Progressive press questions

[wgg]

Good day everyone.  I am consideriing a progressive press.  I have been handloading since 1987.  I have turrent press and a single stage press.  I have been looking at the Dillon 550C vs the Hornady LNL. I load mainly handgun rounds.  Opinions please with the reason for your choice.
Glen

[Harrell2Xtap]

Bud if you want the honest truth in my mine there is only one brand when it comes to progressive presses and that's Dillon. No one else comes close from my experience. If you want to load lets say 1000 or less in a day then the 550 will work great. If you want to get closer to lets say 5000 then 750 or 1050. Save yourself some money and headache and just buy Dillon.

[bang bang]

Good day everyone.  I am consideriing a progressive press.  I have been handloading since 1987.  I have turrent press and a single stage press.  I have been looking at the Dillon 550C vs the Hornady LNL. I load mainly handgun rounds.  Opinions please with the reason for your choice.
Glen

welcome

would you like a 2000 word page double spaced essay with compare and contrast the various presses?

here is my 0.02, take or leave.  my replies can be brusk, but it is what it is and if you dont like, dont read.  again, my 0.02

> some people go through life with blinders on. They only see what they want to see.  So for you its just "handgun" blinders.  ITs all you see.  im not sure if the 550 or LNL will do rifle, but thats for you to know.  Im not buying, you are.

> so to me, i would look at a press that can handle both.  why? because you are starting from 0.  No need to say..."bleep...i wish i would have...." down the road.  but its your time/money and so forth.

> You will find fan boys for everything out there.  So choose your poison.  and i bet you will find people that had issues with all types and mfg of presses.  Lets just say, there are some people out there that should not be allowed ANY tools (or guns) in their possession.  Hopefully you know what i mean.    but i will say that Dillon has a great CS - customer Service rep.  To me, i can overlook (alot?) if they have great CS.

> and for disclosures, i have 3 Lee Pro 1000 presses.  I started with a lee turret and got a used Pro1000 from a shooting bud that is one of those people that should not have any tools - PERIOD - and screwed up the press, but i was able to get for a decent price and get it running.  Note, im not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but i do know when to stop and know my limitations.   I got more Pro 1000s since i had all of the other stuff to make them run and i had all of the turrets for the calibers i would use.  I didnt have to buy or swap to a different brand/mfg.  It was low hanging fruit and i knew the pro/cons of the Lee. 

> i do have a NIB Dillon Square Deal B in 45acp.  but its been sitting in the box since i got it from a friend.  He bought it NIB and never used it and wanted to get the money out of it.  I had the money and it still sits.  My friend wants it back but not what i paid for it.  Its just shows what type of friend he is.  My bro has some SDB and i offered to him, but he's not reloading anymore. I will eventually sell it but its not priority on my list.

> do you have shooting/reloading friends?  If you do, i would ask them about this and see what they say and if they have anything you are thinking of buying, ask to see the setup and maybe to do a test run or run the setup.  You will hopefully see what its all about and then ask them "if they had to do it all over again, would they do what they have?".   You can also ask what they like or dont.   Do you belong to a shooting range/club and if you do, ask the shooters.  Talk to people there and see what they say.  Again, you will find fan boys, but instead of just accepting that they say about a brand, ask them why?  get into the details and ask if they would do the same if they had to do it all over again.

good luck

[Earl Keese]

The 550 isn't auto-indexing, so it really doesn't compare fairly with the LnL, though I think they are close in price. I have a LnL that works well, but it has taken a fair amount of work to get it to run smoothly. If I had it all to do over again, I'd buy a Dillon. But it would be a 750 at a minimum, preferably a 1050 or 1100.

[wgg]

Thanks to all for the replies. 

[david s]

My main press is a Dillon 550. The press works well, my only complaint would be the sliding primer set up. Its function was finicky as set up from the factory. Using a full-length aftermarket plate under the slide for support helped more than a little. The 550 will work with rifle cartridges up to the 300/375 H&H length. I'm about set up half and half between rifle and pistol cartridges. I'm not sure it would be my first choice if I was only going to load pistol length cartridges. The ram's length would be longer than needed for pistols exclusively and it's not auto indexing. Also, if you're going to use this press to do a bunch of different load development the 550 wouldn't be my first choice. The powder measures don't care for stick powder. I use the powder measures with varmint class rifle cartridges and pistol rounds with ball or flake powder and the plastic powder funnels with stick powders and most rifle hunting cases. The hunting rounds require throwing or weighing powder charges separately though. The 550's are an excellent press but like everything else in life not perfect.

[tdogg]

I have owned a LNL AP for a number of years and now own a Dillon super 1050.  I'm in the process of auto driving the Dillon s1050. 

The LNL AP is a fine progressive.   Hornady's customer support is is good as Dillon's if not better.  Every time I called for parts, they sent them no questions asked including upgraded parts that were implemented after my purchase.  The biggest issue with the LNL AP is the case shuttle pivot block.   It took a while to fix it and it took some custom designed parts to solve it.   It wears over time and starts to bind and that causes the press to short stroke.   Hornady sent me a entire replacement assembly upon contacting them but it didn't solve it long term.

