Reloader upgrade

[Boris_LA]

May I advise you to look at the Hornady LnL? Without case and bullet feeder you still will be able to produce 200-300 quality rounds per hour and its flexible enough to change dies and load different caliber as needed. I spend a few evenings after work at the press and able to produce enough ammo for a couple of months. 500-600 rounds in one evening seating including gauging, boxing and labeling. My 9mm shooting volume about 5-6k a year.
You can upgrade to case and bullet feeders later, but most likely you will be happy as is. Its also close to your budget even with some upgrades.
Its not perfect, but very close to perfection. There are few tricks to make it even better and they are well illustrated on the youtube and forums.
Single stage or turret press is very desirable as a second press for small testing batches or one off operations. I use Lee Classic Turret press for it. You may reconfigure your Lee pro 1000 and re-purpose it for that function.

[clarkgriswald23]

From the digging I've done hornady seems to fall a bit short on the progressive end.

[ReloaderFred]

If you're talking about internet lore, you get the advice you pay for..... 

I've got a couple hundred thousand rounds loaded on my LnL, and it's still going strong.  The biggest complaint with any progressive press is the priming, and it doesn't matter the brand.  I've had two of the Dillon 550B's, and sold them both, simply because they didn't fulfill my needs.  I kept the LnL, but I don't prime on any progressive press.  When I load any of the 32 calibers I now load, it's with sized, prepped and primed brass, even on the progressives.  Life's just much easier that way.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[tdogg]

I don't have experience with Dillon, just a preface.

That said, I'm very happy with my Hornady LNL.  It upped my output considerably over the Lee Turret.  The press did need some tweaking to get running smoothly but now it runs like a champ.  Everything I've done was mostly "free", just my time.

Chronicled here:  http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=87455.msg657093#msg657093

IDescribe discussed the two LNL vs 650 here:  http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=66260.0

Good luck!

Cheers,
Toby

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

I've entertained going progressive at different times but I just can't justify it with they way I prep cases. I tumble clean from the range, decap and size then send them through a polish tumble, clean ALL the primer pockets before case mouth expanding and priming then finally loading.
My Lyman T-Mag has served me well for the lat 20 years.   

[jeep45238]

I was stoked to upgrade to a 650xl from a LnL AP.

I?d strongly suggest doing the 650 - once a case feeder and caliber change is considered the price is nearly the same between the lnl and the 650.

The difference is the 650 was designed for a case feeder, it?s an afterthought on the LnL.


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[painter]

Between my wife and I probably 1500 rounds per month and maybe produce another 500 rds per month as stock until I feel I have an amount I'm happy with. Thanks.

At 18,000+ rounds a year, you can't afford NOT to go with a real progressive press with a case feeder.  I am shooting around 5,000 a year and can't fathom going back to a single stage for pistol work.

I have to agree with James. At 1500 rounds/month I wouldn't use, or recommend, a single stage of any brand, even though I like my Rockchucker.

[baldrage]

I can't speak to other presses, but FWIW, I have a Dillon SDB and have been very happy with it.  It was my first and only press and the one I learned to reload on.  As IDescribe says, the dies are proprietary, so you can't use them on another press if you ever decide to upgrade to a Dillon 550 or 650.  On the other hand, the proprietary dies make it very easy to set up and operate.  You don't need to worry about what set of dies to buy and how to set them up with your press -- you can just do the initial set up and get going. 

Once you know how to operate it, the SDB will easily crank out 200 rounds in an hour.  I've got a link to a couple of SDB videos at the bottom of the first page in my reloading log here:  http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=82725.0
Highly recommend you watch the Power Factor show episode on reloading with the SDB -- gives a very good overview of operating the press.

[newageroman]

If you have more time than money and priming is your main concern, consider just getting a hand priming unit for $40.  With loading 1500 a month I couldn't imagine doing that on a single. The time you will save on a progressive will equal more than enough money for a good progressive. As has been said the priming system is going to be the pain point for any progressive, I'm running a 650 without a case feeder and loving it! buy a better press now and case feeder later.

