I have been reloading for years...everything from .22 Hornet to .500 NE.

I have 3 presses on my bench now...2 single-stage and a turret.

I really want a progressive to load .45 ACP, .223 and .300 Blkout.

Have always wanted a Dillon.

What does the brain-trust recommend?

Been loading pistol on a Dillon 650 for years now.

I also have an ancient Pro7 which is a Hornady machine, it was not good. I've heard the new ones are not like the old ones.

they just updated the 650 to the 750.
which is basically the 650 with the 550's priming system.
I will be upgrading my 650 frame to the 750 system as soon as I can swing the funds.
I hate the 650's priming system so much mine has been sitting covered for 15 years now while I use the 550's on the other bench.


one warning about using a progressive.
you'll want to prepare your bottleneck cases first then run them through the press.
otherwise you end up with a bunch of loaded ammo with lube all over them.

Lane
I have 2 Dillon RL-550's Have one set up for small primers and the other for Large primers. Love them. You can't go wrong with Dillon

given what calibers you are loading here, any of Dillon's rifle capable presses will work.

I have a couple 1050's, a 650, and a 550.

I use the 1050's the most. If you are getting just one, the 1050 has the easiest change over of priming system, and is also compatible with going to a hydraulic automation if that might be your goal. The 1050 does not require a push- pull motion, its just pull (for seating primers) The rest require you to push the handle to seat the primer, then pull for the rest of the actions.

I haven't gotten a case feeder for the 550, but that is often what I will do low volume progressive loading on. The 550 case feed is for pistol calibers only, though.

I hate the 650's primer system- it seems to jam a lot for me. That said, its what I load .45-70 on as I got a conversion kit back when for that.

A side benefit of the 1050 is that you can swage out crimp from military brass on it. I have mine backed out on one of the machines because it can be a bit touchy, and besides I don't load any large primer milsurp cases.

The 550 I have loaded .223-.416 rigby on, and its really the most versatile of their machines.

So it kind of depends on what you mean by high volume. If you have the supplies, I have done 10,000 rounds of 9mm in a (long) day with the 1050. (I have a primer tube auto loader also) but beware that you do need to periodically reset the machine when you make those kinds of runs.

The 550 is under $500 (without dies) with a caliber conversion costing about $50

The 750 is ready to go for .223 $1500 The press absent casefeeder, etc. is $650
conversions cost around $90

The 1050 is $1900 but has the casefeeder. (you do need different plates for that depending on what you are loading- you need a large pistol and small rifle with what you mention.)

Cartridge conversions are $130 for pistol, can be up to $180 for some rifle calibers)

Another point is their no BS warranty does not apply to the 1050, as its a "production" machine, although they do do most stuff for free...

If I were you, I would go with the 1050 as first choice, 750 as second, then 550 given your cartridge choices.

I bought a 650 with case feeder, low powder sensor and several other options. It never seated primers from day 1. I sent it back for repair and it came back the same way. The low powder sensor required resetting every 15 rounds or so, never would stay adjusted.
Then I had to fight with them to get a refund. The no BS story Is BS in my book.
After I got my money back, I bought a Hornady lock and Load and have been happy for 10 years.
The only thing marked Dillon you could give me, is a date with the monthly rag model.

Dillon makes great presses.
i have had several progressives, and have settled on having two ..
i have a Dillion SDB, which would cover your ask, but setup ONLY for 45 LC

and the hornady progressive - for 98% of everything else.. inho, it's far better than all less than automatic progressives, and a HELL of a lot better bang for the buck than the fully loaded 650.

Have a RL1050 and a 550b. 550 is far more versatile, and plenty fast. I don't think a casefeed adds a whole lot.

1050 makes sense for volume loading one cartridge, especially if you need primer crimp removal. Ie., .308, .223, or 9mm. Cartridge changes are a bigger deal.

Never wanted a 650, precisely because of its priming system. Maybe look at the new 750. Nice to be able to use a powder checker die/alarm. Indispensible on the 1050.

