1911user,
Here's the answers to your questions:
"I'm seriously considering selling the 550 setup and buying a basic hornady AP."
That's what I did and I've been happy with the choice.
"The issue that is driving the decision is powder checking for some rifle loading. I can't easily see inside each rifle case to verify powder; pistol is easy to verify. I'm not willing to compromise on the die setup for rifle loading from sized rifle cases and the dies take up all 4 stations on the 550. Loading everything else was fine on the 550; really, but seperate seating and crimping of rifle ammo and doing a powdercheck just doesn't fit with a decap die up first."
The good news is with the Hornady, it's a bit taller, so you can see a little bit better, but you're better off to order either an RCBS lockout die or a Dillon powder check setup. Yes, you can adapt the Dillon to the Hornady. I haven't done it, but I can see where with a little ingenuity you could.
"1) How hard/fast is it to feed cases by hand and place bullets to be seated?"
They both feed from the left, while your right hand remains on the handle. You can enhance this by building a "strong mount" and a shelf to hold Akro Bins for both your brass and bullets. If you have trouble visualizing it, send me a pm with your email address and I'll be glad to send you a picture of my setup. My setup increased my production by over a hundred rounds per hour easily, because everything was then "right there."
"2) How much die clearance does the ejector spring need? I'm ready to grind the bottom of the crimp dies a little for clearance, but I'm not replacing all of them."
This is ONLY an issue with LEE factory crimp dies, as far as I know. You can use your Dillon dies in the Hornady. Solutions for the Lee: 1. Grind of a little bit of the die on one side. 2. Bend the spring to clear 3. Do a little of both 4. If Hornady still has the old Projector ejector setup available for sale, it may be worth it to retrofit it, but I don't know that they do. I'm going to check at some point though.
"3) Is there a source for the case feeder for less than $240-$250; list price last year was $207. WTH happened to pricing on them?"
"Danged if I know. I was shocked at the rise in cost. Those electric motors must be expensive or something. I've actually been thinking of buying the "small parts" and adapting a Lee collator and tubes onto it.
"4) How reliable is the priming system on the newer APs? It looks similar to the 550 except at the rear of the press."
It's boringly reliable. You have to adjust the base and the "cambar" (If it isn't adjusted out of the box. BTW, use a tny little blue loctite on the nuts and the screw, let it dry, so things will remain after adjustment.) and once adjusted once, you're done. After that, it's boringly reliable and is very similar to Dillon's in design, just feeds to a different location. Get the
"5) Will older (shorter) Lee pistol dies fit into the bushings and have room for a lock ring?"
I don't know, but here's a solution for short lee dies: 1. Drill and tap the LnL bushings for a small set screw on a couple of sides. (I used three, but this may be overkill.) Put your die in and adjust it in the press. Use a set of slip joint pliers to unlock the bushing and remove it. Put a piece of leadshop in the hold, insert the setscrews and tighten them. You're done and you'll never have to do it again. I did this with my 9MM set for all the dies that were too short.
"6) Is having a basic powder die for each caliber enough to not require adjustments each time?"
I honestly don't know the answer to this, as I always check and adjust my powder measure at each setup. I do this because this is critical to accuracy and to safety. The Hornady LnL powder measure is extremely easy to adjust and you can note the setting you measure with a with a caliper in you reloading notebook to get quick and repeatable powder adjustments for each load.
I doubt you'd need additional powder dies, just a new expander for each caliber. But you could use them, if you wanted to avoid any die adjustment and powder adjustment at all. I'm not sure the expander version of the CAPD is out yet though. I recommend you hold out until it is available. The hold up is the spring.
Or, keep your Dillon measure for pistol and use the Hornady measure for rifle. This would be a nice thing. You can get the two springs to get rid of the "bar" and go back to the old style case activation from Brian Enos for four bucks. The Hornady is not reversible, so you don't have to worry about double charging the case from reversing the shellplate.
Hope all this makes sense,
Dave
