Going to get a progressive press setup for handguns, need feedback!

[skoger]

I have been handloading over 30 years, and with a single stage press, takes forever to load pistol ammo. I am going to start with 38/357 and .40, .45 setups, as I shoot these the most. I have looked at Dillon, but they seem to pricey. A friend who shoots competition, has a leed loadmaster, and it will load between 600-1000 rounds an hour, will cost me about $300 for what I want to get going. He has used his for years, and wore out some bushings, and other parts after he and other buddies loaded hundreds of thousands of rounds. When he called lee, they had him ship it back, rebuilt it like new, and sent it back no charge, same as Dillon does, in 2 weeks! I have always had great luck with lee Pistol dies, not a big fan of their rifle dies. Some of their products are great, some not, any of you have aprogressive, any feedback?

[Balljoint]

Can't go wrong with a Dillon 550 or 650 check their web site for info on both

[Eric in NC]

I like and use lots of Lee products and have tried almost all of them over the years. Love the classic cast, the turret press, collet dies, etc.

The Lee progressive though is a fragile, over complicated, POS (my opinion of course).

Can't go wrong with the Dillon 550B - it just works and is a lot easier to get going producing good ammo than any of the others I have tried.

[Celtic Warrior]

I have the Hornady Progressive and it has been good for me. I prefer it because of the way the primers feed the system. Change over is pretty quick also.

I do have one recommendation though, get a Bullet feeder die http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Load-Bullet-Feeder/ they really speed things up. It really doesn't matter which brand. I have the Hornady .45 installed with a piece of clear plastic tube about 10" long. I fill it with 20 bullets and when it goes dry I run a quality check.

I can get about 200 - 300 rnds a minute.

[Eric in NC]

I can get about 200 - 300 rnds a minute.


:o :o

[Celtic Warrior]

Make that an hour. Spell check doesn't check dumb, I guess :-)

[Grit #1]

I had a Lee 1000 and could not bring myself to sell it to some unsuspecting person. I got so aggravated with that POS that I through it in the trash. Were it belongs! I have 4 Dillon 550s ,a Redding T7 turret press, 2 Lyman turret presses and one Square Deal which is not a bad press, but it is caliber specific. If the 550 is to much money for you I would recommend the Square Deal to you.
Best regards,
Grit

[laportecharlie]

Skoger,
Listen to these guys! Everyone I know that had a Lee 1000 has hated it (me included) My 1st choice would be the Dillon but from what i have heard, the Hornady is real good too.
Charlie

[Rick_W]

I personally use a Dillon 550. Most of my fellow cowboy action shooters use either a Dillon 550, Dillon 650, or Hornady Lock N' Load. A very few use the LEE progressive but as has been mentioned, most people find it fragile & tedious to use. I would not recommend it, but if you have an experienced reloader who knows how to set it up and maintain it you may have better luck than the average person. I am a fan of most other LEE products.

I read about more problems seating primers with the Dillon 650 than the 550. Can't say I recall any real problems with the Dillon 550 or the Hornady LNL. The 550 is a semi-progressive press (you have to manually advance the turret after each pull of the handle) while the Hornady LNL is a full progressive.

It is easier/faster to change the primer set-up on a 550 than on a 650 when switching primer sizes. Not sure how long/difficult to switch the Hornady LNL primer system.

I don't care for the Dillon Square Deal presses as they use proprietary dies that are only good for the Square Deal presses. They are also smaller which does not allow a lot of room to maneuver brass/bullets/fingers.

I do not believe you would make a bad decision in choosing any of the three.

The big question is how many rounds do you plan on loading at one sitting? Or how many rounds do you normally shoot in one shooting session?

In my personal opinion, if you are only shooting 100-200 rounds a week thee's no reason you can't get by with a turret press - either the Redding T-7 or the LEE Classic four-hole turret. Either will be more economical to buy and set up for multiple calibers.

When you start shooting 300+ rounds per session, progressives will save you more time actually reloading, but will cost more to get set-up with all of the options/extra dies/shellholders required to make switching calibers more convenient. Do your research and see how easy/difficult it is to switch calibers.

[thomae]

When I was shooting bullseye and international competition, I was loading a lot of .45 and .32 S&W long ammo, I bought a Dillon 550B. I can't compare it with any other press except the second 550B I purchased a number of years later when it was offered on eBay for a really good price.

(Now I have one set up for large primers and the other set up for small primers)

I like the 550B, have loaded thousands of rounds of ammo, and it generally works well. It is a machine with moving parts, so occasionally things get out of whack, but putting things back into whack is usually easy. I have had no serious problems or issues that made me unhappy with it or its operations. I would vote for it, but also have nothing bad to say about other brands.

