Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Progressive Pistol Press?

Thinking about going to a progressive pistol press. Load primarily 9mm, 38 spl, 45 acp. Any other pistol calibers like 44 mag low enough use to still load on single stage. Thinking Square Deal B Dillon. Are there any other progressive presses to consider at that volume and price? Lee seems cheesy and Hornady seems like more money.

I started with SDB, and then bought another so that one could be set up on small primers and one on large primers. The only drawback to SDB is that if you have large hands and fat fingers, the working space is very small. Kept that setup for many years and added a Dillon 550B for 223. Several years back, sold the SDB's and transitioned everything to the 550B. Much more room to work, and I like to manually index on the 550vs auto index on the SDB. Also, the SDB uses proprietary dies where the 550 uses standard die sets.

Whatever your choice of Dillon equipment, you will wonder how you got by so long without it!

Good look in your pursuit,

David

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


I went the same route, SDB, then 550. Its like going from an old truck with busted shocks to a shiny new Cadillac. There is a learning curve, but it's not a sharp one.

I am completely set up with a SDB for 38,.357, 9mm and 45 ACP. Had the 44mag covered too but you must size the 44 mag on a single stage before running it thru the SDB, I learned this when I cracked the linkage between the handle and ram Dillon told me to do this to stop the problem.I have probably loaded in excess of 40,000 rounds for my .357and 15,000 for my 9mm.Since I don't shoot much 45ACP changing from SP primers to LP has never been a big worry.

If large volume reloading for other cartridges are not in you future the SDB will serve you well.

When I started action pistol in the early eighties, I went from the Rock Chucker to the SDB and thought I was finally in reloading heaven. After many many rounds, I upgraded to the 550 and never looked back.

You might as well start out with what you're probably going to end up with.

And 44 mag goes through the 550 just as easy as the 9mm.

I load 9mm,40sw,45acp, and 44mag (spray a little case lube) on my SDB. There is no issue with Dillon proprietary dies because their dies are first-rate.

I'm not sure if I would go the same route today or if I would go Hornady.

When I started competing in cowboy action shooting I went from a rock chucker to a used dillon 650. Wow! What a difference. I now use it to load all the calibers you mentioned plus 45 colt. I use the carbide dies and I wet tumble with armorall wash and wax and I don't have to lube cases. I ordered an extra primer feed system and leave one set up for large primers and one for small, makes it very easy to change between the two.

I've been using an SDB for a couple of decades and been happy with it. However, after fooling with 550s and 650s, I am sure I would go with one of them if I were starting over from scratch.

I'd start with a used 650 if you can find one ... just be advised it takes a lot of components, powder, primers and pills, to keep it fed. Mine (750) doesn't get used like it use to ... and I had a 550 before the 650 and now the 750 since I gave my Son the 650.

I use my T7 more than anything else these days.

You really have to do a lot of shooting to justify a progressive these days imho. And the competitive shooters have all moved to the 1050 and the Mark 7.

There are used 650s out there to be had if you keep an eye out and have the cash ready.

When I picked a progressive, I went with the Hornady LNL Auto-Progressive. It's been fine for my needs.

see: Going Progressive — A final assessment

Excellent write up!

+1

I still own one LNL and an older Projector. They can be somewhat of a pain to get running smooth.
Here's a good thread, its on barf15 but still a lot of info there on the LNL.
LNL

The shim trick was a great help on my press. Not all of them benefit from it but it don't hurt to check.
I have some more mods if anyone is interested.

What about 550 VS LNL? I know you loose auto index.

Well, thank you. I feel vindicated somewhat. At the time I got the press, I got blasted by the local Blue mafia for being a dumbass.

I went back and found I had written a review of the Hornady LNL AP after 1 year's operation. Here it is:
https://genesis9.angzva.com/?p=6304

I noticed at the time that a lot of fellows were down on the Hornady offerings, because they tried to get it to work and failed. If you read deeper, the main problem ended up being the Hornady LNL AP's manual is sometimes a bit opaque in the way it explains things. I admit that I had trouble with it as well, particularly in regards to adjusting the powder measure when using a ptx expander, and advancing the auto-advance mechanism. The information is there. The trick is understanding exactly what's being said.

Since I wrote that piece, I've had to send the press back to Hornady. I started having serious trouble with the Auto-Advance going out of adjustment after a couple of years' operation, and I finally called Hornady. I wish I'd done that sooner. They said it was a warranted issue. They paid for the unit to be shipped to them, and I had it back in under 2 weeks, fully rebuilt. Hornady's support is superb. Just as a gauge: if you find yourself adjusting the Auto-Advance pawls more than once a session, you probably need to call Hornady. The Auto-Advance needs to be tweaked as part of the changeover process; each shellplate indexes a bit differently. That was one of the mysteries I did not pick up on my first reading of the manual.

