Thinking of a Progressive Press to Augment my Forster Co-Ax

[oneskilledshooter]

I have a square deal and it is great if you are doing a modest amount of reloading in 1 caliber. I used it for quite a while for IPSC in 9MM and 45ACP. It is a good unit but it is slow compared to the 650 and Hornady.

As has been said on here countless times the support you get from Dillon is outstanding. I have never had better customer service from any company. When you call them for support you get someone on the other line that is a reloader and has intimate knowledge of all of their presses. They know literally everything inside and out by heart. Broken part? They send you a replacement right away, no charge. I have never seen them make any mistake about which part either.

Now I know that the following is going to blasphemy to the ears of all the Dillon guys, but I now have the hornady with the bullet feeder and case feeder. It is a better machine. They obviously looked at the competition and improved on their design. The powder measure is better, the quick change LNL die system is better. There are quick conversion inserts for the powder measure. You can outfit one with bullet and case feeder for less than the Dillon.

Where Hornady falls way way short of Dillon is in support. When you call them it is obvious that the person on the other end of the line is looking at the parts lists and exploded diagrams but they don't have any experience with the products. My LNL ammo plant was missing 3 small parts when I got it. Called Hornady with the parts number for the parts that I needed - long long frustrating story short in the first shipment they sent me I got 2 out of the 3 missing parts. It then took them 3 more shipments of sending the wrong parts. So the FOURTH time they shipped me the balance of the missing parts correctly. I was transferred to the head parts guy on attempt 3 and he told me he would personally see to it that I got the right part, but the wrong part was sent again!!! Wrong part number on the bag!

All that said, I would still recommend the Hornady. It is just plain better and once it's set up you will reap the benefits of it. I used to be a die hard Dillon fan but after working with both I just that the Hornady is a little better.

Edit to add - Dillon gives you a real lifetime no BS warranty - they don't care if you are the original owner or not! Not sure how the hornady or lee warranties work, but it may be worth considering.

 

[Quigley]

This is better suited if your going to do mass amounts of one caliber otherwise the 650 is more flexible and cheaper.

650 has too many plastic parts for my taste...and the primer mechanism is a bit over engineered. I would recommend to anyone that needs more volume than a 550 can comfortably do...to spend the extra and get the 1050...you will not regret it.

My .02

 

[BigUglyMan]

I have used a few machines and by far the best ( IMHO) is still the Dillon 550B. Get a rythm going and easily crank out 500 9mm rounds in an hour.

Another vote from me.

 

[Djm2u]

I just picked up a Lee Load Master. Cant wait to get it set up.

 

[tjhaile]

I would pick the RL550B (not the BL550) over the Square Deal. It is more versatile and auto indexing does not significantly improve your production rate unless you are also using a case feeder.

 

[Becks357]

...

 

[Smcx]

<~ loadmaster. Once it's set up and you understand it, it's really fast. I use it for 9,40,38,45,357,44,223 and 308

 

[wasrupzuk]

Over the last few evenings I have banged off close to 2000 45ACP and exactly 2000 9mm.

Lee pro1000. 2 turrets, 2 shell plate carriers, no fuss no muss, had it for 20+ years and load 6 or 8 different cartridges, each with its own carrier and turret permanently set up.
Buy it from budget shooter supply for under $220 in 9mm and its ready to go.

Upgrades? Buy the cheap and cheesy looking case collator for$16. It really works, and for the few that go in upside down, it's far faster than loading the case feeder tubes by hand.

Me too, I kept mine for the heck of it and leave the LNL set up for one caliber. Once you get past the idiosyncrasies of it they're ok.

Dillon 1050 all the way

Isn't the 1050 excluded from the no BS warranty?

<~ loadmaster. Once it's set up and you understand it, it's really fast. I use it for 9,40,38,45,357,44,223 and 308

I used one to the point I understood it...no offence but I'd rather have a Pro1000...The indexing system isn't great but the primer system is a show stopper.

 

[09outlander]

Isn't the 1050 excluded from the no BS warranty?

