Need advice - Hornady progressive press

[Blackwater]

This post may be a bit out of place here, so move it if I misplaced it, but I've got a buddy who's wanting a good progressive press, one with auto indexing that will effectively produce a loaded round with each pull of the press lever. He's looking at the Dillons, of course, but spied the Hornady progressive for metalics, and is interested in it also. It's a good bit cheaper than the Dillon he's looking at, and all he wants is a good press, and saving some $$$$ is always a good thing - leaves more $ for powder, primers and lead.

Do any of you have one of these Hornady progressives, and can you give me (him) some advice on how it compares in actual use to the Dillons? Any experience/advice would be appreciated. There's nothing quite like hands on experience to help make up a man's mind on these matters. Thanks.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

I've got an original Hornady ProJector, and it's a good progressive press, but suffers from a temperamental priming system. This has been corrected in the new Lock 'N Load progressives. You didn't say which one he was looking at. I thought they were about the same price as the Dillons.
Morgan

[HeavyMetal]

Blackwater:
I'm old enough to remember when Star was the only progressive on the market. Never bought one because the price was simply out of my league.

A couple outfits tried to make a progressive, the C-H Champion in-line comes to mind, but the honest truth was they were to complicated (plus pricey) to put up with.

I had a buddy with the RCBS Green Machine (RCBS bought the rights to the Champion) and it drove him nuts trying to get it to work. This is a design engineer with a masters degree!

Then Dillon hit the market! The machines were simple, strong, and worked right out of the box! A big plus was they weren't priced in the "Ozone Layer" but could have been and guys would have paid the price because it worked!

I bought my first one for $ 199.00 and the second shortly after that.

I've never had a problem or,more importantly, a regret for buying them!

After that it seemed like everyone wanted to sell a progressive press. I've already mentioned the Green machine, and I feel for anyone that fell for the pitch line on that companies 4X4! Lee makes good product but neither of his units do anything for me! The projector is just another "me to" machine bent on trying to grab a piece of a market niche that always existed but no one wanted to fill because they "didn't have to" until Dillon came on the scene!

So my opinion is I wouldn't buy a projector over a Dillon unless the difference in price was"astronomical"!

Reason? I've watched a bunch of smaller reloading companies get "gobbled up" by the RCBS conglomerate over the years and as soon as that happens the product line changes or goes away!

Buy the Dillon, be happy, never worry!

[KYCaster]

I have two Hornady L-N-L AP presses and one Dillon Square Deal. I have loaded 45ACP on Dillon's 550 and 650. If I buy another progressive press it will be a Hornady L-N-L.

What I don't like about the Dillon 550 is it is not a true progressive press because it does not auto advance, you have to turn the shell plate by hand. I know lots of people have loaded tons of ammo with them, but AFIC that's just a double powder charge waiting to happen. I just don't want to spend the time to learn how to use it consistently, especially when I have other progressives that operate differently.

The 650 seems to work very well. The only complaint I have with it is the powder measure. The Hornady measure is much more precise and repeatable, but the Hornady powder charging die doesn't bell the case mouth like Dillon and Lee...I wonder why they haven't fixxed that, seems like a very simple thing to do.

The great appeal of the 650 seems to be the ease of changing calibers...just pull a couple of pins and change out the tool head for another already set up and adjusted for the other cartridge, swap out the shell plate and you're ready to go, unless you need to change primer size. I haven't done that myself, but I'm told it can be done easily in under ten min. total. Pretty much the same with the Hornady, only difference is you buy tool heads from Dillon and you buy L-N-L bushings from Hornady.

The biggest complaint I have with the L-N-L is it's not very friendly to dies from other manufacturers. I have lots of Lyman and Lee dies and the threads on both are just barely long enough to work in the L-N-L bushings, you're lucky to have two full threads above the bushing for the lock nut. Except for my RCBS 45ACP taper crimp die, I've been able to use all my existing dies with a minimum of hassel. The taper crimp die interferred with the shell ejector so I cut .250 off the bottom of it and it worked fine.

Dillon's no BS warranty......I'm afraid I'm going to step on some toes here. Kinda like sayin' yer mom's apple pie ain't fit to eat.[smilie=1: Like any other company, their warranty is built into the price of their product. How many times have you heard somebody say "I broke ______(fill in part name) and they sent me a replacement at no charge...the tech I talked to knew exactly what I needed." Well...he knew exactly what you needed because they hear the same thing so often. EVERYBODY I know who owns Dillon presses has broken something that needed to be replaced. Seems to me it would be cost effective to redesign the parts that break so often.

I bought my first L-N-L press a little over two years ago. So far, nothing on it has broken. I've been told that the indexing studs will eventually wear and need to be replaced. I don't know how long that will take, but I suppose I'll find out then how good Hornady's warranty is.

Jerry

[August]

I have owned Dillon presses and used them extensively. My current press is a Hornady LnL.

