dillon vs hornady vs rcbs

[John Browning]

Scobun, Richard Lee mentioned in his first reloading manual that Dillion bought the rights to use the Lee Auto Disc patent on that Dillion measure you don't like! I'm sure that knowledge is going to induce some strokes and heart attacks with the blues....

I have both Lee powder measures; the Perfect which is a rotary. And the Auto Disc which is the sliding type. They both work, never felt a need to use something else.

Facts tend to induce strokes in any of the fanboys around here for Team blah blah blah. I didn't know that, but I'm glad I do now. I don't have an aversion to learning new stuff. Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

[MrElectric03]

You know a full large to small primer caliber change takes maybe 2 minutes on an LNL, versus the record setting pace it requires to do a 5 minute change on the 650, right? Caliber conversions are also cheaper on the LNL.

I didn't see anywhere in your post where you spoke of the xl650 you owned. You wouldn't be spouting off like a mindless drone who believes what everyone else tells you would you?

No disrespect meant but the whole anyone who owns a dillon and recommends them to someone else is just as dumb as the anyone who owns anything but a dillon is a moron argument. If it's working for you that's great. Most of the things you like about the LNL, I didn't like. That's just my preference. I liked the 550 a little better than the LNL but I liked the XL650 a lot more. My biggest issue with the LNL was the casefeeder which kept jamming 9mm brass and causing brass to fall all over the press. The bullet feeder was completely inconsistent but I wasn't planning on a bullet feeder anyway.

I can easily change calibers in under 5 minutes on my 650 and also have no trouble loading 800X. Not to say its a perfect press. The ski jump unused primer chute is really annoying and would be nice if you could simply disconnect the primer feed for setting up a load. The used primer setup doesn't give me problems but it would be nice if it came from the factory with something similar to the LNL that you could mount something under the bench with a drop tube to catch them.

[slopoke]

I just bought a Lock n Load AP press after loading thousands of pistol and rifle rounds on my RCBS single stage press. I don't mind rifle on single stage, but the time doing pistol rounds on a single stage is getting old.

I have not set it up yet, so I can't comment on adjusting it to get it to function correctly. If it does need tweaking, so be it, nothings perfect.

The reason I decided to chime in on this thread is because my main reason on purchasing a Lock n Load AP was the price point. I have the patience to fiddle with adjustments and tips are readily available via You Tube and forums. I was considering a Dillon but for me I'd have to get the 650, the total price for loading two calibers with a Dillon would have been nearly double the price of the Hornady unit.

[Tom-ADC]

I've had my 550B since the early 90's and load everything from .380 to 45-70 I've loaded thousands of rounds and had zero problems. I once bought a Lee to do 9MM never could get it to work like I wanted, ended up selling for parts.
I went from a RCBS Rockchucker JR to the Dillon. Loaded a lot of the Rockchucker also.

[at_liberty]

I just bought a Lock n Load AP press after loading thousands of pistol and rifle rounds on my RCBS single stage press. I don't mind rifle on single stage, but the time doing pistol rounds on a single stage is getting old.

I have not set it up yet, so I can't comment on adjusting it to get it to function correctly. If it does need tweaking, so be it, nothings perfect.

The reason I decided to chime in on this thread is because my main reason on purchasing a Lock n Load AP was the price point. I have the patience to fiddle with adjustments and tips are readily available via You Tube and forums. I was considering a Dillon but for me I'd have to get the 650, the total price for loading two calibers with a Dillon would have been nearly double the price of the Hornady unit.

You did well in selecting the Hornady. I would point out though that the Dillon 650 is about $100 more than the Hornady, but the case feeder is $100 less than the Hornady. The presses aren't very far apart. However, the Hornady may be easier to run without a case feeder. I'm not sure.

