progressive presses, what should I get?

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No a progressive kind of guy (reloading press wise) my brother has the Hornady LNL and it took some sorting out of plates wrong to get working.

He mentions the powder under the plate issue but it works ok once he got it sorted.

Getting his 500 free bullets was like pulling from the big H teeth out of an Elephant with a tweezers (lets just say their customer awareness is limited or selective)
 
yes, I saw it, around the 10:30 mark it shows him operating the press. he is having to, by hand, insert a primer every single round. Primers are too small and fiddly. I would rather put a case on than a primer.
 
yes, I saw it, around the 10:30 mark it shows him operating the press. he is having to, by hand, insert a primer every single round. Primers are too small and fiddly. I would rather put a case on than a primer.
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from the article, underlining and bolding by me
In this article we’ll get the press out of the box, set it up, and load some 9mm ammunition. In the next story, we’ll do a caliber changeover, setup the included Safety Prime, and load some rifle ammunition
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I got to where I primed my cases off press when using the Hornady LNL. One misfed primer would cause the whole operation to come to a grinding halt becasue powder leaking through the primer hole. Lees 1000's and Dillon 550's have the same issue, google it

https://www.google.com/search?q=dil...rome..69i57.9146j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/lee-pro-1000-priming-problems.543414/


easier to just prime off press instead of fighting the feed issue for me at least, I could prime 100 cases off press in less time than it took to pull the shell plate and clean all the powder granules out of the works
 
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Dillon 550c, not sure how I feel. Only 4 stations, manual case advance, and bullet seat on rear right.
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Bullet seat is rear left, not right.
I would either need to reach through the press to seat bullet, or take my lever hand off. Seems akward at best
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If you stand in front of the press, you reach round to the left...not through the press to put a bullet on the case. Left hand puts bullet on case, right hand pulls lever down and then takes hand off lever to put a another case in the right-front station. This is without a bullet feeder of course.
 
this shows seating rear right of the loader. and reaching through the press at the 22:52 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACs8WW0Y2dU

bullet seated in the rear right
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Shadow9mm you took the time to look at the most popular progressive presses and then described what you saw. I like that! Shows an open mind and willingness to look at all side.

As you have most likely perceived there is no perfect press, all have some sort of compromise or detail that you would like to have but simple isn't part of it.

As for myself I have 4 presses; a RCBS JR3 single stage, Lee 3 hole Value turret, Lee Pro1000 and a Lee Pro4000. I use all four for different tasks and applications.

I hadn't used the single stage much for a long time. That was until I recently started loading bottleneck 223 Rem.. Before that I did almost all my pistol reloading on the Pro1000 using standard Lee 3 die pistol dies for everything from 380 to 45acp. It is fast enough for my needs, is simple to use and operate and produces very accurate ammunition. I later picked up that Lee 3 hole press for the versatility of doing small batches and new ladder work-ups. Much easier to do on the turret than on a progressive.

I an now loading my 223 with a combination of both the single stage press and the 3 hole turret press. I am doing all my prep work on the single stage and loading on the turret with two dies. A powder through charging dies and the bullet seating die. The first station is empty and that is where I am seating my primers. Hand fed one at a time. After a powder drop I can quickly and easily remove the case and check weigh the powder on my scale, replace it in the press and seat a bullet.

Also on this old 3 hole turret press I can easily reload 125+ rounds per hour and that includes again placing each primer by hand one at a time and using a Lee powder measure.
 
This is another question that has been asked hundreds of times and answered thousands of times. The SEARCH feature works wonders.

Dillon
 
Search all the gun forums you can...there are used 650's out there as for some reason people that own them want to "upgrade" to the 750, which IMO is a down grade. Spotted a 650 last week or the week before for $800...case feeder and a couple conversions and a few other items. I thought REAL hard about getting it but I don't need (3) 650's. Used ones are out there, you just have to jump when they show up, as they tend to go fast.
 
Shadow9mm said:
this shows seating rear right of the loader. and reaching through the press at the 22:52 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACs8WW0Y2dU

bullet seated in the rear right
attachment.php
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It begs the question: Inasmuch as the powder and expansion goes on in the front left, what are you doing in the rear left?

On my 550, the rear left seats the bullet, the rear right crimps.

From the RL 550B version 7.6 instruction manual:
"Station Three
In this station the bullet is seated to its proper depth..."

enhance
 
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This is another question that has been asked hundreds of times and answered thousands of times.
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Something I only recently realized.
If you ask for a product recommendation on a forum, pretty soon you will hear favorable reports on everything on the market that is remotely suitable and some that is not.
Leaving you no better informed than when you started.
 
TruthTellers said:
If you're only looking to reload one caliber and not do many changeovers, I think you'd be making a bad decision to not consider the Lee Auto Breech Lock progressive press, it is perhaps the most popular/highest rated progressive presses they've ever made.
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True


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If you ask for a product recommendation on a forum, pretty soon you will hear favorable reports on everything on the market that is remotely suitable and some that is not.
Leaving you no better informed than when you started.

However, you will see a consensus depending on the product. For progressive presses, the answer is normally: Dillon.
 
I went with the Dillon 550C this past spring and have no regrets. This after using a single stage for almost 40 years (except for a brief and lamentable time with a Lee 1000 in the early 90's).

And as dahermit points out, station 3 in the left rear is where you seat the bullet. I insert a fresh case in station one (right hand)while at the same time I place a bullet in the charged case at station 3 with my left hand.
 
Kevin Rohrer said:
This is another question that has been asked hundreds of times and answered thousands of times. The SEARCH feature works wonders.

Dillon
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I would rather say a form of this question not this question exactly. I did research the common presses, read reviews, watched vids, read threads here and other places. With that said I did not find the answers to the question I had for my needs, thus I asked here. I asked, based on peoples experiences with their presses, which would meet MY needs. What is the point of a forum and community like this if a guy cant get some help?
 
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