Loadmaster vs Dillon

[Swamprat1052]

The old Loadmaster that was given to me a few years ago started giving me trouble today. Well I have had some problems with it all along but nothing serious. It was hanging up on the primer station and fouling up in general. The primer seemed to be working ok but the cases were hanging up the indexing.
Found out that someone had stripped the screw hole for the case retainer out, and had replaced it with a bolt and nut. It has always come loose on me but never as bad as today. Its such a pain to tighten the nut on the bottom unless you take the primer assembly out and then you have to move the durn thing to get the primer and shell plate back in. Nothing major but I got pretty aggrevated with it.

I started thinking about buying a Dillon and just being done with it. Then I started reading the threads here stating that I shouldn't use CCI primers (I have
5000 of each size I use) and read that Dillon wont guarantee their powder measures to throw closer than 1.4 grains or something like that. Also found out that if I buy a Square Deal I'll have to use thier proprietary dies in it. Guys that like the 550 say the 650 is junk and vicaversa. It looks like theres problems with any of em.

My old Lee looks better to me now. I can use about any primer I want to with it, well maybe not Federals, and the little Pro Disc Powder measure is the most accurate measure I have ever used. I think I'll just order another carrier and some screws for it and keep on keeping on. Either that or just order a new one alltogether and use my old ones for parts, cause I know I am always gonna need parts for it.

Just ramblin,
Swamprat

[imashooter2]

Every machine has its quirks. If you're happy with your Lee than there's no reason to change. But don't fool yourself into thinking that a Dillon wouldn't be a reliability upgrade.

[Piet]

I first had a Dillon 550 and I sold it because I thought I didn't need a progressive anymore (mistake). A friend had a loadmaster he lent to me because he was not happy with it. I did not like the loadmaster at all . It primes on the upstroke therfore you don't notice it when there is a problem with priming. The 550 primes on the down stroke. You notice immediately if something is wrong. The priming system of the 550 is much better quality than the plastic loadmaster priming. The 550 has no automatic indexing, but that hardly slows you down.The 550 is more expensive but is much better than the loadmaster. I like Lee products a lot , but I definitely dislike the Loadmaster.
So, I bought a Dillon 550 again. I used a couple of thousand CCI primers in the past. I did not know that there is a problem.

Piet

[Shepherd2]

I have a Dillon Square Deal and a 550RB. Both of them are a pain if the priming mechanism is not set up correctly. If you take your time and set it up with care it will run very smoothly. A little tweak here and there and you can load 1000s of rounds with nary a glitch.

Federals are my primer of choice but I have used a lot of CCIs when that was what was available. I don't recall ever having a problem with the CCI primers.

[Jimlakeside]

I got into reloading this last April with a Dillon 550 mainly because all of my shooting buddies used Dillon so I knew if I needed any help I could call on them. They have been a big help because just like iamashooter2 said they all have their little quirks. Dillon has great customer service. You might want to check with them about CCI primers to see if you are not supposed to use them with a Dillon.

I have been real happy with my Dillon. I have loaded about 7,000 rounds since April. It has never broken, but the primer system gave me fits until I got some help from my friends on how to adjust it.

I don't think you can go wrong with a Dillon.

[mike in co]

swamprat,
dont get overly concerned with a couple of complaints on the dillon products. everyone has thier own ability to read and work with mechanical equiptment. dillon would not be the premier manufacturer of reloading products if thier eguiptment was poor quality. i dont think comparing a loadmater to a dillon is much of a comparision. both companies make products that are at different ends of the price spectrum, as are the product at seperate quality levels.

sorta like comparing a chevette to a cadillac......


mike in co

[dragonrider]

Having owned a loadmaster in the past and now have a dillon 650 I can say the 650 is everthing the loadmaster aspires to but will never be. The priming system on the loadmaster is product of a deranged mind, too many parts and too flexible, it will never seat primers evenly and repeatedly. Priming on the upstroke of the ram when all other case operation are being done is just plain foolish, you cannot, no matter what you may believe, feel the primers being seated. IMHO that is the most important part of case work and must be done on the downstroke of the ram which if you look around is pretty much the standard.
I have many Lee products and like most of them but the LM is junk.

