Single Stage vs Progressive

[KJr]

Considering purchasing a progressive loader to accompany my single stage. Which do YOU prefer and why???

[hornady]

I like the Hornady L-N-L, But you will get as many suggestions as there are Presses. First you need to decide how much money you want to put into it. Low end would be LEE, High the Dillion. Also if for just pistol or for Rifle too. Some work with both. Others not so well. The Hornady as well as the High end Dillion work great on both. I do not know that much about the Lee. Maybe others can help on that.

[rwilson452]

I went with a Lee LoadMaster. I would point out it is difficult to tune up the first time. I does require a certain mechanical aptitude.

You will now get an introduction into "The Color War".

[Unclenick]

Dillon has been at it about the longest, and all except their 1050 professional version have lifetime guarantees, and they aren't kidding about that. I've has a couple parts wear out and they just sent me replacements on my word and never asked to get the original back. You can also buy their machines set up for a caliber, dies and all, before you receive it. Of course, you pay a price that pays for all that service.

I've got no experience with the Lee LoadMaster, but have worked a little with the older Pro 1000 design and with their now discontinued progressive shot shell loader. Both of the latter two suffer too many stoppages and too much fiddling. Primer feed irregularity with both was a problem. All progressives suffer stoppages from time to time, and you really want to know how they work to be able to resolve those quickly, but you also don't want them to be so frequent that it frustrates the loading speed you got the machine for in the first place. My impression of the 1000 was that it seemed to get out of time easily, and whether or not it would make it through 200 rounds for a 2700 match without a stop-and-fiddle had about a 50:50 chance of happening.

Others have had much better experiences with the 1000. Some worse. I would not get the 1000 today for the simple reason that it has three stations, so you can't use a separate crimp die. Loading lead pistol bullets, that matters to me, as the separate crimp die avoids lead shaving that contributes to fouling and decreased accuracy.

I've heard people say they are generally happy with the Hornady LNL. There was some issue with the ejecting spring limiting die selection, but someone said that had been changed recently? Ask the owners of these machines about that? I've never had the opportunity to use one.

I don't hear very many people comment on the RCBS unit. Its design philosophy seems to be a little different. It has 5 stations, but the first is a lubrication station, so the sizing and etcetera are the same as for a four station press. The usual advantage of a fifth station is to have a powder check installed, but that won't be available on the RCBS. But if you are running rifle loads, you just may find you like the on-press lube feature.

[Rich Keagy]

I have an RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme. It is a single-stage press. I reload .45 ACP. The press works great!
My routine is to polish the brass in a tumbler, then decap and reprime the cases. I count out 50 and put them in small plastic produce bags.
With a bunch of these handy, charging and pressing in bullets is a snap.

[Shoney]

The Dillon, Hornady and RCBS progferessives all have lifetime warrantrees. I have found little difference in any of their customer service departments, and that is a non-issue which is prominently touted by Dillon. Truth is, RCBS has the bestr customer sercvice IMHO.

I own a 550, a Hornady LNL AP and a couple of single stage presses. My hunting buddy had a 650 and we have spent many hours reloading on each others presses. But he surprised me last year by buying the Hornady and selling his 650.

I prefer the LNL AP over the 550 and 650 for a wide variety of reasons, most prominent among the list is the LNL produces ammo with better concentricity (runout). In other words, more accurate ammo.

[Farmland]

You have requested a very large request. To be honest there is no best just a bunch of die hard brand lovers. Everyone including me will have their favorite press for different reasons, though some people will push their bias to a certain degree that will force you to read between the lines.

Lets tackle the subject of service and replacement parts. from what I have read every company has pretty good service with no that offers a life time warranty falling short. I have had to use the Dillon warranty service three times since 1993 with no problems, the most recent was last month for a broken primer catcher that I actually broke my self. I sent an email and received the free replacement in 5 days. I had to use RCBS two times this summer. One was for a broken seating die stem and the other was for my swagging tool. Both of which were my fault. I sent an email and received the free replacement parts with in 7 days.

I have not had to use Lee's or Hornady's warranty yet. Give me time and I suspect I will though.

Dillon has a great easier web site to navigate and some of the best independent forums for help such as this one. There is a wealth of information and help at this sight. Make sure to check out the forums too.
http://www.brianenos.com/store/dillon.html

To be fair I haven't found one for RCBS or Hornady yet, maybe someone else has them.

I am not a fan of Lee Progressive presses though they have a very strong and warm following. I love their Classic Cast Single Stage Press and some of their other reloading equipment though. My self bias is that they just seam cheaper in construction.

