RELOADING WARS

9000S

9000S

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Ok, I hate to do this because its really ambiguous, but I trust you ladies and gents to be as pretty straightforward and unbiased as one can be on stuff like this. So here goes.... reloading presses. Dillon RCBS LYMAN and the others. Heres my pointers, Price is not really an option, ill save a few paychecks wait 6 weeks or whatever and im there. no biggy. What I am looking for is warranties, minimum fiddling between exchanges, say .45acp to 8mm mauser, or .338 lapua mag. Bells and whistles wanted, minimum time on the press and more time shooting. would like to keep it under 900 i suppose but its not really a big deal. Minimum two dies right now one good rifle 8mm and one pistol .45acp. Did a little reading an researching on the .45 think i will stick with bulk jacketed bullets as opposed to lead just a personal preference. Ok I throw this one out to the wolves in the know! Have at it!
 
Another vote for the Dillon. I have a 550 that I've been using for 10+ years and it's a fine piece of machinery. If I were to buy a press today, I'd go for the 650 because it has even more bells and whistles available for it.
Blue is Good. [smile]
 
If your interested in Dillon go to http://www.brianenos.com. You'll be able to read some great info there. He also has packages available. There is plenty of support available online to help you tweak things if needed. Keep in mind the 550B is manually indexed vs. the 650 which is auto.

I have a Hornady LnL on order, and had a Lee Loadmaster delivered last week and have enjoyed using that so far.

I am sure whatever you go with you'll love it.
 
With my C&R the Lee Loadmaster was $200 with .45 dies. I just bought a set of the Deluxe Carbide .357/38 dies for $32.00 along with other accessories.

What I don't like about the Lee is that some of the parts are plastic. When I opened the box the primer trough was in 5 pieces. I will say though, Lee was very responsive and I had the replacement parts 3 days later. So far I am enjoying the Loadmaster.
 
hmm

lotta votes for the dillion... dange 139? I just ordered 680rnds of 8mm for like 200bucks. can get a reloader for less huh? cool. Yeah, looking for long term investment ease of operation meaning more automation is good. So I think I will be researching this 650 more in depth... good stuff. thanks guys will keep yall posted!
 
Dillon 650 with case feeder. Going as fast as I can with several primer tubes filled, I can load 1200 rounds in an hour.I don't recommend it. I was just curious. You can load 800 rounds an hour going at a leisurely pace. The warranty is as good as it gets. You break it,they replace it free forever. No questions asked. The 650 is $529.95, the casefeed is $209.95, extre casefeed plate is $37.95 and the automatic primer filler is $294.95. That's alot of money but without it, you spend alot of time filling primer tubes instead of reloading and you don't utilize the 650 to it's full potential. It costs me 10 cents a round to load .45acp. At 800 rounds an hour, you should save more than the cost of all this in less than 7 hours!
 
The Tribe Has Spoken!

[smile] Looks Like the Dillion 650 is it with a few little additions, When its time to make the plunge (about 2 pay periods maybe...) Ill give another shout to see what the whole pile of doohickeys and lil extra's I'll need to get off the ground running good. Vibratory cleaner unit, material for it, digi-calipers etc. Once I start down this road I am pretty sure it will be a whole new ball game for me..... Reloading my 8mm and perfecting a fast hunting round.... whitetail and mulies beware!
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---------------Warning HiJackBelow----------------------------------------
Ok on that being said... A rifle's a rifle and a guns a gun... So.... what if i load a 90gr, .45 round to around 2,000fps. I know hijacking my own thread here, but the reason rifles dominate so much is because their blazing speed right? So how come people aren't loading pistol rounds lighter and faster for defense? i.e. 5.7x28? (I know weight and mass VS penetration is a key factor...) It can be zipping but if it only goes 4-6 inches its garbage I get that... Extreeeme Shock Fang face rounds. I looked em up and of course alotta mumbo jumbo press on their site etc, but all in all looks pretty devestating, but there is some reports to the contrary on them behaving as well as they should.

Looks like I will have to get into some metallurgy again and see what I can come up with... there was a bismuth project I did a few years back in my moms kitchen involving a soup ladle, the gas burner, and making my own ingots.... Needless to say Bismuth diamagentic properties when being applied to Neodynium magents... is nonexistent. (or too small to be measured and useful)That, and ANY moisture and molten metal is BAD. REALLY REALLY BAD. And my mom was pissed at the stains on the ladle!! [laugh][rofl]That being said, Bi, Aluminum, Antimony will be on the shopping list for making a fast very hard hollowpoint, that way if its hard it will penetrate more and break up less...?
 
Auto Primer Filler?

gerrycaruso said:
Dillon 650 with case feeder. Going as fast as I can with several primer tubes filled, I can load 1200 rounds in an hour.I don't recommend it. I was just curious. You can load 800 rounds an hour going at a leisurely pace. The warranty is as good as it gets. You break it,they replace it free forever. No questions asked. The 650 is $529.95, the casefeed is $209.95, extre casefeed plate is $37.95 and the automatic primer filler is $294.95. That's alot of money but without it, you spend alot of time filling primer tubes instead of reloading and you don't utilize the 650 to it's full potential. It costs me 10 cents a round to load .45acp. At 800 rounds an hour, you should save more than the cost of all this in less than 7 hours!
Click to expand...

