dillon xl650 or hornady LNL AP

**busa dave** · December 14th, 2014, 01:53 PM

I'm going to run a case feeder for sure.

I've had quite a few issues with my hornady powder measure. Powder charges were + - .4 gr. so I bought the pistol metering assembly and followed hornady recommendations on cleaning and polishing the metering assembly. It got a little better but I've only found 3 or 4 powders that it can drop somewhat reliably.

**DavidTM** · December 14th, 2014, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by busa dave

I'm going to run a case feeder for sure.

I've had quite a few issues with my hornady powder measure. Powder charges were + - .4 gr. so I bought the pistol metering assembly and followed hornady recommendations on cleaning and polishing the metering assembly. It got a little better but I've only found 3 or 4 powders that it can drop somewhat reliably.

Funny you mention using only the pistol meter. I only use the rifle powder meter and depending upon the powder, I will get +-.2gr. I don't think that's any different than any other "regular" powder drop. Unless you get into the very high price $400+ ones.

FWIW

**busa dave** · December 14th, 2014, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by DavidTM

Funny you mention using only the pistol meter. I only use the rifle powder meter and depending upon the powder, I will get +-.2gr. I don't think that's any different than any other "regular" powder drop. Unless you get into the very high price $400+ ones.

FWIW

Some of the powders I used for .45 only used 4.5 gr. I had nothing but problems with the standard rifle measure cranked in that far.

**DavidTM** · December 15th, 2014, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by busa dave

Some of the powders I used for .45 only used 4.5 gr. I had nothing but problems with the standard rifle measure cranked in that far.

Yeah, your right. (I forgot about those rabbit spit powder charges) Last year I switched to Trail Boss for the 45acp. I know it cost a bit more, but the load process is so much easier, the consistency is so much better, and there is no way to double charge a load. I still use my RCBS lock out die for "insurance" but I still look at each case before I place the bullet in. The T\B powder is easy to determine where the charge should be in the case.

FWIW

**Yoder** · December 15th, 2014, 08:45 AM

The whole purpose of a progressive press is to make ammo quicker. If I didn't care about production I would use a single stage press. I don't want to spend all my time fiddling with ammo, I want to shoot it.

**DavidTM** · December 15th, 2014, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by Yoder

The whole purpose of a progressive press is to make ammo quicker. If I didn't care about production I would use a single stage press. I don't want to spend all my time fiddling with ammo, I want to shoot it.

And this is what they do. Your point?

**JoshIronshaft** · December 15th, 2014, 09:04 AM

Love my 650, it barely makes mistakes despite my best efforts.

**Yoder** · December 15th, 2014, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by DavidTM

And this is what they do. Your point?

This:

As for claims of XXXX per hour. That's all BS. Who really want's to work that hard at a hobby and who wants to crank ammo out that fast

**IntenseImage** · December 15th, 2014, 11:21 AM

You really need to locate some local shooters who have the units in question and ask if you can check them out in person before you decide.

Before I purchased anything I got some time on a 650 and got to see what I didnt like about it. Then I got to mess around with an LNL and the decision was easy for me. I now have (2) LNLs FWIW as we shoot about 2k rounds a month and like to leave presses setup for 9 and 40 and swap out the 40 as needed to load others.

Reasons why I personally went LNL over the 650 ... biggest issue was the priming system on the 650. I HATED how if you pulled a case out and it went over the station, it kicks the live primer completely out of the system (typically missing the catch tray and going AWOL under the bench). While I have sorting trays and the like, 38 Super and 380s always seem to sneak through and I catch them when they hit the shell plate, and simply pull them out before they get primed. On a 650, that primer would then be kicked away. I have not had any trouble with my priming system on the LNL .. as long as your press is indexing correctly it will run just fine.

This leads to item #2 -- I much prefer the spring retention to those damn little buttons on the Dillon that hold the cases in.

I will admit the case feed system on the Dillon is better .. but with a just a little tweaking, my LNL feed runs like a champ.

I also prefer the powder measure on the LNL (aside from being able to buy lower units to pre-set calibers), I like the throw better than the sliding bar from the Dillon. Others claim the Hornday measure is more consistent -- perhaps. I havent tested it.

Speaking of powder, I also prefer the half-step indexing on the LNL as it keeps powder spillage to a minimum when using loads that almost fill the case.

Before I had multiple presses, caliber changes were another consideration. Not only is the Hornady cheaper to setup for multiple calibers, I can swap the press (including primer size if needed) in under 5 mins. That time includes refilling power and primers -- ie 5 mins from start to ready to pull the handle. There is NOTHING difficult about changing calibers on the press.

The 650 I used was on a strong mount w roller handle. A much nicer system than bolting a LNL to the bench and using their ball handle. However, Inline Fabrication makes parts that surpass the Dillon ones so that was a non-issue in the end.

Warranty is another big topic and people love to talk about Dillons no questions warranty ... Ive broken parts on my LNL (100% my fault) and without question Hornady sent replacements and I had them in just a few days. Hell, when I heard about their updated primer seating punch, I called and asked if I could get one and they even sent that out for free even without mine being broken.

There is a slight price premium you pay for Dillon ... is the actual part worth that premium, not in my mind ... but when you buy into a "premium" product you want to tout it as such and I think that is partially why you see so much blue koolaid drinkers on the forums pushing their decision.

Now if a 1050 was in my budget ... id have a blue stain on my tongue too

**JoshIronshaft** · December 15th, 2014, 12:19 PM

Don't get me started on 1050 lust.

If I ever pick up a second press I will have to try one of these LNL's.

You bring up a lot of good issues about the 650. The primers getting kicked out bothers me too, and if you take a piece of electrical tape and wrap it around the bottom of that little shelf they come out on to, they won't fall off and run away, so that is mitigated in a half assed way that works (see picture I posted). I just manually feed another piece of brass into that stage when loading rifle rounds if something goes wrong, as I am doing nothing in the first stage with 223, so it doesn't really cause a primer to come out, but with pistol, it would skip the sizing/depriming and I would have a primer to feed back in later.

Powder throw is consistent enough for my action shooting purposes but the variation is usually +/- 0.1 gr which a long distance bench rest shooter might have an aneurism over.