I like the Hornady but have nothing but good things to say about the Dillon presses and Dillon as a company.

Here are two very extensive discussions about idiosyncratic aspects of the Hornady press. Don't be cowed by the extent of these discussions. Handloaders strive to be perfect at their craft and these discussions reflect that tendency.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=314049

http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=819984

As you will note, much of the current concern about the Hornady has to do with the wire that ejects cases. This tends to be an intermittent problem (some have it, most don't) associated with loading small diameter cases (i.e. 9mm). Other issues discussed have been addressed by Hornady over the years. These discussions exist in this detail largely because hornady's instruction manual for the LnL is really, really, really crappy.

[HeavyMetal]

I've had my Dillon's since "1981" they got me through some long years of IPSC shooting.

It's now 2008 and I've never broken a part. No the 550 does not auto index and I like that part! I want to make my own decision on when where and how.

This way I think cars that are "smart" enough to go to the Moon are a big pain in my a.....!

[Morgan Astorbilt]

My problem with the ProJector, was the original ram actuated powder measure. THERE was a double charge waiting to happen! I removed it and replaced with the Hornady case actuated attachment, but the pressure required to actuate those levers was too much for the thin case mouth of a .38-40. I adapted a Dillon powder measure, and have had no problem since. I also converted the primer magazine, the inner tube of which was used as a pickup tube, to a fixed one filled from a separate pickup tube, like the Dillon. even added a low powder sensor. I think we discussed these presses a while back on a previous thread.

Please pardon the messy bench, I was fine tuning heater for a Star Lubricator.
Morgan
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa159/pgfaini/100_1814.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa159/pgfaini/100_1813.jpg

[softpoint]

My progressives are: two dillon 550's, 2 rcbs 4x4's. I've only had one part on one of the 550's to break, which dillon promptly replaced, no charge. The first two progressives I bought were RCBS 4x4's. One was one of the early manual index, one was a auto index that never worked right until I took all the auto index stuff off of it and used it manualy. I use dillon powder measures and expander dies with them and they work OK.
Any manual index press can double charge a case if you don't index it. I personally know of this happening twice. The results were not pretty. Wasn't me ,but I was present when both incidents happened.
I do not have any experience with the Hornady press, but I believe it has 5 stations rather than 4, and there are times I could have used this feature, might be something to look :Fire:at

[runfiverun]

dillon 550's simple rugged and reliable
kinda like my scouts.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

I use the extra station (Right after the powder measure) for a powder checker (Hornady Powder Cop). Installed it before installing the Dillon measure. Don't really need it now, but it gives an extra bit of confidence.
Morgan

[dromia]

Been running the L-n-L now for 2 years with no problem, it is a fine press that does what it claims.

Tried to buy a Dillon a few years ago but the s***e I got from their sales rep put me off them for ever.

Here's one of the best comparisons I've read between Lee, Dillon and Hornadypresses:

http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillonLeeHornadyComparison.pdf

The L-n-L equates to the Dillon 650, does the same job just as well and in some cases better at less cost, for me it was a no brainer I bought the Hornady.

Can't comment on their tech help as I've never needed to use it yet.:-D

[Kirk Miller]

I've used both the Lee and the LNL. I could'nt get rid of the Lee fast enough. Currently I use the LNL with no complaints. The only problem has been with the small primer punch, which would not retract when new. This caused the machine to lock up and the primer slide bar to bend. {My fault for applying to much force.} One phone call to the service dept. and I had replacement parts at no charge in four days. Dillon is not the only ones with a no B.S. policy. If I had to do it again, I would buy the Hornady LNL again.
Kirk

[mag44uk]

I also have the LNL progressive. It is soooo much better than the Lee Loadmaster I used to have and much cheaper than a Dillon. (not easy to get hold of in the UK ! )
The only thing I seem to use a lot of is the spring that holds the cases in place. The importer in the UK sent me the wrong ones and were actually out of stock of the correct item.....2 month wait and they charge $4 each for them. I emailed Hornady and asked how to pay and how much. About 5 days later a pack of 5 arrived free of charge and with compliments.
No problems with the primer feed either,its pretty fool proof. Hornady measure works fine. I have the issue with other make dies being too short in the thread. I dont know whether the more recent Lee dies work better as I understand they increased the body length a couple of years ago.
Regards,
Tony

[dmftoy1]

Dillon 650 owner here. I went through this whole debate with myself about a year ago and I think you can't go wrong with either press. The hornady will definately save him some bucks and if he gets the 1000 free bullets this it's an even better deal.

There's a good thread over on "thehighroad.org" on the issues with the Hornady LNL . .I'd recommend doing a search on LNL in the handloading forum. From what I can see the Hornady has an advantage on price, and the dillon has an advantage on dispensing the powder and expanding in the same station.

Just my .02

Regards,
Dave