Which progressive press?

While i agree on getting Dillon a lot depends on your relaoding needs. a 550 will churn out between 300 to 400 rounds an hour. a 650 (with case feeder) will churn out between 400 and 600 an hour. my 550 did me fine untill the GF started shooting. then i was hard pressed to keep up when we are practising for nationals, an easy 1000 rounds a week for the two of us, plus qualifiers etc.
 
Definitely Dillon, I have square deal and love it. No problem with three to four hundred an hour. This press is very reliable and priced right. The only draw back is you have to use square deal B dies. I used a Dillon 1050 for several years at work and it was great but over kill for home personal use. Never a problem with advise and or parts from Dillon.

jaydeee
 
If you only want to load handgun than a dillion square deal B is a great presss at a good price. I used one for years untill I upgraded to a 650 which I am very happy with.
 
My first foray into progressive pressing was with a Lee crapomatic,..it was such a usless pile o shiz that i ended up using it as a turrent press instead! bout 12 years ago or so i bought a dillon 550 and have yet to have one single problem. as a matter of fact,..i lost one of the index buttons from one conversion base and phoned dillon to buy a replacement,..they sent a little manilla envilope with six or so in it! for free! cant beat that service.
 
Walter Hornby said:
While i agree on getting Dillon a lot depends on your relaoding needs. a 550 will churn out between 300 to 400 rounds an hour. a 650 (with case feeder) will churn out between 400 and 600 an hour. my 550 did me fine untill the GF started shooting. then i was hard pressed to keep up when we are practising for nationals, an easy 1000 rounds a week for the two of us, plus qualifiers etc.
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Another vote for the Dillon 550. When people rate how many rounds they can do in an hour, I don't know if they include time to set up primer tubes etc. Typically what I do is fill 5 primer tubes ahead of time during the week (which is 500 primers) then load away on the weekend when my daughter goes down for a nap :D I check the powder charge every 100 rounds (every time I empty a primer tube) and check 10 rounds at random out of every 100 for OAL (again, when I empty a primer tube). Using this method I can load all 500 in an hour on my Dillon 550. If I had to load up the primer tubes then I would be doing about 400 per hour.

This past weekend I loaded 1200 rounds and it only took me 2.5 hours total.
 
I have a dillon square deal and a dillon 550. I like them both. I have .223 dies for the 550 but have never used them. The 550 has more room and is better made than the square deal. For the little difference in price you can't believe the quality difference in the 550. You can use standard dies with the 550. Caliber changes are easier on the 550. I like to leave my sd set up for .357 and .38 and load 9mm and .45 on my 550. I like to load between 500 to a thousand at a time. It is really nice going to the range and pulling out a large ziploc bag with 100's or rounds and shoot until you want to stop. Factory prices are killers especially with the .44, .45, and .357 magnum. Even .38 is expensive. I can reload .38 for less than $3.00 a box and you are looking at $12.00 in the store. Now that I joined ppc I will be going through 1000's per year.
 
I went with single stage initially and it became tedious as soon as I started shooting IPSC, I invested initially in one 550 and ended up buying a second one used as well. As others have suggested go with a 550, can't recommend anything else, but a little note, I broke a part on my dillon 550 the tool head pin and one of the dillon powder measures shattered during shipping. Both were replaced by dillon at no cost to me. You can get them usd off the board here for around $400 with dies.

Let us know which way you decided to go, cheers

Chewy
 
Depends on your budget and needs. Have a look a reconditioned Lee Loadmaster (not the Pro 1000's). Available straight from Lee (http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1126738992.565=/html/catalog/surplus.html) , cheap, and they work fine for most people (including me). If you want a new one, Higginson Powders (http://www.higginsonpowders.com/pages/934271/index.htm) is the cheapest place in Canada.

There are four (effective) die stations, so you can seat and crimp separately. Case feeder is cheap (~$20) and effective. Primer feed is easy and fast to reload (keep it clean and it will work fine). Also, it's really hard to double-charge on a Loadmaster, as the charging die is only reset at the bottom of the stroke.

Compare prices to the other names mentioned here - you'll be amazed at the difference.

Or you could just go the RCBS Piggyback route. They're supposed to work OK, and you already have the rockchucker to hook it up to.
 
OK, I'll also jump on the Dillon bandwagon, but I think we need to take a giant step back from the table.

SKHunter, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

1) What calibers do you forsee shooting?
2) How many rounds a month do you expect to shoot? Be realistic. If you are just a plinker, it might be small, but if you see yourself competing, factor in practice and match needs, then add 50%.
3) How much time can you afford to be loading, instead of shooting???

Think about these three question. Be realistic, and honest with yourself.

If you need a 1050, and buy a 550 instead, you are wasting time you should be spending at the range.

If you need a 550 and buy a 1050, you are wasting money that you could spend on guns and gear.

If you shoot 1000 rounds a month, but only have 500 cases, you are reloading too frequently.

If you shoot 1000 rounds a year, and have 5,000 rounds loaded, odds are you'll break, sell, or find another load the gun prefers.

When you figure out your usage, budget for the equipment.

As usual, my opinion and $1.35 gets you a timmies.
 
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