Best progressive press

[HPBTMTCH]

Considering getting a progressive press. It needs to load both handgun and rifle cartridges, anyone have any opinions on which one to buy ?

[skeet]

If you want to go a little more basic get a Dillon 550 B press. It'll do both rifle and pistol...if you want to go full progressive get a Dillon 650. I happen to have both and use the 650 more often than the 550 but I usually load pistol on it. They both work much better when using ball type powders though.IMHO. They work ok with others but ball powders flow better through the powder measures. Well made products. Had a 1050 in 45 auto but wow..I loaded all my 45 auto cases in the space of about 50 minutes...and I had over 800/ The super 1050 will only do small rifle cases though:D

[Ken14]

Dillion RL550B...wore out a Lee Pro 1000...Dillion customer support overall use is #1.



Just my .02

[Rapier]

First progressive loader to buy, the 550B, no doubt. For the $ the 550B is the best around.

The 650 is very nice, but, unless you find a widow giving the thing away, it is very pricy. And there is nothing cheap for a 650, in the second stage purchases, nothing.

The Starr has a good rep, but looks like a Swiss watch, the ProJector is a good machine but get a primer sideways and it starts eating itself, the Ponseness Warren is a very good machine for accuracy, just like a single stage, but it is slower, 150 RPH VS the 550s supposed 550 RPH (actually about 300). The Lee, well, it is cheap.
Ed

[TreeDoc]

Dillon 550b.

If you're doing a lot of extruded powder for rifles, expect the powder phase to be a separate operation off the machine. No different than any of the others in this respect. For anything else, you'll play hell trying to shoot fast enough to keep up with ammo production!

[smalstuf]

If you put a JDS quick measure on your dillon you can load all of the stick powders you want. It will even dump 4831 into a 220 swift case without bridging. Contact them at www.quick-measure.com:p

[TreeDoc]

smalstuf,
I actually had on of their drops. I tried it on a trial basis. It was cool though I decided not to keep it only because it required an independant step with the Dillon. I wish I kept it though because I single stage most all my rifle cartridges now anyway.

[HPBTMTCH]

Thanks for the input, what does anyone know about the Hornady lock n load auto progressive ?

[Catfish]

Hornady makes some good equipment and you`ll probibly be happy with it, but I`ve been loading on a 550 Dillon since the 1980`s and would have nothing else. I load all Ball or Flake powders and the Dillon powder measure work great for them. I have several rifles that shoot sub-moa. A few that shoot 1/2 moa, and a couple that will do 1/4 moa on a good day, all with ammo loaded on my Dillon, and I shoot 5 shot groups not 3.

[skeet]

I had one of the Hornady progressive presses. Worked ok but it went on ebay. Got more than I paid for it so some must like them. Seriously..Dillon 550 is the way to go. I just bought one from an old fellow who sold it to me set up in 45 auto for 75 bucks dies and all. Gonna set it up this weekend as I am about done with my new bench.