Progressive Reloading Setup Advice

[RANGER295]

I in the past have reloaded primarily handgun ammo and a little rifle ammo on RCBS Rockchucker's I have 3 of them that I used to set up for different stages. I have not reloaded since I moved to this house (7 years ago) but have decided it is time to get back into the game. I will probably set up my single stage presses for specialty rifle ammo, but I have decided to buy a nice progressive setup. I want to set myself up for .45ACP, 9mm, .38/.357, .380auto, 5.56, .308, 30-06, and maybe depending on component availability 7.62x39.

I was going to go with the Dillon XL650 with the optional bullet feeder and case feeder. When I was younger, Dillon was the standard that everyone dreamed about. I have been reading reviews online and it seems a lot of magazines and review sites are pushing the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP over the Dillon. What do you guys think? What should I buy given the calibers I want to reload? Please try to support your opinion rather thank just make comments like "Go blue or go home" with nothing to back it. Thanks in advance guys.

[Divernhunter]

Dillon for the win

[stilly]

I in the past have reloaded primarily handgun ammo and a little rifle ammo on RCBS Rockchucker's I have 3 of them that I used to set up for different stages. I have not reloaded since I moved to this house (7 years ago) but have decided it is time to get back into the game. I will probably set up my single stage presses for specialty rifle ammo, but I have decided to buy a nice progressive setup. I want to set myself up for .45ACP, 9mm, .38/.357, .380auto, 5.56, .308, 30-06, and maybe depending on component availability 7.62x39.

I was going to go with the Dillon XL650 with the optional bullet feeder and case feeder. When I was younger, Dillon was the standard that everyone dreamed about. I have been reading reviews online and it seems a lot of magazines and review sites are pushing the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP over the Dillon. What do you guys think? What should I buy given the calibers I want to reload? Please try to support your opinion rather thank just make comments like "Go blue or go home" with nothing to back it. Thanks in advance guys.

I agree with folks pushing the underdog and saying you should go for it. I also agree with the notion that you need to establish dominance over everyone else on the block. So you bring in the Imperial Starfleet instead of the Rebel Alliance. After all, NOBODY really likes the Imperial Starfleet, but they obliterate the competition.

So if you think you are ready to handle a Dillon- GO FOR IT. Spend that money CHACHING CHACHING! But you best not be crying after you are done. Big boys do not cry, even after they spend a ridiculous amount of money for something that is BLUE...

On the other hand, logically speaking. I see a tidal wave of cash flowing out of your wallet if you DO go with a Blue Machine. Just look at all of those calibers. Changing calibers is SOOOOOOOOO easy on them Dillons, it is why EVERYONE that has one, only buys it for ONE caliber. So that is about $1600 x each caliber for you.

On the other hand, the main advantage with the LNL AP is that you will be able to 1. save space with the bushings for the dies and 2. save space by not having to spend all of this money for additional toolheads.

I think when I decide to leave my Loadmaster finally and move to another Progressive, it WAS going to be a PC5 or PC7 but MAYBE the new Lee Progressive they are coming out with in a few months (hopefully) will be a game changer for them and drive that burning stake through the heart of Dillon and Hornady alike........ .......BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Okay.

Seriously though, weigh your options and see what works for you. Do you really have room for 8 presses?

And btw, if you said you were gonna do ONE caliber only, I would say go for that Dillon. ONE caliber- that is what they work best at. ONE caliber, set them up and forget about them, just pull to win! but CHANGE calibers? Are you ****ing insane?

And yes, I AM exaggerating a LITTLE on the calibers thing. But am I really? I mean, I know I just JOKED about it, but now I am thinking back to a lot of peeps that I know that DO own a Dillon, they typically own several and have them set for each caliber. Then they buy cute little PVC stands that hold the toolheads and display everything, but they will NOT ever change calibers. It seems as though they would rather go out and buy another new press and NOT want to deal with the hassle of setting it up.

Am I right or am I right about this? Look, I only own ONE Lee Classic Turret and I own about 7+ turret heads for it. Changing my LCT is about a 2 minute process, IF THAT. I understand that changing out progressives does take a little more time, but it should NOT be THAT costly. I can swap out heads on the Loadmaster and go from 9mm to .44 mag in about 8 minutes or less because of the custom things I have. But still... Just do not expect me to be boasting about having 8 LCT setup for various calibers unless I am hosting a reloading clinic.

**** man, if you have THAT many calibers you wanna load on a go-fast machine, consider a Lee Pro-1000 for each caliber. They are the Red Dillons in that folks buy them for ONE caliber, and then leave them alone, and since calibers only cost about $200 or less, ($169 each! ) DAMN that is hard to beat. https://fsreloading.com/index.php?_r...00-2085695781/

But no seriously. Go buy that Dillon. **** logic. You deserve a break and all your life you have dreamt of it. Now you can afford it (right? No pending divorce suits hopefully) Go get it!

[elpaisa1]

Look at the 4 sale section on this forum. And you will continually see people selling off one brand In order to buy another. This should answer your question. Now go drink the blue kool- aid and be happy.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[Oceanbob]

Ranger...

I can only speak for myself and my 35 plus years with Dillion. I can't speak for red or green systems....

I have three machines in Blue. When I was younger I was totally into .45ACP
and I was shooting 500 to 1000 rounds per week. I had some single stage that I bought in the early 1970s but I just stopped using them because they were not an efficient use of my time.

So I leapfrogged into a Dillon 1050. What a machine. They come all set up with the caliber of your choice, mine is .45ACP. I also ordered a conversion kit in .308. I admit I never used that conversion for two reasons. I had several thousand rounds of .308 in storage and it seemed complicated to spend much time switching over. But I ran that 1050 every week and it's so fast that you spend more time loading the extra primer tubes (have 15 at least) and having components at the ready. Clean shells, boolets and if you prepare you can churn out 1000-1200 rounds per hour.

As the Gun Games faded and I was shooting other calibers I bought a Dillion 550B. It's fast but you have to index the shell plate manually. I didn't mind that you could see and correct any mistakes and stop anytime without hesitation.
Much less pressure.

Production dropped to 500-600 per hour. Again, you want to pre load primer Tubes and have components at the ready. But I love this machine. ❤️

No stress my friend. I can switch calibers in a couple of minutes.

Then I bought another for feeding my lever guns. .44 mag and .357 mag.
(Really save some bucks on ammo)

If I were going to set up a great reloading room I would not hesitate to buy the new Dillon 550C . Maybe two.

Here you go sir

https://www.dillonprecision.com/rl-550c_8_1_23594.html

Ranger....don't know how much you shoot but if money isn't an issue the
thinking is (since the primer systems on the 1050 take time to swap out)
Is to buy two Dillon 1050s, one with the large primer system (.45ACP, .308, and a butt load of calibers) and the Small primer system 1050 to cover 9MM, .380 and you name it.) Easy peasy to swap calibers when you own both machines however it will be expensive.

Be well
Bob

[CSACANNONEER]

Red or Blue, it's no different than Ford Or Chevy, Glock or Hi Point, etc. Each one has it's own small advantages over the other but, in the end, they are pretty equal and it ends up boiling down to personal preference.

[diveRN]

Dillon is the only way to go.

Spend the money on the extra farkles like a roller handle, spent primer tube/bottle, missed-case-primer-catcher, and a light to illuminate the shell plate. Spending the money on extra heads, too.. Makes caliber change outs much easier and faster.

Moved my pistol stuff to the 650 from a 550, have about 50,000 rounds loaded so far without issue. 550 is set up for .223 only.

[mjmagee67]

You ever notice when people are selling a used Dillon it's because they are either upgrading to another Dillon or getting out of reloading? I'm sure somewhere someone with a brain injury sold their Dillon to get a Hornady. The last Dillon I got was from a friend that just wasn't using it and I wanted a 550 for large pistol primer (45ACP) and he approached me and said "I got a 550 laying around, you want it?" I purchased it for $300 complete with the promise if I ever sell it, he gets first crack at buying it for what I paid for it.

[Gregchico]

I have no recent personal experience with Dillion, but I have not heard anything that concerns me.

Since you already have some Rock Chuckers, they make piggyback systems to convert them to progressive presses and will handle ay caliber from .25 to 30-06. I have over 50,000 made on this conversion over the last 15yrs with ZERO problems that were not user induced. Unfortunately mine was before auto-indexing, but they offer it now. Now it is set up for only rifle duty, mainly .223, .308 (currently set up) and 30-06.



My newest press is the Pro 5 and I have added a Hornady case and bullet feeders for my pistol needs. While I do not have any Hornady press experience, I have tried some of their dies and the bullet feeder came with press conversion parts for their progressive press, and the parts just did not seem as high of quality as I was used to from RCBS. If I can primers filled, I can load bullets as fast as I can pull the handle...
The Hornady bullet feeder works fine with polymer coated bullets even they say it does not. Profile seems to be more important than jacket/coating.

I have dealt with both Hornady and RCBS customer service and have nothing bad to say about either.

[osis32]

I recently had the same conundrum. researched relentlessly. pros and cons to both as stilly said. I found two constants. people always converted from red to blue and never vice versa and there were many complaints about a need for tinkering on the LNL. for that reason I went blue. I figured for something as expensive as reloading it's best not to cheap out especially when the difference was only about $120 initially.

[tonyjr]

Dillon with 6 + calibers - big money .
m y nephews and nieces reload here . Are you crazy uncle ? for the cost of just 2 caliber changes -I CAN BUY ANOTHER PISTOL - besides , there is no more room .

[the86d]

The drawback to say a XL 650 is the cost of about $250 per caliber if you have the case feeder. The trade-off vs. cost is roughly 400-600/hour (VERY-easily up to 1000+/hour) if someone is helping you load primers in the pickup tube... AND <5 minutes switch to reloading another caliber...

This is also assuming that you can't use the same shell plate or feed plate for more than one caliber, or go with a 3rd party (~$15) CNC'd toolhead for half the price of Dillon's cast toolhead (~$30).

[wbunning]

I have used my LNL for 5 years now. There are some parts that have worn or broken through the 30k or so rounds I've loaded through it: a couple of springs, the shell plate drive hub, and the small primer feed shuttle. Overall, it works. Tolerances aren't consistent enough for load development, and it's not worth the time to set up for 50 rounds or less, so I use a single stage for those. As a blasting/plinking ammo machine, it has worked well for me for the 6 handgun calibers I use it for. I haven't had to do much tinkering with it. Die/caliber changes are fast and easy. I did NOT like the Hornady powder measure that came with it. The Lee powder measure that I use on it now is more consistent.

[MrElectric03]

I'm very happy with my xl650. I tried the LNL, 550b, xl650 and even a 1050 before buying mine. The LNL was too finicky, required constant adjustments and while the LNL die holders were cheaper than a dillon toolhead I liked that the Dillon kept everything together. The 1050 was of course the best. I knew I would buy one eventually, which I did and if budget were no concern I'd buy one in every caliber. I was surprised how easy caliber changes were on it though but the tolhead costs kills it for caliber changes.

That said the xl650 is not perfect. There are many little add ons to make it better, I had a thread going for one for a while. It seems dumb to spend so much on a press then have to spend more money to make it better but there really are no perfect presses out there.

I also have the mrbulletfeeder and others have commented about how much caliber changes are going to cost you. For the rounds you listed you'll only need four conversions for the bulletfeeder. Moving the die does suck and I wish they would offer just the lower section of the die instead of the whole unit with the switch and weight. But I makes life easier, especially if you have hand problems like I do. Setting bullets can be painful after a while.

Also while I obviously don't agree with Stillys discontent for Dillon, I did really like the Lee Pro 1000 when I tried one a year or so ago and if you are on. Budget that's a great press for the money. I load 14 calibera on my xl650 though so having 14 Lee pros would not be an option.

[stilly]

Hey wait a sec. I said he should buy a Dillon...

Oh yeah, that Pro-1000 was just sarcasm. LoLz...

If you only wanted to make a couple calibers and crank them out, the pro-1000 might be a viable solution, but eventually having the ability to crank out various calibers will be accomplished by either running caliber changes or having a huge workshop area filled with presses...