Chad i was under the impression that if you bought an extra tool head and powder drop you could just pull two pins slide it in, replace shell plate, make sure primers are set, adjust case feed and you are done

Why the 10 minutes vs 45 mins?

Correct, takes me about 15, and most of that time is in large/small primer change.

yeah but i think its around 150 for each tool set so 10 calibers would be 1500 in tool changes only

If the tool heads are perfectly set up already and it's a simple swap, then yes, it should be faster. But I allow 45 minutes for a change on a 650 (which I have not run in years, I switched to all 1050's). I ran a powder check die, which I pull from each tool head, large/small primer swap, change out case feed plate and case feeder sizes, and tune the powder charge. If you ran only 2 calibers and had a complete tool head with dies set up and with powder drop set up already to the powder charge you want, it will be much faster. But I pull the powder dispenser off and use it for multiple tool heads for that machine. If you are a rookie and first time setting it up, double or triple the time it takes. Compared to a LNL, the caliber swaps are much easier on a LNL.

I use a RL550B and reload six different calibers in pistol and rifle. Each caliber has it's own tool head and powder drop. Each powder drop has different charge bars for the charge I want. Change primer large/small rifle/pistol, throw a few power charges, ck weight and good to go. For a major change maybe 15/20 minutes. For what I shoot it works fine but if your doing that much maybe you need to listen to Chad. My reloading is my theropy time so not in a mad rush.

I don't think I enjoy prepping brass enough to buy a progressive press!

Buy the 650. The machine is cheaper, conversions are cheaper, and if you're going to be swapping through that many calibers, the conversion time is less. Take the money you saved on the press and all of the conversions and spend it on powder, primers, and bullets. Just curious, have you looked at the price difference on the presses at all? The 650 is less than half the cost of a 1050. The 650 has a lifetime warranty, the 1050 a one year warranty. I seriously doubt that you would be better off with the 1050.

Red, Blue or Green - pick one. They are all great machines, each has benefits over the other, each has areas that could be improved upon or that the other does better.

Dillon is the first choice, mostly because they were first in the market and have some of the best marketing. I personally don't think their machines are any better, or any worse, than the Hornady LnL or the newer RCBS progressive.

I have an LnL and favor those, but that is strictly because of my familiarity with them - and that's the rub with the vast majority of people in the progressive world. Very few people have more than cursory experience with anything other than what they own and really cannot be honestly objective. I have a very limited experience with Dillon, and it wasn't bad by any stretch - but when I was in the market, Hornady was offering 1000 projectiles free with the purchase of an LnL AP, and Cabela's had them on sale so it was hard to not choose red.

Hornady's customer service is every bit as good as Dillon's, who is every bit as good as RCBS. You simply will not go wrong with any of them in the long run.

BTW, RCBS has come out with a 6 station progressive - you may want to look at that bad boy. I think the only drawback with RCBS right now is the lack of accessories - both Dillon and Hornady have umpteen thousand accessories to turn any of their presses into near automated production machines; RCBS hasn't been on the market all that long and is behind slightly in that aspect (for now).

I will not consider the 1050 due to the warranty I agree with you.
Dillon has a great no bs warranty just send it in and they will fix it.
Hornady has a a lawyer written one. My friend offered to sell me his old projector cheep.
I posted a Hornady reloading group and found out that they stopped making parts or seervice.
I called the tec support-line and the tec verified this all that they could do is 50% discount on a LNL.

I am considering these 3 presses, 550, 650 Dillon and the lock load due to good comments.
I have a pistol press I like and use. Would I need the auto indexing of the650 for rifle use.
Think about rifle reloading, you must spray lube the cases. First put them in a block, coat the cases,
Load them in the press. With you handle the cases twice. I use imperial sizing wax. With this method
I handle the case once I pick it up roll it I my fingers to lightly coat it, and put it in the press.
I am thinking the real advantage to auto indexing is with carbide die and pistol cases no lubing.
For rifle four station should enough, size die, seating die, and crimp die. What is your opinion on this?

After a suggestion on this post I have been watching Utube reviews .
I have been impressed with the projector’s redesign into the lock and load.
The old projector had priming issues; the lnl has had a total primer feeding redesign.
I cannot believe the easy die changes with the lnl. I will look at a lnl at cabelas to see the redesign .
I don’t like their warrantee wording, does anyone have some warrantee experiences with them ?

Thank for all you thoughts and suggestions.

Buy the Hornady Lock and Load.

#1 Reason

You can buy parts at Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops locally and not have to mail order parts from Dillon.

Just a FYI:

When you buy Quick change inserts, buy the RCBS Rock Chucker Conversion with the 6 inserts. Cabelas sells them for 19.99 (They are cheaper than buying the 10 inserts for 40 dollars).

I have an LNL as I mentioned before.

I had to tweak my priming system - although it is a good system, it's not perfect. But a couple of easy tweaks and I've pretty much run it without any issue since then. The Dillon priming system will have issues and tweaks, and the RCBS likely will as well - nature of the best. How many issues is largely, in my opinion, up to how the user has it set up and how well they maintain their machines.

The LNL caliber switchover is a breeze - the cam style inserts for each die are easy to remove and install. The most time consuming part is changing over the case activated powder drop, because it has to be set up uniquely for every caliber. Over time you can aquire parts that make this changeover pretty painless as well.

