I'm looking into buying a new progessive machine in the next few days (spending way to much time lurching over my Rock Chucker) and I was hoping you guys could share with me the pros and cons of the machines you've had dealings with. Thanks

Whatcha loadin? Well it doesn't really matter as far as dillon goes, so I reccomend the dillon 650. You can load pistol or rifle progressively, even the long magnums. You can use the dillon charge bar type powder measure or mount a standard drum type of measure such as Hornady or RCBS. The Hornady case activated linkage works quite well for my Hornady deluxe powder measure.

I was a detractor as far as dillon goes until I saw one set up at the local Sheels store. Guys at the club that shoot IPSC had said it was THE best of the progressives. I said I had to touch one first, Sheels tokk care of that requirement. It is a well made rugged loader and incredibly fast.

Now for the bad news, or more accurately, the expensive news. So far I have $1300.00 in mine, with 5 caliber conversions, not counting dies,(which I already had). That includes the automatic case feeder,(without which you might as well have your rock chucker).

FOr all pistol cartridges and the bulk loaded rifle cartridges the Dillon is the first choice for most all of my friends and myself.....they are the standard by which others are measured and most end up with a Dillon if they are loading a lot of quality ammo for important shooting......I have the 550B and a friend uses the 650.......and Dillon has good customer support and a good attitude......HTH..good luck and good shooting-loading a lot of ammo at a sitting!!!

Ark Fireman,



Have only 30+ years of handloading experience. Over those years I have accumulated nearly every press that is (has been) available. Have handloaded for 100+ calibers ranging from wildcats like the 20 Tactical, 22/6mm Rem, 7mm BR, 416 Taylor, 470 Capstick, 500 A-Square, and 500 Linebaugh to all the commercial rounds. Currently keep about a half-dozen Dillon 550s, some Dillon 650s, one Dillon 1050, a couple of Lee manual turret presses, and a half-dozen RCBS single stage presses handy along with assorted others.



I consider myself a novice at this and am constantly seeking advice from people with more experience and better results than I get. I load only for my own pleasure and know nothing about commercial loading or considerations. So take anything I suggest with a large grain of salt.



I find the Dillon 550 to be the most versatile and overall best of all the progressives.



The Dillon 550 is more forgiving than the 650 and 1050. Changing calibers is easier with the 550. I do have separate toolheads for every caliber for both the 550 and 650 presses. I do keep one Dillon 550 always setup for small primer pistol, another 550 for large primer pistol, another 550 for small primer rifle, and another 550 for large primer rifle in order to minimize setup change time. Do the same with the 650s, but still can't change setups on the 650 as fast as the 550.



Actual handloading speed over an hour or day is very good with the 550. I usually get better end-of-the-day loading amounts with the 550 than with the 650 or 1050. The interruptions seem to be more common and take longer to resolve with the 650 and 1050. However, other people's techniques and experience will likely be different than mine.



I have used a lot of Lee equipment. I brag on many of Lee's items as being either great for the money or just great period. Keep a couple of their manual turret presses ready all the time and use them for some load development. But I cannot say anything good about the Lee progressive presses. I quit even trying to use the Lee progressive. A good friend saw the Lee progressive sitting in the corner one day. It was setup and ready for loading 38 Special. He asked about the press. For some reason he became infatuated with it even as I advised against it. I did not want to lose a friend, but he was so insistent. I didn't want him to waste his money by buying one. So I gave the Lee progressive to him at no charge. But made him put in writing that I thought it was no good and had warned him. He has now had it 10+ years. He won't even speak to my children anymore.



Do not waste time with anything that does not have an interchangeable toolhead.



Love RCBS and Hornady equipment in general, but for progressive presses like the Dillon better.



All the Dillons are good and Dillon Precision is a good company to do business with. And fast handloading 500 Linebaughs and 500 A-Squares is fun. (Just don't ask Dillon to make a shellholder for the 500 A-Square.)



I humbly suggest that the Dillon 550 is a good way to go.





Hammer

I ditto pretty much everything Hammer said. I started loading in '74 and have tried most of the presses available. For progressives, Dillon is the cat's meow. I have a older Hornady that I use for 5.56 only. Works great, but takes the better part of a day to swap calibers. I prefer the 650 over the 550 because of the case feed and auto indexing. The 550 is a little more versatile. There are probably more 550s in use than all other progressives combined. The only fault I find with Hammer is he allowed a friend to use a Lee. I threw mine in a swamp to prevent such a disaster. The only Lee product I own is one factory crimp die for .45ACP.

