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Posted: 10/13/2009 7:29:31 PM EDT
| I've been reloading for quite some time, doing a little here and there on my dad's press. I'm thinking about investing in my own press, but I'm not sure what route to go. I'd love to get an Hornady progressive press, but I'm curious as to how precise they load compared to a traditional press. Any suggestions? I'm not going to be loading long distance loads by the hundreds or anything, but I want to be able to pump out 1,000 .223 rounds quickly and still have the ability to load precision rounds for my 300 WSM. |
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Quoted: get a dillon RL 450 its like a dillon 550 but without the quick change tool head and the auto eject, prime, and powder measure, and yess the hornady lock and load will do wat u wanna do i would get the hornady though, but yu could always buy a dillon. scott Knock, knock it's 2009, not 1994!! Where's he going to find a 450? Dillon doesn't make them anymore because the 550B is much better. |
| I'm not real familiar with the Hornady press but I'm real familiar with the Dillion. I too drink the blue Kool Aid but I'm real happy with it 'cuz it tastes so good!. I've got a RL 550B and my buddy has a XL 650. Our ammunition is accurate and as stated Dillion stands behind their equipment. Putting mine together I launched a spring into the "Twilight Zone" and after about an hour gave up searching for it. I called Dillon and explained what happened and two days later I had my parts, free of charge. |
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I own two of the Hornady Projector presses which is the predecessor of the LNL. The LNL is built on the same basic frame. I have had one of these presses since 1985 or so and have zero issues that were not caused by my own stupidity. They are massive and built like a tank and with a little care will last a life time or 2 or 3....
If you get one of the new LNL presses make sure it has the upgraded brass ejector. The original brass ejector on the LNL was a weak point that has been corrected. I have nothing against the blue kool-aid crowd they make a good press but the price seems out of line compared to the others for what you get.... |
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Quoted:
Yeah. The free bullets are what have me thinking Hornary. I didn't base my press decision on some free bullets. When you shoot those up, you'll forget all about it. You get to live with your press for years. Whether you buy Hornady, Dillon, Lee, or RCBS ought to be based on what you're going to load and how much you're going to reload, and how much it's going to cost you for upgrades and caliber changes, and finally, is it going to be easy enough to caliber change to inspire you to actually do it, over and over. Even the cheaper Lee is the right press for some of us. For me, after 2 months of research and deliberation, the RCBS Pro 2000 fit best for the reasons in This Thread Just because Dillon folks out shout the rest of us, and act as it the other brands aren't worthy, there is in fact, better choices for some needs. IMO reloading lots of calibers is one of them. |
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GWhis brings up a good point...
Case in point I also have a couple of Lee 1000 presses dedicated to specific pistol calibers. They work fine for the most part, being a little tricky to set up but for the price they are hard to beat and makes it easier to dedicate a press to a caliber and eliminate the fiddling with change overs. |
| I have bought a few presses, I started out with a Lee Breech lock and then bought a Lee 4 hole turret press to speed things up. But as I got more into precision loading I didn't like the slack/movement in the turret press so I went and bought a Hornady LnL AP(the new style) and this press is amazing, first it's built like a tank with a huge ram and no slack or movement in anything. The best part is once you set your dies up in the LnL bushings to change calibers all you have to do is twist out one set of dies and twist in the new set, change the shell plate(one screw), and adjust the powder thrower (or for the extra money saved from a Dillon buy another powder thrower and you'll still come out ahead) and start loading as many rounds as you please. I have used Dillon presses as well at my uncle's house(650XL) and didn't like it as much as the Hornady, I personally don't like how high it has to set and the mile long throw of the handle to operate the press, it caliber changes are easy but expensive to completely setup each one but to each his own. My vote is for the LnL AP out of all the presses I have tried, now the RCBS P2000 looks nice but I have to knowledge of it's workings but hear good things about it. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Yeah. The free bullets are what have me thinking Hornary. I didn't base my press decision on some free bullets. When you shoot those up, you'll forget all about it. You get to live with your press for years. Whether you buy Hornady, Dillon, Lee, or RCBS ought to be based on what you're going to load and how much you're going to reload, and how much it's going to cost you for upgrades and caliber changes, and finally, is it going to be easy enough to caliber change to inspire you to actually do it, over and over. Even the cheaper Lee is the right press for some of us. For me, after 2 months of research and deliberation, the RCBS Pro 2000 fit best for the reasons in This Thread Just because Dillon folks out shout the rest of us, and act as it the other brands aren't worthy, there is in fact, better choices for some needs. IMO reloading lots of calibers is one of them. I'm not saying i'm going to base my decision on some free bullets. Price is the major issue and free bullets are merely tip the scales. I'm sure i'd be satisfied with a Dillon as well, but for more money, it's probably not where I want to start. |
| The LNL is nice, but it's price has gone up considerably in the last year or two. I got mine (LNL AP) and the case feeder for $525. I also got 1300 free bullets after I bought some dies to go with it. Can't touch that nowadays. The LNL is nice and I did upgrade the ejector, but I'd probably give the Dillon a hard look at today's prices. I've had to do too much re-engineering to the LNL to pay today's prices for it. |
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