I have the Dillon 650 and the Hornady LNL AP. I like them both and I think either one would be a very good recommendation. I favor the Dillon 650 mainly because I have used this press for almost 20 years and I know it inside and outside. So I am in fact biased toward this press.

I think as I continue to load with the Horandy my bias may be even though at this time I still turn to the Dillon first. But if anyone tires to say one of these press is perfect then they have a blind bias. Each one is worth the money that you pay and if you only want to reload handguns the Dillon Square Deal is worth looking at.

[PCJim]

I started out on a RCBS Reloader Special 2 single stage and was very happy with it until the need for more volume came along. I happened to come across a Dillon 550b for a great price and couldn't be more pleased. If I hadn't come across that deal, I would have been looking for RCBS equipment only because I was comfortable with the brand.

I can't comment on other makes of progressive presses, but can certainly recommend the 550b.

[oldreloader]

I started reloading in the late 1960's with the old Lee Classic loader and moved up to a RCBS JR press.I never went to a turret or progressive because I love to reload and don't require a huge volume.
All the manufacture's presses will work.I'm not fond of the ones with aluminum frames.I personally prefer presses without quick change inserts or turrets because I don't care for the play or slack that goes with them.They DO work and quite well,I just don't care for them.
I now use a RCBS Rockchucker II press and am well satisfied with it.

[Bushmaster223]

Great press and excellent customer service.

[jmorris]

First off I’ll always have a single stage and turrent presses for the small volume reloading I do. They are very fast to change calibers and are more efficient for small quantities. If I’m working up a new load at the range I use one of my SD’s they are small, light and are a good little press (faster than a single stage by a long shot but not warp speed). For loading large quantities of pistol ammunition I use 650’s with bullet feeders (along with a primer filler you get 100 rounds every 3.5 minutes). For high volume rifle I use both a 650 and a 1050 with a bullet feeder. The 650 sizes/deprime and trims to length and the 1050 swages the crimp out of the primer pocket and finishes loading.

[wncchester]

If you want to load a few hundred thousand of the same round, time after time, it's no contest, get a Dillon.

If you can live with less speed and/or think you might want to swap cartridges and loads with some frequency, get a Lee Classic Turret.

From time to time I see photos of some guys bench with two or more Dillons set up on it. Why so many? Because it's such PITA to change calibers!

The inexpensive Lee Classic Turret's die heads, with preloaded dies, can be exchanged in a few seconds, without tools. The CT is only an auto-indexing turret, not nearly as fast as a progressive but it's fast enough for most of us and it's a LOT more flexible!

[Ko3ak]

I'm probably one of the dozen or so folks on earth who use the RCBS Pro2000.
Very solid machine. Is it as fast as a Dillon? - don't know, but I've read here and there that you can balance your check book, breast feed a baby and crank out 2000 or so rounds an hour on a Dillon.

Seriously..., I can pump out 350 to 400 rounds an hour on my 2000. That's plenty enough for me, because I don't shoot 10,000 rounds a week. You can switch out for different calibers in about 10 to 15 minutes(very easily by the way) Adjust the micrometer on the powder measure(again, very easily), convert priming from small to large or vise versa(again (sigh), very easily...). Never heard of a primer detonation (chain reaction) using the RCBS APS system.

Yes, RCBS customer service is awesome BTW.

As someone had mentioned already, I do find it funny that folks have multiple 550's or 650's that are strictly dedicated to ONE caliber only! Hmmm,... so it must be a PITA to set up this Dillon thing, huh??

Seriously, I'm sure the Dillon is a fine machine. The Dillons and the Pro2000's both have their trade-offs I'm sure.

[TRguy]

Hornady LNL

Price $369 to $429

Buy before 12-31-09 and get up to $300 worth 1000 free projectiles in a rebate.

I got 45acp 185 XTP JHP $305 retail value, paid $369 for my press

powder measure is accurate and comes with two rotors for rifle and pistol.

SO for me

Single stage is my Rock Chucker RCBS and two lee presses

progressive is my LNL

[BigJimP]

All of the big name companies make good equipment / but personally I chose Dillon.

To me, the deal breaker today, is to pick a press with a powder check station on it / so you have another safety factor built into the operation. On the Dillon that means the 650 ( the SDB and 550 do not have that option ).

For what its worth, I have the Dillon 650 with the case feeder - and I'd buy it again. I've used Hornady and RCBS presses - and they're fine - but not better than Dillion in my opinion.

