I spent a chunk of the weekend loading on a friend's Dillon progressive presses. He's got a 650 and a 1050. I'm used to my single stage set-ups but I got spoiled quickly. I cranked out about 4,000 rounds of 45 ACP and 38 Super in a few hours. I'm working on my new Christmas wish list now. Anyone here with some smart advice for me?

Having a friend that has and knows the Dillon presses is extremely valuable should you go the Dillon route.

That said, I'd be remiss if I did not suggest you also look at the Hornady LNL AP. The more you know, the better your choice will be, no matter what you choose.

Andy

Without knowing how much you want to reload and shoot per week. it's hard to advise you. But were I shopping for a more automated system than a single stage, here is what I'd be looking at, depending upon my budget and the amount of rounds I wanted to reload:

At the lower end production wise, for between 150 and 200 dollars:

The New Lee Classic Turret press, safety prime for large and small primers and a Pro Auto Disk. This unit is very solid, excellent design and is capable of 200 to 300 cartridges per hour. While I'm not real partial to Lee's Pro 1000 or Loadmaster, their recent Lee Classic Cast press has been impressive (I replaced my Rock Chucker with one, because it was a better design.) and this new turret press is based on the Lee Classic cast press. For a man who wants to speed up his reloading significantly over a single stage, particularly for pistol, but doesn't can't afford or doesn't want to spend the money on a more expensive progressive and finds this step up in production is sufficient to meet his needs, this is a very good deal.

The next step up production wise, for around $400.00 - $426.00:

The Dillon RL550B without a case feeder set up for one caliber. This is a very popular and solid design, getting a bit dated now, but still very dependable, simple to operate and boringly reliable. The average user gets around 300-350 rounds per hour, with some getting up to 400 cartridges or a bit more. Dillon recently came out with a casefeeder for this press (Figure around $200.00 extra or so for one caliber.) which should increase it's capabilities a good bit. I owned this press for a good while and can say it's a good, solid press, though I found I didn't like the powder dispenser's capabilities much (Based on a 1931 Star press design, this measure didn't handle extruded powders real well.) and I didn't like the manual advance at all.

The next step up production wise, for around $700.00 to $725.00:

The Dillon XL650 with a case feeder set up for one caliber. This is also a very popular and solid design. Getting a bit dated in some ways, but still very dependable, simple to operation, boring reliable and very fast, as you've seen. This press is capable, with case feeder, to produce between 650-1000 rounds per hour and is considered a very fast press. Your problem will be keeping it feed with brass, primers and bullets. I have never owned one, but a good buddy of mine does and I reload on it quite often. The only thing I don't like is it doesn't handle extruded powders all that well, reminding me of my 550 in that respect.

A matching step, production wise, for around $360.00 (Without Casefeeder) to $625.00 (with casefeeder.)or so:

The Hornady Lock N Load with case feeder, set up for one caliber. This is a newer design press that's undergone significant design improvements in the last few years and is now a serious contender to the Dillon 650 for a good bit less money. It's become a solid, simple to operate, boring reliable and very fast press, especially with a casefeeder. Capable of 400-500 rounds without the case feeder while being operated slowly, this press will run up to a 1000 per hour with the casefeeder and like the Dillon, your problem will be to keep the beast fed. It enjoys a few advantages design wise over the Dillon 650 besides price and these are: 1. An excellent cylinder style powder measure that can handle any type of powder out there. 2. The capability to switch out an individual die in a setup without disturbing the rest of the setup. (Very nice if you want to switch from full length resizing to neck resizing in the same caliber, only takes one second.) 3. Very fast changeover from one caliber to another, though this often isn't an issue. One knock on this press has been they did not have powder through expanding. This is going to change the 6th of this coming month, when their new powder through/case expanding case activated powder dispense starts shipping.

Finally, the last step up before one move into professional reloading (Though this press can do it.) is the Dillon 1050. This is an extremely fast press and is designed for the extremely high volume competitive shooter and professional reloaders. It's expensive and I don't have the dollar figures, but is the last step before buying a Camdex industrial reloader.

I hope this information helps.

Regards,

Dave

Andy and Dave, thanks for all the info. My buddy is a confirmed Dillon advocate, so your advice to look at the Hornady LNL is news to me. I'll definitely take a look at that one.

It looks like the 650 is less than half the price of the 1050. I got spoiled quickly on the 1050 but to be honest with myself, It's serious overkill for the amount I'm able to shoot. I like the short stroke on the 1050, as I won't be loading rifle cases on this press.

Using a primer tube filler, I could run about 500 rounds an hour on the Dillon 650. I can't see someone doubling that output, unless they had a couple of guys just to load components and keep things moving. On the 1050, someone with skill can outrun the case feeder.

Now that I have a good supply of ammo, I can take my time and look around. On the Hornady LNL, how can I tell if I'm getting the new powder thrower?

Thanks again for all the info.

The spring on the new powder measure linkage is a short, vertical extension coil spring. On the old linkage, it is arranged diagonally, and is longer.

