jamz
Member
Sorry John, old email address in my profile. Email sent from current one. 
-James
-James
progressive reloader ; lee or Dillon
- Thread starter sandy4570
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Paul_Gauthier
Member
Old newcomer
Hi. I found this forum tonight and did no realize that I was already registered, my last visit was in October 2003. I have been reading this thread with great interest. There are some noticably strong opinions on presses. Let me add mine.
When I started reloading my first press was a Lee Pro 1000 bought it when they first came out. Loaded many thousands of rounds on it, still have it and in fact I have two, I had three and I'll explain shortly. I liked it so when the Loadmaster came out I bought one right away. Bigest mistake of my life. Worst POS I have ever used. Had for about 6 months, didn't get 100 usable round in that whole time. On the phone with Lee repeatedly, sent it back twice, no improvement. The priming system is it's worst feature, there is a reason why every other manufacture primes cases on the rams downstroke, not on the upstroke when all other actions are also being done. Finaly sold for less that half of what I paid for just to get rid of it. Its been years and that guy still won't talk to me.
6 years ago my long time shooting buddy died suddenly, and since I was the one who got him into shooting his wife gave me his reloading equipment. It consisteed of 2 Pro 1000's (I sold one, that's how I came to have two) and a Dillion 650, and a whole gazuntaload of stuff. I did not set up the Dillion right away, took about a year. But when I did I was very pleased. This press is so easy to use, so smooth, and it has never failed to date. I have since aquired several caliber changes for pistol and rifle. I keep it lubed and clean, within reason I am not fanatical, and it just keeps loading perfect rounds. Something that I could never say about my Lees. I was always fixing this or replacing that especialy those damn plastic ratchets and gears. I still use the Lees for 9mm and 380. and I have five other presses for other cals. one is a Rockchucker with a piggy back 2 conversion. I load 357's on that one, a very good press.
I hope this wasn't too long a boring but it's just my 02 about this subject.
Hi. I found this forum tonight and did no realize that I was already registered, my last visit was in October 2003. I have been reading this thread with great interest. There are some noticably strong opinions on presses. Let me add mine.
When I started reloading my first press was a Lee Pro 1000 bought it when they first came out. Loaded many thousands of rounds on it, still have it and in fact I have two, I had three and I'll explain shortly. I liked it so when the Loadmaster came out I bought one right away. Bigest mistake of my life. Worst POS I have ever used. Had for about 6 months, didn't get 100 usable round in that whole time. On the phone with Lee repeatedly, sent it back twice, no improvement. The priming system is it's worst feature, there is a reason why every other manufacture primes cases on the rams downstroke, not on the upstroke when all other actions are also being done. Finaly sold for less that half of what I paid for just to get rid of it. Its been years and that guy still won't talk to me.
6 years ago my long time shooting buddy died suddenly, and since I was the one who got him into shooting his wife gave me his reloading equipment. It consisteed of 2 Pro 1000's (I sold one, that's how I came to have two) and a Dillion 650, and a whole gazuntaload of stuff. I did not set up the Dillion right away, took about a year. But when I did I was very pleased. This press is so easy to use, so smooth, and it has never failed to date. I have since aquired several caliber changes for pistol and rifle. I keep it lubed and clean, within reason I am not fanatical, and it just keeps loading perfect rounds. Something that I could never say about my Lees. I was always fixing this or replacing that especialy those damn plastic ratchets and gears. I still use the Lees for 9mm and 380. and I have five other presses for other cals. one is a Rockchucker with a piggy back 2 conversion. I load 357's on that one, a very good press.
I hope this wasn't too long a boring but it's just my 02 about this subject.
jamz
Member
Welcome (back) to THR, Paul! Where the heck is Linwood?
John, did you getmy email?
-James
John, did you getmy email?
-James
jdkelly
Member
Sorry, Jamz I've been busy the last few days.
Jamz,
I did get your e-mail I was going to answer it on Monday or Tuesday.
Read your Lymann reloading book and read your set up instructions for your 550. Nice press by the way.
As most places will not ship to Mass the best stores to pick up bullets, primers and powder would be either Four Seasons in woburn, or Collectors in Stoneham.
http://fsguns.com/
http://www.collectorsguns.com/
I'd suggest you buy WWB and save the brass to reload.