Good luck.

[Trent]

I just recently (4 months ago) purchased a Lee LoadMaster because I bought an AR carbine and didn't want to load .223 one at a time that I would be using strictly as non-target ammo. I also shoot a lot of pistol (45acp and 380) and I have been growing tired of loading that on my single stage. I still and always will load my match ammo on my single stage.

For the money I feel that the LoadMaster is a great addition to my reloading room. I am pretty mechanically inclined and setup of the press was a snap. It is quite a simple machine. It does seem like a couple things were designed as an afterthought. My most pertinent complaint is that the cases are primed at the top of the ram stroke along with all the other operations. This does two things:

1) It robs you of one of your 5 stations. The priming station is at position 2 and the only thing that can be done there is priming.
2) Because there are all the other operations going on at the same time as priming you cannot feel the priming happening. So if you crush a primer, or a primer doesn't feed to the case, you will not feel that.

Other than the design of the priming system I am quite happy with the Lee LoadMaster. I still feel it was money well spent. The ram itself is very stout.

[skoger]

Thanks for all your responses. I was specifically talking about the Lee Loadmaster, not the 1000. I have heard too many horror stories locally and on the web about the 1000. Trent your experience mirrors my buddies, who have them. All progressives need to be tweaked regularly, and there is a ton of how to videos on youtube on using/setting up the loadmaster.

[GaCop]

Can't go wrong with a Dillon 550 or 650 check their web site for info on both


+1! Great machines and Dillons customer service is excellent.

[kb7kuh]

I shoot Steel Challenge in 9mm and 45acp. I have the Square Deal B and it fits my needs for pistol only loading to a tee. Great machine, simple to use and setup. Customer service is outstanding!!!

I load single stage for my rifles as I don not shoot nearly as much as I do handgun.

My vote would be for the Dillon hands down.

[davemuzz]

I bot the Hornady LNL about 6 years ago and have no complaints. I load all of my handgun cartridges of 45acp, 44mag, 357mag, and 2 rifle cartridges....the 30 Carbine and the .223. All of my other bottle neck cartridges I load on a Rock Chucker as I don't shoot those "en-mass" like the one's I load on the LNL.

It's a quality machine. I've had a few parts wear out and one call to Hornady and new stuff was in the mail. Change overs are very easy.

Good product.

FWIW

Dave

[irondog54]

I have only owned a Dillon. Great product!!

[gotcha]

Interesting input... Votes for Dillon 10 (including mine).... All others combined, 3 votes. Being curious I watched the Loadmaster video on the Lee site. Forgive me, but I had to LOL..... Was the Loadmaster designed by Rube Goldberg ::).............. Google "Rube Goldberg" for more interesing ideas in needless complexity. I rest my case.

[rinodods]

I just bought a loadmaster to run some 40SW. After setup and a test run I got the kinks out pretty fast. Just finished loading nearly 150rds this evening without a single hitch. Not saying it is as good as a Dillon but it is my first try with a progressive and I didn't have any issues. It was simple enough to assemble but I admit is seems a crazy collection of parts. Simple but effective.

[davemuzz]

It doesn't matter to me if you buy a Dillon, Hornady, RCBS, or "Ed's fancy brass stuffer" for your progressive press. What you have to keep in mind is that no matter what forum you post on or ask, if your looking at sheer numbers then the Dillon will always have a higher count than any other progressive press.

Why? Because the Dillon has "been out there" longer with a better marketing campaign than any other press. Hornady's LNL Progressive didn't hit the market until about 7 years ago (not counting the previous version of whatever it was called. I know it was a finicky version).

And Dillon's been on the market for...what?...12 or more years? So, naturally your going to have way more Dillon users than Hornady. How could you not?

But, that doesn't mean the Dillon is a superior product. It just means there are more of 'em out there. If you have never used the LNL, then you don't know what you are comparing the Dillon to...do you?

Dave

[brtelec]

I agree that Dillon has definitely put more units in reloaders hands but one of the reasons for that is they do it so well. I do not know if it is a superior piece of equipment to say the Hornady, but man they work. There is a reason that so many competitive shooters use them. I had a Lee 1000 as my first progressive. I am a big fan of a number of Lee products, but the 1000 is a curse I would not wish on anyone. i threw it is a box in my garage and it has not seen the light of day since. I bought a Dillon 650 and I have been more than satisfied with it. Plus with as many of them as there are out there, there are a number of aftermarket bits and pieces available to make it even handier. They make more than one press from the square deal to the 1050 so you decide what features and what kind of speed you think you need and can afford. Lastly Dillon is a great company to deal with, just as Redding, Hornady, and most of the decent companies in the reloading game seem to be.