[hounddawg]

first of all forget stick powder, ball and flake meter perfectly for me though. I don't use stick on pistols and I don't load precision rifle on progressive so that is not an issue. From my research I don't think there is a powder measure in existence that will dispense stick powder to my standards, even the auto dispense models that use a scale will be off .1 grain at times.

primer seating - so far I have loaded about 5K of pistol on mine and there is asmall divot as you call it forming but as of now primers are still seating fine, if it does become a issue I will do some hillbilly engineering and drill it out and install a piece of drill rod into it with some epoxy ( any Hornady reps reading this take note) or I might just drop a bit of epoxy and some powdered metal or metal shim on it. No biggie one way or the other, I used to fix things ofr a living and am not shy about modifying or strengthening a piece of equipment.

Edit: this thread got me curious so I went over and examined my press. A small flat washer and a dab epoxy to hold it in place and the dimple issue was resolved before it became a problem.

cleanliness - yep it is a piece of precision equipment and like any precison equipment needs to be kept clean. While primer debris has not been a issue for me any small amount of spilled powder makes for a guaranteed cussing session. I have fell into the habit of when I reload the primer tube I just take the index plate off and brush any powder/residue away with a chip brush, that involves removing one allen head screw and it takes maybe 5 minutes to take off clean and put it back on.

All in all I would say that for the money it can't be beat and cannot imagine that the presses that cost twice as much would be any better. Once I got over the learning curve and with a couple of tips from the Hornady customer service reps I can now load between 300 - 400 pistol rounds a hour and that is taking my time and doing the cleaning I mentioned above. If I bought and had several primer tubes preloaded I could probably do 500 an hour but I only shoot 200 to 300 rounds of pistol in any given range session so why bother.

When I was shopping for a progressive I had 1000 dollars to spend and was deciding between the Dillon 650 the Hornady LnL and the RCBS 2000. The Hornady was the best bang for the buck in my opinion. The RCBS was in second becasue of price and the primer feed system. I wish Hornady used the RCBS primer system because I hate the pick up stick method that Dillon and Hornady share. For me Dillon was dead last because it is so similar to the Hornady yet cost wise it is almost double. The Hornady is not perfect nor is it completely trouble free but after 35 years of working on complex production machinery I know that a perfect trouble free piece of machinery is a fairy tale.

I would rate the Hornady 5 stars on price, 4 stars on reliability, 3 stars on ease of learning and operation and 5 stars on customer service. Cost wise it beats the Dillon 550 and feature wise it compares to the Dillon 650 other than the low primer warning. Just my 2 cents worth