E-mail me with what you've got ordered and I'll send you a list of what I think you l should have, and why.
GO PATS!!!
Respectfully,
jdkelly
Jamz,
I did get your e-mail I was going to answer it on Monday or Tuesday.
Read your Lymann reloading book and read your set up instructions for your 550. Nice press by the way.
As most places will not ship to Mass the best stores to pick up bullets, primers and powder would be either Four Seasons in woburn, or Collectors in Stoneham.
http://fsguns.com/
http://www.collectorsguns.com/
I'd suggest you buy WWB and save the brass to reload.
E-mail me with what you've got ordered and I'll send you a list of what I think you l should have, and why.
GO PATS!!!
Respectfully,
jdkelly
TooTaxed
Member
I have a Loadmaster I bought secondhand...had to replace the priming system and other plastic parts to get it working. I don't like the plastic parts, which get stress and wear. Still do most of my reloading on "the poor man's progressive"...two or three single stage presses set up side by side, each with a different stage die, which works rather well. Have reloaded on a friend's Dillon 550B...don't like the obsolete design of the powder measure and the high expense of changing cartridges (I load about a dozen). Just found out the Hornady Lock-N-Load progressive is on sale at Midway for $300 ($40 off)...am ordering one. The modern design powder measure, clean handling of spent primers, and lower cost to change cartridges makes this decision a no-brainer.
Dillon presses have been at the top of the heap for many years, and I seriously considered getting one...but they really need to modernize their 550-B. $39 plus shipping is simply too expensive to change cartridges, plus the inefficiency of changing the powder measure...my buddy bought three powder measures ($62 each!) to avoid the hassle.
Dillon presses have been at the top of the heap for many years, and I seriously considered getting one...but they really need to modernize their 550-B. $39 plus shipping is simply too expensive to change cartridges, plus the inefficiency of changing the powder measure...my buddy bought three powder measures ($62 each!) to avoid the hassle.
jamz
Member
Well, the Dillon is set up, more or less, it took an evening of pouring through the directions and trying to learn the operation as well as the assembly, and trying to infer a couple of things in there as well about the operation.
My darn manuals haven't gotten here yet, so I've still not bought powder primers or bullets, but it's set up as much as I can with resizing, primer punching, belling and crimping. I can see how caliber switching is a choice of either expensive and quick, or less expensive and quite slow, but not both.
My darn manuals haven't gotten here yet, so I've still not bought powder primers or bullets, but it's set up as much as I can with resizing, primer punching, belling and crimping. I can see how caliber switching is a choice of either expensive and quick, or less expensive and quite slow, but not both.
sandy4570
Member
After reading the thread with lot and lot of helpful personal experiences and information , I decide to go with the turret press .It arrive yesterday and it took me half an hour to assemble the thing and started crank up 3 rounds before the woodend board broke , I move the press in to garage and finally load 300 rounds of .45 ACP before the bullets ran out. I am quite happy with the press - it has the simpliclity of Lee product that I grown to love and also come with a few quirkiness . I use Lee reloading manual so the powder dispensing system will be compatible with whatever the charge I choose. The really major problem now is I run out of bullet to load ,I guess once I can solve this bullet shortage problem I will start thinking about getting that blue high speed , low drag machine . Thank everyone for the inputs that help me make inform decision .
Just a comment on the Hornady progressive loader: After several comments here and other places, I looked carefully at them on a few websites. Hornady's website wasn't that useful for providing detailed info about any of their products and that's a shame since Hornady makes good equipment in my experience. MidwayUSA was useful, especially the reviews and links to related products. From what I found out, the dillon 550B and Hornady progressive are actually quite similar in cost and capability.
The big difference is the hornady can use a casefeeder (another $150-200) now. Dillon showed a prototype casefeeder for the 550 at the SHOT shot recently, but it'll be in the $220-240 range and available in Fall2005; neither is cheap.
The hornady is a 5 station press and the dillon 550 is a 4 station, but the dillon expands the case mouth and drops powder in a single station. The hornady uses seperate stations to expand the case mouth and drop powder. The 5th station advantage isn't an advantage because there's no easy way to add a powder check die while having seperate seating and crimping stations. The Dillon 650 is a 5-station press and uses the same powder system as the 550 so it DOES have an open station for a powder check die. It seems there are limits on what dies can be used in the 5th station of the hornady and the Lee FCD (a popular finishing die) won't work easily there.