[shooting4life]

i appreciate all the impute I have tried a lot of the above fixes even called hornady

I have adjusted the guid rod for the primmer even tried to bend slightly, cleaned regally going to try the brass rod

I have done the lock washer on the shell plate ( I went home last night and messed around with the press and its not the indexing per say more the shells are not tight enough so they wiggle as the press moves up) the underside of the shell plate is clean with a couple drops of oil

Im going to try and flare the casings a little more and hope that cures the seating issue

does anyone here have one of these presses that gets decent production out of

I didn't start this post to start a war just wanted some comparison to each other not the hole Camaros are better then mustangs argument because you were raised a chevy guy and told that a chevy is better than a ford I was looking for experience on if one was better and should I change

You also need to make sure your bench is solid. If it flexes it could cause the issues you mention.

[Kmai24]

i appreciate all the impute I have tried a lot of the above fixes even called hornady

I have adjusted the guid rod for the primmer even tried to bend slightly, cleaned regally going to try the brass rod

I have done the lock washer on the shell plate ( I went home last night and messed around with the press and its not the indexing per say more the shells are not tight enough so they wiggle as the press moves up) the underside of the shell plate is clean with a couple drops of oil

Im going to try and flare the casings a little more and hope that cures the seating issue

does anyone here have one of these presses that gets decent production out of

I didn't start this post to start a war just wanted some comparison to each other not the hole Camaros are better then mustangs argument because you were raised a chevy guy and told that a chevy is better than a ford I was looking for experience on if one was better and should I change

First off, +1 to scobun for the great unbiased review. Just wanted to chime in on your question about "decent production". When I first got my lnl, yes it was a bit finicky but that was due to my lack of knowledge in reloading. After taking the time to read and re-read how the press is suppose to operate, I easily got the hang of it. Although there were times that I got hung up on the press, never once it was mechanical error but instead user error. I can't speak of a dillon nor am I going to hate on it, but I will agree with scobun on how simple the lnl is to operate/manipulate. I'm no pro in reloading and only have done it for about a year and I've loaded thousands of rounds of 9's and 45's. I shoot anywhere from 700-1000 rounds a month (just giving you an idea of how much I reload). I just got into loading 223 and 300aac/blkout using my lnl as a single stage by just using 1 die at a time also going to start 38/357. Again, quantity doesn't prove anything about my knowledge of reloading (which is minimal but learning everyday) just answering the "decent production" question. From my experience with the lnl so far, my opinion would have to be "great production" well at least for me that is. Before I end my rant I would also like to reiterate what scobun said..you should get the right tool for the right job, so which ever works for you (red, blue, green) by all means go for it.
Good luck and safe reloading

[the86d]

I have green-aid that goes unused, but the blue-XL650-aid loads quite a few every hour it is in use...

[stilly]

My post says far more than "get a dillon" there stilly. I admit I don't have a lot of time on his press but did try quite a few before buying and that's how I came to my decision. He's asking opinions on presses so I'm giving mine. I even pointed out how expensive the caliber changes can be.

I know you have a lot of reloading experience, far more than me. Instead of the normal "DONT get a dillon", why not give your opinion on your press of choice?

Since this is a BLUE thread to me, I can chime in honest feelings on it, but please keep in mind, what happens in this thread, STAYS in this thread...


Perhaps instead of looking at things the way everyone always does, (what is BEST) it should be spun a bit differently as in, what FITS BEST.

Just starting out and new reloaders, SHOULD start with a turret press in my book. The Lee is prolly the fastest for the money and is the cheapest to maintain and convert calibers. If you are going to be making pistol ammo or either .308 or .223 ammo for a semi auto pistol or rifle, then this is an excellent starting point. RCBS or Lyman or Redding also have great Turret Presses, but they are also C-framed presses and really only good and making ammo. But they still allow you to back up and redo a case if you mess up. To do that on ANY progressive is kinda like stopping a train and backing up... So the turrets are the most agile of all presses and they allow you to curve and take corners fast by quickly allowing die changes (by selecting another station) and offering more than enough die stations (usually) for most work.