Dillon customer service is excellent.

All depends upon the volume of ammo you want to load. I have a 550 which I use almost exclusively for 45 acp. I can crank out 100 rounds in 15 minutes.

I've never had a problem with 650 priming unless I use S&B primers.

over the years i have had a dillon RL1000, a 650, a super 1050, and 3 550s. sold the 650 as it primed on the upstroke, hurting my operated on lower back. other than that i loved it. sold the RL1000 when i sold the gunshop. was a great machine. sold the super 1050 after a few years as ran out of space to store the ammo! but for function etc has no equal. really regret letting that one get away. one 550 washed away in a flood and one went to a friend i think. latest 550c works great except WOULD NOT seat a CCI pistol primer worth a damn. i adjusted it from hell to back but wouldn't seat em deep enough. 45colt. CS at dillon kept telling me CCI is hard to seat of all primers. finally gave up after a month or so of not believing it and used some of my WW primers. seat like greased goose shit. i consider that to be on me. shoulda listened to em. i have i think the 550c set up for 6 calibers now.
had a LNL for about 2 weeks back in 2010? my record was like 3 45acp rds loaded in a row. jam, jam, jam. final straw was when CS guy told me "i can't help you cause i don't load 45acp." got the 650 soon after and loaded north of 500 45acp rds soon as was set up. diff. was like night and day. no machine is perfect, its a MACHINE.

DILLON!

You won't go wrong with a Dillon. Get the 550 if you want manual advance, or the new 750 if yow eant auto advance.

From what I am hearing...either a 1050 or 750. I am leaning 1050. Anyone want to talk me back to the 750?

I just want to be able to crank out a couple of hundred rounds after church on Sunday afternoon fairly easily. Besides .45 ACP, .223, and .300 Blkout...would be nice to do a run of .308 win’s sometimes too.

Those would be all I would set up progressive.

Votes and reasons for going 750 or 1050.

if $$ is not an issue, then 1050. its always better to go too much than too little. the 1050 will crank out a few 100 rds in a matter of minutes freeing you up to do something else. but, changing calibers is more time consuming than a 750, especially if changing primer sizes. on a 1050 its better to do a few 1000 then change calibers. all it takes is doing it once or twice and its not a big deal to change calibers. and....a 1050 IS a commercial reloader. like having a 4x4 diesel truck. if you can afford it, hell ya! damn, i've about talked myself into getting another one.

also, i hate brass prep. who doesn't. so i also have a giruad case trimmer. on the 1050 and 650 for the 223 and 308 and 06 i'd back out all the dies a bit except the sizer, take the powder dump off, size em all in minutes, clean em a bit, stick em in the giraud trimmer. then do another caliber just switching out the sizer die because the shell plate is the same for the 308 and 06 and 45acp.

I’d go with the 1050 as well.

It does have a bit more learning curve to it than the other Dillon presses, but I still think the primer changeover is easier with it than the others (get separate tool heads for each set up, and really all the work is changing shell plate and primers with what you are talking about choices of)

It takes me a lot longer to prep rifle brass than the rest of it.

It is more expensive. Only you know the value of your time vs the money, but the time differences for what you describe are going to be minimal.

I will say of my pistol competition shooting friends, none who have tried both the 1050 and the 650 chose the 650.

Would not take a 550 or 650 for free, and yes, I have been offered them. And I have used them. 1050 is in a whole other class price wise; and I know nothing about them.
I use Hornady; no issues and I have used them from the original Pro7.
Dillon has some design issues I don't like. Others make do with them.

A couple of vote for Hornady and the vast majority for Dillon. For the price difference...I am not so much worried about that...I want the best machine. Time is my most precious commodity and I like good equipment.

if your only looking at a couple hundred just get a 550 and spend the money on other accessories.
I have 4 550's set up [one for each primer size]
and the primer tube fillers for large and small primers.
I usually just use the fillers to fill the 10 tubes I keep for each primer, spending maybe 15 minutes to fill all 10 tubes.

then load a bit here and a bit there as I need things.
10 minutes before dinner, a little more later at night, maybe an hour mid-day.
it don't take long to use up all thousand primers that way.

