I own the Dillon 550. Very pleased with it except that changing the shell plate and the priming arm is a bit of a hassle. Just wondering: are any competing companies now offering presses that can compete, head-to-head, with the Dillon? I'm helping a friend get started and I don't want to push the Dillon just yet as I haven't kept up on what else might be available and in favor. Many thanks.

I've never used a Dillon, but I've been pretty happy with my Hornady lnl ap. Die changes are fast, shellplate takes about 30 seconds to change. Primer feed maybe a minute and a half. 1000 free bullets as a kicker.

not in my estimation. i've tried lee, rcbs and hornady and the dillon is still heads and shoulders over them all

I run two 550Bs, one large primer, one small. I have been using them for 20+ years (the 650 wasn't around then) & still recommend them but Dillon has gotten quite expensive these days. I have used a LNL & like the press enough to buy one, but it's backwards from my 550B as far as everything feeds from the left side, but the autoindexing & 1000 free bullets is nice. Today, I would look really hard @ a LNL o/ the Dillon.

quote:

I've been pretty happy with my Hornady lnl ap

this is a pretty good press.

I have 4 lee 1000s in differant pistol calibers for the price I don't have to change dies powder measures ect. I just loaded 5000 rounds of 40S@W this winter on one. I would say I had less then a 1 percent reject rate.

when i had to re-buy everything.
i had cash in hand, and knew what did what.
dillon 550's were first thing on the list.
rock chucker second.
effeciency and quality.
you can do a complete changeover in less then 5 mins and don't have to mess with nothing.

I would choose two other examples of efficiency and quality: Hornady LNL AP progressive and Forster Co-Ax single stage presses.

Andy