That's correct, the 1050 is excluded from Dillon's warranty system. But asides from that, unless your pumping out huge volumes of ammo you don't need a 1050, a 650 will do just fine.

 

[CreamySmooth]

650. Get one. I can do up around 800 .40 Short and Weak in an hour. The things amazing and smooth. I had the Load Master and the Lock and Load. This is the better machine in my opinion. Once it's set up, there's just way less messing around than the other 2. I'd also say the Loadmaster is my 2nd choice, because if Yer gonna fiddle.... You may as well pay less.

 

[CRAZYLOCH]

I can Tell you i have 2x Lee1000 in 9mm and 38 and have loaded OVER 10,000 9mm and a couple thousand 38s. BEST BANG for the BUCK. At around $250 a set up with Dies and its progressive, Auto index and can even reload 223. Why Not.

Warranty is Lifetime and i have a Lee Loadmaster for my 308. Works like a dream.

Sure Dillon is nice, ites like a Rolex, But my Lee (Casio) works just fine and i can have 3X Lee1000 setups for the price of a fully set up 650. Just saying.

 

[CreamySmooth]

Sure Dillon is nice, ites like a Rolex, But my Lee (Casio) works just fine and i can have 3X Lee1000 setups for the price of a fully set up 650. Just saying.

Actually, truth be told, it's closer to 4X Lee1000 setups, and maybe even 5 once you add the bullet tray, case feeder, strong mount and a few other bits. Every time you add another calibre you also add another....200 or so + depending on primer size, case size and a few other things..... It really depends if you like wearing that Rolex..... Though it's more like comparing Bosch and Home Depot house brand cordless tools.

 

[caperaway]

I have a Pro 1000,a Loadmaster and a Hornady LNL. They all have their pros and cons. I started with the Loadmaster and after fighting with the priming system for awhile I finally just gave up on priming on the press and just set up a turret with a universal decapper. I run all the brass through the case feeder and decap a few hundred then use a hand priming tool while watching tv.I do the same with my Pro1000. Basically Lee's priming system just sucks. Other than that I've had zero issue with the Lee presses. They've been running great for a few years now and caliber changes are cheap and easy with extra turrets.
I picked up a deal on a Hornady LNL that had only loaded about 100rds so I bought it thinking I was upgrading from my Lee's. Umm,not so much. It's a nice press but it has it's issues. The priming system definitly works better than Lee's but I still get flipped/jammed primers occaisionally and sometimes a jam occurs. The plastic arm that holds the metal bar that actuates the primer feeder has broken several times on mine,enough that I now keep extras on hand. Without the case feeder,which is an expensive option for Hornady and standard for Lee,it is a lot slower than the Lee.
All things considered I enjoy loading on my Loadmaster the most.

 

[ted_dent]

Check out the sticky by acrashb in the reloading section. It's a great, unbiased comparison of the Loadmaster, Dillon 650 and Hornady LNL.

A few observations:
1. While the Dillon 550 is a good press, a progressive that doesn't auto index seems like an oxymoron to me
2. I have friends using Square Deals with little complaint but a press that uses non-standard parts (like the dies) just doesn't sit right with me. I hate being beholding to a single supplier. Also, if you decide to go to rifle reloading (and you very possibly will) you're back in the "I'm looking for a press" business. Get one that does both right from the start.
3. I own two Loadmasters, a Lee Classic Turret and a Rockchucker and while I freely admit that a Dillon 650 far outclasses any of them you're literally looking at nearly $1000 price difference between a similarly equipped 650 and a Loadmaster. The LNL will fall somewhere in between that. That's the cost of a pretty decent gun.

Contrary to what some people have said the Loadmasters are quite dependable. I'm sure I've done 10,000 on one of mine (the one set up for small primer cartridges) and my total cost for replacement parts has been a new carrier ($25), a few primer assembly parts ($15) and a new indexing key ($6). At that rate I'm going to be 300 years old before I've made up the price difference to a 650. As for the complaints about the priming system, in my experience I've found that 95% of the problems are caused by not keeping it clean and letting the number of primers run low.