[DanM]

Lee has always been good about replacing parts for my loadmaster. I send the broken bit to them, and have the new piece in a week. If I ship on Monday via priority mail, I have the new bit on Friday or Saturday of the same week, no charge. Right now mine is running like a train, but there have been problems. Most can be traced to faulty set up. Here is a good tutorial on utube about the loadmaster priming system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uUQr855_K8

[Southern Son]

I had a Loadmaster (still have it somewhere around here in a box). I thought that it was the ducks nuts, untill the primer feeder started playing games (making it out of plastic? what were they thinking?). I was told that Lee made the primer feeder out of plastic because they were worried that if something went wrong and a part broke, it would be cheaper to fix, but the plastic parts just kept breaking. Then I went away on holidays. While I was gone, a flatmate took the sheet that I had covered the bench and press with to use for something else. Between the dust in the house and the high humidity caused by evaporative airconditionering, by the time I got back there was a light film of rust on the rod that the case feeder rode on and when I cleaned the rust off, the rod was a little rough. This ripped up the little box that slid on the rod feeding the cases in and started causing it all to bind. So I went and bought a 550 and to this day have not regretted it for a second. I love the 550 even more now that I have the case feeder. The 650 is good (even great), but I think that it's extra features would be wasted on me. I only load 38Sp. on it now so I don't need the extra Die station, I already have my hand next to the shell plate when I put a boolit on the primed and charged case, so flipping the shell plate around one place is no problem.

[wiljen]

I have a Hornady AP LNL and a Dillon 450 on the bench. Both are solid machines but the Hornady is definitely the Cadillac of the species.

[cajun shooter]

I load on a 550 but prime all my cases before on a RCBS APS press mounted system set up on a Rock Chucker. I like to keep the priming on a one on one step. I've been using CCI primers since around 1968 and never had a problem until lately. When priming on the APS I have several primers with a high anvil cause a stoppage. It's a PITA to take apart for a bad primer. Maybe a quality control problem with CCI and not your press. The 550 is the best thing since sliced bread and if you call Dillon they will send anything NC.

[felix]

It ain't just CCI with those high anvils! The primer makers, if there are more than one in this country, apparently are using the same machinery. Be leary of any new primer lot. ... felix

[missionary5155]

I bought a Dillon 550 back in 1989 and have no regrets... No idea how many thousands of pistol and rifle rounds have gone down range.... Their powder measures work fine ! They gave me a NEW one (compltet) when a small piece of aluminum popped off the origonal after near15 years of service. I would NOT trade my dillon for any other press... And I have had RED and Green things.

[dromia]

I have a Hornady AP LNL and a Dillon 450 on the bench. Both are solid machines but the Hornady is definitely the Cadillac of the species.


Hornady does it for me. :-D

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I've owned and had the opportunity to operate several of the current brands of progressives. If you need a progressive for quantity or for time savings, then the Hornady LnL, the Dillon 550 or 650 and I think the RCBS Pro 2000 will get the job done for you with very little drama.

That said, they all have their quirks and all of them are machines that need adjustment and maintenance to run well.

If you've got a Loadmaster and want to get it to run smoothly, here's a forum with guys that know how to get it done:

http://loadmastervideos.com/

There's a forum there and loads of videos on setting up Lee presses. Those guys get the Loadmaster to run like a top from what I hear.

Regards,

Dave

[Heavy lead]

I do most of my reloading for pistol on lee turret press. I won't bore you with details on my system, but it works good for me. I wanted to get a progressive, and looked researched, and looked and researched. Finally the trump card was that you could get 1000 free bullets with the Hornady LNL, I found one last year for 320 plus shipping. I love the press, the only thing I don't like about it is the LNL feature, seems like they always want to back out on one particular station. I believe this press would be better with just plain old threads. FYI you can make Lee dies work in these, but at least with mine (45 acp) they're cranked all the way into the LNL bushings with only a thread or two of the lock ring used. But it does kick them 45s out fast and of high quality as well.

