Looking for progressive press. Which one should I buy?

[Jackie Graham]

I tend to prep all my brass before loading, so that’s not a big issue.

General concenseous seems to be for a Dillon. What are everyone’s thoughts between the 550 and the 650?

I owned a 550 and it is great for low to moderate volume. You have to manually fed the cases and index the shell plate. If you load several thousand rounds at a time then you will probably need / prefer a 650 with a case feeder. It auto indexes and runs much smoother. I can load 800 plus rounds of 9mm per hour on my 650.

 

[palmettomoon]

550 is fine but not as fast as a 650 since it doesn't autoindex.

 

[palmettomoon]

Get the case feeder too if you go 650.

 

[MuleShoe]

IVE GOT DILLION 550 THAT IVE HAD FOR ABOUT 30 YEARS BEEN GREAT ! EASY SWAP OUT EASY USE !

 

[kb34]

I owned a 550 and it is great for low to moderate volume. You have to manually fed the cases and index the shell plate. If you load several thousand rounds at a time then you will probably need / prefer a 650 with a case feeder. It auto indexes and runs much smoother. I can load 800 plus rounds of 9mm per hour on my 650.

Well that’s my issue now. Only having the single stage I can’t reload that many per hour. I know if I had a progressive I would probably do a thousand or so at a time because I can. So having the case feeder would make everything a little easier.

Sounds like I’m gonna get the 650 then. I guess the old adage of “you get what you pay for” is fitting here lol.

Thanks guys!

 

[rbstern]

Well that’s my issue now. Only having the single stage I can’t reload that many per hour. I know if I had a progressive I would probably do a thousand or so at a time because I can. So having the case feeder would make everything a little easier.

Sounds like I’m gonna get the 650 then. I guess the old adage of “you get what you pay for” is fitting here lol.

Thanks guys!

Before you do, there is one more logical step in the progression before full progressive: Turret. The Lee Classic Cast Turret is probably the best, less-than-full-progressive press you can get, both in terms of quality, and ease of switching calibers (there is nothing faster at caliber changes, except maybe the Forster Co-ax). If you can live with 150 to 200 rounds per hour for pistol cartridge production, it's an outstanding choice for a pistol + rifle press. You won't need your single stage anymore, and it's dramatically cheaper than a 650.

If you want full progressive, I can't fault the Dillon choice in any way.

 

[handloader]

I got a Hornady lnib for a great price. If buying retail, I would go for the Dillon. Look out for the Square Deal line. I believe that the dies are proprietary. I have a Lee turret press for lower volume applications, because swapping calibers on the Hornady takes a while.

 

[kb34]

Before you do, there is one more logical step in the progression before full progressive: Turret. The Lee Classic Cast Turret is probably the best, less-than-full-progressive press you can get, both in terms of quality, and ease of switching calibers (there is nothing faster at caliber changes, except maybe the Forster Co-ax). If you can live with 150 to 200 rounds per hour for pistol cartridge production, it's an outstanding choice for a pistol + rifle press. You won't need your single stage anymore, and it's dramatically cheaper than a 650.

If you want full progressive, I can't fault the Dillon choice in any way.

Well, I have looked at the lee turret press and thought about it but knowing that I will eventually want a progressive, it just seems smarter to go that way. While I could definitely increase my output with the turret, the progressive will give me substantially higher, meaning more time shooting and less time sitting in the garage. (Both the wife and I will be happy lol)

 

[rbstern]

Well, I have looked at the lee turret press and thought about it but knowing that I will eventually want a progressive, it just seems smarter to go that way. While I could definitely increase my output with the turret, the progressive will give me substantially higher, meaning more time shooting and less time sitting in the garage. (Both the wife and I will be happy lol)

Just wanted to make sure you understood there is a good in-between option for your situation.

When you say you looked at the lee turret, do you know for certain you looked at the Lee Classic Cast Turret. It's a dramatically better product than the original Lee turret presses. Lee did a crappy job with the product names; sometimes people look at the older, inferior models and come away with the wrong impression of product quality.

 

[Shrek926]

I load between 3-4K 9mm a month, and at least 1k Rifle for matches. I load 2500 or so of the 9mm on a Lee Loadmaster for the revolvers, the rest on a Dillon SDB for bottom feeders. The 5.56 depending on usage is mostly loaded on the Loadmaster, but match round (75gr etc) are all still single stage loaded. Unless you are shooting thousands upon thousands of rounds, go with something less expensive and buy more components to shoot more.


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