good progressive press

[diygunsmith]

im thinking about stepping up to a progressive press.which ones are good to go.i dont want something i have to tinker with to work properly,no lees i already been down that road.fyi ive been reloading for 28 yrs so im not a noob.

 

[streamerfish]

Progressive presses and tinkering go hand in hand. You may get lucky, but chances are that at least some tinkering, adjusting, tuning will be required.

Also depends on what your reloading and how much volume.

In general dillon is considered the standard by most. Especially pistol reloaders.

Personally, they work fine, but sit in a weird price spot to me with the success of the new Lee. Expensive but a safe bet. However, still have quirks like all progressives.

Ive never used the hornady lock and load. But im sure it works.

I have the lee pro 6000, I think its fantastic. Much better then the older lee models.

Haven't messed with the 10 stage presses.

 

[diygunsmith]

Progressive presses and tinkering go hand in hand. You may get lucky, but chances are that at least some tinkering, adjusting, tuning will be required.

Also depends on what your reloading and how much volume.

In general dillon is considered the standard by most. Especially pistol reloaders.

Personally, they work fine, but sit in a weird price spot to me with the success of the new Lee. Expensive but a safe bet. However, still have quirks like all progressives.

Ive never used the hornady lock and load. But im sure it works.

I have the lee pro 6000, I think its fantastic. Much better then the older lee models.

Haven't messed with the 10 stage presses.

I had the old lee it was a turd

 

[streamerfish]

I had the old lee it was a turd

I agree. the old lee progressives were not so hot.

I am only talking about the new (couple yrs old) Lee pro 6000. I did have to do some minor tuning on the index rod, and tighten some screws up on initial setup. After that it just works. I don't have many rounds on it yet, but I'm not concerned. Its simple in a good way.

If your scarred for life on the Lee I would go Dillon over Hornady.

 

[Thebigbaby]

I’d agree, from what I know (not much) Dillon is the standard.

I personally have a Hornady LnL and have no regrets.

 

[buffybr]

I bought a Dillon 450 30 or more years ago. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the newer and bigger Dillon presses have. I use it at least weekly for all of my pistol reloading (7 cartridges) and all of my .223 and .308 rifle cartridges. I also have the magnum and .30-30 shell plates for it so I can load those cartridges up to my .375 RUM, however I don't do a lot of reloading of those cartridges.

I have my Dillon mounted on my bench next to my RCBS rockchucker press, and the two of them easily take care of all of my metallic case reloading needs.

At the other end of my reloading bench I have my first shotshell reloading press, a 12 ga Honey Bair single stage press that I now only use for reloading my hunting shotshells. Between this press and my rifle/pistol presses I have four Hornady/Pacific 366 progressive shotshell presses for 12, 20, 28 ga, and .410 shotshells.

 

[diygunsmith]

I bought a Dillon 450 30 or more years ago. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the newer and bigger Dillon presses have. I use it at least weekly for all of my pistol reloading (7 cartridges) and all of my .223 and .308 rifle cartridges. I also have the magnum and .30-30 shell plates for it so I can load those cartridges up to my .375 RUM, however I don't do a lot of reloading of those cartridges.

I have my Dillon mounted on my bench next to my RCBS rockchucker press, and the two of them easily take care of all of my metallic case reloading needs.

At the other end of my reloading bench I have my first shotshell reloading press, a 12 ga Honey Bair single stage press that I now only use for reloading my hunting shotshells. Between this press and my rifle/pistol presses I have four Hornady/Pacific 366 progressive shotshell presses for 12, 20, 28 ga, and .410 shotshells.

thank you,i was just looking at the dillon 550

 

[Hydra6]

Dillon 550 is the answer

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Dillon >>>>> Hornady. Love my xl750. The wild card is mark 7. Are they good, great, or just over priced? Very, very little info on those from independent sources.

 

[Hydra6]

I have multiple Dillon 550s and one Dillon XL650. I have been running progressives for 40 years starting with Lee 1000s - I suggest the Dillon 550 as fast enough and simple enough. I seldom use the Dillon 650 as it has just enough complexity that I prefer the 550s. I got the Dillon 650 at an estate sale. I set the 650 up for bulk 223 loading.

 

[tstowater]

I have a pair of 550B's. I'm set up to load handgun and a good number of rifle cartridges. Most of the rifle cartridges loaded are for varmint and target practice. I'm still going to use single stage for hunting loads. Dillons work well and the warranty and support is excellent. I have no personal experience with the Hornady or Lee progressives.

 

[streamerfish]

The dillon 550 is definitely a good one, especially for rifle.

You do have to develop a process that you can stick to, as you manually index, load the case, and the bullet. The threat of a double charge in pistol/ or a spilled mess in a rifle case is ever present. But no doubt its a good machine.

 

[nm.otter]

Eric Cortina is using an Apex 10

 

[Woolley Bugger]

I was in your shoes until last week. I got a Dillon 750. I'm extremely pleased with the build quality and the thoughtfulness of engineering. The Dillon videos walk you through every step clearly. There was less tinkering and adjusting than I'd expected. I'm not particularly mechanically inclined, but I was up and running pretty smoothly.

My only mistake was in getting the standard height stand. With the case loader, the whole setup is TALL. With the height of my bench, I didn't have enough ceiling clearance. So, I've ordered a bench top mount system from Inline Fabrication. That should make the dimensions compatible with my bench.

I shoot pretty moderate volume of pistol cartridges, but even with my amount of shooting, I realize I should have pulled the trigger long ago.

 

[4090Sharps]

I have an Apex10. Every now and then I will need to tinker with the priming system, especially if it gets dirty from a jam/crushed primer. Those priming problems snowball if you don't clean it up well. Otherwise, no problems. Priming always seems to be a pain point on progressives.

I haven't used Dillon progressives, only Hornady and older Lee progressives, and the Apex10 blows them away.

 

[RockAndSage]

Yep, +1 on the Dillon 550s. If you were loading a really high volume of pistol there are some automation upgrades for Dillons and some largely automated presses out there, but in general the 550 is really hard to beat if you're not putting out 1000s of rounds a week.

 

[streamerfish]

I have an Apex10. Every now and then I will need to tinker with the priming system, especially if it gets dirty from a jam/crushed primer. Those priming problems snowball if you don't clean it up well. Otherwise, no problems. Priming always seems to be a pain point on progressives.

I haven't used Dillon progressives, only Hornady and older Lee progressives, and the Apex10 blows them away.

Yeah, priming and indexing(which are often tied together) are the main pain points in any progressive, with probably case and bullet feeders after that, maybe powder drop for rifle depending on powder.

The window of error for the priming systems is pretty low, the press has to index almost perfectly, to align the case with the primer ram, for a smooth prime on the press.

I have heard good things on the APEX 10. And if I had the money, and the need to crank out 2-3K pistol monthly that's what i would have. Looks dreamy to operate.

 

[streamerfish]

Eric Cortina is using an Apex 10

It is kind of funny, that most hunters and "general" shooters use single stage presses for rifle reloading, alot of guys using multiple single stage presses, with the belief that the single stage press develops more accurate ammunition.

And a big chunk of the guys that actually compete at 1,000 yards use various progressive presses.

 

[skipper907]

Dillon 550 is probably the best all around for pistol to most any rifle caliber

 

[tstowater]

I'm going to use a single stage for hunting loads, primarily because I'm going to be loading a bigger cartridge such as a 300 WSM or 300 WM. Don't really want to run either of those through a 550. Just need to make sure that the powder meters accurately if you are going to use an extruded powder and a Dillon powder measurer. Don't know if the other brands have any issues with extruded powders. Just my experience.