| Posted: Tue Mar 31st, 2009 05:32 PM |
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Irish Mike
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Hello members, I am looking to purchase a high volume, excellent quality reloading press. Something that will turn out at least 400 to 500 rounds per hour for a couple of hours effort.
Any help here will be appreciated, as I have NO CLUE in turret presses or anything other than a single stage press. I do own a couple of those type presses in a Rock Chucker etc. Thanks
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31st, 2009 05:42 PM |
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2nd Post |
fryboy
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i believe the general consensus will be towards dillon,and indeed dillon makes sum fine stuff
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31st, 2009 06:19 PM |
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Old Fart
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Most everybody I know uses a Dillion or a Hornady L-N-L.
I had a Dillion back when I shot competively. Gave it to a good friend who still uses it. I have one of the Lee progressives out in the man cave set up for 45acp. I don't have a 45acp anymore so it just sets there looking lonely. Oh by the way, I didn't have any problem with the Lee after I got it up and running.
OF
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| Posted: Wed Apr 1st, 2009 05:03 AM |
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caz223
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It depends on what kind of reloader you are, what you are trying to load, and how 'into' the process you are.
If you don't count your time sorting brass, case prep, etc, I can easily get 450+ rounds an hour by myself with my Dillon 550 and maintain it for 2 hours before
I need a quick break. This includes filling primer tubes, occasional scale checks, OAL checks, and checking loaded rounds for consistency. I look inside every case to check powder drop.
There are a lot of shortcuts I've learned over the years that make it easy for me, but everyone does it differently.
If you load 1 caliber, and 1 bullet weight, get you a progressive press like a dillon 650 or a Hornady LnL and option it with a case feeder.
I load more than a dozen pistol calibers, and it makes a lot more sense for me to have a pair of 550s, it minimizes the caliber changeovers, and really makes things simple. No case feeder for me, I only load 1000 rounds at a time, it's not worth changing over a case feeder for that.
I keep 5 gallon pails of brass- ultrasonically cleaned, primer punched, matching headstamp, already sized, and ready to run through the press with a minimum of effort. Dump it in an akro-bin, give a quick spritz of hornady one shot, and start loading.
It really speeds up the operation as the resizing takes up the lions' share of the effort. With clean (No possibility of tumbler media in the flash holes.), lubed, sized brass, you can focus on turning out good ammo, not worrying about if you got some AMERC crap in there, a rock in a case, or an off center flash hole. (If you have a stoppage on your case prep press, there's no other operations going on, and no possibility of double charging, upside down primers, or a bullet with no powder.
Less stoppages while actually loading is the key.
To do that, proper case prep is necessary.
I sort my brass way before hand, and do thousands at a time, I punch and size it on a loadmaster, with their case feeder and funnel adaptor. It really goes fast. You can do thousands of cases in a few hours.
Last edited on Wed Apr 1st, 2009 05:16 AM by caz223
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11th, 2009 03:25 AM |
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frankmako
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dillon 550 will work.
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11th, 2009 11:55 AM |
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40twist
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Yeh I have to say get a dillon....or the hornady LnL. I have the LnL and it has been a wonderful press....
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| Posted: Wed Nov 25th, 2009 02:00 PM |
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Waldog
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I have loaded with a Dillon 550, 650 and, 1050. I own a Hornady LNL. It's a better design than the 550 or 650. You can't really compare it to the 1050, that's a "commercial" machine
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| Posted: Mon Jan 11th, 2010 10:04 PM |
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Nanook
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I own a Dillon 550B, but have also heard great things about the Hornaday LNL. You won't go wrong with either press.
RCBS makes a progressive press, but I don't have any first hand knowledge of that one. If it's like their other presses, it'll be bulletproof and well built. Great warranty as well, on all three brands.
I broke a part on my 550, called Dillon, told them I broke it and asked how much to fix it. They sent me the part free, and even paid for the shipping. How can you beat that? And I broke the part!
RCBS has outstanding service too, and from what I hear so does Hornaday.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17th, 2010 11:27 AM |
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Elmar66
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I've been shopping for presses for quite some time and here's what I have found. You cannot honestly compare the Dillon 550 to the L-N-L. To compare apples to apples you have to compare the Dillon 650 to the L-N-L.