[rainyday]

i have a 550 and have just bought a 650. the only time i have had trouble with my 550 primer feed is if it got too dirty from dust. my dillion powder measurere never moves. i have never had a problem using any primers in my 550

[WildmanJack]

Swampy,
I used to lad on a Star universal progressive loader ( sure wish I had it today), but to be honest my Dillon 550B is just as good a loader as the Star ever was. It's biggger, heavier and a bit slower, but then Star's aren't made anymore. You won't be sorry if you buy the Dillon. It's a great machine and the servioce is beyond compare...
Good Luck,
Jack

[mike in co]

Hornady does it for me. :-D

must be an englishman......would not know a good car if he saw one....lol

comparing a 450 to a current model hornady is like comparing an austin a40 to a mclaren......not valid.

mike in co

( ohh crapppp....he was quoting someone else.....)

[clodhopper]

Brought home a Dillon 650 in '94. Yes there have been issues. By forcing the handle when a primer was crooked in the plate I managed to ignite every primer in the feed plate. Major clean up required. the whole incident was not a operator error but several operator errors all done by me. Yes I did learn something.
A little adjustment here a little adjustment there. That press is still loading ammo. Regular cleaning under the shell plate and priming unit help keep problems from happening. Last week she was getting stiff so I removed the toggle arms and one shaft was dry. Some cleaning and a little grease and good as new.
The manual that was supplied is not very good at explaining quirks of the machine. You are just about required to call Dillon to learn how to adjust a 650. Reloaders who buy several 650s so they do not have to change caliber are missing a real good chance to do mantience.
BTW I have had five cars since the 650 came home.

[Hang Fire]

I still have my Dillon 450 from the early 80's and the Square Deal set up for .45 ACP from late 80's. Never had a problem with either that was not operator malfunction induced. I sometimes get a bug to update the 450, then common sense asks, if satisfied, why?

[mike in co]

"Found out that someone had stripped the screw hole for the case retainer out, and had replaced it with a bolt and nut. It has always come loose on me but never as bad as today. Its such a pain to tighten the nut on the bottom unless you take the primer assembly out and then you have to move the durn thing to get the primer and shell plate back in. Nothing major but I got pretty aggrevated with it.

well since there is a hole that a bolt fits thru,,,why not add a threaded insert in the hole and skip the nut.....or jb weld the nut in place( lots of grease on the bolt) and not get frustrated...


mike in co

[Geraldo]

I bought my 550B sometime in the early 1990s. I didn't realize that there was a problem with CCI primers, which I have used almost exclusively. Being somewhat obsessive, I check powder weights at intervals when I'm loading on this press, and they aren't off by any more than my RCBS Uniflow measure.

[prs]

Woe is me. I have a Loadmaster. I got it for a song many years ago from a previous neighbor who had basically junked it and abused it. I called Lee and Patrick talked me through the trouble shooting to identify the buggered parts and then he sent me the parts and a new owner's manual (the manual was very poorly written). It got it fixed, but found some other damage later and fixed that too. The neighbor went ballistic when he came over and saw it function properly (by that time his new 650 was also on the fritz -- if the operator is an idiot, the press can not compensate -- I don't care what color it is! I did have frequent priming problems after a while and about gave up on it -- two online pards did abandon theirs, then I made some changes to my loading procedures to make sure the press stayed clean and free of powder and filler (I use grits with black powder). The dang thing works ticky-boo. If I could just get this press to fail, I would get me one of those better ones. Actually, I might get a Hornady LnL anyway -- just for the "excitement".

prs

[largecaliberman]

I have a Lee Loadmaster. The biggest humbug is the priming station. Well---I gave up on that so what I did was to install a decapper and a sizer on a seperate toolhead. I would deprime and size all my shells. Then go with a Lee hand primer.

When reloading, I would install the sizing die (without the punch to remove the primer) just to line up the shells onto the shell plate. Then go onto the case expander/powder drop station. I find this much better because there would be no tipped, bent, smashed, etc primers.

Friend of mine have a Dillon and I've found that the priming station on both presses are the weakest link when using progressive reloaders.

[Legion489]

I bought a Lee LOAD MASTER and it was/is a load of SOMETHING alright! I returned it to Lee after 3 days and they returned it to me in the same shape. Seems it had/has a warped ram from faulty heat treating according to the letter they sent, BUT....that did NOT mean they would repair it under their two year warranty! The priming system NEVER worked right, primers upside down, sideways, ect. After I had returned it to Lee 24 times in 24 months (including getting it back with all broken parts in place and still locked up tight) they sent me a letter saying it was over two years since I started returning the press to them to be fixed, which they refused to do, so it was no longer under warranty (yeah, like that mattered! In the book MODERN RELOADING on page 26 and 34 they state all Lee equipment has a two year warranty and a love it or your money back guarantee. ALL LIES!) but NOW they would FINALLY repair it for another 50% of retail! What a piece of junk!

