Progressive press advice wanted

[6.5x300 WBY]

Dillon xl 650 here. Brilliant press. Their Customer service is second to none. If you break something or even lose a spring that goes flying ( don't. Ask) call them up tell them the part and they look you up and say ok NO PROBLEM. you say I got my cc ready and they tell you nope it will be in the mail today.. They are that good.
It's all Dillon in this category

 

[Bigwilly556]

I have a Dillon 550 and recently sold a 650. For pistol, 223 and the like the 550 or 750 ( now ) are hard to beat. The 650 and 750 will have a much larger learning curve. It is possible to make really good precision ammo with a Dillon but definitely takes some tweaking. I have widden floating tool heads for all my rifle calibers and run cheap lee dies for all my pistol stuff. I still load all of my bolt gun precision ammo on my zero press.

If I could only have one press I'd choose 550.

 

[Reelamin]

I have owned a RCBS 4x4 for over 20yrs and use it all the time. Before the last two years I loaded easily 4-6K a year pistol, 223, and 308 range ammo with it. Just used it second time in two years on 2K 9mm and will get started on more any day. Works perfectly and I have never had to buy any spare parts or replacement parts. I "USED" a Hornady with auto case feed for 10 years at work. Only loaded about 20-30k on it both 9mm and 40. Worked great with only one flaw the retaining spring went bad and Hornady sent me two new ones in a few days. The Hornady was more detailed in setting up and running smooth, and once set up was crazy fast to load with. Smoother, same feel, less abrupt stops, etc. Worst part is it has sat in that ammo room for 9yrs and never been touched. I will be there again tomorrow and ask again if I can buy it for about the fifth time.

 

[precisionshooter]

I guess I am the only Mark VII guy around…

 

[Mike Matteson]

1050 Dillion Press.

 

[Kerryt38]

If you're going to do a lot of swaging look at the Hornady lock&load AP. I have the Hornady and my buddy has a Dillon 1050. If you're going high volume definitely get the Dillon. You are only going to be able to load at 2/3 the rate with the Hornady press but they make a really good swager for the money. Way better than the RCBS. I have both.

 

[cm1021]

I started my progressive journey with the Hornady L-n-L AP. It sat on my bench not seeing much use. It wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be. When everything went crazy back during covid, I had a guy that offered me more than I could pass up for it. I ended up buying an XL750 with case feeder and have been in love ever since!

I have loaded .223, 9mm, 300blk, .357, and .38 special on it. I swage off press with a Lee APP so the swage on press wasn't important to me.

When it comes to the progressive world there's a reason Dillon has been around for so long. Their customer service is also second to none!! Need parts for a press, give them a call and you have them in no time! Have an old press that needs updated, is missing parts, won't function right? Send it to them and you get a press back at your door that's like brand new for little to no money!

I still load all my bolt stuff on a single stage, but if it's something that I'm wanting to pump out, it gets done on the 750. I know guys that run match ammo for PRS on their 750, I just didn't want to go down that route. I don't have the volume need for it.

I've really thought about picking up a 550 to do some precision loading on as I've read a ton of great reviews on guys using it for that.

It all comes down to what you want to spend and how quickly you want to load rounds. I may not be right in my assumption, but I believe that the 750 with a case feeder is at least twice as fast as the 550.

I timed my self once when doing some 9mm, placing bullets on by hand, I averaged put to something like 400/hr. I wasn't trying to push it, just a consistent, steady handle pull.

 

[Alibiiv]

I have a DIllon 650XL and a Hornady Lock and Load AP. When the Dillon is running good, it is running good and making good ammo at a reasonable rate. I have owned the Dillon for two or three years now, it has only been set up for .45 ACP because that it what it was set up for when I purchased it. However I use the Hornady AP because it is easier to set up and for me more versatile than the Dillon. I have found that the Dillon is very difficult to set up, where the Hornady is quite simple and easy to change to a different cartridge. I feel like a person needs an engineering degree to keep the Dillon up and running. The Dillon is a nice press, however I do not see any advantage of it over the Hornady AP. I'll probably get beat up here by the Dillon uses/loves, this is my .02c worth on progressive presses.

 

[cynjon]

I use a Rock Chucker IV for my rifle cartridges and a Dillon 550 with toolheads for .380, 9mm, 10mm, .38/.357, .300BO, .223/5.56 and .44 mag. Takes just a couple minutes to switch between calibers. I've recently added a DAA Mini Case feeder to it and it functions flawlessly.

If you're worried about swaging, I do low volume swaging with a Dillon Super Swage 600. However, for volume case processing, I don't think there's anything out there that beats the bang-for-the-buck value of the Lee APP press (https://leeprecision.com/app-automatic-processing-press/). I do all my bulk pistol brass processing on it and it's amazing...I also have the swaging kit and use it for bulk range pickup 9mm to avoid any crimped primer issues when I'm loading on the 550. I can process probably 600-700 pieces of brass per hour using the 4-tube assembly and case collator. Looks like prices have gone up on them, but it was under $100 when I got mine a few years ago and worth every penny.

 

[DarryH]

I still use my single stage RCBS RockChuker a lot. I did finally by A Dillon RL550 for ammo I shoot LOTS of.

 

[Just a hunter]

I hate the swaging process. I have the RCBS swage kit that I use with my Rebel and it's slow and aggravating I think. It swages great but it's kinda hard to get the case off when you lower the ram. I'm going to check out the APP and see what that looks like. If I have to go to the Super 1050 or RL1100 to get the swage function then I am getting up there in price by the time I buy all the necessary stuff for each caliber I'd need. Lots to think about and compare for sure. Maybe I can use the APP for case prep and the Rebel for seating?

 

[cynjon]

I hate the swaging process. I have the RCBS swage kit that I use with my Rebel and it's slow and aggravating I think. It swages great but it's kinda hard to get the case off when you lower the ram. I'm going to check out the APP and see what that looks like. If I have to go to the RL1100 to get the swage function then I am getting up there in price by the time I buy all the necessary stuff for each caliber I'd need. Lots to think about and compare for sure. Maybe I can use the APP for case prep and the Rebel for seating?

The APP works fantastic for processing pistol brass...I know you can use it for .223/5.56 as well, but I have not tried it. Swaging is pretty quick and easy, especially compared to handling each piece of brass separately. Here's a short video I found of someone using the APP to swage .223/5.56:

 

[Just a hunter]

Boy, that's looks a lot better than what I am doing. I figure what will happen is, I'll get the APP and then I'll look for how I can get powder charged quicker. Wonder if the small progressive that Lee makes would work well? Do the case prep on the APP and then the powder charge, bullet seat, expand (if needed) and crimp on the small Lee progressive? Then use my Rebel for my hunting rounds?

 

[cynjon]

I have no experience with the Lee progressive at all...in fact, I'm not a big fan of Lee stuff in general. It's certainly priced right, but in most cases I've felt like "you get what you pay for". There are two notable exceptions in the Lee lineup for me: The APP and their Factory Crimp Dies. I have a bunch of FCD and they work great. If you're going to go with a progressive, I think a used Dillon 550 would be a great investment for the longer term. It's a proven design with a top-notch company standing behind it. I love my Dillon!