Progressive press... Need opinions on the different models available

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I will comment again that, if you are going to use lead bullets, skip the bullet feeder that mates with the press and shop around for a specialty unit better suited to those bullets. Mr. Bullet Feeder might be one. I am happy with the Bully adapter with four tubes with which I can load up about 100 before a manual refill. I discovered quickly that on the LNL with the LNL die adapters I just pop out the whole die to reload the tubes. That saves major money over the electric motorized feeder, which wouldn't work anyway. You would be making a commitment to plated or jacketed bullets, and for a revolver the plated would compromise your crimp without a groove.
 
I use GSI bullet feeders with my cast bullets. I use the same homemade collators on my automated bullet sizers that I do on my reloading presses.

I have also found bullet feeders without a collator don't really speed up the process. If you are manually orienting a bullet base down over a hole, case or tube, you are going to spend more time than if a machine does it for you.

This is my 45 acp cast bullet collator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eANEMBS_V_0

This is the 9mm one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cc1hUj343w

They are the same two collators in the videos I posted of the 650's above, both are made from 6" PVC pipe and 1/2" plastic.
 
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GSI bullet feeders
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It appears that is for Dillon only. Mr. Bullet Feeder doesn't do revolver calibers, so it wouldn't suit me. The Hornady does offer bullet feed revolver caliber dies for 38/357 and 44 Spl/Mag (all jacketed/plated). Those limitations are why I use the Lee bullet feeder with the Bully adapter on the LnL AP, having no issue with coated lead bullets for my revolvers. The 38/357 is the only setup I would do for revolver because of volume. The rest get loaded on the Lee turret in mostly 100 round batches, since caliber change effort and time is negligible, with all settings preserved.
 
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Yes, like I said above, the only two presses you can have separate seat, crimp, case feed, bullet feed and powder check are the 650 and 1050.
 
Yes, like I said above, the only two presses you can have separate seat, crimp, case feed, bullet feed and powder check are the 650 and 1050.
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How does the 650 do that separate crimp with only 5 stations?
 
Station:
1 sizes/deprimes
2 seat primer and powder drop/expand
3 powder check
4 feed and seat
5 crimp

Most all of the other feeders just drop a bullet onto a case, the GSI feeds the bullet right under the seat die (inside the tool head) so both operations are done in the same station.

Other benefits are that a bullet can never fall off the case moving to the seating station and because the bullet is held perfectly at the seater itself you can get away with almost zero bell on the case.

This is how little I use loading my cast and coated bullets with a GSI feeder.

IMG_20131009_114251_812_zps9121a3df.jpg
 
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Jmorris how much you got into that 1050 to be able to do that?
Not counting time or the base machine around $600 in that one.

The loading 1050's are more time and money because of the PLC and connecting the sensors up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrFhnDQ-eUU


Wow I would have thought more than that. Course to get that 1050 up here would be close to $3000.00.
 
That makes me want a 650 just to be compatible with that feeder (buy the horse to get the cart), except the price of the bullet feeder, like everything in reloading, is hard to accept and justify. One would need Santa Claus for something like that GSI feeder. I am not constantly loading thousands of competition rounds, or it would make more sense for me.
 
Ford or Chevy take your pick. As a Hornady owner I respect any persons choice. I find it consistent that the Dillon guys appear to have some dis stain for other press users
 
I just went back to reloading after a 15 year break. I looked at Dillon and Hornady very closely. Watched a lot of YouTube videos on both machines. I especially watched the video on the problems with both brands. Both have their own idiosyncrasies.

I went with the Hornady L-N-L Ammo Plant (with the bullet feeder and pistol case feeder). I've had it setup for the last week making sure everything is working correctly and love it so far. I'll be reloading 45ACP and 45 Colt to start with. Eventually I'll be reloading 308 and possibly 5.56/223. With the Hornady there is no tool heads to buy. My dies are equipped with the die bushings. Once the die is adjusted and locked down to the die bushing, a quarter turn and it comes out of the press head. When you put it back in there is no readjustment needed. Much faster conversions. I can take out all the dies but the sizer/decapper and batch process rounds very quickly. Then put the dies back in and load them up. Plus the Hornady parts and bits and pieces are less expensive than Dillon. The quality seems to be pretty much equal from what I can see. They are both good machines but like guns everyone has to make their own choice. I'm very happy with it so far!!! YMMV
 
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Congrats on your ammo plant mate. If you have pawl timing issues as you break it in there are great you tube videos that show you the fine tuning,,,10 mins of work at best, congrats on a great press,,,

thewelshm
 
Hi Welshm,

I already had to re-time it. Figured it out on my own and then found the YouTube videos later!!! The shell plate was moving about 3/8" short of the amount needed. An easy fix once you done it.
 
