Dillon tempts reloaders to buy all sorts of dandy doo-dads that are really unnecessary. Maybe that's why I like shopping Hornady. The Hornady Lock-N-Load has many of the features of the 650 for the price of a 550B.
I purchased the following from Lock, Stock and Barrel and T & T Reloading over the web and Traders in Oakland:
RCBS 505 scale
RCBS dies
RCBS lockout die (powder check)
Hornady large vibratory cleaner
RCBS bullet puller
RCBS micrometer
Hornady primer flipper
From Traders in Oakland:
Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto Progressive
From local vendors and gun shows:
1 lb Accurate Arms #2
5000 Winchester WSP primers
From West Coast Bullets:
1000 158 gr RN copper plated bullets
And From OSH, a Sears subsidy, a Gorilla bench for reloading and extra plywood piece to strengthen top $120.
Excluding the bench, the total came to less than $600. The Hornady allows individual die replacement without disturbing settings, has auto indexing and an accurate self contained case actuated powder measure that can be used in three of the Lock-N-Load's 5 stations.
I bought this is the April/May time frame and have since reloaded over 7000 rounds of .38 spl at less than 8 cents each or $4.00 per box. With the pretty bullets I use this would cost $7.50 per box from a commercial reloader and around $15 to $20 as factory rounds. I have already saved enough in comparison to commercial reloader to cover most of the initial cost. I have saved enough over the cost of commercial rounds to purchase almost three full sets of equipment.
[Edited by Guy B. Meredith on 12-04-2000 at 09:02 PM]
|