What is ONE thing that EVERY press seems to have a problem with? Priming. I have NEVER seen a press that has never had issues with priming. They are little and they need to be squeezed into holes and sometimes the holes fit or not. I get that. So eliminate the priming issue by hand priming with a hand primer or bench primer. The Lee Turret is great for priming, but sometimes things happen and priming requires you to stop and have a closer look. I know that a few times I have had primers sticking out a .002 or so from the bottom and they make the rounds sit odd. Not good, but had I primed ahead of time with a hand primer then I could have inspected it all. When I am on the press I want to make ammo, not check every round.

Moving on, if you want to have that feeling of CRAFTING your own ammo and who cares how long it takes, then a single stage press is prolly good to start out with. ANY will do, rock chucker, LNL, jrr3, partner press, whatever lyman has, Lee classic cast, and O or D framed press is what I mean to say here. Even those coaxials would be okay and maybe even the Summit. But they will be a bit slower than a turret. The only reason why is because a good turret will allow you to set and forget your dies and switch back and forth from station to station with ease.

All of that is great, but if you have a JOB to do and no, to HELL with crafting anything, you just gotta pump out ammo for WHATEVER reason, now you go high dollar and get a press. If you just gotta do it, then fine, go blue. I think a fully decked out 650XL on a strong mount is the way to go if you can NOT afford a 1050 OR if you got the cash, go for a camdex. Hornady? Well, Hornady is good and I bet they have a decent press and I am looking forward to getting a LNLAP ammo plant, but I have to be pretty hard pressed to make a ****load of ammo for that. But at this point, I would feel better trying a Hornady LNL AP before committing all the money to a 650XL. Hey, if I can get a Toyota Supra that can beat a Ferrari I will take a gamble. Of course, at THAT point the race and how I get to the end is ALL a blur. As it is, I have a Lee Loadmaster sitting in the box that I bought off of another calgunner about 7 or so months ago. This stuff aint no rocket surgery and I aint no brain scientist, so it should be pretty straight forward that if I can get away with dropping $150 for a progressive press and I can tinker a bit and make it work, then I think I am WELL ahead of the game. The game for ME is MONEY. I do not care WHO asks me, ANYONE that asks me about reloading, I will select all of my answers based on MONEY and a low budget. Hey let's face it, why spend more money reloading ammo if you can buy it premade for a cheaper price? - This is why I will STRONGLY discourage ANYONE who loads a handful of ammo a month from buying a Dillon ANYTHING. To me a Dillon is ONLY there to output a HUGE amount of ammo as fast as possible.

Kinda like a top fuel dragster. And just like a top fuel dragster, it is ONLY good on the straight tracks. Give it a bunch of curves and it crashes. Just like the press, if you want to be nimble and stop whenever and inspect and make little changes as you go and what not, then a progressive is not going to allow you to be as nimble or change things up as quickly as a single stage or turret. For a LOT of guys and beginners, they are racing on the curvy track, for competition guys, they know what they want and they are NOT developing loads like other people are, so they lock in their settings and pull to win. They drive the top fuel dragsters because that is their style.

And THAT is how I view the reloading press world.

Me, I want to compete in ammo making eventually, MAYBE, so maybe there is a top fuel dragster in my future, and if one drops in my lap, you bet I will hop in and fire it up and see what it can do, but until then, I change calibers based on the day I had or what mood I am in and I have different tasks that pop up depending on what day of the week it is or what I happened to find on gun broker or in Lake Havasu so I may need a pickup truck of a press to do some resizing or swaging and then I may want to hop in my awd Mazda 323 rally press and take down a lot of .45... :\

[Carcassonne]

]I just bought a Lock n Load AP [/B]press after loading thousands of pistol and rifle rounds on my RCBS single stage press. I don't mind rifle on single stage, but the time doing pistol rounds on a single stage is getting old.

I have not set it up yet, so I can't comment on adjusting it to get it to function correctly. If it does need tweaking, so be it, nothings perfect.

