Recomend me a progressive press!

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In the market for a progressive press. I've looked at buying factory reloaded ammo but the shipping kills any potential savings of buying reloaded ammo. So I've decided reloading is the way to go. I have a lee 50th kit for my Lapua rig but am not going to use it for my 9mm.

I was looking at a lee pro 1000. Read some on it here on cgn, seems it has some priming issues but they can be sorted out by playing with it for a while. The lee is in my price range but I'm having trouble finding it in stock anywhere. I've looked at sinclairs, fs reloading, higginsons ($$$) and more.

What other options do I have for a press in that price range.

Thanks
 
Two votes for the 550b. Works for me. Now to find one somewhere. Just got off the phone with budgetshootersupply and mdgardiner, no luck. Looks like I picked a bad time to get into pistol reloading.
 
I just rec'd my Dillon 650 from The Shooting Edge. Did lots of searching and I love the auto index idea, as well as case feeder and it can use the hornaday bullet feeder.
 
I currently use a Dillon XL650, a Dillon RL550B and a Lee Breechlock Challanger. I had a Lee Pro1000 for a few years as well. I think the best value out there right now is the RL550B. It's fast, easy to use and reliable. It easy to change calibers and backed by Dillon's great warranty. You simply can't go wrong with it
 
I would go Dillon because of the warranty and the quality. In fact I did.

I have a 550b. I load 3-400/hour with it, taking my time. With this machine you have to manually index. That said I learned how to reload on this machine and the manual indexing was great for that, and I don't think it slows me down too much. The 650 is also a great machine and loads a bit faster, though it doesn't do all of the calibres that the 550 does.

The square deal is a good machine, but it is fairly small and if you have big hands, you may have a hard time getting your hands into the tight spaces. The square deal also uses proprietary dies, and calibre changes are a pain the butt. Its a good machine if you will only ever load on calibre on it though.
 
Nothing is even close in price point to the Pro1000, but how many rounds do you expect to shoot per week?
The cheapest press may or may not fit your needs.
I've used several Pro1000's for over ten years in calibers 45ACP, 40 S&W, 38 Special & 45 GAP
If you are not mechanically inclined, frugal, persistant and stuborn the Pro1000 may not be the best choice for you.
As I generally fit the previous requirements I've happily reloaded with it for years, my 2 cents (pro & con) are;
-If you load your dies and extra powder measures in extra turrets & have different loaded carriages for the various cartridges you are loading for caliber swaps are very quick.
-The priming system only causes issues if it runs low on primers or spilt powder gets into the primer ram.
-Lee recommends never using Federal primers as they may explode (I've loaded thousands before I knew without a hitch).
-Wear a faceshield, if one primer ignites they all do and its pointed at your face (never happened to me but I know a guy with a Loadmaster who got a facefull).
-Get a case collator with it as they work great.
-The case feeder can be agrevating if you don't get the "lee rhythm".
-The aluminum linkage and handle are prone to breakage- you can get steel linkage and a roller arm that are much better.
-Spent primer management sucks- they wind up everywhere...
-Get an adjustable charge bar.
-The powder measure meters flake powder better than extruded (IMO).
-As its a three position press powder spillage can be a pain depending on caliber / powder combo.
-As its a three position press you cannot crimp seperately from seating and you cannot use a powder check die.
-With rhythm you can easilly load 200-250 per hour.

I have just ordered a Hornady LNL with a case feeder, with the accessories it was over triple the Lee1000 (with the options) and never came with the dies.
I ordered it for a variety of reasons, 5 stations being one, their power measure was another and the new caliber I'm loading for requires seperate seating / crimping.
Without the needs of my new cartridge I would have stayed exclusively with the Lee- happily too.
Many people are die hard blue supporters- the ones I've seen are all very nice but when completely outfitted are more than a LNL (from my limited research) so you really have a hard time comparing them to a Pro1000 solely on price. The people who have them love them.
I went LNL because I liked the powder measure, the die bushings and many people thought it was the smoothest (14G of N110 in a 9x40 is pretty full and has a tendancy to spill if jerked around- I'm hoping this will be minimized on the LNL).
I think you might want to focus on value and not just price as this is what you will be living with years after you spend your money.

Cheers
 
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I have a loadmaster but I am sick of all the problems.
Casefeeder is junk, priming assembly is TOTAL FAIL. Indexing has to be adjusted a bit to work fine.
The rests works okay. So I prime cases on a single stage, and manually feed cases, and then it works okay.

Honestly, next press is going to be a Dillon xl650. Sick of buying crap.
 
My pro 1000 cost 150 dollars and works fantastic. Every 500 or so rounds it needs a slight indexing adjustment ... If not doing that adjustment is worth 500 dollars to you by all means get a nicer press.. This is also coming from a guy who refused to get power door locks and windows in a new truck because of the cost
 
If you want, ancient technology, Philips screws that strip.. little fiddly pieces that constantly need adjusting and other pieces that break (like the lightbulb chain) and a finicky priming system get a Lee .. Cheap but you get what you pay for...

If you want something else you will pay more..I owned a square deal and decided I'd get a Lee becuase is was cheap had an RCBS for a bit too..... I got rid of them quick and bought a 650 and I won't ever buy anything other then a Dillon...

I've had my hands on a Hornady they are nice.. But the feel is not quite the same so it's best to stick to what I know...
 
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