Whats your opinion? Reloader

[E.carter]

Hey guys I currently have the RCBS rock chucker and am going to move to a faster press. I am considering either the dillon 550b or the hornaday lock n load. What do you guys have for your reloading setups and what would you recommend? Talk about them.... Thanks, Eric

 

[Operator1]

Sizing die in an old Lyman single die press, and the seating die in a Rock Chucker. We don't usually load large quantities so this is plenty fast. I think either one of those presses would be good, especially for pistol bullets or small calibers.

 

[09blackcrewmax]

We have a Dillon RL550B and a Dillon XL650 and they both work great. I would highly recommend either of them. It is usually my dad and I loading but even with just one person you can really crank out some ammo.

 

[Diesel Pilot]

My brother-in-law has a dillon 650 and it seems really nice. I thought the 550B would have been plenty for his reloading volume. Anything dillon is going to be pretty much the best and most expensive, but you get what you pay for. I've read some really good and convincing reviews for the lock-n-load as well. I don't think you'll go wrong with either.

I'm looking to maybe get a Lee Classic turret to have at my house just to do .40 S&W and 10mm. Anyone have any experience for second hand opinions on it?

 

[Dozerboy]

I have a 550B and it was just right for me and my wife we shot ~300 rds. almost every week.

 

[Whitetail Addict]

My Dad, and his Dad, have always had RCBS reloading equipment. I used them a couple times they seemed plenty fast. I have gotten away from the guns so this is not a very strong subject for me. In fact, I still have about 40 of the 50 25-06 shells I handloaded 10+ years ago.

If you need a bow press or a fletching jig, I may be of some help :rofl:

 

[bravo98]

i have a hornady lock n load and love it. i have put a couple thousand rounds through it already and just picked it up in may. great press for a great price. its rock solid and hornady's customer service is wonderful...

 

[dmaxfireman]

i load precision rifle rounds and pistol rounds. but only use a lyman automated powder measurer. do you still get the powder accuracy with one of those progressive presses?

 

[Lonnie]

I have a 550B & it works very well. I've been using it almost 20years with it & never a problem.

The 650 is faster with the auto shell indexing & auto case feeder, but you spend a few hundred $$ more to get this feature.

If you have many calibers to load & change often, then the 550 will be easier to swap back & forth.

If you plan to have a dedicated caliber that you always load & use a lot of ammo, then the 650 is the way to go.
Swapping calibers requires changing the case feeder which takes more time.

If you only shoot a few hundred a year, then the 550 is more than sufficient. I usually load 400-450 per hour with my 550 going at a reasonable pace. When I get low I usually load up about 200 at a time, this way it is not all consuming, you just load up a few at night when there s nothing on TV.

I had contemplated upgrading to a 650 & may be willing to sell my 550 if you are interested.

 

[Cougar281]

RCBS makes decent stuff (most of my dies are RCBS), but my Dillon RL550B is great, and the Dillon dies are awesome. The only thing I'd say about the 550 is it's manual advance. Had I realized that before I brought it home, I MAY have opted for the 650, but even with manual advance, I can still crank out ammo way faster than I coul single station. The Dillon dies I love the most are my .357Sig dies. I've been reloading .357Sig with a single stage and Lee barf dies. The effort required to resize the brass was insane. Wasn't much better with some Hornady Custom dies that supposedly had some kind of carbide-like ring. The Dillon dies cost twice as much as their normal straight walled dies, but well worth it IMO. With the exact same amount and type of lube on the cases, the dillon dies require virtually no more effort to resize the .357Sig brass than to resize 9mm or .40. And I don't think you can beat the "Lifetime No-BS" warranty.

i load precision rifle rounds and pistol rounds. but only use a lyman automated powder measurer. do you still get the powder accuracy with one of those progressive presses?

My $.02... For precision rifle reloading, don't go progressive. Stick with what you are doing. I use my Dillon for handgun only at this point, although I would set it up for rifle if I needed a lot of ammo that didn't need to be tack-driving accurate (Like SHTF M193 Spec). My hunting loads will always be loaded single stage, with each load individually weighed. A little more or less powder will likely make much less difference in a handgun with a ~3" barrel than it would a precision rifle.

 

[ecc_33]

Dads got the high dollar auto reloading dillon and its bad ass. I load my 223 rounds, 40 rounds, 45 colt and 460 rounds. He does all of his 22-250 and 204 also.