The reason I decided to chime in on this thread is because my main reason on purchasing a Lock n Load AP was the price point. I have the patience to fiddle with adjustments and tips are readily available via You Tube and forums. I was considering a Dillon but for me I'd have to get the 650, the total price for loading two calibers with a Dillon would have been nearly double the price of the Hornady unit.

I bought the Hornady for basically the same reason: Cost.


You can buy a LNL conversion kit to allow your RCBS to accept Horandy LNL die bushings. I have one on my RCBS Rock Chucker. I use my Hornady dies in the RCBS single stage press for very sort runs or for load development. I also use it for sizing bullets with the LEE press-thru bullet sizer.

http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Load-Conversion-Kit/

.




.

[jonzer77]

dillon vs hornady vs rcbs

Since this is a BLUE thread to me, I can chime in honest feelings on it, but please keep in mind, what happens in this thread, STAYS in this thread...





Perhaps instead of looking at things the way everyone always does, (what is BEST) it should be spun a bit differently as in, what FITS BEST.



Just starting out and new reloaders, SHOULD start with a turret press in my book. The Lee is prolly the fastest for the money and is the cheapest to maintain and convert calibers. If you are going to be making pistol ammo or either .308 or .223 ammo for a semi auto pistol or rifle, then this is an excellent starting point. RCBS or Lyman or Redding also have great Turret Presses, but they are also C-framed presses and really only good and making ammo. But they still allow you to back up and redo a case if you mess up. To do that on ANY progressive is kinda like stopping a train and backing up... So the turrets are the most agile of all presses and they allow you to curve and take corners fast by quickly allowing die changes (by selecting another station) and offering more than enough die stations (usually) for most work.



What is ONE thing that EVERY press seems to have a problem with? Priming. I have NEVER seen a press that has never had issues with priming. They are little and they need to be squeezed into holes and sometimes the holes fit or not. I get that. So eliminate the priming issue by hand priming with a hand primer or bench primer. The Lee Turret is great for priming, but sometimes things happen and priming requires you to stop and have a closer look. I know that a few times I have had primers sticking out a .002 or so from the bottom and they make the rounds sit odd. Not good, but had I primed ahead of time with a hand primer then I could have inspected it all. When I am on the press I want to make ammo, not check every round.



Moving on, if you want to have that feeling of CRAFTING your own ammo and who cares how long it takes, then a single stage press is prolly good to start out with. ANY will do, rock chucker, LNL, jrr3, partner press, whatever lyman has, Lee classic cast, and O or D framed press is what I mean to say here. Even those coaxials would be okay and maybe even the Summit. But they will be a bit slower than a turret. The only reason why is because a good turret will allow you to set and forget your dies and switch back and forth from station to station with ease.



All of that is great, but if you have a JOB to do and no, to HELL with crafting anything, you just gotta pump out ammo for WHATEVER reason, now you go high dollar and get a press. If you just gotta do it, then fine, go blue. I think a fully decked out 650XL on a strong mount is the way to go if you can NOT afford a 1050 OR if you got the cash, go for a camdex. Hornady? Well, Hornady is good and I bet they have a decent press and I am looking forward to getting a LNLAP ammo plant, but I have to be pretty hard pressed to make a ****load of ammo for that. But at this point, I would feel better trying a Hornady LNL AP before committing all the money to a 650XL. Hey, if I can get a Toyota Supra that can beat a Ferrari I will take a gamble. Of course, at THAT point the race and how I get to the end is ALL a blur. As it is, I have a Lee Loadmaster sitting in the box that I bought off of another calgunner about 7 or so months ago. This stuff aint no rocket surgery and I aint no brain scientist, so it should be pretty straight forward that if I can get away with dropping $150 for a progressive press and I can tinker a bit and make it work, then I think I am WELL ahead of the game. The game for ME is MONEY. I do not care WHO asks me, ANYONE that asks me about reloading, I will select all of my answers based on MONEY and a low budget. Hey let's face it, why spend more money reloading ammo if you can buy it premade for a cheaper price? - This is why I will STRONGLY discourage ANYONE who loads a handful of ammo a month from buying a Dillon ANYTHING. To me a Dillon is ONLY there to output a HUGE amount of ammo as fast as possible.