I have two Hornady LNL progressives and a Lee Loadmaster

They are all fine presses

I am a pretty handy guy...very few things I can’t fix or work on successfully. Tell me how long it takes to change a Dillon 1050 over from one type of cartridge to another and get it loading smoothly.

For me with, say, 40 SW to 9mm (no primer swap) and everything is on the bench, 10 minutes. (2 toolheads- most of the time is making sure the primer feed is set up right with the new toolhead)- that would be even less for you between the .223 and .300 BLK, as shell plate and priming are the same.

For worst case- .45 ACP to .223, again with everything on the bench, 30 minutes. (switch toolheads, swap out primer set up, change casefeed plate, change case plunger, etc.)

The one thing that I am not including is setting up the swaging system. If I needed to do that, I don't use it much, it would probably add an hour to the time due to nonfamiliarity.

If I took the machine down from a big run, adding cleaning time would be maybe 30 minutes to clean and do preventative maintenance, etc.

Add maybe 45 minutes if you don't have the dies set up in a toolhead and you need to remove one set, and then put in a second and set them up and set timing (mostly primer depth) based on that.

It sure aint orthopedic surgery... :-P

Just the type of answer I was looking for. Thank you Dr.

as for time .. if one has several power throwers, on a hornaday, and bought the quick release die holders, ...

to frame best time - assuming 45 acp and 308 (same shell plate)

well, it takes about 5 seconds, per hole, to swap the dies, and maybe 60 seconds to change the powder thrower.. and a whole minute to change the primer tube.. 140 seconds from 45acp to 308 .., as they use the same shell plate.

if you have to change the shellplate AND primer size, add another 120 seconds.

roughly 4.5 minutes to go from tiny (22h) to 458 winmag -

setup the first time is always the long pole, and i have three powder throwers .. one setup for small stuff, one for big stuff, and one for screwing around .. <20 gr, >80 gr, and "i'll adjust it along the way"

my Square deal B is setup for one load, takes roughly 5 minutes to bolt it back to the bench, add and check powder, etc... i have swapped all the stuff for a caliber change, and bought the hornady in frustration

all of this is "other than load primer tubes" of course

I would "never" buy a 550 new - manual indexing sort of defeats the point.. and the hornady was <$400 at acadamy the other day...

i MIGHT, MiGHT have $850 in my hornady setup, including the 3 powder measures, i think ~15 shellplates, quick release die holders, and spare parts --- oh, it could be as much as $1k .. not that i'd admit that to the wife!

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
For me with, say, 40 SW to 9mm (no primer swap) and everything is on the bench, 10 minutes. (2 toolheads- most of the time is making sure the primer feed is set up right with the new toolhead)- that would be even less for you between the .223 and .300 BLK, as shell plate and priming are the same.

For worst case- .45 ACP to .223, again with everything on the bench, 30 minutes. (switch toolheads, swap out primer set up, change casefeed plate, change case plunger, etc.)

The one thing that I am not including is setting up the swaging system. If I needed to do that, I don't use it much, it would probably add an hour to the time due to nonfamiliarity.

If I took the machine down from a big run, adding cleaning time would be maybe 30 minutes to clean and do preventative maintenance, etc.

Add maybe 45 minutes if you don't have the dies set up in a toolhead and you need to remove one set, and then put in a second and set them up and set timing (mostly primer depth) based on that.

It sure aint orthopedic surgery... :-P

THIS! except for primer swaging time. why so long? all it takes is loosening a locknut, screwing the post up or down, and tightening the locknut. primer depth setting is even easier

Using a Hornady progressive press is not a good sign. Genetic testing is called for.

There is no way to get around having to prep your brass.

The Dillon 650 worked fine for me for years for 45acp, 40 S&W, 9mm, 308, 223. There are some hacks available on e-bay that greatly enhance Dillon 650/750 function.