So ya really think that the auto primer filler is worth it? 3/5 the price of the press itself for one extra item that I can do by hand? mind you filling up primer tubes by hand a few hundred at a time would suck... So how does that work? Just dump the primers in there and it automatically flips them around to feed right? at 300 bucks it better take a break and make me a nice sandwhich too! [laugh]
 
I don't know how much you value your time but it's worth it to me and while it won't make you a sandwich, it'll save you enough to pay someone to bring you one. If you'd like to see it or try it out, let me know.
 
hmmm See its that kinda love and community that makes me all warm and fuzzy!! [smile] Appreciate the offer my good man and if ever back in Mass for a little while I will take you up on it. But right now I chilling in the great state of AZ keeping out the mexicans. But ur right the savings in time overall will be worth it i think. Thanks again for the offer.
 
LnL, try them both before you buy. Best way to tell. Send a PM and you can check out Hornady.
 
gerrycaruso said:
I don't know how much you value your time but it's worth it to me and while it won't make you a sandwich, it'll save you enough to pay someone to bring you one. If you'd like to see it or try it out, let me know.
Click to expand...

I find the time spent loading the primer tube a welcome break from cranking the handle of my 1050.
 
If your interested in Dillon go to http://www.brianenos.com. You'll be able to read some great info there. He also has packages available.
Click to expand...
To say Brian is well connected with Dillon is an understatement (He's been dealing with Mike ever since it was a garage operation) If you buy from www.brianenos.com you get the same support you do from Dillon, plus Brian's personal service. Brian was one of the top IPSC shooters when he was active in the game, and makes his living running www.brianenos.com. I'd trust him with anything gun related, but can't really vouch for his navigation capabilities in Phoenix (just bring a GPS if you drive with him somewhere).
 
Question to those of you recommending a 650: Would you still rec a 650 if he was interested in a lot more calibers? From what I've read on Brian's site the 650 is better as a dedicated machine (due to cost and time for caliber changes) and the 550b is better at caliber changes. I'd made up my mind on Hornady LnL, but they are all on back order. I'm starting to let the blue thoughts come back and am wondering 550b vs 650.
 
550 vs 650? it depends how much he's going to load.
My guess is, if he's in AZ, he can shoot a lot more due to nicer weather year round, and more events all over the place there.
550, lots slower than the 650, the time it takes to do a caliber conversion on the 650 vs the 550 is more than made up for by the 650s speed in reloading rounds

as for spending almost 300 on the auto primer filler, if you're only going to load 2 or 300 a week, it's not worth the money.
 
I have a 1050, but a 650 and you are good to go.

I see that you want to load .338LM, this is one that I load but I do it on a RockChuker, but I wouldn't use a progressive for this one.
 
+1

you get what you pay for, i think thats been covered

Which one depends on what your gona load. lots of different calibers
lower volume, 550... fewer calibers but higher volume 650.

all in all the 650 is a better machine for 2 reasons, its a 5 station press
accomodates a powder alarm, the body is larger more room to work
on it if needed.

JimB
 
LnL Hornady.I paid $349 for the press this summer and got back $200 + of 44mag bullets. Cheaper to change calibers, 5 station, true progressive. I like my rose colored glasses.
 
check out both!

Northshore Firearms in middleton MA is now a full stocking Dillon dealer (i went in there saturday, and they have a 550b all set up on a bench. they're talking about doing a reloading class every saturday morning for a while to get people interested.

they didnt have the primer tube filler in stock, but i do recall seeing 2 550's, 2 650's, at least 1 SDB, and a multitude of misc. accessories. prices are Dillon MSRP (no ones allowed to advertise below that)...and the Mike's will do what they can do help you out on price/accessories!
 
You probably want to go with either the Dillon 650 or the Hornady L-N-L. If you want to load the .338 Lapua Magnum on the Dillon you'll need to shell out an additional $125 for the magnum powder measure because the standard powder measure won't come close to throwing a big enough charge. Also, that cartridge is so long that it'll be tricky to seat bullets with either press.

I use the L-N-L because it better suits the way I reload (20+ calibers, with multiple bullet and charge weights per caliber). It was also much cheaper than the 650 at the time I bought it, I paid under $500 for it with the casefeeder, and I got 1000 free bullets. I like the Hornady powder measure much better than the Dillon - I have yet to find a powder for which it won't throw an accurate charge, and you can switch from the small (pistol) to the large (rifle) rotor very quickly. It's also much easier to accurately change charge weights if you're ladder loading or working up a new load. Caliber changes are cheaper on the Hornady too. With the Dillon, in addition to the dies, you're looking at about $70 for a caliber conversion kit plus another $20 for a toolhead. With the Hornady, You need dies, $7-$15 worth of bushings, plus a $25 shellplate.

If you plan to load your favorite load in a couple of calibers, then the 650 would work for you. You can get a caliber conversion kit, toolhead, and a powder measure for each caliber, and caliber changes will be very fast. If you plan to tinker around with loads, or load lots of calibers, then the Hornady would be a much more economical choice. As far as smoothness of operation, quality of ammo, etc, it's a wash. Either one will allow you to turn out large quantities of good ammo.

I don't have any experience with the Dillon case feeder, but it's got to be easier to use than the one on the Hornady. The Dillon caliber conversion kits come with casefeeder parts for each caliber. The Hornady casefeeder itself comes with a bunch of parts that you can use to configure it for any caliber, but it's a trial and error thing, and takes a bit of tinkering to get right.
 
dillon casefeeder

I have one for my 650, the only thing that will screw you up is a case
stuck oinside the other, 40 inside of 45, to clear it is a piece of cake,
under a minute and your back in business. caliber changes are small
are large caliber plates that go inside the hopper.

JimB
 
Thanks for all the input guys I do appreciate it! Time to start saving and working out logistics for this! ( I rent small room no garage, no basement) So.... things to think about.[smile]
 

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