A couple of weeks ago I crossed over to the dark side and bought my second progressive press. !8 years ago, in a moment I regretted almost immediately, I bought a Lee Progressive 1000 and set about to make a mountain of .357 reloads. Well, it never worked out. That was the most finicky *** I've ever owned and it soured me on progressives ever since. Recently, more flush with cash and wanting to shoot a whole lot more, I once again lusted after a progressive. I considered a Star but decided it was too pricey and too hard to get parts for. Next I thought about the Lee progressive again and decided that was just too painful to ever want to repeat. I was left looking at the Hornady and the Dillon. I read several reviews including one in my Gun Reviews newsletter. Every one liked the Dillon but hated the antiquated powder measure and remarked that changing between loads was a real PITA. The Hornady got very high marks, was far easier to reset the measure and was cheaper plus it had five stations as opposed to Dillon's four. The one caveot was that the primer feed could cause trouble and if it was forced, would break. i figured that I was slicker than the guy testing it and that there was no way I'd force something until it broke. So, I bought the Hornady.
Right off I saw that this was no Lee nightmare. It looked, felt and functioned like a very high quality machine...something along the lines of the very effecient Hornady/Pacific 366 shotshell press. I studied the weak ChiCom instructions, adjusted everything and started to make ammo. Well, the primer seater was very touchy about what brand of case it liked in small pistol. Some cases were just not lining up smoothly and as a result, an occasional primer did not get seated. A small can of compressed air cleared any spilled powder so I pressed on. A quick check with my scale showed that the powder drop was very very consistant So far, so good. After about 500 rounds, I really got the hang of it and picked up the pace. Then it happened, I missed a primer, felt some drag and pushed just a little harder. Pop, the primer slide broke and the feed rail bent. hornady sent me the parts free, no questions asked but dang, this is going to be something I'm going to have to watch very carefully. I decided to buy a spare set JIC from Midway. In sum, I like this press better than the Dillon I tried but, the primer feed is a point of contention and this IS the New design. Oh well.