Help choosing a press

[ssat1982]

Hello all. I have been reloading for a couple years on my lee classic turret. My current monthly totals are:

9mm- 1000-2000
.223- 500-1000 but would like to get to 1500ish
30 carb- 2000/year
30/06- 2000/year


I am looking to increase my production speed, while still being able to make quality ammo. I realize that everyone has a favorite and also realize that all presses have shortfalls. Lee loadmaster and pro 1000's seem to be too problematic for my liking. Pretty much narrowed down to

Dillon 550
Hornady LNL without casefeeder at first
Dillon 650 without casefeeder at first–––– top of my price range as well

Money is a factor with a young family and a new house, but I want what I buy to last


I have read all I could read, just looking for a little more up to date information and reviews to help with the decision.

Thanks

 

[greyling22]

have you read the article by the guy who spent a year with the loadmaster, 550 and lnl? I've posted it several times, but to summarize, while he liked the 550 a lot, he liked the lnl best. it compares most directly with the 650.

 

[ssat1982]

I have read that, it's found here :

http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillonLeeHornadyComparison.pdf

It's a very good read, but only from one person. I'm looking for a collective thought process

 

[dap22]

This question has as many answers as people polled. I can only say that when my 2 L-N-L's worked they worked great. I liked them but when all the dust settled and I got fed up with the glitches in the priming system, I went back to my old reliable Dillon 550's. That said, the L-N-L probably comes closer to the Dillon 650 in capacity and output. I guess you have to ask yourself what you expect from your hobby of reloading. For me it wasn't as much volume as it was and is painlessness. That's my .02 and I'm sure there are plenty of Hornady lovers who will say that the L-N-L priming system has no fault. Whatever you choose, good luck with it.

 

[ssat1982]

What kind of issues did you have with the LNL? I'm trying to figure out common problems and weigh the benefits vs costs

 

[kreidel]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=646801

 

[ssat1982]

I've read the thread.... Been lurking here for awhile. I see a lot of "just buy a 650" ,"hornady is crap" without a lot of explanation. Harder to find honest opinions than you think

 

[joed]

I've owned all Dillon equipment. Started with a 550, bought a used 1050, sold the 550 and bought a new 650.

The 550 was a nice press but had one fatal flaw that I didn't like. It has 4 stations and I want a powder check die in my progressive press. This is the only flaw I see with this press. Change over is fast and it produces ammo fairly fast at a rate of about 350 to 400 rounds an hour.

The 650 is a good press that has room for a powder check. To be honest my 650 is not much faster then the 550 I owned. It's just rock solid in producing ammo. Here's another press with one flaw, the priming system uses a wheel, miss a round and that primer is ejected. Other then then great press.

The 1050, I can't say enough about this one. There are no flaws at all. This bad boy can put out 1200 rounds an hour, knock out primer crimps and create piles of ammo in no time. My arm gives out after the first hour slowing me down.

I also prime on my presses and not with a hand primer. Which ever press you get add a powder check die, make sure it's solidly mounted or you'll have priming problems and keep it clean.

Never owned a Hornady but I have nothing against them. I've just had such great luck with Dillon that I'd have a hard time leaving.

One good thing about going Dillon. If you ever decide you don't want that press anymore I think you'd get your money out of it easy. I've watched the press prices go up every year.

I would also have no hesitation on buying a used press which are hard to find anymore. The 1050 I have was purchased for $900 and has not needed anything in 7 years.

When I looked at progressives I asked all brand owners what they thought of their presses. Lee owners said exactly what you did and told me to buy something else.

I looked at Hornady but there was one thing that bothered me with this press. Ask owners how many rounds their press can load in an hour. Out of 6 LnL owners not one could give me an answer, that suggested that they were spending a lot of time tinkering and not producing ammo.

 

[ssat1982]

See that's what I'm trying to find out,what are the most common issues. if I wanted to buy something that required alot of tinkering I'd get a loadmaster, or keep my Lee Turret

 

[BYJO4]

I've been very satisfied with my LNL. I bought it a little over one year ago and have loaded slightly more than 20,000 rounds with no problems. I do not use case or bullet feeders and produce 350 rounds an hour. The Dillon 1050 is the machine for high output based on everything that I read. Besides being out of my price range, I don't know how easy it is to change calibers on the 1050 which I do frequently on my LNL. I've also not had any problems with priming on my LNL.

 

[kingmt]

I have no problems from my Pro1000. I would suggest it if it wasn't for the 30-06. The Load Master looks really nice. I have seen the complaints about the priming system on this press but it seems most people that have the Hornday and Dillon complain about their priming system also.

