New Relaoding Press

[hammersley]

OK OK - I'm about to start reloading heavily again - and I want a progressive press. Many years ago I used my grandfathers old ponsess warren - but that's an antique now. I was about to buy a Dillion, BUT there was some things I didn't care for on it, and the I went to the gunshow here this weekend and was shown the new Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto Progressive:



https://gateway.hornady.com/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?page=storehome.html&cart_id=



This appears to be the ome for me. I looked carefully at it and man is she stout, and the dies are awesum - Let Alone the Quick Change - anybody have one or use one????

 

[mdlowry]

I asked about reloading here a while back. Here's the thread.

Also, The Firing Line has a reloading forum. You should be able to find more than you want to know about progressive presses if you search there.

http://TheFiringLine.com/forums/sea...d=433091&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending
(I already did the search for you. )

 

[snowracer69]

hammersley

From your post count, I'm going to infer that you are a knowledgeable user of this message board, and therefore, if you are as into hunting/shooting as you are into your Dodge, there's only one place to go. It's called the Go Go Varmint Go Message BoardGo Go Varmint Go . Now, it's mostly geared towards hunting varmints (as the name implys ), but there's more collective information on that web site concerning accurate shooting and reloading than I've ever seen anywhere before. These are the guys shooting P-Dogs at 1000+ yards consistently, with rifles that make bombing my CTD look like childs play.



All in all, they are a great bunch of knowledgeable guys. If you go ask your question over there, you will no doubt get many responses from people who have used all the products you list (of which I have none), and you'll always get some alternatives.



Best of luck to you. Josh.



Edit: forgot to include the link Go Go Varmint Go

 

[Hammer]

Hammersley...

I myself use a RCBS Rockcrusher for all my reloading needs,both for my benchrest guns and my hunting equipment. I have a few different presses,Lyman Spar-T(one of their older presses)and a RCBS Progressive 3. I was taught early by my father and like him prefer the Rockcrusher over any of my presses. Unless you do alot of sport shooting(semi autos or such)and need to speed reload I feel its always better to have a sturdy single stage press that will handle even the biggest magnums.



Now for those times I do go to the range or a benchrest shoot and take a press along,like for those times you want to wring out a new bullet/powder combo,and plan on doing some chronographing what you have along I have bought a Accura Tool Precision press. It is a very nice piece and very sturdy and durable.



Look around at the sites the guys have listed above and take a lool over on Benchrest Central. You will find much info any of the places listed... ... . Andy



www.benchrest.com

 

[hammersley]

Thanks for all the good poop

That's one thing about this site, we've got a lot of good interests and abilities.....

 

[WadePatton]

I second the GGVG site reference. I used to hang out there before I got the Cummins Bug.



I like the Hornady dies. That's what I buy now. I'm still using a 20-year-old Dillon and hardly ever set it up progressive. But for pistol shooting progressive is the way to go. I barely keep enough loaded to hunt deer with. Some mornings when I get a rifle picked out for the day (a tough task in itself) I have to consider whether or not I have any ammo rolled for it.



Since I load 95% of what I shoot, I've decided to build my next rifle around a wildcat. And since my buddy just bought a . 50BMG firing rifle which thoroughly quenched my thirst for big-bore, I'm looking at building a 17-cal. Like a . 17 Ackley Bee on a Ruger #3 or Martini.



But then I have 14-odd other gun projects to finish up around here. GEEEEZ!

 

[Okie-Go]

I also have an rcbs Rockchucker. Kind of slow but it turns out some awesome reloads.

 

[ETOBICOKE]

I have two RCBS Rock Chuckers and a JR Press, I load mostly pistol this way I can leave them set up. Typically the JR is set up with a universal de-capper, so the primers can be removed before tumbling the cases. Usualy about 100 rounds of 357 can be loaded in about an hour. A good tip is to get the thick knurled split type locking nuts, this allows the dies to be easily adjusted and the setting locked, then they can be quickly swithced withoutre adjusting each time. The Dillon presses are great if you do a lot of pistol shooting, many of the guys that I shoot with typicaly go through 500 to 1000 rounds a week. The main two advantages of the Dillon over single station presses besides speed is that the tooling is quick change, the entire set of dies can be changed at once. The other advantage is that the powder fills through the expander die, and the seating and crimping operations are done with seperate dies.