Conversion costs seem to favor the Hornady, but not by that much. Shellplates from both cost about $25. The powder funnel that dillon uses (to make a 4 station press work) isn't required for the hornady since the expander die from the die set is used. Both presses use powder dies that require adjustment and should probably have 1 per caliber; about $10 each. Dillon has toolheads that holds a calibers-worth of 4 dies for $13 where hornady has "locking bushings" that are about $3.30 each in bags of 10. 4 bushings would be required for each pistol caliber; call it a draw at $13. Dillon uses locator buttons ($1 each) that hornady doesn't seem to use, so maybe $3 savings there. One thing to realize is you don't have to buy a complete conversion kit for every new caliber on a dillon 550 IF you have a powder funnel, shellplate, or locater buttons that are required for the new caliber; the parts can all be bought individually although it is nice having everything for a caliber in little plastic case. Conversion/setup charts show what is common and what is different for loading different calibers.
The other serious difference is manual vs. auto-indexing which doesn't make a noticable difference unless you have a case feeder. Dillon hasn't said anything about auto-indexing a 550 to go along with the new case feeder, but it wouldn't be hard (I thought of a way) and I wouldn't be surprised if it became an option with a case feeder. No inside info here; just speculation on what could be done.
After the comparision, I decided to keep my Dillon 550 setup because changing over to the hornady would have saved very little, if any, money for me. I also think the dillon powder measure is a better design for progressive loading. I have the hornady measure and it's a great bench-top measure. Mine is old enough that it came with the micrometer adjustments standard (now they are costly accessory).
Either will work, figure what you really need now and where you'd like to be reloading-wise in 5-10 years then make your choice. If you choose wrong, there is always ebay
The big difference is the hornady can use a casefeeder (another $150-200) now. Dillon showed a prototype casefeeder for the 550 at the SHOT shot recently, but it'll be in the $220-240 range and available in Fall2005; neither is cheap.
The hornady is a 5 station press and the dillon 550 is a 4 station, but the dillon expands the case mouth and drops powder in a single station. The hornady uses seperate stations to expand the case mouth and drop powder. The 5th station advantage isn't an advantage because there's no easy way to add a powder check die while having seperate seating and crimping stations. The Dillon 650 is a 5-station press and uses the same powder system as the 550 so it DOES have an open station for a powder check die. It seems there are limits on what dies can be used in the 5th station of the hornady and the Lee FCD (a popular finishing die) won't work easily there.
Conversion costs seem to favor the Hornady, but not by that much. Shellplates from both cost about $25. The powder funnel that dillon uses (to make a 4 station press work) isn't required for the hornady since the expander die from the die set is used. Both presses use powder dies that require adjustment and should probably have 1 per caliber; about $10 each. Dillon has toolheads that holds a calibers-worth of 4 dies for $13 where hornady has "locking bushings" that are about $3.30 each in bags of 10. 4 bushings would be required for each pistol caliber; call it a draw at $13. Dillon uses locator buttons ($1 each) that hornady doesn't seem to use, so maybe $3 savings there. One thing to realize is you don't have to buy a complete conversion kit for every new caliber on a dillon 550 IF you have a powder funnel, shellplate, or locater buttons that are required for the new caliber; the parts can all be bought individually although it is nice having everything for a caliber in little plastic case. Conversion/setup charts show what is common and what is different for loading different calibers.
The other serious difference is manual vs. auto-indexing which doesn't make a noticable difference unless you have a case feeder. Dillon hasn't said anything about auto-indexing a 550 to go along with the new case feeder, but it wouldn't be hard (I thought of a way) and I wouldn't be surprised if it became an option with a case feeder. No inside info here; just speculation on what could be done.
After the comparision, I decided to keep my Dillon 550 setup because changing over to the hornady would have saved very little, if any, money for me. I also think the dillon powder measure is a better design for progressive loading. I have the hornady measure and it's a great bench-top measure. Mine is old enough that it came with the micrometer adjustments standard (now they are costly accessory).