I don't have the problems with the Pro1000 that other people complain about but I would like to upgrade to the Load Master myself. I have a LNL AP Ezject but haven't got to use it.

 

[ssat1982]

Really would like to here from more LNL owners....

 

[cfullgraf]

I have a Hornady L-N-L and two Dillon SDBs. I like all three. The Dillons are dedicated to 45 ACP and 9x19 respectively and i load nine other cartridges on the Hornady.

I like the flexibility of the Hornady. Except for the depriming station, I move dies around for doing the task at hand. I place dies differently for small batches than large and sometimes charge cases off the press when working up new loads.

This could be done with the Dillon 650, but not as convenient with the die plat as opposed to the L-N-L bushings.

My main preference is for auto index so that rules out the Dillon 550 for me.

Also, loading rifle on the progressive has not rung my bell, so except for 30 Carbine and some plinking 223 Remington, all my rifle cartridges are still loaded on a single stage.

You cannot go wrong with either the Hornady, Dillon or RCBS progressives.

 

[BunnMan]

I'm going to back up Cfull. I've been loading on a lyman 6-shooter turret I picked up used at a phenominal deal with a ton of reloading equipment. That press lit my obsession and the rest of the kit gave me a well equipped start. I owe alot to that machine and it still has a spot on the bench for most rifle reloading. Like you, I wanted more throughput so I picked uo the LNL...also coulsn't beat it at the time because they were running a promotion that got me 1000 free 180gr XTP's for my 44 . I only set it uo a few months back and have been conservatively ramping up my production rate. I'm more than cautious as not only am I concerned about my safety and that of my firearms, my daughter shoots my stuff too. I restled a bit with the priming system but it seems if you keep it clean after powder spills and give it a quick shot of Hornady one shot cleaner and dry lube every 500 or so it works well. The rifle rounds aren't the best fit for a progressive but you will still pick up some speed over a turret once your comfortable. I'm very satisfied with the LNL.

 

[Master Blaster]

After several years of owning both a 550 and a LNL, and loading on both side by side, I can still load faster on the 550, and as far as cost goes they both cost the same in my real world usage of them.

The LNL requires more tinkering to keep it working, I have broken a few parts on the LNL and even though I have loaded 10 times as many rounds on the 550, and had it three times as long, no parts have had to be replaced.

 

[Bowfishrp]

I have never owned a Dillon and have nothing against them but I really like my LNL because of the wide variety of ammo that I load. I might load a 308, 223, 9mm, and 45 over several different weekends depending on what I have for bullets laying around. Considering I also load 30 carbine, 44, 40sw, 30-06, 38, 357 and 380 I LOVE that the dies pop off with their bushings and remember right where I left them. Since I dont own but one powder drop for the LNL, that is the toughest part of caliber changes. Swapping small and large primer setup is not a big deal at all.

 

[ssat1982]

I would say its between the 550 and the LNL. The 650 while nice would cost a mint to get set up. How easy is it to remove the case feeder for the 550 to load rifle? Or is it even worth it to get it for the 550?

 

[GT1]

I spent a good amount of time reading before plunking down the $ required for one of these super presses.
Hornady has a great series of videos on the LnL AP from unboxing to casefeeder install and ezject upgrading. It looks like a fine press and Hornady is a great company as far as I can tell.
There is a priming issue that affects many, that being some folks are having trouble seating them all the way. Many will say "My LnL works great", but the fact is a web search will bring up quite a few posts scattered acoss the www from frustrated owners on the issue. That kept me away. :/

The Dillon 650 does not lend itself to hand feeding cases one at a time. It has the shuttle system(The mechanism that shoves the case in to the shell plate) installed with a casefeeder in mind. Feeding cases into the tube up away from where the action is would be slow. The carousel priming system is complicated compared to other presses, it works well however. Sympathetic detonation of primers can happen on this press a little easier than others because the carousel is full of them, though tube primer feeds lend themself to this in any press.
I don't think anyone will argue that Dillon has a great warranty and CS is the same.

Any progressive press must be kept clean and one must pay attention at all times. There is a lot going on and if you miss something not feeling right and keep pulling the handle mistakes are amplified.

I went with the 650 and casefeeder, it is really a fine press and while I have no long term experience with it, it has worked perfectly out of the box in the month I've had it. It can go way faster than I can.

There isn't a lot of difference in $ once one decks out the LnL to match the 650. Neither is cheap once you start adding conversions and extra powder measures, etc etc..

I am not familiar with the 550 because manual index did not interest me.
My closest friend at my pistol club has one with a casefeeder and Mr bullet feeder, he can crank out 1000 an hour sustained(One only needs to advance and pull). He has a machinist's touch and eye and is a uspsa grand master in open class. He has a lot of trust in his equipment.