[jpdavis423]

Amen to the above. I loaded on a LNL for two weeks and sent it back. But I think they have fixed most of the problems I had with ejection. Mine had an ejector wire that interfered with last station and had to be separately adjusted if you were changing cases that were really different in diameter like .32 to.45. This a minor point, but Hornady did not, at that time, have a powder thru expander die for .32 so you had to do it in 2 stages - expand then drop powder. Not a problem if you don't load .32. It did have a very smooth action and was well made.
One other point: Dillon's customer service is open Saturday which is when I set up my press and do a lot of reloading. They also seem to have more customer service agents.
Hornady's service is also very good and will replace broken parts free, but they aren't open on Saturday and sometimes you can't get them during the week and have to leave a message.
I went with a Dillon 650 and never looked back. My suggestion is to get it all at once instead of dragging it out. Get the case feeder, bullet tray, powder check die and roller handle.

Jeff

[Hook686]

Certainly different strokes for different folks. I tried a progressive. I could not keep track of each operation, as four were happening at once. All it took was one squib load to convince me my single stage was more comfortable for me to use. I later got a Lee Classic Turret press and am quite content with it. I get twice the rate of production, as the single stage, and can visually watch each step of the process.

Personally I do not like the idea of relying upon a mechanical device, rather than my own eye sight, in checking the powder drop scenario. However, as I noted, different strokes, for different folks.

[rjrivero]

I'm creeping up on 20 years on that press. I have loaded more .45acp on it than anything else, but after this year, I now am setup to load .38 Special, .9mm and .223. I never thought I'd load .9mm and .223 but with recent "issues" causing a dramatic increase in ammo costs, it seemed a prudent time to start loading military calibers.

I now have 5 toolheads, one for each of these calibers and one for trimming .223 brass.

I honestly don't find it terribly difficult to swap from caliber to caliber. I will generally load at least 1,000 rounds of a caliber before I switch to another caliber. If I'm gonna spend 10 mintues swapping out the primer system, shell holder, tool head, and case feed wheel, I may as well get at least an hour loading ammo, don't you think?

I haven't had any significant issues with my 650, and would recommend it to anyone. Caliber conversions are a bit cheaper on the 550, and the 550 has a bit more versatility to it, so take that into consideration as well.

[freonr22]

if you do a progressive heres some nice reading http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillon...Comparison.pdf

[TEDDY]

I have an RCBS Green Machine better than any other press.
only can use one cartridge.

[Foxbat]

I went through Hornady, Lee, RCBS, and eventually settled on Dillon - now have three 650-s and one 1050.

Each of the brands has some strong points, but overall I like the 650 the best. If I had to have just one press, that would be it.

BTW... lifetime warranty is great, but things like the case feeder motor are only covered for one year. Go figure... they wanted $60 for a replacement (mine started moving too slowly after about 12 years), but I was able to fix it for free.

[Farmland]

My vibrator is going on 19 years and I keep thinking the motor has to go sooner or later. At times I forget about it and the brass get an overnight cleaning. When it goes I just might get the large one from Dillon. I know I could use the large basket and tub for separation.

[Foxbat]

Well, 12 years is not too bad for a motor, but still, the first gear in the gearbox was nylon (or something similar), so I suspect it became swollen from lubricant, and refused to rotate on its shaft - the motor would sometimes stall. Simply cleaning its hole did the trick.

[Courageous Lion]

I have been using two Dillion 550's for about 15 or more years. Their guarantee is great and one is set up for small primers while the other is set up for large making it easier to deal with. I can't count how much ammo has been run through those two presses but it is in the neighborhood of 50,000 rounds.

[mongoose33]

Was looking to buy a progressive last December, same situation as you, had a single stage.

I looked seriously at Dillon and Hornady; the other brands, while I have no indication that they're anything but good, aren't apparently as popular judging by posts on fora such as this, so i decided one of those two would be the winner. Support, help, ideas--more for Dillon and Hornady, it seemed to me.

Both are fine; I ended up concluding that there is no real, fundamental difference between them, though you have three choices with Dillon, the SDB which does pistol rounds only and requires proprietary dies, the 550 which isn't an auto-indexing progressive, and the 650 which is supposed to be the closest equivalent of the Hornady LNL.

Truly, I'm sure I'd have been happy with any of those four, I have Dillon stuff which is quite well made (swager, d-terminator scale e.g.).

But in the end, I went with the Hornady because of economics. The "Get Loaded" offer from Hornady will get you 1000 bullets from a decent list, including some of the excellent XTP bullets. I ended up getting over $300 retail worth of bullets for $23 shipping. They were actually worth about $200 at normal prices.

When I subtracted that from the press price, I was well under $200 for a very nice progressive setup. Powder measure works great, any ejection problems from years ago have been fixed, it's a sweet press.


But in the end, I'm sure I would have been just as happy w/ the Dillon 550 or 650.