What Brand of Reloader??

[Old Fart]

I started with a Lee Hammer stuffer and still have it. I use my RCBS Rockchucker about as much as any of them. It's a single stage. I have one Lee and two Dillon progressives. A couple Hornady single stages that sill get pulled some.

My experience? They all work.


As for shortages well primers and powder are what's tough to get if you don't stock up. I started casting my own bullets years ago so I keep stocked up in that area. I can reload my 38 spl cheaper than 22lr is going for now days.

 

[Hoov]

Shadowrider gives the best advice I think. I have a T7. For me, single stage was the best way for me to learn. I also use the single stage for loading match 308. When I have the money, I will buy Dillon 550. I don't care for Lee. I think it cheaply built. Lyman handgun dies have more parts than they need and loosen up. I would tell you to go to Heartland Outdoors and talk to Tim. He has taught reloading more than anyone in the metro and started the reloading departments at H&H and Heartland.

 

[tran]

Just some random thoughts.

Go to Brian Enos' web site, he has some great information on what press to buy basing it on your anticipated usage. That's where you need to base your decision from keeping in mind that your anticipated usage may grow. I used to have 2 RCBS rockchucker jrs with case kickers and I thought I could load large lots. That is until my definition of "large lots" changed.

My Dillon 650 is faster and simpler than the Hornady LNL I had. All of them have their merits and you can single load on a progressive just fine.

My bench has blue (Dillon 650) and pale green (Redding T7 turret) on it. Sounds like a Dillon 550 for pistol and a Redding T7 for anything short of .50BMG would suit you just fine and would be capable of pretty decent qtys. If you go completely crazy at a later date you could always add a Dillon 1050 for that caliber.

Edit to add more random thoughts:

As to build quality: I've had Dillon, RCBS, Lee, Lyman, Redding and Hornady. From my reloading of 25 years, I'd put Dillon at the top for progressives hands down, no questions, no discussion needed. Redding would be at the top for single stage and their T7 turret has no equal. RCBS would follow very closely to Redding with everyone else behind them.

Don't buy a "beginner" press or equipment. It will only frustrate you. Get quality and enjoy yourself, I get as much enjoyment out of reloading as I do the shooting of the ammo I make. Well almost...

Customer service: RCBS = Great; Dillon = Great; Hornady = Great; Redding = Great; Those are the ones I've dealt with, can't speak for others.

I disagree. I have been reloading for along time myself and the Hornady Ammo planet will pretty much keep up with the 650 and my change over time are less than half of the Dillon. I think people keep buying the Dillions because it's all they hear about, because its been around forever.

Look around their are a lot of advantages to going with the Hornady over the Dillon. JMO

 

[Shadowrider]

I disagree. I have been reloading for along time myself and the Hornady Ammo planet will pretty much keep up with the 650 and my change over time are less than half of the Dillon. I think people keep buying the Dillions because it's all they hear about, because its been around forever.

Look around their are a lot of advantages to going with the Hornady over the Dillon. JMO

I was talking about build quality, not design features. The Dillon spanks Hornady like a redheaded stepchild (pun intended). For example. Hornady uses a really cheap red lacquer paint for it's finish, if you want to strip it off quickly just blast it with break cleaner and watch it run off. Dillon uses powder coat. Set the case feeders side by side and you'll see that the Dillon is a very robust housing that is injection molded while the Hornady looks, feels, and performs like a very cheaply made mass produced item. That's because it is and seems to be formed out of kydex and pretty thin kydex at that. My Dillon has loaded thousands of rounds and has never dropped a single piece of brass on my head. I installed the case feeder on my LNL, jacked with it's constant clogging, upside down case drops and brass raining on my head, fiddling with the adjustments trying to get it tuned in to run right. After about a week I just boxed it back up and sold it. Those kinds of things are what I was referring to.

There are some things I like about the Hornady better and that I miss, but there are things I like about the 650 better too. It's all subjective and the bottom line is that I can load ammo by the thousands and not have any issues at all. The only issue I have is keeping primer tubes filled unless it's an issue I cause myself, there have been a couple of those. I never got that with my LNL. It's definitely a step up from a Lee, no doubt. But it's still not with the Dillon by a long shot, not even close.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm a Hornady LNL fan as well. You can load one round at a time just like a single stage if you want. Easy/inexpensive caliber changeovers, only requiring a minute or so to change dies, and then re calibrating the powder drop, or as I do, have several powder drops that are pre calibrated, and only need a final check on the scale before production.

 

[tran]

What are you smoking???? Look at the head play in the Dillon and the look at the Hornady. Hands down Hornady is more consistent. I am an Engineer by trade and Dillon does not by any means hold tighter tolerances than Hornady. I call BS!

 

[Shadowrider]

Call what you wish, all that head play is taken out with each pull of the handle. I was never able to keep my LNL bushings tight no matter what o-ring I tried. I was constantly having to make sure the powder measure station didn't work it's way around to disengage itself and I still pushed the powder measure bushing and all towards the sky several times.

BTW, I have a background too. I was a machinist/CNC programmer for about 20 years, then a manufacturing engineer, then chemical finishing process manager in the aerospace industry.

 

[dennishoddy]

I don't know. I've never had an issue with the Hornady dies getting loose except for one time on the Powder measure. Found that if I put a wrench on it and bumped it once, it stays in place forever. I wonder if the one you had was out of spec?
They are machined units, and we know how the processes and QC can go at times.

 

[MoBoost]

I would start with single stage to learn the basics - mistakes are easier to catch and proper technique can be developed.

Lee cast classic is what I started with - it is tough and solid press that I still use for all my precision reloading.

I just recently got Dillon Square deal for my pistols - OMG that thing is fast. The only thing I had to add was the LED light to see the powder drop level in the case before putting the bullet.

 

[Shadowrider]

I don't know. I've never had an issue with the Hornady dies getting loose except for one time on the Powder measure. Found that if I put a wrench on it and bumped it once, it stays in place forever. I wonder if the one you had was out of spec?
They are machined units, and we know how the processes and QC can go at times.

I don't know Dennis, could be. All of mine were loose as a goose and I had a bunch of them. 5 calibers worth. It was a similar deal to what Tran is talking about with the 650 toolhead. Same principle applies, when they are pushed up against their mating surface, it aint going anywhere. But they would rotate around and unlock. Mostly the PM but also the crimp die a couple of times.