Neil

 

[The patriot]

I have a Dillon 550, and I'm real happy with it.

I dont think Horniday builds junk, you should be happy with the LNLAP.

I also have two shotgun shell reloaders (12 and 20) and a single stage RCBS for the smaller quantities.

Eric

 

[mike65]

I've had my Dillon 550 about 15 years and it still works great, for the money their hard to beat.

 

[emarsh]

I also had a dillon 550. Sold it to my best buddy. Reloading is not my thing. The winters here are not harsh enough to stay inside for me. just bought a Ruger ranch mini 14 though. Found 1000 rounds of hollow point ammo for $123. 50 from Russia (Wolf).

 

[RAMalama]

I have the Dillon 650 with case feed. I use it for . 45ACP, 9MM, . 357, . 223, . 308WIN, and 45-70. Very happy with it. It also holds my accuracy record. -. 279MOA at 300yds with my Varmint/Target . 308. That ammo was loaded in full progressive mode! Good press!



Ian.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

One I haven't seen mentioned is the Lee turret press. That's what I have and I've been very happy with it. Here's a link - http://www.leeprecision.com/catalog/browse.cgi?1033483505.5472=rlpress1.html . One of the nice things about it is that it's what I'd call a semi-progressive press. You can set it up in turret mode or non. It has a cassette (you can get 3 hole or 4 hole cassettes) that you put your dies in and once they are setup you don't have to reset them ever. The cassette snaps right in. In non turret mode it works just like a single stage press except that you change from one die to the next you simply turn the cassette and it takes less than a second. In turret mode each time you pull the handle it automatically changes to the next die. So if you're loading pistol ammo for example you pull the lever and run the round up into the sizing die and it deprimes it. Put a primer in the press and lower the round to set the primer (as you lower the round the next die rotates into place), pull the lever and run it up into the neck flaring die (you can also have an auto powder drop at that point if you wish, I do), lower the round and the bullet seating die rotates into position. Put a bullet on the round and pull the lever and it seats the bullet, lower the round and you're done (if you aren't putting a crimp on it, if you are then you use a 4 hole turret and do one more). I can load ~100 pistol rounds an hour using it in turret mode. The thing I like about it is that I can also use it as a single stage press for my rifle rounds (or hunting pistol rounds) and change from one die to the next without any additional setup.



-Steve

 

[The patriot]

Originally posted by emarsh

I also had a dillon 550. Sold it to my best buddy. Reloading is not my thing. The winters here are not harsh enough to stay inside for me. just bought a Ruger ranch mini 14 though. Found 1000 rounds of hollow point ammo for $123. 50 from Russia (Wolf).

Keep your chamber clean!!! The laquer builds up in the chamber, and causes malfunctions. Other than that, it's decent ammo.

Eric

 

[WadePatton]

not so good

Originally posted by The patriot

Keep your chamber clean!!! The laquer builds up in the chamber, and causes malfunctions. Other than that, it's decent ammo.

Eric

A buddy of mine had a malfunction with Wolf ammo. The primer lit and hung up the action when it blew itself out of the case. There was no flash hole.



Have fun with cheap ammo, use handloads or high-quality factory stuff for personal defense.

 

[mdlowry]

If your looking for some inexpensive, quality ammo Georgia Arms has 55gr FMJ . 223 for $139. 95 (see the canned heat section). I've bought quit a bit from them before I started reloading. I still pick up their 180gr Gold Dot 10mm.

 

[Deezul1]

For high capacity reloads a progressive is a must. The Dillon line of presses are very good quality with a good warranty. I have the Lee Precision "Loadmaster" and I make about a 1000 rnds a month of 38Super. I like this press better than the Dillon because it comes setup and ready to run with dies for about $200. 00 and it will do pistol and rifle both. To get a Dillon press that will auto feed primers and cases runs 4-5 times that much, so take a look at it. A lot of folks bad mouth Lee stuff but they are kinda like the ones that dont think Diesels can make HP, they dont know all they think they know. The Hornady Lock and Load seems like a good press also. I have friend that has one and loads as much as I do and he likes his a lot.

 

[JSmith]

Dillon presses are hard to beat,I know,I own one.