Lets talk regrets....

J

jon1985

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I am looking to get in to reloading. I have settled on a press...I think... so now its a matter of buying the press and related paraphernalia. I am looking to pick up a Dillon 550b progressive press.

There in lies my question. There is so much 'stuff' available when it comes to reloading.

I am looking to reload mostly pistol, the majority will be 9mm with some .357 on the side. Once Im comfortable I will look to reload some .223 but I suspect that will be the only rifle caliber I reload in any quantity.

The question, for those of you with this press, or any other press, what did you buy at the start that you either now don't use or have replaced with something different.

Likewise, what didn't you buy upfront that you wish you had?

Any and all advice is welcome.
 
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I bought a Lee Turret press, I asked a few fellas at the range about what equipment I should get, and they recommended that press. It does everything I need quite well, and I'm very happy with it.
 
Pistol and 223 take a look at Dillon 550b. Use as single stage type press to start and learn then can be used as progressive.

Not sure what press you are looking at as it isn't mentioned.
 
Started with a single press for pistol and rifle till more volume was needed then it was into a Dillon, perfect combination going forward
 
Biggest thing, if you plan to do pistol. Pay a bit more and get a progressive. You will find brand loyalty big time, regardless of Hornady or Dillon it will be a good investment.
 
I got a single stage RCBS 40 yrs ago and still have & use it. A strong C press (jr I think) and great service for anything I have needed. I do use a separate primer that I like. I now have a Dillan (sp?) but only use it when doing high volume amounts. I would rebuy a RCBS package if I was to do it again. Good luck
 
My first press was a Lee single stage it was okay until I bought the Forester Co-ax - I wish I would have known about the Forester before hand. It is very simple to use no she'll holders and you slide in the die you want to use no screwing in dies and messing around with wrenches. There are some good utube vids that are worth watching
 
Happy with HDY LNL, auto progress at price of manual 550b.
Once I got into precision got a Forster co-ax that does a much better job with Forster ultra seater.
Also got mini arbor with Wilson die.
 
The only stuff that I bought and don't use now are the Lee quick trim dies. I probably never used them right in the first place but they just never seemed to work out for me.
For 9mm, a progressive press sounds like a fantastic idea.
 
My regret: tried to use small base dies to size and de-primer military crimped brass in .223 and .308. Oh man, those nice RCBS dies only lasted about 60 rounds of that each before they broke.

I bought one of those cheap $40.00 Lee presses and have a universal decapping die in it: It allows me to have a stronger decapping pin than the sizing dies, not trying to size and decap the crimped in primers at once and leaves all the dirty primers and corrosive primers away from my normal press.

For the price of the press and decapping die it was worth it a million times over to me.
 
IvoB said:
My first press was a Lee single stage it was okay until I bought the Forester Co-ax - I wish I would have known about the Forester before hand. It is very simple to use no she'll holders and you slide in the die you want to use no screwing in dies and messing around with wrenches. There are some good utube vids that are worth watching
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That is a fine press (Forester) will last a lifetime and highly accurate
 
The 550 is great all round press you can load many calibers with it. My question is , for 223 are you make precision loads or plinking because you might want to pickup a single stage press as well.
 
Bought a Lee Turret press. I can also use it as a single stage if needed by removing the indexing rod. No regrets purchasing it.

I've reloaded .45, .357, .223, .308 and soon the 8mm mauser.

The only thing I kind of regretted buying was the Lee autodisk, and returned it to amazon.ca but now regretting returning it. I had a hard time metering specifically the 700-X but now I've got several bottles of titegroup, I wish I had it back for faster reloading.
 
Your only regret will be that you didn't spend a bit more and get the Dillon XL 650. Running with ball powder I can crank out 1200 rounds of 45 acp in an hour. Can't move my arm the next day but it was a challenge to be concord. I have 2 Dillon 650's set up for 45acp and 9mm and a Lee classic turret for all the rest of my reloading, with the indexing rod removed. The Lee classic turret has 4 holes for dies in the turret head. I like that feature. I don't like presses that you pull the die out to change over and loose all the settings. With the Lee Turret you can have a separate turret for each caliber and change over to a different caliber in minutes.
 
Bought a Lee pro 1000 for 9mm and 223, was happy with it until I bought a Dillon 650, then I never looked back. I would suggest skipping anything that is not Dillon and going straight to a quality setup that will last a lifetime, and their warranty reflects that commitment
 
roadcarver said:
Bought a Lee Turret press. I can also use it as a single stage if needed by removing the indexing rod. No regrets purchasing it.

I've reloaded .45, .357, .223, .308 and soon the 8mm mauser.

The only thing I kind of regretted buying was the Lee autodisk, and returned it to amazon.ca but now regretting returning it. I had a hard time metering specifically the 700-X but now I've got several bottles of titegroup, I wish I had it back for faster reloading.
Click to expand...

Mine was a little wonky at first but after a lot of use it has a nice slick coating of graphite on all the working surfaces and is uber consistent now.
 
If you need precison 223 then get a single stage, if not get a progressive as i said.

you will thank that decision when you roll out 500 rounds an hour of pistol rounds compared to 100
 
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