Lee Pro1000 vs Dillon 550/650

[AggieEE]

I'll throw my 2 cents in. I have loaded for years on a RockChucker and decided to upgrade to a progressive. I tried a Pro 1000 and the only ongoing problem is with the primer feed. Having read Recluse's hint for waxing and dry lubing the primer chute I'll give it a try. The other problem was with a flake powder ( Solo 1000) I found I was getting a half charge in one case and a charge and a half in the next. Needless to say I had a lot of fun with an impact puller. Luckly I didn't fire any, might have been exciting. Cleaned out the powder drop tube and made sure there was no lumps in the powder next time around no problems. As to the Dillon machines I had a neighbor here at the shop that was a commercial reloder. Had nothoing but dillion machines. During times I didn't want to work was over there watching the machines work. I've seen powder spills, primer misfeeds, failure to index right, case feed failures, two powder measures with cracked housings. No indictment of the machines, I have no idea how many thousands of rounds each one loaded or what PM was done on the machines. Not much from what I've seen. The whole point of this is anytime you have something more complicated than a fork things are going to break, not work right and in general be a pain in the you know what. Pick any product that has a large market, cars, guns whatever. You buy one item of brand X and you have nothing but problems with it. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you hate brand X. Your buddy buys brand X and is so happy you can't stand it. Who's right??? Not looking for a fight, been on both sides of the deal. Like I said just my 2 cents.
AggieEE

[mike in co]

aggieee,
that is sorta like going to the service department of a ford/chevy/dodge dealer, seeing all the cars being worked on, and deciding that those makes break a lot.......

how many lee 1000's did the commercial reloader have > how many rcbs > how many hornady ?

yes machines that get used tend to wear and maybe even break....in dillon's case they are repaired at no additional cost to the owner.

mike in co

[runfiverun]

just buy the 550 already.
it's simple,affective,effective, and reliable.
oh yeah it works.

[hunter64]

If you don't want to spend the 3 hours with a Dillon and want it to run out of the box and don't mind the extra 2/3 more money then go for it.

Man I need more sleep.

I meant the 3 hours that you need to spend on a Lee 1000 to make it work, the dillon will run right out of the box and need no fixing which is fine if you don't mind spending the 2/3 more money up front.


Wonder how many thousands of rounds I made on my old RCBS JR. that I bought new in 1972 in High School. Still use it for load development.

[Lloyd Smale]

you must run with a pretty much learning disabled crowd. I could see the possibility of knowing one friend who did it but 3 or 4! bottom line is if your that stupid it will eventually happen to you even if you load on a single stage press or a true progressive. I would have to think in this day and age of product liablilty law suites being filed for about everything if dillon really thought a guy could blame a press for an idiotic mistake like that they would have pulled them off the market long ago. I dont know how many round ive loaded on 550s but it would probably fill a pickup truck and ive yet to have a double charge on one.

As good as the 550's are, and even with the case feeder that they now offer... I've had three of four friends blow up their firearm of choice when double charging their pistol case using their manual index 550's.. I have several friends who use the auto index SDB, 650, and 1050's and none of them have ever had the experience of a double charge kaboom. Yes the 650 is a bit steep.. I had the priviledge of using a pro 1000, and previous to that my Rock Chucker for en mass loading.. nothing compares to the 650 in speed of loading and/or changeover from caliber to caliber. It takes me about 15 mins to completely change over from small pistol (40 S&W) to large rifle (30-30, 308 win) which includes die changeover, primer punch changeover, case feed changeover, and powder measure changeover. The calibration of the dies and final set of the crimp etc takes a few more mins.

In addition to loading ammo, I also use the 650 to seat the cores in the 9mm brass that I then later swage with the die from BT Sniper in my 9mm into jacketed 40 S&W bullets.. It can really speed up that process. I have a friend who had the Hornady but he sold it and picked up a 650. There is a reason (besides marketing) that Dillon Blue is so popular. My press has some quirks, but to use anything else would likely really drive me crazy.. When I'm really cranking and in the groove, I'm making my 40 S&W's at the rated 800 ish per hour. Whenever I've broken something.. it's been because I've been impatient, if you don't do what I've done, it will simply keep on cranking out ammo..

[odis]

Never owned a Lee so I cant comment on their stuff but I bought a SQD when the cost hmm what did I pay maybe 125 or 150 but it had a white spacer under the tool head and I have used it for 38/357 44 mag and 44 spec. and 45 colt, used it enough that the main frame cracked last year and the replaced it along with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't know was wrong with it and the only cost was sending it to them. I don't shoot a lot of rifle ammo so I get by just fine with a single stage RCBS for them, but I couldn't live without my Dillon for my pistolas.

[Bob.]

If you are thinking Dillon then look at the Hornady LnL AP as well, its at least as good as the 650 if not better and cheaper too. I love mine.

This link might be of interest:

http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillon...Comparison.pdf

Another LNL fan here,
Nice press!

Bob

[sargenv]

you must run with a pretty much learning disabled crowd. I could see the possibility of knowing one friend who did it but 3 or 4! bottom line is if your that stupid it will eventually happen to you even if you load on a single stage press or a true progressive. I would have to think in this day and age of product liablilty law suites being filed for about everything if dillon really thought a guy could blame a press for an idiotic mistake like that they would have pulled them off the market long ago. I dont know how many round ive loaded on 550s but it would probably fill a pickup truck and ive yet to have a double charge on one.

Not so much that I run with the crowd.. just that in USPSA or action shooting of any kind, if you get the itch to do it, you find out quickly that buying factory ammo is cost prohibitive, so you get a lot of new reloaders who don't have a lot of reloading experience buying "what everyone else has" which is a Dillon Progressive. Personally, I didn't get a Dillon until I'd been using my Rock Chucker for about 10 years and various shotshell presses for an equal amount of time so I knew the ins and outs of reloading.