Kinda like a top fuel dragster. And just like a top fuel dragster, it is ONLY good on the straight tracks. Give it a bunch of curves and it crashes. Just like the press, if you want to be nimble and stop whenever and inspect and make little changes as you go and what not, then a progressive is not going to allow you to be as nimble or change things up as quickly as a single stage or turret. For a LOT of guys and beginners, they are racing on the curvy track, for competition guys, they know what they want and they are NOT developing loads like other people are, so they lock in their settings and pull to win. They drive the top fuel dragsters because that is their style.



And THAT is how I view the reloading press world.



Me, I want to compete in ammo making eventually, MAYBE, so maybe there is a top fuel dragster in my future, and if one drops in my lap, you bet I will hop in and fire it up and see what it can do, but until then, I change calibers based on the day I had or what mood I am in and I have different tasks that pop up depending on what day of the week it is or what I happened to find on gun broker or in Lake Havasu so I may need a pickup truck of a press to do some resizing or swaging and then I may want to hop in my awd Mazda 323 rally press and take down a lot of .45... :\

I did have issues with priming on my pro 1000 but not nearly as bad as my load master. I actually quit priming on the press altogether with the load master. Since that defeats the entire purpose of a progressive press I broke down and bought a 650. I have only loaded 300-400 rounds on it so far but I have yet to have a single issue priming on the press. Maybe I found a rare jewel since ALL presses have issues priming?

[John Browning]

I did have issues with priming on my pro 1000 but not nearly as bad as my load master. I actually quit priming on the press altogether with the load master. Since that defeats the entire purpose of a progressive press I broke down and bought a 650. I have only loaded 300-400 rounds on it so far but I have yet to have a single issue priming on the press. Maybe I found a rare jewel since ALL presses have issues priming?

300-400 rounds? Wow. That is some serious experience to reckon with. Once I learned how to tweak the LNL, which took all of 5 minutes, I've put out probably a literal ton of ammo without a single issue priming, except for the session where I dropped in small primers into a large primer feed tube. Hard to blame that on the press.

[JMP]

There are either a bunch of supreme cheapskates in this thread or folks that simply don't take firearms that seriously. If you think any of the aforementioned presses are too expensive, then I'd strongly discourage you from attempting to load with high precision for a rifle (let alone owning an accurate rifle). The cost of any cheap progressive press is a rounding error compared to the requisite tools and equipment for making good rifle ammo. Good ammo is expensive, and there is no way around that. There are financial barriers that everyone must cross if he wants to progress beyond cheap blasting. Half-assing it will just cost more in the long run if you take your shooting seriously.

[jonzer77]

300-400 rounds? Wow. That is some serious experience to reckon with. Once I learned how to tweak the LNL, which took all of 5 minutes, I've put out probably a literal ton of ammo without a single issue priming, except for the session where I dropped in small primers into a large primer feed tube. Hard to blame that on the press.

I don't recall saying anything about the LNL. I have no experience with the press so I can't comment on it. I will say I considered it but the daily, "what's wrong with my LNL press," threads did sway my decision.

I am reorganizing my shed and building some new shelves to better store stuff so I haven't had anytime to really load much. I can say though that the 650 is night and day better than the loadmaster in my brief time with it. It seems like everything I hated about the loadmaster has been fixed with the 650.

If you are happy with your LNL then that's great. There is no need to take offense to things I didn't even say to defend your precious. When I said since ALL presses have issues priming, that was a joke in response to stillys comment that ALL presses have issues priming which is a complete joke. I won't take offense if you didn't read through stillys entire post though since it's quite a lot to read

[stilly]

Keep in mind that priming ISSUES does NOT necessarily mean that the primer can be seated incorrectly or jam in the pocket.