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Posted: 12/4/2015 3:13:58 PM EDT
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So I learned to reload on my friends single stage press, and want to get my own press now. I was thinking of getting a Hornady progressive press, the Lock-N-Load, and wanted to know if this would be good. I like the quality of Hornady, and the price of dies is great.
So what is your opinion on the Hornady press? If I want to load hunting rifle rounds (.300 win mag, 270 wsm and 270, 30-06, .308, etc), rounds for my AR's (.223, 6.8 SPC, .50 Beowulf, and .300 Blk) and pistol rounds ( 9mm, 45 ACP, etc) can I load all of these on this single press? Is there anything that could be better? And also, I see some people using machines to clean the brass. Do y'all recommend this? And what machine? |
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The Hornady is a good choice and cheaper than the Dillon.
For me the Dillon was better for quite a few reasons, the main reason being tool heads. Easy swap out per caliber change with all dies and powder measure set up on each tool head. Tumbling is personal choice based in time, type and money. Wet or dry or both. How clean you want your cases etc... |
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I love my Hornady AP L-n-L.
There have been a few things I've tinkered with and modded. I suggest you watch every hornady video on youtube. I've also never used a Dillon, so I am biased. As far as I know the 1050 Dillon is the holy grail of home reloading. So, yes, there are better machines than the Hornady. As far as Hornady AP vs. the Dillon 650.. that's a Ford vs. Chevy battle right there with the weirdo Mopar (RCBS) guys on the outer edges... hahah J/K |
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I went the Dillon route also.
Started with a 550b, then added an s1050.... then an xl650... and I see another s1050 in my future. Remember you don't have to do everything at once (although some people do buy a press and all the dies/conversions), I started on the 550b with 9mm only. As my shooting volume increased (and my free time to reload decreased) I decided to upgrade to the s1050 (xl650 was in the running, but in the end on press swaging and primer seating on the down stroke sealed the deal for the s1050). I then added several calibers to the 550b, and eventually migrated most of them, to the xl650 which I purchased used from a local forum inmate. Personally I'm a big fan of dry and then wet tumbling (brass is sized and deprimed before wet tumbling). Keeps the dirt out of my presses, which keeps them running with minimal interruptions. If and when I get a second s1050 it will be almost completely dedicated to processing rifle/pistol brass. xl650 is comparable to the Hornady AP from what I understand, and unless you are dealing with crimped brass.... you probably can't go wrong with either. How many rounds of each do you plan on producing of each caliber monthly? It's easy to get sucked into a big progressive press, when all you need is a 550b 
~g |
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Quoted:
So I learned to reload on my friends single stage press, and want to get my own press now. I was thinking of getting a Hornady progressive press, the Lock-N-Load, and wanted to know if this would be good. I like the quality of Hornady, and the price of dies is great. So what is your opinion on the Hornady press? The Hornady is a 5-hole auto-indexing press at about the same price as Dillon's 550, a 4-hole manual index press. Changeovers are quicker on the Hornady, and because die-changes are done by bushings there is no slop at the toolhead. The more expensive Dillon 650 is a 5-hole, auto-indexing press, and is likely to be slightly smoother and faster in operation. All presses have their quirks, and the primer system is most often the weakest link. Any of these presses will work fine. If I want to load hunting rifle rounds (.300 win mag, 270 wsm and 270, 30-06, .308, etc), rounds for my AR's (.223, 6.8 SPC, .50 Beowulf, and .300 Blk) and pistol rounds ( 9mm, 45 ACP, etc) can I load all of these on this single press? Using a Progressive is more a function of the batch size and degree of precision you want to achieve. It makes little sense to do a caliber change on a Progressive, do 100 rounds, then do another caliber change for the next batch. So batches of 500 and preferably 1000 or more are the norm when multiple calibers are being reloaded. All that requires is that you have enough brass lol. The Progressive presses in your price range, when fully utilized as designed, do not allow for cleaning primer pockets (which many consider unnecessary) or for hand-weighing powder charges. There is often a loss of concentricity, or at least consistency, vs a single stage press which is a consideration for many when doing precision rifle. Is there anything that could be better? Your choices really boil down to a Hornady LnL AP or a Dillon 650 in order to get the 5-holes you really want to have. Price