Another mystery that I solved was this: The press can get very wonky very quickly and the main source is that the big bolt holding the shellplate on is coming loose. The bolt needs to be tightened just so-- like it says in the manual-- no more. If you over-tighten the bolt, you risk boogering the press. When something goes amiss, check that bolt first. After maybe a hundred rounds or so, I tweak the bolt. That's usually enough.

Another thing I'd recommend is looking up the various Youtube videos that Hornady and some other folks have done on the press. Many of these are great. One word of warning: do not go making modifications to the press. I've seen a bunch of Youtubes that have you doing all sorts of minor mods to the press. The press works as is. Trust me. Trust the docs. If you feel you need to modify the unit, call the support number.

One last hint: Hornady One Shot Gun Cleaner and Lube
I thought the Hornady One Shot Gun Cleaner and Lube was over-priced, and went with another spray lubricant. Don't make my mistake. Buy the Hornady One Shot Gun Cleaner and Lube and use it exclusively on the unit as suggested. Whatever I picked caused all kinds of problems before I ditched it.

I just now ordered a set of shims off Ebay. That's a no-drill mod I'm willing to try. I'm trying to get rid of that little tick in the advance of the shellplate that makes the occasional flake of powder fall out.

I have a Dillon SD as well as a 550. I have not set up the 550 yet but have had a 650 in the past but sold it

Measure the gap between shell plate and ram, if its pretty close the shim fix may not do you much good. My current LnL had about 15 thousands. That alone was the main reason I had primer seat issues. Getting that gap down made a huge difference.
Try a lock washer under the shell plate bolt.
It appears the LNL suffers some from tolerance stacking. Some presses work just great out of the box and the next might be a problem child. I got one press used that was sloppy from one end to the other. Sent it back and it came back almost as bad. I had very little money in it so I just started fooling with it. The shim fix and changing the link pins to ground bolts with thrust washers stopped the ram "twist" you see at the top of the return stroke (primer seat) on some LNL's.
If Hornady would tighten up tolerances on these presses and add a bushing or bearing to the bottom of the ram to keep the advance star from wobbling around they would have a winner out of the box.

ETA, some folks are using O rings instead of the shell plate spring to get less shell plate snap. That was more trouble for me than it was worth.

Dillon for the win they are the best fugg the rest unless grandpa left you his Star.

I agree. I got the Hornady stuff for cheap and I like to tinker on stuff. When I get ready to actually make some bullets this is my go to.

Consider using a progressive to resize and a single stage for loading. In my limited experience, handling powder well takes precision that inexpensive progressive setups lack. Also, while it's less relevant to handgun cartridges, seating accurately is also not a job for the less costly progressives.

Now if you're talking about $1300+ Dillon setups, I've got nothing to claim. That kind of equipment certainly addresses the needs of anyone outside competitive precision (and it will serve some of those needs too, though powder and final seating are more likely to be handled off-press). On the other hand, I found working on a cheap Lee progressive was frustrating once I began to demand more precision in my handgun cartridges. Nevertheless, the Lee still does a fantastic job of resizing and expanding the mouth on my handgun brass. Because I use non-tapered carbide dies, I resize with two dies, full-length at a larger diameter, and partial length for neck-tension. I prefer this to Redding's dual-ring carbide dies because I can size the full length of the body while adjusting the depth of the neck for different bullet lengths.

Because I'm sizing straight-wall brass, I have no worries about neck concentricity or shoulder datum length consistency. I wouldn't gain anything by resizing on a Prazi instead of my cheap Lee progressive (ABLP). The progressive gives me a case-feeder, and runs through four dies (I decap with a universal) with awesome speed compared to a single-stage.

Once the brass is all decapped, sized, expanded, lube cleaned off in the tumbler and primed, I usually just store it. It's ready to be charged with powder and have bullets seated and crimped. These are operations that a cheap progressive is not likely to do well. I've loaded and used something like 20,000 cartridges that way and found them adequate for shooting cardboard, cans and steel. I wanted to see more precision (with a rifle), more consistency through the chronograph, and more confidence in my hunting cartridges (handgun and rifle). So I bought a Redding beam scale, a Harrell's powder measure, and a robust single-stage press to charge, seat and crimp. I also employ a Wilson case trimmer, even for handgun brass. I mention that because it's another operation that interrupts a straight-through run on a less-than-fully equipped high-end progressive. I try to keep the brass +/- 0.002. We're talking about a few thousand pieces of a given cartridge here so trimming to one thou would be a lot of work for no return on handgun brass. Instead, I discard about 1/6 of my brass that's short, trim the longest 1/6 and the middle 2/3 I find within tolerance. I measure and sort handgun brass every few reload cycles. So far, I've not had to trim it more than once.