Call Hornady and see what serial # press the new linkage is cut in at.

Forrest,

I have a 550 and a 1050 among the presses in the shop. You're right, the 1050 is probably overkill for everyone except IPSC shooters ;>

The 650 is a wonderful press ... much nicer than the 550. Go with it if you can afford that much!

Yeah I just picked up a 650 a couple of weeks ago and I do like it. A nice step up from the Lee turret press I was using.
The only problem I am running into is that I am running out of things to reload and have to go out shooting soon. What a terriable problem to have.

I would like to try out a Hornady Lock-n-Load press to to see the differences and see which one is a better deal for the money.
So if some one has an extra Lock-n-Load press that I could borrow, yeah, that would be great.

Deep Space Hunter,

I would offer to let you try out my Hornady if you were closer. I will volunteer my best buddy has a 650 and I load on both pretty frequently. I don't have a casefeeder and he doesn't either. My press loads everything from the left side leaving the right hand free to just crank the handle. His press has a tube and the base of a casefeeder on it, so you can stackup a handful of brass.

I enjoy loading on both and find each to be a little different to load. I prefer several things better about my Hornady (powder measure, feeds from the left, quicker set up time), but at his place, he keeps the casefeeder tube filled up, (I am envious he has this tube, advantage to Dillon on this one) the primer load tubes filled and the bullet bin full while he drinks beer, smokes cigars and watches me do the loading. (I don't get beer till I'm done, which is motivating when we need lotsa ammo for a pistol match. grin)

We're beginning to settle on we load pistol at his house (I don't have case expansion powder drop. I did modify the older version of the case activated powder drop using a Lyman expander set, but it's hard to get set up and glitchy if not set up right, because it's a modification, not a design.) and we load rifle (.223, .30.06 and .308) at my place (The Hornady measure works way better dealing with powders like 4895.).

This is like having the best of both worlds. At my place, he loads while I keep the brass and bullet bins full as well as primer tubes loaded. (I drink beer and heckle him, because he gets no beer till he's done and he's an old beer ho. You can motivate him with a six pack of the cheapest stuff. grin)

Regards,

Dave

Forrest,

I'm a confirmed Dillon user as I've had my 550B now for about 16 years. I'll note that it's been a very reliable press with a little cleaning and maintenance once in a while. I did have a small part break on the powder measure linkage and Dillon sent me a new one, free of charge immediately. I also managed to lose the plastic rod that slides down the primer tube and Dillon again sent a new one and wouldn't accept payment for it even though it was my fault.

Over the years I have gained some experience with the press that I'll pass along. I can't speak for other models or brands, but the following should give you a few things to think about when you're considering the others.

You already said this will be for pistol only. That is my situation as well as I don't shoot rifle in high enough volume to need to load those on the Dillon. I'm sure it could work, but I feel the Dillon is ideally suited for pistol. I load 9mm, 38/357, 40S&W, 44, and 45ACP. Switching caliber is a biggie to consider with any press. Here's the 550 story: it uses quick change tool heads with the dies already screwed in and adjustments made. Don't even consider using only one tool head and removing the die sets and readjusting for each caliber change. I do however only have one powder measure (I'm cheap). So it has to be readjusted for each change in charge weight. This is pretty simple with one screw. Also, the measure may not work too well with extruded powders, but I'm not using those as I don't reload rifle on the Dillon. For pistol type powders (Win 231, bullseye, Unique), the measure is amazingly accurate - I check the 50th charge after intial setup to verify the setting.

Another question to ask is what type of pistol bullet will you be using. I still shoot a lot of lead but am going to plated or jacketed in some calibers. Lead bullets are messy to load. Actually not the lead but the lube. After a while it WILL start to build up inside your seating and crimping dies. Some of the Dillon brand dies have a nice feature to remove the die body insert for cleaning, without unscrewing the die and messing up your adjustments.

Another thing about pistol loading is that if you clean your cases before reloading and use pistol dies with the hardened inserts (titanium nitride), you don't have to lube cases. (Another pain about trying to load rifle on the Dillon - you still have to somehow lube cases).

As for manual indexing, yes, it does slow you down a little and I was initially disappointed that the 550 didn't have auto indexing. Dillon didn't point this out and the internet didn't really exist for the masses back in 1990. But I found that manual indexing doesn't really slow me down too much. And it does have one advantage - if you mess up, you can reverse the shell holders easily. Not sure if the others allow you to do this. As for the speed of the manual indexed 550, I'm not really shooting for high volume. Once I get loading I can finish the 500 or so rounds that I set out to do in an evening after the kids are put to bed. Not sure of my actual rate, but it's a couple hundred per hour and is really limited by keeping the primer tube full.

Overall a very reliable press that requires very little maintenance. And Dillon has been a great company that stands behind their product, literally no questions asked. Changing calibers is not too difficult, but others may have made it easier and that is definitely something to investigate.

DaveInFloweryBranchGA

Sounds like a nice set up. Now to finds somebody who will reload for me for cheap beer.

Go to Ebay and select the one you want and save a few bucks.