However after adding up the total costs, I don't know that I can afford to reload multiple calibers on either of them.
I've seen the negative press of the Lee's on sites like Midway, but then after looking at places like YouTube and at http://www.loadmastervideos.com/ I think they have pretty much found a cure for everything that may have given the Load Master a bad rap.
You can find them new from Midway, Widener's and others with dies for anywhere from $206-$230. With carbide dies, I think that's a great deal and is very much likely what I am going to end up buying.
Just a thought....
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17th, 2010 04:13 PM |
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Don Fischer
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Years ago, the 1970's, I lived in Sommer's, Mont and we did a bunch of shooting at Levengoods rifle range at the Big Fork turn off on the hwy going to Kalispell; can't remember the # of it. Thinking US 93. Anyway, Chris had an auto loader there he loaded ammo with for the local law enforcement agency's. He filled a hopper with bullets, another with cases, another with powder and a tray, if I remember, with primers. Then he flipped a switch and walked away! If I remember it was made by Ponsness-Warren.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17th, 2010 04:43 PM |
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caz223
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From a design perspective, I respect the loadmaster, as it does certain things better than the 550, as the 550 does have a design flaw. (Then again, so does the loadmaster.)
The flaw in the 550 is that it decaps and primes in the same stage, it decaps on the downstroke on of stage 1, and primes on the upstroke.
This means the dirt released by depriming falls onto the guts of the priming system, making scheduled stoppages necessary because the shell plate and primer slide will eventually become dirty, and need to be cleaned.
Also, when the 550 deprimes, it occasionally drops a spent primer onto the floor (Where it rolls everywhere.), the loadmaster deprimes on the downstroke at stage 1, but that's all it does, and the dirt and the spent primer drops down the hollow ram, sparing the priming system from the grit shower.
On the bad side, the loadmaster catches all the crap in the ram, and needs to be emptied by opening a little metal plate on the bottom of the ram and gently shaking the lever up and down and even occasionally sticking a screwdriver up there to clear up the jams. I catch the primers in a big cement mixing tub I slide underneath the bench, but it forces you to breathe the primer dust that gets stirred up. I thought of sticking a vacuum hose onto the bottom of the ram, and turning it on to empty the primer gunk, but I haven't done, as of this moment, as I only use the loadster for brass prep. (This spares the 550 from the primer dirt, as the cases are ultrasonically cleaned first, primer pockets and all, as well as resized.) This is huge, as 80% of the effort is in the resizing operation, so that if you lightly lube the clean cases with one shot it gives you an AMAZING amount of feel and control over the operation, as it's not being polluted with the feel of the resizing operation. There is no stress on your arm, and you can literally load for many hours with no physical need for a break. The LEE does have another flaw however-the auto advance pawl is a part made of plastic and metal, and is in the dirty channel in the hollow ram, making you need to stop and clean and lube it occasionally. It's much quicker than cleaning the priming system and shellplate, but it still needs to be done.
Basically, I hear from the hornady guys and the dillon 650 guys grumble about the design faults of their presses, as NO PRESS IS PERFECT, but I won't get into those flaws here, as I haven't dealt with those presses first hand.
I have worked out a system that works for me, albeit somewhat elaborate. You have always have to be watchful for certain things with any press, and it's obvious to me that there's no such thing as a perfect press.Last edited on Wed Feb 17th, 2010 04:48 PM by caz223
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18th, 2010 03:27 PM |
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12th Post |
Jumping Frog
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caz223 wrote:
On the bad side, the loadmaster catches all the crap in the ram, and needs to be emptied by opening a little metal plate on the bottom of the ram and gently shaking the lever up and down and even occasionally sticking a screwdriver up there to clear up the jams. I catch the primers in a big cement mixing tub I slide underneath the bench, but it forces you to breathe the primer dust that gets stirred up. I thought of sticking a vacuum hose onto the bottom of the ram, and turning it on to empty the primer gunk, but I haven't done, as of this moment, as I only use the loadster for brass prep.
I know a number of people who removing the little sliding gate at the bottom of the ram and installed a 1/2" OD tube into the hole.