Eddie

Eddie,

Soon after letting my friend have the Lee progressive (again under written protest and at no charge), he married a woman who has kept him under her thumb with no room for relaxation or enjoyment. He no longer is allowed to go to gunshows. He has quit hunting groundhogs. He no longer even perks up at the mention of a new 32. He has lost all interest in life. Can't even get a rise out of him by mentioning Hillary's name. And it all started with being given (under my protest) a Lee progressive tool.

He even quit casting bullets and drinking.

Hammer

Eddie,

I have made amends by giving three friends Dillon 550s with all the trimmings for Christmas.

Hammer

Hammer,

Do you have any pics of your reloading room? Sounds like quite the set-up!!

Hammer, you are absolved.

You are absolved.

Eddie

I have also used several of the progressive presses, and I think that the hornady is very good. This dillon is very good, but I think is a bit more expensive to get up and running for all of your reloading needs. The Lee loadmaster set up with their powder measures is a less expensive way to go. The Lee 1000 is a pistol only option, and has its quirks. It will load ammo that is good and accurate onec you get the mode of operation down. Most of the progressives are getting better and cheaper. For an intor, see what is sold localy, then you have a local base of knowledge to work with, as well as shell plates, powder dies, and sll of the lther stuff you will need. They will all work if you do your part. I use a lee loadmaster and a hornady ap both will work the way I want to, and you can also mix and match thing like powder delivery and such. Good luck.

Hammer, you are the man. Do you have these presses on separate benches? Or do you have one great big long bench that goes around the room(s)? That must be pretty handy when switching jobs. That sounds terrible about your friend, especially the "wife doesn't let..." part.

I should add that I ordered the dillon press and several tool heads from Sheels, a local sporting goods store. I got it without the automatic case feeder. I followed a link on glock talk to here; www.brianenos.com . He's a champion ipsc shooter that also sells dillon stuff at 5to10% below what dillon does. I ordered a couple more caliber conversions and the case feeder from him. He was very prompt, 4 days from order to delivery!



This is the before casefeeder photo, just after the original bench building and set-up work..

Ark Fireman,

Get a Dillon 550 you will never regret it.

Danbro

Nebraska,



The main room is 40x50 foot.



The tables along the wall with the Dillon 550s are built with 4x4 legs and 2x6 braces. The table with the 650 and 1050 is built from welded 2x2 inch square steel tubing. The tables with the RCBS Rockchuckers and RCBS AmmoMasters are built from two Gorilla Racks bolted together. All table tops are one-and-a-half inch thick plywood with a smooth surface.





The hole in the wall at the end of the room is the port to the sound suppression room, the chronograph room, and shooting range. The shooting range goes to 800 yards.

































Hammer

For maybe 30 years I collected reloading equipment. In presses I tended to stay with old and weird. Jordans, Potters, Hollywood turrets and progressives. Probably had a dozen plus of each of the first three and maybe 36 or so progressives. All these machines I at least tried to use.

Of the progressives made today I personally think that the two best are the Dillons and the RCBSs. RCBS's earlier machines (the green machine, the 4x4, the auto 4x4, the AmmoMaster, the Piggyback and the Piggyback II) were well worth avoiding BUT when they got to the Pro 2000 and the Piggyback III and Piggyback IV they finally got it right.

Between these RCBS units and the Dillon line there aren't any bad machines. Personally I think that the Dillon 1050 is a bit to complicated and that the Dillon 550 is a better machine than the 650 but...

I sold my press collection years ago. Deciding what few to keep was an interesting choice. I have two RCBS Pro 2000 and two RCBS Piggyback III's. I REALLY like their strip primer system. That just eliminates any possible primer problems.

The only complaint about the strip primer is that people constantly announce that those primers are about to be dropped. ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE! They can be hard to find but they are not going to go away.

Nebraska,



Handloading is a demanding hobby. One must sacrifice a lot to pursue it.



Hammer

WOW!!! That room's the BOMB!! I'm really lovin' it.

I've started to pick up some reloading stuff but haven't done any reloading of my own yet due to time constraints. So far, I have a Forster Co-Ax press (still in the box), RCBS powder measure, and a set of Redding Deluxe dies in 338 WM. After looking at that room, I'd probably be wise to put 'em all on Ebay right now (or get a second job)!!

First let me point out that over the long haul, buying cheap won't save you much if any money. $100 over the next ten years? who cares?


Yet, I saw a reply from one happy lee progressive owner.

I'm a second.

I have 2 pro-1000's and a loadmaster.

Because I dropped 3 9mm cases with powder in them and decided that I needed a way to insert the bullet after the powder without handleing the case.

Then I saw a pro-1000 at a gun show and it looked like it might work.

I started with .38 special target loads which I couldn't see the powder in. I loaded 5 rounds without powder in a box of 50.