Bought a used 550B and guess what? Got a problem? YES SIR WE CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT! YES SIR WE WILL GIVE YOU A NEW PART! FREE! Now THAT is customer service! I have NEVER regretted buying a Dillon and bought an used 450B too. A commercial reloader friend has a 450 and has reloaded probably millons of rounds on his. GUNS MAGAZINE just came yesterday and guess what? Article about reloading by Petty, he has a Dillon 550B and (I think) Hornady for odd ball stuff because it is "easier" to change primer sizes in it. The 550 can load just about anything except the .50 BMG and other big stuff that needs over sized dies, and is manually indexed. The Square Deal uses special Dillon dies that are not cheap, the 650 and 1050 are more like commercial reloader's machines. The 1050 will even swage the primer pockets for you! Got quirks? Sure, but every piece of machinery I have ever bought did, but the Dillons works and there is no problem with repairs or parts. Have a house fire and burn up your press? Return the Dillon to Dillon and they replace it FREE, return the Lee and it costs you 50% of retail and it still doesn't work.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I bought a Lee Loadmaster for my first press. I spend forever adjusting and messing around. I never could get reliable rounds made with it. The clinker was the primer feeder. It was always missing and I was always getting powder everywhere. It drove me nuts.

Finally a buddy got out of reloading and gave me his well used Dillon 550. It was a very short learning curve and wow does it make good rounds fast. After three years of messing with it I sprang for the casefeeder. Big improvement! Now I can crank out 300 to 400 rounds an hour and feed my hunger to pop caps.

I trashed the Lee but I think highly of a lot of their products but not the Loadmaster. See photos of current 550 B without casefeeder and note the production of .38 Wadcutters. No primer problems! Powder within .10 gr and not any downtime due to equipment malfunctions.

Note the photo of the 10 years old girl. Never fired a gun in her life! Was hitting the 12" gong at 20 yds 6 out of 6 using my old 586 and powder puff reloaded wadcutters. Very little recoil and noise yet accurate to POA at 20 yds. Ideal gun for a newbie. I convinced her father, a card carrying liberal democrat to buy 4 old smith .38's and a dozen speedloaders loaded with glaser safety slugs. Now he has hide out guns all over the house and everybody including his wife and daughter has the means and ability to defend thier home and lives from the current wave of home invasions.

[EDK]

I just ordered another DILLON 550B yesterday. My old one dates from the early '90s and has only had minor problems with the primer feed and other honest wear issues that were corrected with a phone call to DILLON. I'd estimate somewhere around 250,000 rounds have been produced---probably more.

The reason I'm getting another 550 is that "I'm old and cranky" and think changing calibers is a PITA when I just want to knock out a few experimental rounds for my 357 and it's set up for 44s or vice-versa. The new one will primarily be 44 and 45 and the older one becomes a 357. Besides, if the old one ever needs a re-build, I still have a press.

I had a Square Deal in 45 ACP....had problems with CCI primers and military brass that might have missed the primer pocket swage. It was converted to 357 when I got the 550B and going strong years later after I traded it to a friend...should have kept it! When he moved, it sold at auction for $50 over retail..."talk about fools getting into a bidding frenzy!"

The only "alligator laying in wait for you" is that you DO NEED dies set up for a progressive press. The DILLON dies are competitively priced and with them, you CAN ACHIEVE the high production rates they claim. Using my standard LYMANS in the 550B was an exercise in futility and crushed case mouths...I called DILLON, ordered their dies, and have lived happily ever after.

READ the instruction book. FOLLOW the instructions they give. AND FIRE THAT BAD BOY UP! IT'S PRODUCTION TIME!!!

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[zdogk9]

Star progressive for .38spl. and a Hornady L&L for everything else. Lee Turrets are great, their progressives give me heart burn. The Star is elegant. The Hornady is extremely functional.
Z

[Legion489]

OK, it was HANDGUNS MAGAZINE, Petty had a Dillon 550B and RCBS 2000. Sorry.