Dillon 550 vs Hornady Lock'nLoad AP vs Lee Loadmaster vs Lee Classic Turret,GOT 550

[Chris Rhines]

Good question, and I go back and forth on the answer. For my cheap blasting ammo, I'm actually shipping my brass out to MIBrass. He does all the prep and trimming, for 3.5 cents each. That brings my total cost for 556 ammo up to $205/1k, which is pretty good.

For match ammo, I do my own prep, and that's definitely worth it, with good 556 match loads going for $0.70-1.00 each. I load them for around half that.

Something else to keep in mind - if you shoot in any kind of practical competition, you're gonna lose a lot of your brass.

[Sal Picante]

The nice thing about the 550 is that it will grow with you... I use mine to work up 9mm loads and reload 223.
Even though I have a 1050, it is nice to know I've got a reliable back press.

My advice?
Learn to load 9, then learn to load 223.

This is mainly because you will need additional setup to reload 223 on the 550: Two tool heads (sizing/trim) and then (powder/seat). A GS swage tool helps in processing brass (http://www.ebay.com/itm/G-S-Custom-s...-/222018932416)


Finding a "550" on the cheap
Mine is an old 450 that has been converted, by Dillon, to a 550:
https://www.dillonprecision.com/cont...ame_Change_Kit

You can find 450's out there on the cheap, sometimes. Here's a frame on auction for $50: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dillon-RL-45...-/252277765923

[MichaelD]

Please bear in mind that I have that gunshot elbow on my strong arm. The less turret pulls per round, the better. However, it's not huge priority, rather just something worth considering.

LL, I seem to recall the Hornady LnL AP rotates the opposite direction than the Dillon 550B, and its user places the bullet with their left hand rather than the right as on the Dillon (and I could be mis-remembering this) -- meaning the most efficient action is to pull the lever with the left hand. This annoyed me to no end when I loaded some rounds using a friend's Hornady, but maybe in your case you would find it preferable given the elbow issue.

[nwhpfan]

Buy once cry once. Dillon.

I've never met anyone who bought a Dillon then bought something else...ever, that says something. Some others are fine but again, Dillon is the best.

The 550 is easy to load and learn on.....and it holds its value just fine. You will go to a 650 in a year or two once the full value of reloading is fully revealed to you. You will even probably kick yourself for not starting with the 650 and swear you will encourage or outright demand of all your friend to not make the same mistake you did and buy the 650 first from the beginning. But hey, it's OK we all start somewhere.

Fact is you'll be making the best 9mm ammo you've ever shot for 10cents a round and even better .223 for less than 20 cents a round. Oh, and Blackout, hallelujah...

And also remember this; their actually is no such thing as having too much powder or primers.

[Boxy]

Ski,

I have a LNL AP with case feeder etc. Constantly had to replace pot metal parts on the case feeder when loading 9mm. I would run 100 rounds maybe and something would get out of alignment or jam or ....


I bought a Dillon 1050. I know this is not in your budget but overall the quality of a Dillion is above the Hornady LNL. I keep the LNL for some 45 ACP which I do not shoot much in volume. I found it more productive to dump the LNL case feeder and just hand feed the brass. Run away from Hornady.

I load a lot of 9mm on my 1050 as I have gotten my wife into shooting pistols and she helps me burn through some ammo. My time is valuable as well so I set aside a weekend morning and load 1500 -2000 rounds easy over a given weekend.

Hope this keeps you from any buyers remorse.

[Sal Picante]

Just going to throw this out there...

While the Dillon 550 can't be automated (Mark 7 autodrives/ etc...) - you can run a case and bullet feeder on it if you use the seat & crimp die...
(http://benstoegerproshop.com/double-...and-crimp-die/)

The possibilities with the 550 are pretty astounding...

[jeep45238]

Skip the Lee Loadmaster. Skip any press that combines priming operations with anything else. A tricked out Dillon 650XL and Hornady LNL AP (with case and bullet feeders) are comparable in price. I prefer having a 5 die setup as I like crimping seperate from my seating, I find it's easier to setup and make small adjustments without pulling out my hair trying to trouble shoot, the Dillon 550 is a 4 die setup as is the Lee turret. My press is a Hornady LNL AP, but I hand feed the brass and bullets. Right hand runs the handle, left hand grabs a case and bullet as the ram is traveling up and places them in their prospective positions when it hits home as I verify the powder charge visually. I don't see myself getting a bullet feeder as I shoot cast 9mm bullets, and I'm too cheap to spend $300 on a case feeder (probably going to adapt a lee case feeder with a home made shuttle for about $50 overall).

You won't go wrong buying Dillon. I've never heard of a Dillon user selling to move to a Hornady; it's rare for a Hornady user to move up to a Dillon (think of it like a Ford vs. a Mercury...more refinemant/similar support). Most Lee users upgrade to RCBS, Dillon, or Hornady given enough time. I'm drooling over the RCBS Pro 7 with a case feeder and bullet feeder, but that's years out....

To take your time and learn, you can put a single die in a progressive and set it up, and do a run of all your brass. Take it out, and put in the next and dial it in, rinse and repeat. It doesn't work like that for the powder, but if you get the other dies set up, make a dummy round with all the dies in to verify feeding, then get your charge dialed in. Make a single round at a time to verify it's all working smoothly, then do a single run of 5 to double check it all, then a batch of 10. Most presses will have overall length variations if the shell plate isn't full of brass for every die (hence small batch runs, do full quality control). After you're comfy doing 10 at a time, move on to a box at a time, so on, and so forth.


It's funny I saw this today, as someone on another forum was referencing a house burning down and the cause was the guy reloading in his garage (probably was smoking while doing it), and folks asked if detonating a primer while reloading (it does occasionally happen) could make the rest of the primers in the press go off in a daisy chain. Below is my response:



I had a primer tray explosion happen with a Lee Loadmaster. I was loading .45ACP, but to this day I'm not sure if it was a small pistol primer that I missed, or the original primer didn't come fully out, or if there was debris in the flash hold, if the primer went in sideways, double fed, etc., but no matter what, it happened. With the Loadmaster it's impossible to feel if there's a problem while priming since all other operations are also happening at the same time (cold working 4-5 pieces of brass depending how you have it set up).

The primer in the priming station detonated. It daisy chained up and every primer in the primer tray exploded (I had just filled it, so 90-100 primers). My buddy was watching to learn and caught a face of plastic shrapenal, thankfully just minor scuffs and we pulled the plastic out with tweezers. My hand was throbbing from the shockwave, it was like a small gernade went off inches from my hand. The powder from the measure went all over (cap came off), but no fire. Quick, massive, loud, bright, and done.

I immediately moved to a different reloading press company, and will never again be involved with a press that has priming happen while other operations are going on. I now use a Hornady with a vertical tube, and if one in the tube went off the whole thing would go. But knowing that it's contained in a steel blast tube that's threaded to the press and has an open top where all the pressure would be directed certainly helps. If they went off there should be a hole in the ceiling from the rod in the feed tube, maybe some damage to the blast tube and primer shuttle, but it shouldn't turn into a fragmentation gernade. Having a shuttle that moves a primer at a time over an inch and a half away from the stack, and everything made of metal certainly reduces the likelyhood of it happening further.

For example:
Lee loadmaster primer storage + feeding (everything in black plastic has a primer in it)



Hornady primer feed + storage


The primer operation is a completely seprate step, and the primer in question is fully seperated from the rest. In the above post, look at the tube below the primer tube - it looks to be intact and contained the blast. The safety glasses appear to be without scratches and fragmentation, leading me to think that was the case. It's a great reminder to always wear safety glasses when reloading. Personally - I use a full face shield.

[SLG]

Buy once cry once. Dillon.

I've never met anyone who bought a Dillon then bought something else...ever, that says something. Some others are fine but again, Dillon is the best.

The 550 is easy to load and learn on.....and it holds its value just fine. You will go to a 650 in a year or two once the full value of reloading is fully revealed to you. You will even probably kick yourself for not starting with the 650 and swear you will encourage or outright demand of all your friend to not make the same mistake you did and buy the 650 first from the beginning. But hey, it's OK we all start somewhere.

Fact is you'll be making the best 9mm ammo you've ever shot for 10cents a round and even better .223 for less than 20 cents a round. Oh, and Blackout, hallelujah...

And also remember this; their actually is no such thing as having too much powder or primers.

I went from Dillon to Lee, so there. :-)

The Classic Turret is a press all in its own category, when you compare ease of use to caliber changes to speed to cost to quality. For how I need to reload pistol ammo, it works better than anything else I have used. A 550 might work just as well, or close enough so that the extra ammo output makes up for the slower changeover speed. I will try one one of these days.


LL, I know we talk about this all the time, and my mind is far from made up, but the most basic 550, with an automatic priming system added, might just be the best way to go. 2 tool heads for rifle ammo, one per pistol. More expensive than the Loadmaster, but almost as easy to swap calibers, and possibly easier/less fiddly to use, IDK.

[olstyn]

What I'm concerned with on the Hornady and maybe you can help enlighten me on is how much will it cost to get up and running with it?

I had to do a search in my email, but here's my invoice from Midsouth when I set mine up. The only stuff I bought separately was 2 die sets (9mm and .380) which I already had and a 3-pack of additional primer tubes because it sucks to load 100 rounds and then have to reload the primer tube before you can keep going. You may or may not need everything I bought, and unfortunately Midsouth didn't line-item the pricing on the invoice email, but it should at least give you an idea. Note that I do not have a case feeder or a bullet feeder, and I bought a cheap scale. Buying the feeders and a nice digital scale will drive the cost up, of course, but the below + dies is all you truly NEED to get started, plus a case trimmer of some sort for the rifle calibers and a third shell plate for the .308.

00005044093 LOCK-N-LOAD DIE BUSHIN 1
00005050063 POWDER COP 1
00005050075 STEEL DIAL CALIPER 1
00005095100 LOCK-N-LOAD AP PROGRES 1
00005392608 #8 SHELL PLATE 1
00005392616 #16 SHELL PLATE 1
0000690101 PRIMER POCKET CLEANER 1
0000690190 POWDER FUNNEL 22 TO 45 1
0000690681 SAFETY POWDER SCALE 1
00008P100916T FLIP TOP 100 ROUND AMM 3
00008P100924 FLIP TOP 100 ROUND AMM 3
00036NQDT1745 CHAMFER AND DEBURRING 1
00038502024 TUMBLER KIT 1
000449412 POWER PULL IMPACT 1
Subtotal: $663.66
Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $26.30
Shipping: $5.25
Hazard: $0.00
Total: $695.21

[Hambo]

Buy the 550 and start with 9mm. When you really understand everything with the press you can try your hand with rifle.

And buy some of this (or make your own if you're handy) so you can see powder in the cases. http://inlinefabrication.com/collections/lighting