Now the primers simply run out the tube that is conveniently placed into an old coffe can or other refuse container.
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18th, 2010 05:27 PM |
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13th Post |
wsmreloader
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I've never used a Dillon, but I've used Hornady's for years. I still use the Hornady pro-jector's. I have trhee set up.. one for 44mag, one for 38's and one for 9MM. I've sent one back to Hornady for realignment, and the repaired it free of charge. If I were buying a new press, It would definitely be a Hornady
Richard
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18th, 2010 06:19 PM |
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JEEPOHOLIC
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dont mean to jump your post, but i too am looking to move to progressive. seems all the stores around carry rcbs stuff. anybody got an opinion on the rcbs 2000 press?
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18th, 2010 10:27 PM |
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caz223
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCOjenjFKmI
(That's not me.)
Personally haven't used a pro2000, but it reminds me a LOT of a dillon 550 with a few improvements.
Judge for yourself, look at the similar design in youtube videos.
I do have to say I like that the primer is seated in station 2, not station 1, like the dillon, so the dirt and gunk from the deprime operation doesn't fall directly into the priming system. I also like that you can buy the primers in strips, and they don't use a primer tube that can theoretically turn into a roman candle inside your home.
One advantage of the dillon 550 is throughput, because the case gets inserted with the right hand, and the bullet gets put on with the left, you can do both at the same time by feel, while eyeballing powder drop , raising the rate of production.
(This is negated if you load 1 caliber only and get the bullet feeder.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2-NfOhTgz0
Of course, you have to load primers one at a time if you don't have a vibrating tool from midway or the dillon tool that's way overpriced.
You can load strips by hand with the rcbs, but why? You can buy them pre-loaded into APS strips.
Another advantage if you don't mind buying a powder measure for each too head is that caliber changes are REALLY fast. If you're like me and you have 2 550s (1 for small primers, and one for large.) and don't have to change priming systems, it's even faster.
Crimeny, they have an auto-index kit available, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJVkKV4UqUY
The pro2000 may have an advantage in changing primer systems, I don't know. I suspect it does.
Of course, you can get the case feeder for the 550, but I'm not aware of an auto-indexing kit for the dillon, because they want to sell the 650.
So, they're at a draw, or even an advantage to the pro2000.
RCBS has come a long way.
I suspect the 650 with the case feeder would be faster than the pro2000, so I'd watch a few youtube videos to get a feel for all of them.
Man, I could sit and watch that bullet feeder in operation all day. :)
OK, now I'm going crazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYpyUM5bqH0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JTtlcg99OA&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8vRIX8PmDA
And finally, the camdex machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7t7jelgHd4&feature=relatedLast edited on Thu Feb 18th, 2010 11:13 PM by caz223
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| Posted: Fri Feb 19th, 2010 01:12 AM |
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choppersdad
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I've got to tell ya...I've loaded with a Dillon Square Deal B (for pistol only), a Dillon 550 and 650 and I'm real tempted to get a 1050 ;-).
The Hornady might be good, even great, but I've never had a spec of trouble with the Dillons, nothing major anyway...and they have answered my few questions over the telephone with a smile (I could tell)! They have sent me what few parts I have needed over the years...PRONTO! and no charge! They even sent me a low primer warning device that I had forgotten to take the batterys out of! I tried to pay and they wouldn't let me! Their guarantee is absolutely NO BULL !
I will never buy any other progressive reloading press but "BIG BLUE"
Mark
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| Posted: Sat Feb 20th, 2010 09:20 PM |
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Howlin Fool
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I have a Dillon 550B. I have really enjoyed it's consistancy. Dillon has a website you can check (Dillon Precision Reloading) out and if you contact them they will go out of their way to help you. Had a real senior moment and missed a berdan case and broke my depriming rod and of course got the case stuck. Called Dillon and they told me to ship it back to them. About a week later I got it back thru the mail, decased, polished and put back to new condition and they even paid the freight. With the quickchange tool head you can change out calibers with all the dies and powder charge already set in minutes-a big plus. Don't mean to take anything away from any ones favs but for me the Dillon and their Company is top notch.
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