I looked at Dillon and Hornady very closely. Watched a lot of YouTube videos on both machines. I especially watched the video on the problems with both brands. Both have their own idiosyncrasies.
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This!
The trick is to decide which idiosyncrasy you can deal with best.:cool:
 
I think it just comes down to aptitude, some people may not have the mechanical skills to set up the LnL.

If more people find the Dillon easier to use, then that shows it to be a well thought out design, that is easy to use. That doesn't automatically make it better, not taken on its own anyway.
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Both the Dillon and the LNL (as well as the RCBS too) take about the same amount of aptitude to set up. All are very good machines that will produce high quality ammo if you take the time to learn to use them, set them up properly and maintain them during use.

Dillon is popular because they have been around the longest by far, and for a while were the only progressive manufacturer. There really is no other reason than that - they were smart, made a product and did a lot of up front marketing when there was absolutely no market to compete in at all. And because of that, they have a deep and loyal following.

Hornady makes a great product (I have one). Never had any major issues with it that were not user induced. I don't have the bullet feed or case feed option, but it hasn't slowed me down much. I'm not into quantity as much as I am quality - and even manually loading the case and projectile, i'm easily in the 300 rounds per hour range when I get a good rhythm going and i make sure I have all of my components available and handy. And my machine hasn't gotten the memo that you cannot load full length rifle on it either, because I've loaded .30-06 and .45-70 on it with nary an issue in addition to the pistol rounds and .223 rounds galore.

Honestly - write "LNL" and "Dillon" each on a piece of paper, fold them up and toss them in a hat. Pick one. You won't go wrong either way.
 
You're no doubt right on making a selection but try not to succumb to second guessing yourself with buyer's remorse, thinking instead that you should have bought the other one, especially the first time that something goes astray with the tool you bought. Just imagine that something worse would have happened with the other tool. It just seems to be 50/50 between the Dillon and the LNL although I'm more of a Dillon proponent.
 
Hornady makes a great product (I have one). Never had any major issues with it that were not user induced. I don't have the bullet feed or case feed option,
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The more complexity you add, the more problems you invite. I like my LnL AP but did have to upgrade some parts along the way. Mine is about 5 years old. I have a case feeder but can't use the motorized bullet feeder because of lead bullets, and cannot justify the substantial prices of the alternative aftermarket bullet feeders. The machine did work quite well when manually placing cases. There is just a lot less motion and perhaps stress when at least the case is coming in automatically from the case feeder addition.
 
Dillon is popular because they have been around the longest by far, and for a while were the only progressive manufacturer. There really is no other reason than that
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Tell that to folks that have an old Hornady pro 7 or pro-jector or RCBS 4x4, piggy back 3 and 4 (or soon to be in the same boat pro 2000) that are scrap now that they can't get replacement parts, even if they wanted to pay for them.

Then talk to guys that have 30 year old Dillon machines that are still in service and if something breaks Dillon still sends out the parts to fix them for free.

Doesn't make a difference if they were the first progressive press (they were not) or the last. If they were crap they would have gained that reputation by now.
 
Continued parts support is a big deal,and good for Dillon for keeping it up.


The smaller space needed for conversion storage is something I have seen a few people mention about the LnL press. And that was a pro I considered.

Still thinking Dillon is the direction I will go.

Getting ready to pull the trigger on it... So to speak.


Loading 9mm and 223, it will take longer to make up the cost of the press than it would with other rounds, but I will be attempting to get some decently accurate 223 which may speed up the payback. I have some 75gr nosler custom comp bullets to try out.
 
If interested in seeing a Hornady LnL AP with bullet (lead) and case feeder in your area, give me a PM.

What is the word on feeding lead bullets to the 650?

Not sure about lead... I use plated bullets anyway.

The 650 is manual bullet feed, and will likely stay that way for a while.
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Then you would be good to go on the Hornady Ammo Plant. But if the fiancé somehow gets to make the call on this, favoring the 650XL, what's to discuss further? That would be a good choice, assuming you don't cut back and leave some major feature out, bullet feeder, for example.
 
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