New Dillon owner!!!

Hoser-eh

Hoser-eh

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Middle-Eastern Canada
After getting totally fed up with my Lee 1000 Progressive, and advice from CGN'rs regarding Hornady L&L and Dillon, I finally made up my mind.

Just got my XL 650 today from CRAFM (CGN sponsor). Many thanks to the staff there for all the help.

My new kit:
Dillon XL-650
Electric case feeder
Aluminum roller handle
Strong mount
bullet tray
extra primer tubes
Primer flipper tray

Gonna sell the Lee and put the bullet puller on the shelf.
Looking forward to loading my first rounds.

Yahoo! :dancingbanana:
 
Guess I'll keep the Lee, but I don't know why. :confused:

I hope to be able to do close to the advertised 800-1,000 per hour.

What has been the percentage of rounds needed to do over, and why?
Will I need to keep the bullet puller handy?
 
why you need to keep the lee?

because average person is lazy, are you?, and caliber change are a PITA
I load only calibers that have a base the same size as 308win (45acp, 400 CorBon and 308win are the only caliber I relaod for now, but if I expand to other caliber it will be related to this) to avoid changing shell plate. If one day I have to chaneg the shell plate, I'll do everything to stay with large primers, just to avoid changing primer assembly

2 presses allow for 2 calibers at the same time, your most shot on the 650, other on the lee
 
Hoser-eh said:
After getting totally fed up with my Lee 1000 Progressive, and advice from CGN'rs regarding Hornady L&L and Dillon, I finally made up my mind.

Just got my XL 650 today from CRAFM (CGN sponsor). Many thanks to the staff there for all the help.

My new kit:
Dillon XL-650
Electric case feeder
Aluminum roller handle
Strong mount
bullet tray
extra primer tubes
Primer flipper tray

Gonna sell the Lee and put the bullet puller on the shelf.
Looking forward to loading my first rounds.

Yahoo! :dancingbanana:
Click to expand...

You will never regret buying quality. Enjoy.
 
Just get rid of the Lee......but at least do what I did. Give the buyer fair warning. I was never so glad to see something I owned gone from my sight. Congrats on the Dillon. I keep kicking around the idea of buying one, but I just don't shoot enough to justify it. My Lee 4 hole turret and my Rockchucker keep me going quite nicely. I've got a Texan around here somewhere too. I'll have to dig that out one of these days and mount it.
 
10 years ago, when I went blue, I kept my Lee Jammaster too. Figured it would be a backup in case big blue went down.

In ten years, the two times the press was out of commission
(due to personal stupidity - "Hmmmm....it's seized - should I check why? Nah, just climb on it harder - CRUNCH":eek:)
I refused to pull the red monster out of the box.

Sell the Lee - you won't go back - and welcome to the land of trouble free ammo - next step - Mr. Bulletfeeder... :D
 
I turned my pro 1000 into a single stage and use it to load for my 307 win. Yanked all the rotating shell plate crap out and made a piece to hold the shell holder. Have all 3 dies setup in the turret. Like a single but you don't have to change dies.
 
Thanks for the kudos, guys.
Really looking forward to loading quantity and quality.

Since I had a new set of Lee carbide dies (9mm), they'll get used for now.
However I've been told that the best choice is RCBS.

What's your opinion, and why?
 
Hoser-eh said:
Since I had a new set of Lee carbide dies (9mm), they'll get used for now.
However I've been told that the best choice is RCBS.

What's your opinion, and why?
Click to expand...

My opinion is that, like most everything else they make, RCBS dies have a great reputation that they don't deserve. Tools are required to make even the smallest adjustment, like bullet depth. The lock ring is secured to the die with a small, soft, easy-to-strip setscrew that jams directly into the threads (scars the threads, tilts the ring and provides minimal traction). The die must be tightened into the press with a wrench or the lock ring won't get sufficient purchase to prevent backing out. The expander ball has a strong tendency to unscrew with use, which allows the decapping pin to wobble and increases chance of breakage.

Like all RCBS products, their dies are poorly designed but well made and rarely have manufacturing issues. Kind of the opposite of my experience with Hornady.
 
Hoser-eh said:
Guess I'll keep the Lee, but I don't know why. :confused:

I hope to be able to do close to the advertised 800-1,000 per hour.

What has been the percentage of rounds needed to do over, and why?
Will I need to keep the bullet puller handy?
Click to expand...

You won't be getting 800 an hour in actual throughput, at least I've never come close to that. For one thing the primer tube only holds 100 primers so you have to recharge it every few minutes. I've done 400 in an hour but you'll need extra primer pick up tubes.

Once its configured and adjusted properly it will crank out ammo without fail but human error still plays a factor. You shouldn't have to "redo" bullets because of the machine but here are some examples of human error based on hard won experience:
- small primer .45 ACP mixed in with regular large primer .45 ACP
- 9MM case got stuffed into a .45 Colt case somehow
- .38 Special case mixed in with .357 case
- .45 ACP case mixed in with .45 Colt case (that one was messy)

Can you see the pattern?

Some rules to live by:
- if it feels wrong, it is wrong and don't crank harder on it
- carefully sort the cases and throw out damaged ones
- it should run perfectly, if it isn't then something isn't adjusted correctly
- adjust with cases in each station

It is a great machine, you will love it I'm sure.
 
Hoser-eh said:
Thanks for the kudos, guys.
Really looking forward to loading quantity and quality.

Since I had a new set of Lee carbide dies (9mm), they'll get used for now.
However I've been told that the best choice is RCBS.

What's your opinion, and why?
Click to expand...

I own dies from lyman, redding, rcbs and lee. Of course redding is the cat's ass for rifle rounds. But Lee gets my vote for pistol reloading, as soon as you change their "lock" ring for someone else's rings, I bought a dozen of RCBS lock rings, it does the trick

My lyman dies, as with all my other lyman gear rusts. My other dies and reloading gear don't.

Anyway, I do not see why you would change the lee dies
 
I just purchased a Lee Pro 1000, after reading the posts on this thread, i feel that i have made a bad decision :(

i already own a dillon 650, which works great! BUT, changing calibers is not friendly with the dillons. the Hornady Lock & Load press is amazing, i just saw a video on this press and i'm amazed how easy it is to change calibers. I think i will make the Hornady LNL my next press!!
 
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