Looking to go with a progressive press

[Eljay]

This is what the 650 looks like with the bulletfeeder. Takes about 5 minutes to go through a primer tube, and then you have to dump in more (takes a moment) and I top off the cases and bullets at the same time. If you figure a minute to top everything off it's about 6 minutes per cycle. To do that in a sustained way you'll need either lots of primer tubes or the $300 Dillon magic tube filler, and you'll also need Popeye like arms. I usually take a break and case gauge every couple of hundred unless it's getting late - sometimes I'll just crank on the loading and gauge them later.

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

[stilly]

Thanks for the additional info on the 650. You two have answered my question.

[Pauliedad]

Dillon 650 here and I too prefer to place the bullet by hand.
Easily 800 to 1000 rounds per hour and not even trying that hard.
Earlier posts suggest that the more you spend on a press, the less you tinker. While having only owned my 650, I will say the only tweaking I've done is really just cleaning and keeping it lubed.
The eBay upgrades do help especially the old primer catch tube thingy.

[Michael in California]

I think the only two rational choices are the Hornady LNL or the Dillon 650.

I chose red and don't find it very touchy. It seems to fit my methods of work better than the 650. Perhaps being a lefty makes it so. I did have to fine tune the indexing once, but its an easy adjustment. I can do 200-300 per hour without a case feeder. More than meets my needs.

Hornady seems to be slightly less expensive but not so much so that one should buy it over the blue one if one happens to like blue.

Caliber changes are less than 10 minutes including changing primers. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, does it really matter? Both presses are easy enough. Only slight difficulty is re-tuning the powder drop since I only have one. That takes a little time. Need to get a second pistol insert to make that a bit more convenient. Won't save much time as I still need to fine tune due to temperature, time of the month, or whatever else makes a powder drop need tuning.

[CSACANNONEER]

I prefer my simpler 550. I reload certain cartridges which there are not caliber conversions made for the 650. Also, Caliber conversions are cheaper and faster to change over than on a 650 with all the bells and whistles. I can easily load +400 rounds per hour including pecking primers. I could probably load +600 rounds an hour with someone else pecking primers. BTW, I have owned and used 650s.

[5akman]

I also started on the classic turret doing 9mm. I found a deal here on CG for a Loadmaster with a few die sets for around 200.00 shipped.

The stock unit needs some serious tweaking. I never really tried the priming system so instead use the classic to size/deprime and a hand unit for priming. With the Bully Adapter bullet feeder, I can load 100 preprimed 9mm cases in 9 minutes. It then takes another few minutes to shake the collator and restock the bullet feed tubes but considering that I have under $300.00 in my Loadmaster, I'm good with my investment.

[stilly]

I also started on the classic turret doing 9mm. I found a deal here on CG for a Loadmaster with a few die sets for around 200.00 shipped.

The stock unit needs some serious tweaking. I never really tried the priming system so instead use the classic to size/deprime and a hand unit for priming. With the Bully Adapter bullet feeder, I can load 100 preprimed 9mm cases in 9 minutes. It then takes another few minutes to shake the collator and restock the bullet feed tubes but considering that I have under $300.00 in my Loadmaster, I'm good with my investment.

I paid 150 for my Loadmaster but that collator works very nice when you load it up if you put in the 1/2" vinyl tubing. It limits the amount of upside down cases to about 1 per every few hundred. Best $8.00 I ever spent on a case feeder...

[Ojallday]

Bump for more advice

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

[phdo]

I have the Hornady LnL AP and it has been fantastic. I used to load for my pistol and rifle calibers with it before I bought a Redding Big Boss II. Now, the Hornady loads the pistol calibers and the Redding for the rifle ones. I use the Hornady to deprime and prime sometimes when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to sit there loading and unloading each piece of brass on the Redding.

[John Browning]

I'm at over 100,000 very happy pulls on my LNL AP. I've owned two LNLs and a Dillon 550. No longer own the Dillon. I don't need to crank out 1,000 rounds an hour and enjoy reloading, so the 400-500 rounds an hour suit me just fine. It's a very simple machine, easy to operate, and doesn't take up 1/4 the space for caliber conversions. You need a huge bench to be able to run a Dillon and all the tool heads.

[tanks]

Good info on the sticky here:

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=229221

[stilly]

Dillon 650 here and I too prefer to place the bullet by hand.
Easily 800 to 1000 rounds per hour and not even trying that hard.
Earlier posts suggest that the more you spend on a press, the less you tinker. While having only owned my 650, I will say the only tweaking I've done is really just cleaning and keeping it lubed.
The eBay upgrades do help especially the old primer catch tube thingy.

That is an observation that I can be in agreement with. And I think I am.

Not best, just tinker less. I can get that. For $150 I do have to tinker about every 15-25 rds even if that means just tightening the center nut and or setting the index lever since it missed.


So for you LNL AP users, how is the priming again? I am trying to get a feel for how many little annoyances there are vs actual bugs. I mean it sounds like it is good to go for the most part but how easy is it to get primers out of whack and put smileys or flip them or put them in sideways?

[Eljay]

Not best, just tinker less. I can get that. For $150 I do have to tinker about every 15-25 rds even if that means just tightening the center nut and or setting the index lever since it missed.

Wow! That would drive me crazy. I have to "tinker" at that level every couple thousand rounds.

[liber]

Wow! That would drive me crazy. I have to "tinker" at that level every couple thousand rounds.

I agree, every 15-25 round would drive me nuts, no matter if I only paid $150 for the press, that that point it's just frustrating to use.

On my Dillon I don't have to "tinker" with anything until I change a caliber.

[Eljay]

The only things I touch on the Dillon is occasionally I won't set the set screw that keeps the big bolt through the shell plate from loosening and it does, and even if I do it seems to work itself loose maybe 5,000 rounds in. You probably change calibers more often than I do so it probably doesn't go as long without being touched due to that. Also if the priming system gets dirty enough I have to clean it. Maybe every 5-10 thousand rounds?

Also I broke the plastic shoulder washer on the priming system about 15,000 rounds in. There's a spare in the parts kit and Dillon sent two more for free.

My press only has 18,000 rounds on it though. 5500 of that in 2016. Four calibers but that's really unusual for me - in 2015 it was mostly just 9mm.

I'm thinking I'll lube it at 20,000.