Progressive press shopping

When I started shooting IPSC I was shooting around 100 rounds a day and was loading that on a Rockchucker. Admittedly it got old fast but I could do it in about an hour after developing a routine.

I found a LNIB Dillon 450 for a good price and never looked back. I loaded on it until I hit 25K rounds a year and that eventually got old. I then early adopted the Dillon 1050. Mine was so early an example my owners manual is photo copied.

It's your time and money. Only you can balance the worth of the two.
 
tranders said:
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!
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I've had the older version of the Pro 1000, and have the Loadmaster. Priming issues and indexing problems with both.

At this point I prime off press, and find the Loadmaster much smoother to use without the priming step.

The way the Loadmaster advances the shellplate is "funky". If it starts to not work, take it apart, clean & lube, and reassemble. 5 minute job.

Lee has a new progressive, that's had very good reviews so far. I haven't seen one in the flesh, but I am interested in getting one.

Lee has also redesigned the Pro 1000. No experience with the new one, but it looks like shellplate indexing should be more reliable.
 
joed said:
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. .
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I might be trying to find a home for my Loadmaster. Just sayin'.
 
2500 a year is a box a week. Hard to justify a progressive for that.
Even supporting a hot IDPA habit, it took me six years to amortize my S1050.
 
You dont have to cost justify your purchase. Get a dillon 550, and be happy. You will not save money reloading instead you will load and shoot more.
 
I load 4 to 5k handgun sounds a year on my rock chuxker.....

I have used the LNL, the 550 and the 650. All had all the bells and whistles. 650 hands down was the fastest but it's a chunk of change and for the round count you are talking about probably overkill
 
boondocker385 said:
I load 4 to 5k handgun sounds a year on my rock chuxker.....

I have used the LNL, the 550 and the 650. All had all the bells and whistles. 650 hands down was the fastest but it's a chunk of change and for the round count you are talking about probably overkill
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My question is What do you consider "All the bells and whistles"?
Now, I own 4 Hornady Ammo-plants. And they have all the "bells and whistles". And not only are they faster than any Dillion that I have seen but they are much faster.
 
I do not own a Dillon. If someone I knew asked me if they should get a Dillon, or a Hornady LNL AP. I would not try to talk them out of getting a Dillon if they could afford the Dillon.

I have a Lee Pro1000. I wet tumble all of my brass so it gets deprimed, and sized off the press. I use a hand primer to prime the brass while I am sitting down watching television. I run my Pro1000 without the case feeder, priming system, and I also do not use the chain for the powder measure. I used a short length of the chain and attached it to a 16 ounce lead bank sinker. I ran an s hook through the top of the chain, and put that through the hole in the powder measure. No more broken ball chain. The measure resets all the way every time.

I got my Pro100 set up for 9mm from a person that got tired of trying to fix it. I paid him $50 for it. It is faster than using my 4 hole classic turret when using primed brass from the start.

If I were going to be paying 4 figures for a progressive press. I would go with the Dillon.
 
Just reinforces my points. The only one that any of us need to justify our purchase of equipment to is ourselves or maybe a spouse. If one has the means then they can have whatever they want for themselves, sky's the limit. Many do that because they can. Others look at the job and ask what do I need to get it done the most effectively. While others ask what do I need to get by on.

I'm of the school that says I'm not going to use a 2lb hammer to set tacks while at the same time say I'm not going to use a tack hammer to forge steel. Same goes for my approach to reloading.

As apparent here some would spend the money on a high volume progressive press to load 2500 round per year and justify it any way the choose. Or because they want the Best, even though it is not needed.

Now as I've stated I bought all used equipment and have very little invested in it but it all works and does exactly what I want and expected. Also because of this practice I have over the past 2 years have purchased 5 new guns which I am enjoying tremendously which wouldn't have happened if I was buying all new top of the line reloading tools..
 
Just reinforces my points. The only one that any of us need to justify our purchase of equipment to is ourselves or maybe a spouse.
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It was my wife, that talked me into the Dillon. We were walking past a Blue Dillon display at a gun show years back, and since I couldn't fly full size aircraft anymore (horribly expensive), she thought I might be interested. There has been a great expansion of reloading equipment since then. But at least it's all paid for, so I can still buy guns.
 
Drain...case feeders, bullet feeders, powder warning (case and dispenser) is what I meant by bells and whistles.

In terms of speed, I didn't have them side by side to test the speed. But it took me over 3 hours for 1000 rounds on the hornady and right at 3 hours for the 650, YMMV. The slowest part of both was getting primers ready.
 
My question is What do you consider "All the bells and whistles"?
Now, I own 4 Hornady Ammo-plants. And they have all the "bells and whistles". And not only are they faster than any Dillion that I have seen but they are much faster.
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Something like this, that can load 1000 rounds in 52 minutes while you casegauge and box the finished rounds and keep it full of powder, primers and bullets.

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

I have never seen a Hornady running as fast as some of my Dillon’s have at least not as reliable. I haven’t even seen any that could keep up with the Lee Loadmaster I had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9pjmuHAkBU

Neither of the LNL’s I owned were close.
 
A few years ago I bought a 550B. I set it up for .45 and loaded on it for several months, I was a little leery of changing to 9mm or .38. I finally set it up for 9mm and 38, never looked back. I did get 2 more measures for the other 2 calibers. As for the 650, I would like the extra station for the powder check. Other than that the 550 is a lot simpler and I think less complicated to change calibers. Also, unless you have the automatic bullet and case feeders, it ain't gonna be much faster than a 550. Manual is the flick of a thumb, literally a split second of time.
I have Dillon dies for .38 and .45, I used my RCBS dies for the 9 MM. I like the RCBS dies better, the RCBS has adjustable bullet seater and lock rings with set screws.
My 2 cents.
 
You fellers keep in mind that a progressive will load a lot of ammo in a short period of time, a lot of good ammo OR a lot of bad ammo. If you need to load 1000 rounds per hour you got a problem. BE CAREFUL.
 
pete2 said:
If you need to load 1000 rounds per hour you got a problem. BE CAREFUL.
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Or you see reloading as an annoying chore and want to get it over as quick as possible.

If I could afford a Camdex setup, with brass refurbisher I would buy one. I could load all the ammo I need for a year in a long weekend. But I am not one to putz I get the machine setup, test the load for accuracy/PF, and then crank off a few thousand rounds.
 
Running a progressive has nothing to do with fun, or lovingly crafting ammo. Seeing a pile of ammo at the end of a session is enjoyable though, very satisfying.
But yeah, people that have them and actually have a need to own them is likely because they have a full time job(Or are a commercial ammo manufacturer), maybe soccer baseball and basketball kids, and want to shoot comps Friday night, maybe Saturday too. So they might have two hours on a Sunday morning or evening to load ammo. That is where a reliable progressive machine is worth more than the retail price.

They will run the advertised numbers and are as safe as the operator. Same as with any press, they are only as safe as the operator.
 
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