You get these newbs that buy a progressive, and they don't understand the ramifications of what might happen.. and in the 12 years of shooting the action game, I've known a lot of shooters (heck, last month we had 100 competitors at a club match, 25% of them were first time shooters). So I've likely seen em come and go.. The newbs tend to get advice from dubious sources, online forums elsewhere, and from other newbs.. A lot of the ppl in my club look up to me if they have questions about powders, loads, and a host of things, so maybe I tend to "hear" about incidents more than other people. My club is the largest action shooting club in Northern California and only one of three venues than can host a state level sanctioned level III USPSA match (of which I've had the dubious priviledge of being a match director).

On another note.. IT IS NOT THE PRESS DOING IT.... it is the guy or gal behind the press, making a boneheaded mistake, and fessing up that it was their fault and the attitude of "Why the heck would I blame Dillon for my stupidity?" way of thinking.. and I guess I use the term "friend" loosely.. they are more aquaintances than people I spend any amount of time with other than at the range.

Again, it's not the fault of the press, if you charge a case and do not manually index it(or your press does not index it for you), all of the other operations will repeat, but that powder measure will drop another charge and if you are not paying attention and it doesn't overflow (using the method of 2x powder = overflow or 2x powder does not equal max charge) then that is a recipe for disaster no matter which press you use.

On another note.. I have only ever had the one powder measure that came with my 650.. earlier this year, it finally broke.. and the part that broke was the bottom frame part of it. Stress of 100's of thousands of rounds finally showed and a small tab broke. I called Dillon and they had the part to me within a few days.

[casterofboolits]

I have no experience with Lee progressive presses and what it takes to keep them going. Sounds like you have to be good at mechanical tinkering.

My Dillon SDB always runs great and has been for twenty years. I paid $173.50 for it and bought all the conversions for 9mm, 38 Super, 40 S&W and 38/357.

For 45 ACP I have a CH Mk 5a (no longer in produciction) and I'm looking for a used SDB to replace it. The Mk5a is a nightmare to keep in tune, but built like a tank. I can't even sell the darn thing as CH no longer make parts for it. In fact, I have two of them! The CH with case feed cost $500.00 back in the mid 80's. Dillon wasn't on the market at the time.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Bob's comparison link for Lee, Hornady and Dillon should be required reading for all who are looking at this situation.

If you haven't read it, it is worth the time!!!!

It puts the red against blue thing in good perspective.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[mike in co]

[QUOTE=casterofboolits;1007787]I have no experience with Dillon progressive presses and what it takes to keep them going. Sounds like you have to be good at mechanical tinkering.

QUOTE]

did you mis speak ?
ne experience with dillon progressive , but you have a sdb ??

the sdb is a progrerssive...

and dillons do not require tinkering to keep them running...were you talking abou tlee ???

??????????????
mike in co

[angus6]

how the heck would AggieEE get a charge and a half in Lee disk ? I can see a half charge but a hole only holds x amount

[casterofboolits]

[QUOTE=mike in co;1008022]

I have no experience with Dillon progressive presses and what it takes to keep them going. Sounds like you have to be good at mechanical tinkering.

QUOTE]

did you mis speak ?
ne experience with dillon progressive , but you have a sdb ??

the sdb is a progrerssive...

and dillons do not require tinkering to keep them running...were you talking abou tlee ???

??????????????
mike in co

Yes, I had a brain fart. But, I'm allowed, I have a hole in my brain and the cat scan to prove it.

[NWFLYJ]

Yes, I had a brain fart. But, I'm allowed, I have a hole in my brain and the cat scan to prove it.

"Double charge" accident?

[sargenv]

"Double charge" accident?

lol...

[Lloyd Smale]

imo for what its worth your going to have a much bigger chance of a squib load or double charge with a press that isnt reliable and is causeing you to stop and clear problems all the time then you ever would with a reliable press like a 550. Start and stop 10 times in a loading session (not unheard of when using a lee progressive) and do that every day for a week and theres a good chance in your frustration that your going accidently let something bad slide through. Bottom line is even i had a couple squibs back when i used lee presses. Ive never had a bad round loaded on a 550, 650 or lnl and im sure ive loaded well over a million rounds on them.

[UNIQUEDOT]

Funny, you always read these posts that have been asked 100's of times and it usually starts out with Lee 1000=****. When you offer to buy there Lee 1000 piece of **** miraculously there are none for sale. Funny also when was the last time you saw a used Lee Load master on fley bay, like hardly ever. Wonder what happens to all those crappy load masters out there.

When i see those types of posts or reviews i cant help but laugh because it tells me one of two things.

1 the person making such statements has either never owned one or has purchased a used damaged unit or one missing parts.

2 If the person is not smart enough to operate these simple machines, they are not IMO smart enough to be reloading in the first place!

The load master is almost trouble free, same as my pk1 and when there is trouble it can be fixed in less than 3 or 4 minutes.

[odis]

I'm not trying to fuel any fire here but if I were to feel the need to get a different press that would reload bottle necked or straight case ammo that the square deal can't handle it would be a 550, only because Dillon has been so fair with me to buy anything else would be quite craven. I have no other experience with anything else and probably never will.

[mike in co]

if you are only going to do one round...45colt....then save your money and buy a SDB......


NO NEED FOR A 550 NOR A LNL


mike in co

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

If your going to do only one caliber, buy the Hornady LNL and with the 500 "Free" Jacketed bullets for your 45, you have one whale of a deal and a press that will take you far beyond a SDB if and when that time comes.

All at a very good price.

I thought about a SDB for years before I finally bought a progressive, and the cost of switching calibers and the fact the dies are good only in a SDB, just never penciled out.

Keep em coming !

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot