Hornady vs. Dillon press

[latesvak]

I have a lnl and couldn't be happier . The blue pill just never attracted me. I have also turned 3 others on to the red pill and they are just as happy. Looking to get the case feeder soon enough. The customer service at Hornady is exceptional and way better then I could ask for .long story short I had a problem with my powder rotor and they couldn't figure oit why so they just sent me out the whole powder drop,rotors,housing thing. Way way sweet in my opinion.
If your in the area come on by and kick the tires.


Latesvak

[RacerX7]

I was given a Dillon 650 and I was happy to get it... If the person who gave it to me was an LNL fan I be telling you about the LNL that I was happy to receive..

[dartbrandx]

650 all the way. I'm tired of trying to "get" my fathers lnl to actually run right. It just won't, from the powder drop being completely inconsistant to the the indexing being out of sync. Not fun.

Let's just say, that my father spends a lot more time running ammo through the blue machine these days.

That's just my opinion on the whole thing.

[50BMGBOB]

I have an LNL and love it. When I got ready to buy the people I knew who had both recommended the LNL. But both are good machines. A 650 with case feeder and a LNL with Case feeder are close enough in price that I felt price didn't matter. I like the bushing system of the LNL and had no problems getting mine set up and working right.

[Bongos]

How does one have buyer's remorse in any true sense without hands-on experience with the supposedly better Dillon (650)?

Very easy, once you actually invested much funds into the LNL and find it not meeting your expectations (after much discussions with the Hornady Techs to the point you know them on first name basis and having to constantly "tweak" the machine so that it runs for a while before the next problem.. ), You would say.. "Yea, I LOVE the LNL.. since I put so much money into it"...(wishing you went with the Dillon). there is a reason why Dillon Reloading units (550, 650,1050.. products) retains +90% of it's value.. (over retail in time of Shortages) where as any other manufacturers is lucky to get 50%-60%.. People Know a great product and they invest in Dillon..

[at_liberty]

Very easy, once you actually invested much funds into the LNL and find it not meeting your expectations (after much discussions with the Hornady Techs to the point you know them on first name basis and having to constantly "tweak" the machine so that it runs for a while before the next problem.. ), You would say.. "Yea, I LOVE the LNL.. since I put so much money into it"...(wishing you went with the Dillon). there is a reason why Dillon Reloading units (550, 650,1050.. products) retains +90% of it's value.. (over retail in time of Shortages) where as any other manufacturers is lucky to get 50%-60%.. People Know a great product and they invest in Dillon..

Interesting answer. I would think any such buyer's remorse would be offset by the big jump in cost, considering the 650's dependence upon the presence of a case feeder for realistic operation. That's the real reason why I went with the LNL AP and have no regrets. I am sorry others have been frustrated, but I am real happy with my decision. In fact, I just upgraded to the Inline Fabrication Ultramount, lighting kit, roller handle, and double bin bracket.

[Bongos]

Interesting answer. I would think any such buyer's remorse would be offset by the big jump in cost, considering the 650's dependence upon the presence of a case feeder for realistic operation. That's the real reason why I went with the LNL AP and have no regrets. I am sorry others have been frustrated, but I am real happy with my decision. In fact, I just upgraded to the Inline Fabrication Ultramount, lighting kit, roller handle, and double bin bracket.

to make it a fair comparison both machines have to have case feeders and when all cost are tallied up, Dillon slightly cost more... glad you like the red

[John Browning]

Both red and blue are a tie in performance and features. The warranty on both is excellent. The resale value on both is the same. The Hornady is cheaper to own.

I owned a LNL. I sold it for what I paid for it. I benched out to blue. I liked the LNL more, so I sold the blue for what i paid and bought a LNL for $423 shipped. After my free 500 bullets I am in to it for half the cost of a 650 and it is 100% as good.

This is a very accurate and honest breakdown of the choices. http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillon...Comparison.pdf

[at_liberty]

to make it a fair comparison both machines have to have case feeders and when all cost are tallied up, Dillon slightly cost more... glad you like the red

I didn't see it that way. With the Lnl AP I didn't need the case feeder or the expense.

[bubbapug1]

I have 3 Dillon 550's, one 650, and one 1050.

I would go with the 550's.

I don't like the auto indexing and primer system on the 650. The indexing is also bumpy and spills powder out of 9mm shells with some powders.

If you have feed or case issues the 650 takes some thinking to clear. A 550 is manual index, but thats somewhat immaterial to speed if you buy a case feeder for it. It also gives you an option not to index if you have a problem with a primer, case, or a bullet. But with a 650 you burn a primer no matter what, and thats a bit of a waste of time to reload them back in at the end of the run.

If a 650 does run well (brass dependent) you can do 500 an hour including loading primer tubes. the most I can do on a 550 is 350 an hour.

I have run a LNL and its a great machine, but after market parts for dillons, such as used heads etc, are much more prevelant, which means you can add to your heads cheaper than the LNL. Plus...its a dillon, its been proven, and it has better resale potential.

Either way you win...so buy both.

[beetle]

I have a LnL but plan to switch over to a 650 when things calm down a bit. the LnL mostly works, but it's just not as "smooth" as I want it to be. a couple of issues come to mind

1) The casefeeder is crap. besides the cases getting jammed in the funnel (which has already discussed), a more common problem I have is cases not falling cleanly jamming up the rotating plate. On the Dillon this issue is addressed by a "sweeper" which knocks out of position cases back to the bottom of the feeder. On the LnL a misaligned case continues towards the drop hole, but because it is misaligned it doesn't fall and then ends up jamming everything up.

2) Case insertion and finished round ejection is problematic. I suspect this is from out of spec shell plates. I've sent them back to hornady and they've sent me others which has helped with the problem but not eliminated it. It's frustrating, you're going along turning out 5 perfect rounds in a row and then a jam, forcing you to stop and fix something.

On the plus side the hornady powder drop is excellent (better than dillion by most accounts), the indexing is better (half index on the up and down stroke), and perhaps has a better primer system. caliber changeovers are supposed to be faster too.

but for me I want consistency when I'm making rounds. so I plan to make the switch.

[sjd78]

I owned the Hornady and sold it in favor of a Dillon 650. The Hornady is a decent machine and shines when used without a case feeder. It's also a simpler design but isn't without it's quirks. You will most likely need to tinker with it a bit to get it to run correctly and have to keep tinkering to keep it running.

If you're looking for a machine that just flat out runs, and is geared towards production and convenience then look no further than Dillon. With separate tool heads, quick change kits and large/small priming assemblies, the Dillon can change caliber and or primer size in a snap. However that convenience comes at a greater price then the Hornady.

I will offer you this advice. Buy once, cry once! If you feel you may want to upgrade in the future to a case feeder, and like the idea of convenience even if it costs a bit more then buy the Dillon and be done with it. If you want to stay on a tighter budget, don't mind tinkering with it, and don't foresee yourself ever wanting a case feeder then the Hornady is the way to go.

[fizux]

I agonized for quite a while on this exact issue.

The Hornady LNL AP is cheaper, and it supports 5.7x28 (which is important for me); otherwise, the Dillon wins hands down. If it is your first progressive and you want to load for a variety of different calibers, then start with a 550. If budget is an issue, then look at the Dillon BL550, which actually has a cheaper entry cost at $260, and you can piecemeal purchase the primer and powder upgrades to a RL550B as you can afford them. As long as you get case & bullet feeders that are cross-compatible with bigger machines, you won't feel as much pain if you decide to upgrade later (except the 1050 already comes with a case feeder).

The 650 looks like a better deal only if it is dedicated to one caliber or you are loading a lot of rounds between caliber changes (Brian Enos provides some advice).

[bruss01]

I have what I think is nearly (or has the capcity to become) the ideal setup.

I have a Dillon 650 and right beside it I have an LNL single stage. Sometimes you just need a single stage. One reason is the pass-through die for taking the Glock bulge out of .40 S&W cases. Sure you'll be into a little extra money for lnl bushings, some extra die sets and some Dillon tool-heads. But over all, I'm pretty pleased with the flexibility this setup allows me.

eta: Sorry, forgot to mention what I like most about this setup. I like the "set it/forget it" modularity. As in, you have a toolhead for each caliber set up for the Dillon, so that you can just swap out tool heads and shell plates for a quick caliber change. Same with the Hornady - just swap out the die by popping the LNL bushing out. No fiddling around trying to get dies adjusted "just so" every time you want to swap out. That makes it really nice if you have several calibers and only one (in this case, 1.5) press and/or a limited amount of space for your bench setup. I'm working on about 6 square feet of benchtop space... just enough. It's a busy area but it works.

[Finish it]

I recommend the 650!