I'm certainly not ragging on the Dillon but they are a LOT more money. If that's not an issue to you then go for it. If it is, explore the other options.

 

[Hoag]

Check out the sticky by acrashb in the reloading section. It's a great, unbiased comparison of the Loadmaster, Dillon 650 and Hornady LNL.

A few observations:
1. While the Dillon 550 is a good press, a progressive that doesn't auto index seems like an oxymoron to me
2. I have friends using Square Deals with little complaint but a press that uses non-standard parts (like the dies) just doesn't sit right with me. I hate being beholding to a single supplier. Also, if you decide to go to rifle reloading (and you very possibly will) you're back in the "I'm looking for a press" business. Get one that does both right from the start.
3. I own two Loadmasters, a Lee Classic Turret and a Rockchucker and while I freely admit that a Dillon 650 far outclasses any of them you're literally looking at nearly $1000 price difference between a similarly equipped 650 and a Loadmaster. The LNL will fall somewhere in between that. That's the cost of a pretty decent gun.

Contrary to what some people have said the Loadmasters are quite dependable. I'm sure I've done 10,000 on one of mine (the one set up for small primer cartridges) and my total cost for replacement parts has been a new carrier ($25), a few primer assembly parts ($15) and a new indexing key ($6). At that rate I'm going to be 300 years old before I've made up the price difference to a 650. As for the complaints about the priming system, in my experience I've found that 95% of the problems are caused by not keeping it clean and letting the number of primers run low.

I'm certainly not ragging on the Dillon but they are a LOT more money. If that's not an issue to you then go for it. If it is, explore the other options.

Thanks for your input. As for the part in bold, I really don't think that this will be a problem. For reloading rifle I am very happy with my Forster Co-Ax.

I currently have a single stage press that I am very happy with (a Forster Co-Ax), but I am thinking of beginning to reload 9mm. I know what a PITA that can be on a single stage press. I thought I might as well buy a progressive press (especially since it doesn't look like I will be spending anything on powder for 9mm, I might as well sink it into a press). ...

I am simply looking for something that will be faster to do 9mm on than the Forster is. I am not looking to replace it.

I have checked out that sticky, and while there is a lot of good information in it, none of the presses that he compares were ones that I was really looking at. It did give an excellent overview as to the "trends" (for lack of a better word) of what to expect from each of those companies.

 

[enefgee]

If Lee made a 4 station version of the Pro, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'm over 40,000 (yes really) 9mm loads on mine, and while it takes some sorting out, the worst thing about it is having to use another press to factory crimp. The trick to the primer feed is to get it set up, and use only CCI primers, they're thicker which means they're heavier. Once you've run a press with a case feed, there's no going back, but damn it, I want a 4th station.

 

[Freedom Ventures]

Some folks will bash the Lee Pro 100, but mine has served me well. It can be a bit finicky at times, but I wonder if the other progressives are any less fool-proof.....

Yes, they are! Try a Dillon.

I load A LOT. 25K+ rounds a year... Been doing it for 25 years. Started on a Lee Turret (OK) Then got a Pro 1000, then a Loadmaster. At that point, I figured that screwing with the press was part of the whole reloading "experience". A buddy told me about a good deal on a Dillon in 2001, so I bit - after the first 3000 rounds, I couldn't believe that I had not once frigged with the press. No stoppages, no adjustments, nothing. I've never looked back.

Since then, sure - my Dillons have broken, but 95% of the time due to my ineptitude and overall performance has been fantastic. No need to mention their customer service. I walk up, get the components ready and ammo comes out. Simple - easy.

Ask yourself, would you buy a new car that everyone says "once you frig with it a bit and get used to it's quirks, you can get a 100km out of it before you have to get out and frig with it again."?

One other point, there are plenty here who had a Lee progressive and bailed to get a Dillon or Hornady progressive, but you won't find anyone who has bailed on those progressives to go back to a Lee progressive.

OP; of the two - get the 550.

 

[notsorichguy]

Yes, they are! Try a Dillon.

