Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Contemplating a Progressive Reloader

This kind of dovetails my previous thread about 9mm. However, I did not want to muddy the waters with this issue. I'm thinking about a progressive reloader specifically for 9mm. I've been working off a Rockchuker since 2000 for everything (over a dozen chamberings), and this is the first time I've really thought about another press.

I know up front the preferred answer is Dillon. However, the price of the Lee Loadmaster has me at least wanting to ask: is there any sense in contemplating anything other than a blue paint job?

I figure I want at least a 4-station press so that I can use a Lee Factory Crimp die to do a final resize. I currently do all my priming with a RCBS hand primer, and I like the ease of dumping the primers onto a tray and shoving it in. Filling tubes never impressed me. I'd like to be able to run off 200 rounds in an hour instead of taking a whole morning, and I'd love to do it without pulling a handle 800 times.

Besides 9mm, I might conceivably want to load other stuff like 357 Mag, 45 ACP, and 223 REM on this press in the future, but I'm in no big hurry on any of this. If I could get 9mm down pat for now, I'd be happy.

Dillon 550. Easy to change tool heads for your different calibers and taking your time you'll get 400 per hour.

Love mine for 357 magnum and I seat and crimp with one die.

Lee puts out some good stuff, but the Loadmaster is not some of it. I'd get a Dillon or Hornady.

I'd suggest a Dillon 550, also. Some prefer a 650 but 550 always did everything I might need.

I will have to second the Dillon 550B.

Forget that waste of time with a hand primer and use the primer tubes. Contrary to what many may say, you can still feel the primer seating with a press. Get the Dillon 650, it is twice as fast as the 550, you won't be sorry.

I have a Dillon, but it's a square deal B. Actually have 3 of them. For handgun cartridges where you have long runs, they work great.

I have been running the Hornady for years. It works well, has some of its own little quirks and at the time was at least 1/2 of the Dillon (finding a sale, using Cabelas bucks, free bullets).

I started loading handgun rounds with a Lee pro 1000. I loaded 1000s of 45s on that press. It certainly had its faults. Then I loaded 100s of rounds on a rockchucker. I really came to miss that Lee! Then I spent an evening loading on a Dillon 550. OMG so much better than the Lee. I started saving for one. Then at a yard sale an rcbs ammomaster fell into my lap. It isn't the Dillon, but it's miles ahead of that old Lee, and no comparison to the rockchucker.
Dillon first
Hornady second
Rcbs
Lee

The first step is genuinely assessing the loading rate you need - lots of guys spend too much for too much press chasing numbers.

Dillon offers great products, but you don't need one for 200 rounds per hour. Unless you commit to powder measures and tool heads for most of your cartridges a lot of Dillon's advantages are lost. Double the volume to 400 rounds, spend the money on tools heads and powder measures, and a Dillon 550 starts to make sense. Beyond 400 and the Dillon 650 comes into play.

If 200 is the goal, I would strongly consider a turret press.

Filling primer tubes is a lot less hassle than you make it out to be; it just isn't a big deal.

That 200 rounds you're looking for is 1/2 hour's work on a Dillon, including filling primer tubes. You wouldn't see so many recommendations for them if they weren't worth the money.

There is nothing to substitute for owning the best tools, but having the skill set to use them to their potential is a big factor in the process.

Priming on a single stage press is a bottleneck and a dedicated priming tool with tubes will speed that up a lot.

The turret press is handy, but still requires pulling of a handle for every step.

There is a learning curve with progressives and small errors that can be easily overlooked can cause big problems. I think that the majority of reported kabooms are caused by powder charging errors from ammo loaded on progressive presses.

I have several progressives, each is set up to load a specific caliber, and they are much faster, but when loading other calibers using my single stage press, using a bench primer, powder measure, loading blocks, cleaned brass and efficient use of the bench space, loading 200 rounds an hour on the single stage isn't a problem.

So if all you need is 200/hr, working on efficient loading technique would be another option.

I own a Dillon 550, but I don't load for 9mm--my time is worth more to me than that. It costs you about 16 cents/rd to reload 9mm ($8.00 per box of 50) plus the cost of acquiring brass. You can buy 1000 rounds of 9mm (in a brass case) delivered for $200 ($10 per box of 50).

So for $2 per box extra you don't have to do it yourself. Heck you can sell the 1000 pcs of brass and you come out practically even on the cost of reloading vs loaded ammo.

Buy the 550, but use it for the other rounds you mention! Have fun!

If you only need 200 per hour, the Lee Classic Turret Press will fulfill your needs. The problem with Progressives is the need for tooling. You'll have a never ending need for toolheads for various calibers, etc. With the Turret Press, you just change dies like a single stage. The Classic has four stations so you can do your factory crimping. It isn't expensive either. I'd suggest getting one and seeing if it satisfies. If it doesn't, you won't be out much money and could probably sell it right here in the classifieds if you want money back out of it. I don't know if all the Lee Classic Turret Presses come with auto-indexing, but you want that feature.

Most of your time is spent changing dies, setting them, changing tool heads, shell plates, etc. and the Progressives take the most time of all when it comes to changing calibers.

3rd..

I can do it with Missouri bullets (hi-tek coated) for $115/thousand including brass. When you shoot around 2,000 rds per month, that $85/thousand savings (based on Waders price for factory loaded) is nice and well worth my time. With Montana Gold bullets, it's closer to $143/thousand, but still worth it when you go through a lot of rounds.

I paid for my equipment with the savings a long time ago.

Since my boys and I get out there and reload together, I enjoy it for that aspect and the conversations we have, even if I wasn't saving any money doing it.

But, not everyone is in the same boat, or shoots the same amount each month. If you don't shoot much, the investment in the equipment and materials will never be able to justify the cost savings because you won't save. So, do you do it just for savings, or because you enjoy it? Or because of other reasons. That's up to each person.

But, as Waders pointed out, sometimes it's not always worth it. Just something to think about.

FWIW, I use a Dillon 550B for all of my pistol and bulk 223 reloading. I have several single stages set up for rifle cartridges. Reloading pistol on a single stage is a pain in the butt.

Buy once and cry once, get the Dillon 650

I bought a Square deal B and wouldn't take for it but if I was starting from scratch, I would do like bea175 says and just start with a 650.

Thanks all for the responses.

I find it interesting that everyone I've seen chime in on threads like this over the past 20 years all point to the Dillon over anything and everything else.

My only experience with a progressive was 30-so0me years ago--my first time reloading-- and it was with a Dillon as well.

I went back and studied up some more. What I found was an awful lot of articles about how to modify the Lees to make them work and a few about them blowing up (Yikes!) I saw none of that with the Dillon.

OK. Dillon it is. My guess is I'll pull the trigger on it in July or August if all goes well. I first have to build a new reloading bench. The old one is not going to be sturdy enough.

Thanks again!

If you're willing to learn the idiosyncrasies, the Lee Pro 1000 is a good little machine. The Loadmaster is just a flawed design plain and simple. At one point I had 11 progressive loaders in my loading room, and one of them was a Loadmaster. I doubt it ever produced 1,000 rounds because it was always causing problems.

The Dillon SDB is a fantastic little machine but it uses proprietary dies. That's not as big of a deal as you might think because you'll probably find yourself buying a dedicated set of dies for your progressive machines anyhow; especially considering Dillon's tool heads are made extra thick so that other dies have problems on Dillons.

550B is a manually advanced progressive and it produces ammo faster than you would think and it's very versatile.

The XL650 is by far the most versatile machine that Dillon makes, and it's an absolutely wonderful machine. If you can afford it, the 650 is THE Dillon to have; I liked it more than my 1050.