Either will work, figure what you really need now and where you'd like to be reloading-wise in 5-10 years then make your choice. If you choose wrong, there is always ebay
Paul_Gauthier
Member
Location
Hi Jamz
Linwood is loacated on Rt. 122. It is a part of Northbridge. About 15 miles north of RI. border.
Hi Jamz
Linwood is loacated on Rt. 122. It is a part of Northbridge. About 15 miles north of RI. border.
Guy B. Meredith
Member
The Hornady has a micrometer adjustment for the powder die that is very consistent between settings. No need to have multiple dies for multiple calibers. I can go from one powder to another on the micrometer setting alone and have found this convenient when I wanted to check out several different powders in a run. I always check the weight of the first couple of rounds just to make sure nothing has changed, but they are boringly consistent.
Three bushings are needed per caliber change on the Hornady if you are using a powder check die and combination seat/crimp die. Both the powder check and the powder drop die are the same die for all calibers. That makes the cost of bushings a total of about $10 per die set at LockStock.com.
Three bushings are needed per caliber change on the Hornady if you are using a powder check die and combination seat/crimp die. Both the powder check and the powder drop die are the same die for all calibers. That makes the cost of bushings a total of about $10 per die set at LockStock.com.
I see a distinct advantage to seating and crimping bullets in seperate stations so a powder check would not be applicable to me. That makes it 4 bushings per caliber for my (and probably many others) use (sizer, expander, seater, crimper). Also by your method, a 550 would be able to use a powder check die also, but I've never heard of it being done that way. I'll stick with a visual check before placing a bullet. I do see the Hornady press as competition for the 550, unlike the loadmaster.
From what I was reading (midway), it looked like there was some critical adjustment(s) on the die that activates the powder drop. It was listed an advantage to have a seperate powder activation die for each caliber to avoid having to readjust this everytime. Was the listing wrong? That is what I was calling a "powder die" and, like the dillon, you aren't required to a have a seperate one for each caliber, but it's more convienent to do so.
What is the restriction on dies in the 5th station of the hornady? The references were the Lee FCD being difficult/impossible to use there. I wasn't able to find good, close-up pictures of the press from different angles. I certainly haven't seen enough detail on the web to buy one if I was looking for another press. Maybe I'm just fussy about wanting to see good pictures and descriptions before buying something, but the lack of serious reviews and online documentation surprise me. Dillon does very well in this part of the marketing. And with comparable products, marketing has a major impact on success/failure of a product.
From what I was reading (midway), it looked like there was some critical adjustment(s) on the die that activates the powder drop. It was listed an advantage to have a seperate powder activation die for each caliber to avoid having to readjust this everytime. Was the listing wrong? That is what I was calling a "powder die" and, like the dillon, you aren't required to a have a seperate one for each caliber, but it's more convienent to do so.
What is the restriction on dies in the 5th station of the hornady? The references were the Lee FCD being difficult/impossible to use there. I wasn't able to find good, close-up pictures of the press from different angles. I certainly haven't seen enough detail on the web to buy one if I was looking for another press. Maybe I'm just fussy about wanting to see good pictures and descriptions before buying something, but the lack of serious reviews and online documentation surprise me. Dillon does very well in this part of the marketing. And with comparable products, marketing has a major impact on success/failure of a product.
Guy B. Meredith
Member
The only adjustment for the powder drop other than metering is long case vs short case. Reset the actuator arm to another notch and replace the cylindrical portion with parts provided with the press.
The fifth station is at the case ejection point and non-Hornady seating dies may not clear the ejection wire. Some have made modifications with a file on other dies to provide the clearance, when I was testing out RCBS dies vs Hornady I just ejected manually.
I have a modification used by one reloader to use a Lyman die piece to combine powder drop and case expansion, but it is not approved by Hornady and I have not tested it. That would be a nice feature for Hornady to add.
The fifth station is at the case ejection point and non-Hornady seating dies may not clear the ejection wire. Some have made modifications with a file on other dies to provide the clearance, when I was testing out RCBS dies vs Hornady I just ejected manually.
I have a modification used by one reloader to use a Lyman die piece to combine powder drop and case expansion, but it is not approved by Hornady and I have not tested it. That would be a nice feature for Hornady to add.
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