Progressive press shopping

T

tranders

New member
I have been loading on a Lyman turret for a few years with great success. Have to admit when loading pistol ammo 4 pulls for every round is getting old quick.
Been looking at reviews of different presses and it seems the Dillons have the best reviews and customer satisfaction. I keep asking myself do I really need that expensive of a press for what I do in the reloading room?
I am only going to use this progressive for pistol(9mm and 45acp). I deprime and prime off the press and only load maybe 2,500 rounds a year.

The majority of the issues I read about the Lee presses are the priming systems. Which for me wouldn't be an issue.So do I save money and go with the Lee?

I would appreciate some advice.

Thanks!
 
You really should get your hands on whatever one you are considering. For your use case I do not think you need the Dillon (any of them). As to Lee, their products vary. I did not like one Lee "progressive " I bought a few years ago. Progressive presses are complicated machines that generally require you to use "The machine's method". You said you want to prime off the press. So you need to make sure your press can handle primed cases, and remove the recapping pin from the sizing die which will resize brass again unless you remove it.
I also think Lee uses the term progressive rather loosely and interchangeably with auto-index. Pulling the handle 3 or 4 times for one round is NOT progressize. Compared to my MEC 12 g progressive, I felt the Lee was mickey mouse junkie. Some people can make them work for them. The Lee powder charging on their presses are another thing I did not like. Auto-whatever Lee dispensers are not Lyman #55. I would rather cycle a good measure everytime.
 
never used the Lee but I have a Hornady LnL AP that I have used to produce several thousand rounds with and I can tell you that the priming is the weak link on it also. If any spilled powder gets into the primer slide the operation will grind to a halt until it is cleaned. I have seen a number of threads over the years on Dillons primer assembly also which tell me the primer feeds are universally sensitive on these machines.

Since you are going to be priming and depinning off the press I would think the Lee would be a great choice
 
The Lee powder charging on their presses are another thing I did not like. Auto-whatever Lee dispensers are not Lyman #55. I would rather cycle a good measure everytime.
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I have been using my Uniflow with the turret press. Thought about using it for a progressive if enough room on tool head.
 
Not sure you need a progressive with that low of a round count per year. When I moved to a progressive I was loading 200/300 rounds a week.

I'm not a Lee fan and prefer anyone else to Lee. I'd bet you could find a used Lee progressive cheap. Hard to find a used Dillon cheap, they hold their value quite well. For what you want I'd probably choose a 550.

The priming system is the weak link on any progressive. You will learn quickly that any dirt will stop the priming system from operating smoothly.
 
I had a Lee 1000 Pro for years and it worked. They all have their quirks. I now have a Hornady LNL AP and it is faster etc etc but I load a lot more now. Dillons are good too.

Buy what your budget allows and learn to use it, any of them will have a learning curve.
 
You sound like a good candidate for a manual advance Dillon 550 system. Current basic version at $480 is the 550C. A complete caliber conversion runs around $88 which includes the caliber conversion kit, a toolhead, and a powder die (that the powder measure connects to). But yes, primer feed problems will occur from time to time, but nothing you can't live with. One way to minimize is to clean the sliding surfaces from time to time and even apply some lubricant to the surfaces.
 
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You will get many opinions on what you should spend your money on. I have an LNL that I load all my handgun loads on. I’ve used my friends 550 which I do not like as it is manual indexing but like his 650.
I’m not promoting or bashing any brand be it Dillon, Lee, Hornady, RCBS or whomever. The LNL has worked very well for me and if I decide to get another progressive I will be trying a Dillon 650. And you are right that pulling the handle that many times for one round gets old real fast.
I run all my brass through the case feeder and decap with a RCBS decapper then wet clean with pins. Also Prime on the press when loading as it’s much easier and faster than hand priming.
There are many good choices out there but you need to find what fits your budget and expectations.
 
A Dillon 550 or 650 would be a good choice for your pistol rounds. With either one, plus priming on the press, you may find you shoot a lot more and spend less time on the press. Personally, I like fast.
 
Dillon or LNL. I used both and it's really a personal preference. I prefer the LNL. Friends don't let friends buy Lee.
 
Be realistic. Run the numbers and know what the price is truly.

2500 rounds a year is not a dillon, unless just having it will make you happy. People drive cars and bikes that will go 180, and never leave the city, so...'murica and all that.

A 650 with case feeder and two full caliber changes(deluxe?) will run right past 4 digits, the base price for the press alone is not the true cost.
A 550 will push close to 4 digits set up the same way.

Even the LnL optioned up the same is not the bargain the base price makes one think it might be, the case feeder and bushings will push it right up to the 550 cost.

