a miss seated primer.
Happy Reloading and God Bless

Jason, I'm really glad you put your excellent post on here. I've ran a pro1000 for over 25 years (same one) and always wonder what the load masters were like.

I bought a LNL-AP and absolutely love it. I would love a Dillon 650XL also. Auto indexing for me is a must, once you get used to one there's no going back as far as I'm concerned.

I put a case feeder on my AP a year later and it was really good money spent.
But just have the AP with out the case feeder was the best thing I ever did. If your going to load a thousand at a time the case feeder is really nice. If you are going to load several calibers at one time of smaller amounts you don't really need the case feeder. Same holds true with Dillon and RCBS. This is my opinion but buying the base machine and using it to it's potential will tell you if you need a case feeder. Chances are you won't.

As far as using stick powders in the Hornady AP powder measure, I believe stick powders like IMR3031 size give all volumetric powder measures a fit.

I bought a Hornady Charge Master powder dispenser to take care of that one and still load rifle ammo on a RockChucker Single Stage. All my pistol rounds from 9mm up to 41mag get loaded on a auto progressive.

I can't make a recommendation of which press to buy between Hornady or Dillon but the only Lee press I'll ever buy will be the Lee Classic turret press.
I won't own another Lee auto progressive after owning a Hornady, and I would feel the same way if I would have bought a Dillon.

Load-Master Low-Down part 3

Thank you everyone for the wonderful posts!! Yes Greyling, I tried the piece of tape trick. I used masking tape and it did tighten the primer assembly up. And I put a little oil on the o-ring your talking about too. I found many suggestions on the internet, but none helped me out.
And ReloadOkie, I have a Lee handpriming set up too. But, as long as I give the primer arm a little push with my finger, it really does work every time!! I do forget to do it once in a while and sometimes it still primes ok but mostly it does not. So I am positive it's a matter of just getting that primer arm to put the primer a little further under the case. I have one or two ideas how to fix it, and neither are very complicated.
And I agree that Dillon and Hornady are probably better presses than the Load-Master. But they should be as reflected by their cost. I haven't had any experience with those two brands, and maybe I shouldn't. I might be better off if I don't know what I'm missing!!