Further, the loaded rounds didn't slide down the chute. Then I found the case feeder to just get in MY way.


So why did I like it enough to buy another?

Well I like simple. And my goal was to load 9mm, not .38 target loads.

I like the case slider and drop a case in front of it as the handle goes down. I also used it without the case slider. Its not a big difference, but the slider wins.

But what about the powder drop? Switch to W231 and it flows perfect (700x and bullseye is OK above 4.0 grains). Some of the problem was the bullseye I had was sticky.

And the loaded round chute? I box the loaded rounds, so I just put them into their boxes as they come out of the shellplate.

And some other things, like I prefer stuff to be solid, so I added a second screw to hold the powder hopper. And put a rubber band around the powder hopper lid so I can turn it upside down to change the disc. Speaking of the disc, I added labels so I can identify which hole is under the measure easy. And it never needs to be adjusted.

And powder checking (I didn't do that with the .38 spec rounds, remember). It is easy to put a light above the reloader and see the powder in the case as I set the bullet on the case mouth on all the shorter pistol rounds. I have tried to find out how dillon users do this powder check on the .38 spec, but they have never shared their secret.

Then their is the missing station (only 3 on the pro1000), but that is what I always used anyway. Bullet seating and taper crimping works fine for me (and always has).

So that leaves me with an incredably fast easy to use reloader that doesn't have me handleing cases with powder in them. And it is excellent for my .380, 9mm, .40 & .45. It is fine for revolver rounds if they have enough powder to see while they are in the loader.

Also, with the disc, it is perfect to take to the range and work up and down to the perfect load to work the action. Fairly light and complete.

A note on the loadmaster. One of the 5 stations is used to prime the cases leaveing 4 for actual reloading (disappointing as I bought it for the fifth station). This means that checking powder, setting the bullet, and crimping in separate stations isn't natural, as it would be in a dillon 650. But it isn't natural with the hornady or RCBS progressives either (thou it is possible). The case slider tends stick and because of access is really needed. It is really slick and fun to use as long as the case slider works.

I tend to think of lee stuff like a kit. So if you can't adjust your trigger, you probably won't like lee stuff.

JerryO

Nebraska,

My wife maintains that handloading is more expensive than my flying airplanes and fooling with horses.

To handload, you have to buy land for shooting ranges, construct buildings to hold the stuff, and finally go to Africa to shoot the ammo so you can reload the brass. Then there's the taxidermy bill...



Hammer

There's eight reloading machines on my bench and three of them are Dillon...teo 550 and a 650. Three shotshell machines in 12, 20, 28 ga and a RCBS rockchucker. Last and not least is a little known Hornady lock and loac AP.

Like all loaders, it took some getting used to but at least for handgun loads and short rifle loads like .243 class I actually prefer it over the Dillon. I suspect I'm one in a hundered that will make that comment but it's my honest impression. The bad thing is that Hornady don't offer a video on the setup and operation and dillon does.

Boy, do I feel humble, what with only seven presses to my name. I am so unworthy.

Wish I had room for more, but it took years to convince my wife to let me move out of the garage and into a spare room upstairs. I don't miss loading in the heat and humidity of Florida.

Eddie

I will second the opinion about the Hornady progressive. I had an old projector and loved it. I had done several things to help it out but my exwife got it in the divorce. I've had a Dillon 1000 and a Dillon 1050 I sold the 1000 and some SOB just stole the 1050 last July. Now I am considering a Hornady Lock n Load AP with the case feeder for a replacement. Hammerhead

Eddie,

Don't feel bad with only seven presses.

Had more fun handloading 30+ years ago when I had only one press (a Rockchucker) and more time, innocence, and enthusiasm to load and think. Or 10 years ago when my kids would help me load and it took ten times longer to load a round even though I had a Dillon. Now I have no time and the kids are gone or have other interests (except the youngest).

Would trade a few presses for a few years if you knew how to make the trade.

Hammer

I have a rather ancient Dillon 450, that I like and have had no problems with. I've only used it to load pistol ammo on, though, as I do rifles with a single stage. Nothing to do with the machine, I just prefer to do it that way.

My first Dillon was a 450. Still like the 450 primer system better than either the 550 or 1050.

Hammer

Well you may be able to see part of my Dillon 550 behind my son and I in the Avatar. That is my recommendation. Hammer and the others have made a great case for it. One other tip, buy the Dillon dies for all the calibers that you own and they offer dies for, especially the pistol dies. They are fantastic and work best in the press. Yes they are more expensive but the are worth the price. And just a reminder you could buy a cheaper press but it won't save you that much money and you'll have a cheaper press.

If anyone's interested, I have a like new RCBS Pro 2000 progressive complete posted for sale 2/11 in the classifieds.