I've had 2 warranty issues with my LNL - one was me flat out losing a part to it, and they shipped it for free to me. Another was my subplate where the shell ejector nub is was having problems with a couple of calibers (pistol calibers, due to the way the brass is beveled on the rim). I sent it back to them, they sent me a new one without any questions asked. I think in both cases is was maybe a week between my contact with Hornady and getting the new part. When I sent my subplate back, I also mentioned that I had the old style primer seater plugs, and they sent me the redesigned ones at no charge.

As mentioned, an advantage (although probably pretty small in scope in the grand scheme of things) with the LNL, and likely the RCBS version as well, over Dillon is ease of getting parts and accessories. Many LGS and big box stores will carry parts for Hornady and RCBS, but won't for Dillon. Half of the stuff I've bought for my press of late has come from Amazon (keep in mind that I've never once searched for Dillon on Amazon, so it may be avaliable there as well and I just don't know).

As far as stations - the more the better. It's easy to not use a station; it's hard to need to use a station you don't have. The LNL and Dillon 650 are 5 station presses. This is how I have my LNL set up (I have a basic press - no bullet feeders, no case feeders, etc.):

Rifle:

Station 1 - Size
Station 1.5 - Prime
Station 2 - Powder Charge
Station 3 - Powder Check
Station 4 - Seat Projectile
Station 5 - Crimp

(I use Hornady dies for the most part, with a LEE FCD die on the the last sation - very light crimp)

Pistol:

Station 1 - Size
Station 1.5 - Prime
Sation 2 - Flare
Sation 3 - Powder Charge
Sation 4 - Seat Projectile
Station 5 - Crimp

I really wish that I had an additional station to use my powder check on the pistol setup, or I could get the powder through expanders that work with the case activated powder drop. The good news is that I installed an Inline Fabrication LED lighting system, so seeing down into the cases for pistol is pretty easy and it's not really required.

Thanks for the post! What are your tweaks to the priming system?

On a lock n load progressive press, glue a dime to where the primer pin hits the cast portion of the press (below the slide). It's a 10 cent fix to a problem I've discovered. Hornady uses a steel nut with a piston in the middle to seat the primers. This steel shaft against the pot metal (softer) will dimple the press. Overtime this will result in you not being able to fully seat the primer into the brass. By gluing a dime on the press at the point where this piston touches, you eliminate that problem.

On my press I've dimpled the press with the primer system and as a result I couldn't fully seat the primers. I either had to send the press back (shipping is expensive, weld the press to fill in the dimple (I didn't want to add heat to the press that close to the actual ram), or simply glue a dime over the dimple. The dime worked fantastic and was easy.

Another fix you may or may not need to do is drill a small set screw into the base of the primer tube. Otherwise you MAY have the primer tube come out of the base.

You can send me a pm if you need clarification to these mods. I'd be happy to send you pics if needed.

This is the #1 reason not to buy a Hornady, going to BPS/Cabela's is not a selling point

Sure it is.

If you need a part, whether it be a spring, shellplate or powder insert, its nice to have it today rather than next week for the same price. Online might show the part slightly cheaper, but when you add shipping its either the same price or more expensive even with local tax

I would rather wait (Which I don't, cause I have spares, and one LGS carries Dillon, along with friends with 650's) than step foot in one of those mecccas of crappy products and even worse service.

I didn't even mention price, do not forget about the gas/time you waste in getting to the mecca of crap.

You do know I own a Dillon 650 and a Hornady Lock n Load
Progressive.

Both presses are of equal quaility. The dillon has some nice features but they are expensive when you consider head plates and shell plates.

Im not a press snob, and between the two the hornady has the better powder drop system and change over system. The dillon has a better priming system.

You'll spend more on the Dillon than hornady and the ammo quality is the same between the two

I appreciate you post! Local parts availability is a big advantage!

Since you have both which machine due you large rifle on?

I went over to cabella and looked a the lnl. The prime system has been changed.

The old projector had a flipper that broke now it has a push bar setup.

If any one has any more thought or observations please post and thank you.

As do I, and you will notice I never said a negative thing about Hornady. My disagreement was with being able (maybe) to purchase parts locally as advantage over dillon, did not even come up in my press evaluation.

I do rifle on the Hornady press. The hornady has a much better powder drop system over the dillon, it just throws more accurate.

I also do a lot of pistol on the hornady, like I said, the headplates on the dillon are expensive. At cabelas you can buy the RCBS Rockcrusher conversion insert that comes with 6 inserts for 19.99 (only buy inserts this way, its the cheapest) You can do 2 or 3 caliber changes with each.

The powder conversions inserts are 10-15 each.

Buy the Universal PTX expander for pistols for the powder dropper @ http://www.enmsports.com/index.php/my-st...r-universal-ptx

And you may want extra pistol expander likages.

Actually you did

Read carefully, I was referring to your decision to be able to source locally, and your failure to take time/mileage expense into the TCO.

You said crap products but thats besides the point

On a dillon 650 the head plate is 30 bucks and the caliber conversion is roughly 80 bucks.

Thats 110 dollars before shipping

Vs hornady -35 dollars for shell plate plus roughly 8 dollars for the quick change insert, and 10-15 dollars for the powder insert. Thats under 1/2 that of Dillon. Gas going to cabelas or bass pro is out the equation.


I dont see why you are arguing this. 95% of the people out there like the convience of having the ability to run down and buy a part and have it in hand rather than mail order.

Again I could see your point if this was a Dillon vs a Lee 1000 but its not

I think we have a 1000 post minimum for pissing match participants

^ New signature, ha!