both across all your calibers, watch some youtube videos, and make a choice. Dillon stuff sells at MSRP and I'd recommend you use Brian Enos' site for pricing - his store makes it easier to do. Midway is a good starting point for the Hornady, but you can often find stuff discounted more at other sites. And also, I see some people using machines to clean the brass. Do y'all recommend this? And what machine?Tumbling is a whole 'nuther topic. Suffice to say I use a dry tumbler filled with walnut (Lizard litter from the pet store) and tumble outside because (a) I can and (b) it avoids dust. Wet tumbling with stainless steel pins requires a heavier, water-proof tumbler and pretty much requires you be there at the end of the cycle to get the brass out of the liquid (somehwat chemically active) solution to dry it. It is often used by those who deprime first because it cleans the primer pockets as well as making the brass shine like new. Personally I've found that if i don't wet my brass, I do not have to dry it :) |
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The LNL is not a bad press if you still want to load bullets and case by hand, and can be upgraded if you want to put the time into getting it tweaked correctly. If I had to take a stab the dark, give the machine about 4 more years until Hornady just discontinues it and comes out with a new machine (problems in the way the machine indexes,and once hornday disconntinues the machine, the life time warrenty is also canceled as well)..
Note: watch this series of video's to get an ideal of set up and tweaks on the LNL, and this is after you have shimmed the sub plate to the ram to clean up any slop there, shimmed the drive hub correctly so there is not a lot of slop between the shell plate to sub plate, and have stripped the drive system down to clean and polish those parts up as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qC1O5FzSCA If you looking for a progressive self indexing press that will load the cases for you too, then get a 650 instead. The LNL and the 650, both with a case feeder systems, are around the same price, but unlike the LNL that will stumble a lot, the 650 just runs reliability instead. Hence the 650 was designed around a case feeder system from the start, while the LNL had a case feed system added to it as a second through instead. As for bullet feeding on the press, couple of ways to skin that cat, but in the end, something like the Mr bullet feeder is something that works reliably without a lot of tweaking instead. Truth be told, if you are planning on loading bullet and cases by hand, then the RCBS auto indexing pro 2000 is the better press. It uses the APS primer system, and this type of primer system is one of the safest on the markets. Hence half of the battle of a progressive machine is the primer loading and storage, and nothing beats the safety of the APS system. Hence with a tube type primer system, you have to watch out for primer dust in the tubes (why you never store them loaded), plus one static spark and the tube will chain fire the primers. The downfall, with the introduction of the pro chucker, it just a mater of time until RCBS discontinues the Pro-2000, to try to drive the sale on the pro chucker instead. So the break downs if you don't want to have brain damage with machine crapping out over and over again as you are trying to reload, Manual loading bullets and cases by hand, and not thinking of upgrading the press to case feed system, Hand indexing the shell holder, the Pro 2000 without auto indexing, or the 550 that will still be in production for a long time instead. Auto indexing of the shell holder, Pro 2000 If you are looking for a press that will load the cases, and even adding a bullet feeder to it, the 650 hand down. Yes, there are other presses that may get you there, but they will not run as reliable as the 650 out the gate. If you looking for a press that you can install an auto drive system, then the 1050 instead. Yes, PW does offer a drive for the 650, but without a primer swager as part of the tool line up, the 650 is not a machine that you want to turn on and walk away from it as it doing it thing. The problem here, if you end up with a crimped primer pocket case in the machine, it's going to cause a primer to blow, and with the circular primer feeder on the 650, first primer igniting will flash over to ignite the rest of the primers until all the primers in the tube blow as well (going to take out the entire primer system, and maybe some other parts on the machine as well. So back to the LNL, it not a bad press one cleaned up, but clean up is a lot of work, and just does not make sense when a 650 is the same money when you add a case feeder to the LNL, and the 650 runs fine out of the box, even at a faster reloading pace. As for the whole it's cheaper to convert a lnl over to the next caliber, not when you have a case feeder on the LNL, and have to make parts to try to get it feed cases reliable instead. |
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