[IDescribe]

You might want to consider this sage advice: buy once, cry once.  OR as my dear old dad used to tell me: "If it's worth buying, it's worth paying for what you want the first time."

Dillon SDB -- $425

Hornady LnL -- $400.
Hornady LnL Case-feeder -- $300.

Dillon 650 -- $600.

We pay hundreds of dollars for unnecessary frills on cars that we'll sell in 5-10 years.  This is something you plan on using for decades.  Buy what you want the first time. Or in this case, the 2nd time.     

[painter]

You might want to consider this sage advice: buy once, cry once.  OR as my dear old dad used to tell me: "If it's worth buying, it's worth paying for what you want the first time."

Dillon SDB -- $425

Hornady LnL -- $400.
Hornady LnL Case-feeder -- $300.

Dillon 650 -- $600.

We pay hundreds of dollars for unnecessary frills on cars that we'll sell in 5-10 years.  This is something you plan on using for decades.  Buy what you want the first time. Or in this case, the 2nd time. 

My dear old dad always said..."cheap is expensive, and expensive is cheap."

Don't ever buy a price.

[Wobbly]

Honestly the lee pro 1000 just seems a bit sloppy, and sticky if that makes sense. The priming step is never consistent, sometimes I get a primer that slips off to the side, ads 2 primers in the prime position, puts primers in sideways. My main complaint is the primer stage. Also the lee pro is limited to using only cci and Winchester primers.

If you had asked here, that's exactly the warnings I would have issued about the Pro-1000. They simply take a lot of fiddling... even when loading only one caliber.

[Wobbly]

What would you suggest as a good progressive press in the $450 range?

Yes. Buy Scarlet Pistol's old LNL  !! 

This is why as a good progressive I landed on the Dillon Square Deal B.

The SDB is a good machine and a good fit for your single caliber needs. However, it doesn't set you up for any type of future expansion. For the meager price difference you'd be better advised to get (even a used) a LNL or 550B. That way if you pick up a 30-30 one day to put some deer on the table, then you're not shut out.

I don't have $1800 to spend on a high end reloader.

Neither do I, which is why I bought a Dillon XL650. The whole deal (not counting dies), set up for 8 calibers with a case feeder was right at $1000. For your needs it would be $589 becasue you'd still use your current dies, scale, caliper and manuals. You wouldn't need the bullet feeder becasue you got kids to do that.

I'm just a carpenter that loves to shoot lol.

I know a good Jewish carpenter.

Hope this helps. 

[Scarlett Pistol]

I was actually about to reply and then Wobbly replied. Haha if you?re up for the little things that Baldrage mentioned you can snag an LNL. Having just got a a 650 and coming from an LNL I would suggest the 650.

As everyone has said, with the volume you shoot it would be worth saving and getting a progressive. I had the Hornady bullet feeder die and just used tubes I got from a fish supply store to fill with bullets. I?d recommend that and you can get a case feeder later. You can use extra tubes filled with cases.

For reals though!!! Think of all the time you spend reloading those 1,800 rounds every month. If you can pick up extra work and get the 650 with a case feeder and the bullet feeder die you?ll do 800 to 1,000 rounds an hour. How many labor hours does that free up coming from a single stage press? That would be your opportunity cost. The cost of the thing you didn?t get to do. Your opportunity cost in time spent doing some extra work would easily be covered with how much you shoot.

With the case feeder and 4 extra primer tubes I spent $881 including shipping. But that case feeder was a good little chunk of change. BUT I?ll load a lot more rounds now, especially with the bullet feeder die. I should have done this a long time ago!!! 

[IDescribe]

ALso, with the 650, because the complex part of the case-feeder is already in place, you can make your own case-feeder for about $40.

Shhhh... don't tell Scarlett Pistol.