Best Progressive Press For the Price

[Yoder]

Right now I'm using a Lee Turret press and it's done a good job but I'm tired of spending all day reloading. I want to upgrade to a progressive press. So what is the best buy for the money? I want something reliable that I don't have to screw with everytime just to make it work correctly. I was looking at the Dillon 550/650 but is anything cheaper as good or better?

[hornady]

This is a loaded question; I like the Hornady LNL auto progressive, very well made and strong. But you will have plenty tell you to only buy Blue.
The LNL is about half the price of the 650. But the real money starts with the add on’s, if you load multiple calibers. Not knowing what you are looking for in an Auto progressive. I would go out and read as many reviews as possible about both, I don’t think you would go wrong with either Hornady or Dillion, with the Hornady being less money.

[kcr121]

Buy once, cry once. Just get the Dillon and never look back.

[Yoder]

Right now I'm loading mostly 9mm and some .45. I bought dies for .40 but haven't started loading it yet since I don't shoot it much. I really want something that I can load all my ammo for the month in a few hrs. Right now I'm shooting about 800/per month but I want to ramp up to 2-3k in a few months.

[Plain Old Bill]

Dillon square deal for the pistols, 550 for the rifles. I've owned Lee, RCBS (best of the rest) and others, and some were very good...Dillon is head and shoulders above the rest.

[Pete D.]

I have a Dillon Square Deal, a Dillon 550, and two Lee Pro 1000s. They are all good presses; they all work; they ALL have their quirks.
The 550 is not a fully progressive press; you must turn the shellplate manually to advance the cases. The Lee press demands a clean primer feed trough,,,,and it must be kept full. The little Square Deal, like all Dillons is a pain to load primers into. The tubes may be safe but it's one at a time for primers.
Best buy....the Lees are substantially less $. One of my Pro 1000's is somewhere between 60 and 70 thousand rounds of .45ACP. The only thing that was a problem was that a little plastic gear broke a while back. Lee sent a new one (actually they sent two, I haven't needed the second.)
You can't go wrong with any of them, just spend different amounts of money.
If you are talking about versatility - changing calibers, etc - then the Dillon 550 or higher is the way to go.
Pete

[max384]

Originally Posted by Yoder

Right now I'm using a Lee Turret press and it's done a good job but I'm tired of spending all day reloading. I want to upgrade to a progressive press. So what is the best buy for the money? I want something reliable that I don't have to screw with everytime just to make it work correctly. I was looking at the Dillon 550/650 but is anything cheaper as good or better?

That depends on who you ask. If you ask a Dillon owner, he'll tell you Dillon. If you ask a Hornady owner, he'll tell you Hornady. If you ask a Lee owner, he'll tell you he wished he had a Hornady or Dillon... hahaha

Personally, I have a Dillon XL650 with all the lickeys and cheweys and love it. For me, there were only two options I was considering: the Hornady LNL AP and Dillon 650. I needed an available automatic case feeder and auto indexing. Read this guide before deciding. It is fairly in depth and well written.

[saleen322]

Originally Posted by Pete D.

I have a Dillon Square Deal, a Dillon 550, and two Lee Pro 1000s. They are all good presses; they all work; they ALL have their quirks.
The 550 is not a fully progressive press; you must turn the shellplate manually to advance the cases. The Lee press demands a clean primer feed trough,,,,and it must be kept full. The little Square Deal, like all Dillons is a pain to load primers into. The tubes may be safe but it's one at a time for primers.
Best buy....the Lees are substantially less $. One of my Pro 1000's is somewhere between 60 and 70 thousand rounds of .45ACP. The only thing that was a problem was that a little plastic gear broke a while back. Lee sent a new one (actually they sent two, I haven't needed the second.)
You can't go wrong with any of them, just spend different amounts of money.
If you are talking about versatility - changing calibers, etc - then the Dillon 550 or higher is the way to go.
Pete

+1
I bought a Lee 1000 about 30 years ago when they first came out because it was all I could afford back then. About 10 years ago I bought a wooden crate full of used Lee parts and some other stuff for $40. From that I got two more presses and some other parts. I have three set up on my bench and I have won a lot of matches with ammo out of them. After all of the use and years they are still working but they do have their quirks.

[Yoder]

I looked at all three and watched the setup videos for each one. I know what my Lee is like. It works well but the quality isn't the highest. There are a lot of little plastic pieces. I think Lee finds ingenious ways to do things cheaply but sometimes you have to fiddle with it to work. Of all three I think I'm going to buy the Hornady. I really like the way the dies seat and are easy to change and the case feeder looks really reliable. The ram looks well made and I like the grease fittings.

How does the priming system work on the Hornady? They really didn't show much about it.

Now finding the money..

[lucky-gunner]

I've had great luck with my Hornady LnL.

I've used a friends Dillion 550 and other than the LnL caliber change being faster. I think they are equal.