My other issue with the press was the lack of index alignment pins to ensure the shell plate is aligned with the dies when cycling the press handle.   You can run into issues with die alignment when running the press fast or if the pawls get out of adjustment.  That isn't something you can easily fix and is something Hornady should address.   There is some things you can do but it doesn't replace fixed alignment pins.

Here is my thread on the LNL AP press tuning I've gone through:  https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=87455.0

The Dillon is also a fine press.  I've only loaded about 2500 on the Dillon thus far.  The S1050 doesn't have the lifetime warranty and Dillon is very proud of its stuff ($$$).  Had I not been offered a deal to good to pass up, I probably would not own a Dillon S1050.  Caliber conversions are way more difficult and costly.  I've also been busy tuning this press and have done some upgrades.  It's been a bit of a learning curve getting used to this equipment. 

I wish that Dillon made the toolhead with an extra station so you could powder check, Bullet drop, seat, and crimp in separate stations.  This is the biggest shortcoming on their premier press and has been addressed by their competition (Mark VII).  Once it is tuned, it does crank out the ammo very fast.  I'm impressed with the powder drop consistency and not as impressed with the primer seating depth or OAL consistency.  My other issue that is annoying are the shell plate pin/tabs that you have to remove to pull a case off the shell plate.  It is really slow to pull a case for inspection/powder check.

Here is my thread on the S1050 press tuning/upgrades thus far:  https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=118728.msg923758#msg923758

Since you have a turret and single stage you can do all precision rifle reloading there and leave the progressive for volume loading.  It really boils down to your volume of shooting.  Your return on investment is based on the amount of shooting, how much savings reloading can save you, and how much you value your time reloading.

All reloading equipment takes tinkering/tuning to keep them running reliably.  I don't think you can go wrong with either brand if your volume justifies the up front cost.

Cheers,
Toby

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Wobbly]

Great question ! I've been reloading since the late 70's, and since 2001 on Dillon. I started on a RCBS Rock Chucker and then progressed to a Lyman turret. I was steered toward the Dillon by my best high school friend.

I bought a 550B which was a LOT of fun and churned out beautiful ammo extremely fast. It did everything it was advertised to do. My issue was that I was wanting pistol ammo (only) in larger quantities and almost no rifle. I found the 550 best at doing smaller quantities of rifle or pistol. The 550 was perfect for load testing. It's very easy to change over and extremely adaptable. And like a typical single-stage it was messy with the spent primer handling.

About 2014 I sold the 550 and bought a 650, which was almost too fast. Loading sessions for 500-800 rounds were over in what seemed like minutes. The difference was the case loader (more than the press itself), which allows the operator to focus solely on the bullets and the powder. Spent primer handling was 100% better.

At the end of it all, I'd say this...

• Someone on this forum did a cost study. The cost of the fully optioned LNL versus the fully optioned 650 was only $20. So shopping by price is a 'fool's errand'. 
• There is no such thing as the 'perfect' progressive loader. The perfect progressive hasn't been invented. Thankfully the aftermarket suppliers are plentiful.
• Both my Dillons were heavily modified with helpful accessories, and more options are offered for the Dillon.
• I'm glad I went with Dillon, the machines work when you need them to and DO NOT break down.
• Yes, I broke parts now and again, but it was always plastic tips that simply wore out. And Dillon always replaced them.
• In the end I ended up with a 550 and a 650. The 550 for 32cal and rifle, the 650 for bulk pistol.
• The MOST expensive part of all this buying and selling was converting from 550 to 650 ! This because ALL progressives share ZERO parts. When you swap back and forth between your current presses you can share shell holders and possibly other bits. That ain't the way it works with progressives. Each and every progressive is a standalone press. So think about your decision long and hard before making the leap because you can easily 'loose your shirt' by needing to swap to a second progressive.

Hope this helps.

[double-d]

Hornady LNL Ammo Plant fan here.
No need for me to invest in a Dillon-------- after afew tweaks, my ammo plant works wonderfully.

I load 9mm, 45acp, 44mag, 5.56, 7mag, .308 & .30-06 on it.  For precision rifle shooting, I use my single stage ('80s vintage) RCBS Rock Chucker.

[SoCal]

Another vote for the LNL AP...BUT I have only used Lee and my LNL.

One thing that is better on the LNL is the powder measure.

[lewmed]

 I started reloading pistol ammo in the mid 1970's on a single stage press then moved to a Star progressive. Several years later I added a C&H Auto Champ to the bench when the Auto Champ wore out in the early 90's I found the Dillon 650 and fell in love with Dillon machines. Today my load work up is done on my old single stage RCBS all rifle cartridges are loaded on my Dillon 550 and my large primer pistol and revolver ammo is loaded on XL650  my new XL750 is equipped with case and bullet feeders for 9mm, 38/357and 38 super. My Dillon equipment has paid for it's self many times over. My advise is if you want a progressive press buy a good auto indexing machine with a case feeder and use the time saved to watch what's going on and improve your QC.

[Togmaster]

And I thought this thread was about CNN. Silly me.

[wgg]

Many thanks for the information shared.

[Wobbly]

And I thought this thread was about CNN. Silly me.

"Progressive Press". I got it. 

[sevt_chevelle]

The simple fact that one can buy a dillon and than 5 years later sell it for what you paid for it if not more, speaks volumes.