The BL Pro from Lee is brand new auto indexing progressive, but too new to know a lot as far as any or how many weak points. But the priming is one for sure since it is not automatic.

There aren't many other options out there between a manual turret(yuck) or the LCT and the big boys($) progressives.
 
I guess the plus point is with a 650, you'd only have to look at it one day a year, because 2500 rounds can be done in three hours if you have someone filling primer tubes for you.
Haha.
 
I suggest going to ebay and buying whichever used one you can for the least amount of money. For not decapping and priming on the press I don't think it really matters which press you use and you will only be using 2 or 3 stations. As far as this goes not priming on the press you could easily use a Lee Pro1000 with the primer station removed and it will work and there isn't but one adjustment to be made on it.

It's your money so spend it however you see fit. Again for what you are doing and the way you plan to use it any progressive press will work, it all comes down to how much money are you willing to spend!
 
Buy what ever you think will get the job done, or can afford. I own a 550 and a SDB.
Most products are good and work as advertised, but eventually you'll buy a Blue one if you stay in the hobby long enough.

My father always taught me to buy the best - buy once theory, so far it's worked well for me.
 
I'm currently loading around 2.5k handgun rounds a year as well. Though I didn't really "need" a progressive press, I decided to get one as a way to save time. At first I didn't save any time. It was initially very frustrating and it took awhile to get things set up and running smoothly. But now, I can set up for any one of five handgun calibers in about 5 minutes. Then load the powder measure and primer tube, and I'm ready.

I bought a Hornady L-N-L and after using it awhile consider it a reasonably good press for loading the handgun calibers I use. A similar setup for 2 calibers will run about $500 (plus dies), a little less if on sale (which it frequently is... somewhere). For about $40 more you can pick up another powder drop die and metering insert for the powder measure and speed up changeovers even more (to get to the 5 minute range). And for about $30 you can get a small bushing for the powder measure which meters small pistol charges better than the standard size.

I've also used a Dillon 550B, which is a very good press. I probably would have bought one of those, but I really wanted a 5 station press (and I use all 5 on the L-N-L).

I still use my single stage press for rifle loading and small runs of handgun rounds. But I have no interest in going back to loading those 2.5k rounds on the single stage. I like the progressive for that.
 
I keep asking myself do I really need that expensive of a press for what I do in the reloading room?
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Wait until you get married and see what your wife spends on shoes and purses. Then your kids shoes an purses, that don’t make your life any easier, except they are happy.

You won’t feel bad about having indulged yourself right now with good equipment, in retrospect.

Not to mention the Dillon’s I bought 33 years ago rare now worth over twice what I paid for them back then and still under warranty. All the rest have discontinued and obsoleted presses they made back then, Dillon has just upgraded mine over the years. Only thing I have had to pay for was shipping back to them when I have had them rebuild/upgrade them.
 
As GTOne and I have previously pointed out.
Your goal is 2500 rounds per year and even if we get generous and bump that up to 5000 rounds per year. For a progressive press that is really nothing in the scheme of things.

You also state your routine would not include de-priming or priming on the press which many people do and is fine if that is what you feel comfortable doing. But being tat the case you just eliminated one station from the progressive press.

So even the Lowly Lee Pro 1000 is capable of producing 200 rounds per hour and even more so since you have eliminated the priming step. So at this rate of production you could meet your goal in about 2 hours per month sitting at the bench. The rest of the year the equipment is just sitting there idle.

So you can go to ebay and find a used Pro 1000 for usually under $100.00 and have it sit for 80% of the year or you can go out and spend $500.00 to much more on any of the other presses and have that sitting idle.

Yes, I only shoot about 3000 rounds per year and there are times where the equipment sits unused for months at a time! So seriously I would rather buy another set of dies and a new gun than an expensive press that everyone thinks I may need some day just because they do.
 
http://dillonprecision.net/break-even-calculator/

Use that calculator and you can see how fast you will pay for your press. Obviously you are already reloading but non the less its a way to help understand the amortization of a press.

I went with the xl650 from dillion. Love it. I load probably close to 8k rounds a year and so far the only issues I've had were due to my own dumb buns moves. What ever you choose a progressive is sooo much better. Shoot more, load less, even if loading is fun.
 
Wow I see what you mean. I just did it using 9mm as an example at 200 rounds per month and the difference between a $500.00 press and a used $100.00 press went from 20 months to break even down to 4 months to break even!

The estimated 2500 rounds per year on any progressive press can easily be done at a rate of 250per day once a month that means he will meet his goal in just 10 days per year sitting at the press. So the other 355 days per year the press sits doing nothing!
 
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