Lee Pro 1000 vs Dillon vs RCBS

I bought a pro 1000 and there was a lot of tinkering up to 5000 rounds through the press and now it's at the point that I just won't f with it anymore. It's cheap garbage and I got exactly what I paid for. Lee should never have cheapened their brand by manufacturing such a complete piece of junk. I'm back loading on my classic turret press which which is a well made machine that works perfectly. I can't comment on the other presses you mentioned but stay away from the lee pro 1000.
 
You need a single stage anyway. When i started i bought a cheap lee single stage. i still have it on my bench for various things.
i have a loadmaster, but the priming never worked reliably and there are a few worn parts and its working so so, I dont use it mich anymore.
I have a coax for match rifle.
I have a 650 for 9mm and 223 semi.
 
Get Dillion or HDY if you are sure you will be loading many thousands of rnds.

I use LNL for pistols, co-ax for rifles and Wilson die/mini arbor for precision seating.
 
I have a Loadmaster, not the Pro 1000

- I have to adjust the carrier every 1500 rounds loaded in average, takes a couple of minutes literally.

- The bullet feeder "works" but drops bullets some times when it is running out of bullets and feeding it is a "pia" imho. So I'd recommend using another brand's bullet feeder instead. Anyway, it is so cheap that it won't hurt your wallet buying one just to see how it works. Then you can decide by yourself if picking up a projectile from the floor every 80 rounds is too much for you and if the time spent loading the tubes are acceptable or not.

- The newer primer feeding system works really well and I have no failures with it. You will have to keep and eye on it to make sure it is not out of primers. Not sure how other brands work.

- The case feeder works really well, it is a surprise, if you look at it you'd bet it would fail all the time but I never had a failure with mine. lol

- The newer Lee Auto-drum works great even with fine powders like H110.

- Changing calibers will require that you fine tune the primer seating depth and case feeder height.

- It would be nice if the loadmaster had an extra station for the powder charge checker die.

I'm not a competitive shooter, I value my time and money, so I reload and the quantity I can reload with my Lee is more than enough for me, I can get about 450 ~ 500 rounds of 9mm per hour and that's because of the time wasted "feeding the bullet feeder" and checking powder charge (double or missing) and I don't see the point in spending 400 dollars in an automatic bullet feeder.

I can also get about 300 30-06 reloaded in about an hour. Bullet and case feeding in this case is manual and I use a RCBS lube die to save time.



When I bought mine I was checking out a friends setup, he has 3 dillons (550, 650 and 1050), I loved them but the price to get a 640 complete for one caliber for too much for me.

Dillons are amazing! They are the Rolls Royce of reloading presses and so is their price.
You buy one and you should have zero headaches, but it will take a lot, really a lot of reloading until the savings will pay it off. What I paid for my Loadmaster with all the gear for 4 calibers was less that I was going to pay for a naked Dillon.

Whenever you ask someone about Lee, ask when they bought it, the older ones seemed to have lots of issues, mine is only 3 years old.

Are you in the GTA? You intro says you are in Ontario.
 
Kryogen said:
You need a single stage anyway. When i started i bought a cheap lee single stage. i still have it on my bench for various things.
i have a loadmaster, but the priming never worked reliably and there are a few worn parts and its working so so, I dont use it mich anymore.
I have a coax for match rifle.
I have a 650 for 9mm and 223 semi.
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That is a sweet combination ... it took me awhile reading reviews and ended up with the Dillon after my Forster.. I keep pistol on the Dillon and rifle rounds on the Forster
 
I've tried several brands and while they all work (usually) I have settled on Dillon. I use the SDB for pistol and have a 550 & 650 for rifle (volume). I still load on a single stage for precision rifle.
 
Absolutely hate my Lee 1000. Made at least 80,000 rounds so far. It has cost me $30. in parts. Well I guess that isn't to bad since I haven't had to buy a bullet puller because I have never produced a bad bullet. Maybe the problem people have is all the tinkering. Just pull the dam handle.
 
PrecisionLongshot said:
I use a Dillon SDB for pistol and a RCBS Rockchucker Supreme for single stage stuff/depriming work.

Both quality stuff. Some people say don't get the SDB, just get a 550, but it works for me.
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The ONLY downside to the Square Deal B is the use of special Dillon dies. The intent of the Square Deal was that you buy the press set up to go and just make that one size of ammo on it. Need another caliber? Buy another whole press.

The dies and shell plate for the SDB are switchable but you need to buy the special slip in and lock dies from Dillon as well as the shell plate.

So as a result it's not quite as open to options like the 550 that uses regular "universal" threaded dies.
 
Not sure what the warranty on Lee or RCBS, but Dillon and Hornadys warranties can't be beat.

I just recently called the warranty department, and they are sending me parts for my 25+ YO press and asked if I may need others that may be wearing at no cost to me. Thought I'd take them up on the offer as they do not make the press anymore.
 
Perry Wood said:
Absolutely hate my Lee 1000. Made at least 80,000 rounds so far. It has cost me $30. in parts. Well I guess that isn't to bad since I haven't had to buy a bullet puller because I have never produced a bad bullet. Maybe the problem people have is all the tinkering. Just pull the dam handle.
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That's amazing! The roll pin that the handle pivots on broke on mine around 4500 rounds. Guess you got the best one they ever made.
 
BCRider said:
The ONLY downside to the Square Deal B is the use of special Dillon dies. The intent of the Square Deal was that you buy the press set up to go and just make that one size of ammo on it. Need another caliber? Buy another whole press.

The dies and shell plate for the SDB are switchable but you need to buy the special slip in and lock dies from Dillon as well as the shell plate.

So as a result it's not quite as open to options like the 550 that uses regular "universal" threaded dies.
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Yeah I was aware of that. Just couldn't justify the cost for the 550 at the time, and was only planning on loading one, maybe two calibres. Still only loading one pistol calibre with any kind of quantity; if that changes I'll just get another toolhead and swap that way. Then I don't need to readjust when I swap.
 
My suggestion is not to jump immediately into a progressive. Buy a single stage press and make 1000 or 2000 rounds of ammo. You will learn to appreciate the process and learn why each step is important. I know that sounds like fuddy advise but you will end up with a pile of ammo that you reject and that pile of stuff you will have to pull and reload will teach you the most about reloading and be the most valuable learning one could have.

I reloaded on a single stage, moved to a turret and finally to a progressive. Not that you need to follow that process completely but I highly recommend using the singe stage for at least a few months. I drank the blue kool-aid and have a Dillon. Works great and makes ammo fast. I still make 308 on the single stage and 45 acp on my turrent press.

I almost bought a 650 because of the auto indexing but I got the 550 its so fast that I don't mind indexing and actually like the control it gives me in the process.

Have fun!
 
BCRider said:
The ONLY downside to the Square Deal B is the use of special Dillon dies. The intent of the Square Deal was that you buy the press set up to go and just make that one size of ammo on it. Need another caliber? Buy another whole press.

The dies and shell plate for the SDB are switchable but you need to buy the special slip in and lock dies from Dillon as well as the shell plate.

So as a result it's not quite as open to options like the 550 that uses regular "universal" threaded dies.
Click to expand...

I love my SDB. Only thing with changing calibers I don't like is actually changing from small to large primers or vice-versa. I load 9mm, .357 and am trying to find cheap 45 auto dies and shell plate for mine and when I do, I will only load small primer 45 so I don't have to change the primer mechanism.
 
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