If I loaded 30-06 and 30 carbine, I'd probably leave them to the classic turret. You can easily meet your needs for them on that press. Playing with bigger bottle neck cartridges and lube through your progressive isn't as great as it sounds, I'll wager(Unless one has the $1600 1050, maybe).

I have the classic turret(A really fine press), I'd keep it for load development and the smaller batches of rifle and whatever.

 

[MCMXI]

I've used an RCBS PiggyBack II on a RockChucker since '95 and have loaded hundreds of thousands or rounds without any breakages or problems and yet the PB is supposed to be a POS. I bought an L-N-L last year and have loaded 10,000 + rounds on it with zero issues and yet they're supposed to be finicky and hard to use. I'll be buying another L-N-L as soon as BSS has them back in stock. I've used a 650 and they're excellent presses but the L-N-L is all I'll ever need to make top quality ammunition at a production rate that is acceptable to me. I probably make 300 to 400 rounds an hour at a very comfortable rate but I like slow and steady. If you're some kind of idiot whose biggest concern is production rate above all else then you can expect issues regardless of the press you buy. I don't want to shoot around those people because I don't like digging shrapnel out of my head!

 

[ssat1982]

I thought about keeping the Turret but would like to find a press that can do it all..or is that a pipe dream?

 

[GT1]

I thought about keeping the Turret but would like to find a press that can do it all..or is that a pipe dream?

I think it depends on you and your expectations. Most people probably aren't fans of loading up 300 rounds of a given caliber and changing out to another very often day in day out. It is not the forte of a progressive, their forte is cranking out rounds, a lot of rounds.

Many would never think of loading 30-06 on such a thing and would insist of single stage loading so they can lovingly and carefully craft each round.

Personally, I think progressives are for pistol folks and AR .223 guys that eat up a lot of rounds.

Now, if you plan on loading all your 30-06/30 carbine in one go, once per year, might be different and worthwhile.

 

[ssat1982]

That's how I do it, when I load I load 1k at a time...2 hours sound better than 7

I do load .223 for NRA high power, so the ability to maintain consistency is important

 

[Blue68f100]

I have the LNL-AP for over 4 yrs now with the case feeder, added after the 1st year. I did the upgrade to the EZ-Eject system, what a change, well worth it. Like most I had some problems, but all were related to NOT being Adj correctly. Once the indexing is dialed in, Primer system setup properly it runs smooth. Like the Dillon if you don't adj the press right it will not run smoothly. Most of the problems related to seating primers I have not had. My press does have a dimple in the base, but it had not caused any problems related to seating primers. I have loaded over 20k rounds of 9mm, 3k 45acp and some 308 and rem 7mm Mag. Hornady CS has been great every time I have needed to call them. They ship parts out quickly if needed. They also listen to the end users and make mods as good solutions are found. The 9mm PTX is one that did not work at all when it first came out. I talked directly to the engineer what what I found and a solution that would work. He modified a part for me and sent it out in less than a week. The mod implemented was made perminate as part of the next production run. Old parts were modified so they would work till the new ones were available. Some user here on THR have come up with some great fixes and work a rounds for other issues.

Change over is cheaper and faster than the Dillon. Most Dillon users buy enough parts to do a complete tool head, which includes powder dispenser. You can do a similar thing with the LNL without buying extra powder dispensers. Just add the Powder die, then you only switch the dispenser over. Since the die is preset all you need to do is adj the powder drop. Of course with the LNL Bushing systems change dies are painless. Even changing the primer size is pretty quick. The hardest part is screwing in the primer seater punch/die into the base. It's hard to see so you normally go by feel.

Since you said without the brass feeder, I will not mention the tweeks you need to make it run smooth. I have mine well it will run at 1000/hr rate even though it can not hold that much. I get this rate when I use it for depriming for liquid cleaners. From what I here the Dillon is a little better case feeder on the 650, not so with the 550b option.

If I had to do it again I would still pick the Hornady LNL-AP.

 

[Hondo 60]

If cost is an issue, how about looking for a 2nd hand Dillon?

The warranty is lifetime of the company, not an original owner.

I have a 2nd hand (sort of).
The person I bought it from had it in the box for 17 years & never used it.
And yes, I feel VERY fortunate!

I've gotten parts from Dillon that were my screw up, but they replaced them free anyway!

I thought about keeping the Turret but would like to find a press that can do it all..or is that a pipe dream?

It's a pipe dream - the closest do-it-all is probably a Dillon 650, but to do-it-all you need lots of accessories.
That'll probably run you about $1,500.00

 

[ssat1982]

Do they not have a fix for the divots from the priming system with the LNL?