I load A LOT. 25K+ rounds a year... Been doing it for 25 years. Started on a Lee Turret (OK) Then got a Pro 1000, then a Loadmaster. At that point, I figured that screwing with the press was part of the whole reloading "experience". A buddy told me about a good deal on a Dillon in 2001, so I bit - after the first 3000 rounds, I couldn't believe that I had not once frigged with the press. No stoppages, no adjustments, nothing. I've never looked back.

Since then, sure - my Dillons have broken, but 95% of the time due to my ineptitude and overall performance has been fantastic. No need to mention their customer service. I walk up, get the components ready and ammo comes out. Simple - easy.

Ask yourself, would you buy a new car that everyone says "once you frig with it a bit and get used to it's quirks, you can get a 100km out of it before you have to get out and frig with it again."?

One other point, there are plenty here who had a Lee progressive and bailed to get a Dillon or Hornady progressive, but you won't find anyone who has bailed on those progressives to go back to a Lee progressive.

OP; of the two - get the 550.

I am one of those that ditched a SDB for a lee1000..... I have 5 lee 1000s now.... 9, 38, 40, 45 & 223 a spare tool head for 357 sig. I have them all on backer plates to quick change them on the bench.i have loaded at least 20K on the 9mm press alone....

I found I was constantly fricken around with that SDB (I did purchase it used). When it was time to price out a calibre conversion, I tried a lee instead and found I was fricken around with it about the same amount. I figured for half to a third the cost why am I bothering! I sold the SDB and I haven't looked back!

That said. If I had the $$ to spend I'd be looking at a 650 with 6-8 different calibre conversions..... But that's because I would like to load for a few rifles as well....

My $.02

 

[Mikeyman]

I have 2 550b's. I prefer the manual indexing and can produce 400-500 rounds per hour. I had a few parts that needed replacing on the first 550 that I bought in 1991 so I called to place the order. They sent everything free which I didn't expect. Gotta love lifetime warranty!!

 

[fingers284]

If Lee made a 4 station version of the Pro, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'm over 40,000 (yes really) 9mm loads on mine, and while it takes some sorting out, the worst thing about it is having to use another press to factory crimp. The trick to the primer feed is to get it set up, and use only CCI primers, they're thicker which means they're heavier. Once you've run a press with a case feed, there's no going back, but damn it, I want a 4th station.

I've used both Loadmasters & Dillon 650's extensively. The Loadmaster has two benefits in it's favor...it has a far superior quantity/volume achievable over a given time than any single stage and a far more attractive price point than a rigged 650.

The priming system of the Loadmasters was the straw that broke the camels back for me on three different accounts.

First was the amount of stops to clear pooched/deformed primers (upwards of 10% of the primers) . I the Dillons, I can count on one hand how many crushed primers I've had.

Second was the fact that the primers are seated with the same operation as the loading stroke. I had no "seating feel" when seating the primer. My Dillons seat the primers on the "down periscope" action and I feel every one of them feed to the proper depth. While using my Loadmaster, high primers were a common stoppage during a shooting stage until I learned that I had to inspect every round before a competition. with the Dillons I can count on one hand the # of hi-primer stoppages in over 35,000 rnds.

The third would be a deal breaker all on its own if I had to use CCI primers to get the press to work. Anybody that use a gun with a modified lighter main spring (such as 1000's of cowboy guns in the country) to enhance operation, chances are they require Federal Primers to get consistent ignition. Using Federal's probably speaks to why I had so many pooched primers in my Loadmaster. While I will admit to having 2 primer detonations in my Dillons over the 35,000 rounds , I can remember having at least 3 in my loadmaster in 7-10,000 rounds.

Re; 4 holes... I will go you one better with the Dillon 650's, they have 5 holes allowing for a powder check station...again a deal breaker for me. Might not be a concern for most if they shoot alone and the consequences of a double charge are a lost firearm/investment but no third party injury is probable. In my case, 99% of the rounds I load are shot by my wife & I in a crowd situation of 50 or 60 people where shrapnel from a double charge wouldn't be a good thing. That little bit of extra safety margin against a moment of inattentiveness that is well spent I think.

Just my own observations that might interest some.