Lee Loadmaster vs Dillon 550b

[Joeaksa]

I used to be the same way. As I get older and get more things on my plate, I just want the thing to work. Thats what the Dillon does, work and work good... forever.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

I think Tim wants to fuss over how to make the Lee work better. He's a tinkerer. A machine that just works right out of the box is probably far less interesting to him.

You got me nailed. I just went to look at and try my wife's boss's 550B..... Worked fine and looked brand spanking new..... for $500 cash I can have it. I really don't like having to feed both the cases and bullets along with loading the primer tubes one primer at a time.... seemed tedious. If I buy it, I will have to figure out at least a DIY case feeder system similar to the Lee's. The Lee sometimes gets an upside down 9mm case, but there is a simple 5 minute fix for that on-line.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

I used to be the same way. As I get older and get more things on my plate, I just want the thing to work. Thats what the Dillon does, work and work good... forever.

Yeah, but I am not old like you.... yet.

[MT930]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Buy a Dillon. You will have it for life...

BTW, if he has had the press for a bit, send it back to Dillon and they will make it new for free.... forever. Their warranty coverage is better than anyone elses.

The Dillon is the way to go, it's a better build for sure.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

Yeah, but I am not old like you.... yet.

Never mind. Buy a Lee and fuss and tinker with it all you want. If I am going to reload, I want to reload then go shooting, not re-design something.

[Leland Pate]

I have a Dillon XL 650 and love it. This year, I've loaded about 18K rounds of 5.56 through it. It's had it's hickups but overall a very nice machine.

[Tim Hancock]

The 650's sure sound nice but are definitely a bit pricier. Do you use the case feeder for .223 Leland? How much does 1000 rounds of practice ammo cost you to make? I have not been shooting my AR much and have maybe a thousand rounds of cheap steel cased Wolf and Brown Bear for it which seemed alot cheaper when I bought it compared to what I thought I heard many guys claim it costs them to reload.

[Leland Pate]

Last time I cheacked, it was costing me about $.18 a round to reload using LC brass, 55gr FMJBT and AA 2230 powder.

You can get the steel cased Wolf ammo very near that, but I'm still leary about using steel cased ammo in my AR. The laquered ammo is a no-no, but even the polymer coated stuff has got to be hard on your chamber.

[Leland Pate]

The casefeeder is an absolute must when loading bulk like I do. All I do is crank and place projos in the cases.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Leland Pate

The casefeeder is an absolute must when loading bulk like I do. All I do is crank and place projos in the cases.

Totally agree. It makes all the difference in the world.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Totally agree. It makes all the difference in the world.

Now you are confusing me.... the Lee has a case feeder the 550 does not. Are you now telling me to go with the Lee because it has the extra features

[Leland Pate]

You can get a casefeeder for the 550 too.

[Joeaksa]

Tim,

The case feeder speeds up things by about 10x. If you want to pump out some rounds, it makes a big difference. If you are doing "one at a time" special loads then its not as big of a deal but looking at Lee's ammo boxes there he is not doing one at a time.

In the old days I would load 2-3000 rounds of .45 auto or .357 mag at a time. You could do this in 1.5 to 2 hours with a good progressive with a case feeder. Do not even try this with a Lee unless you had the whole weekend.

[Joeaksa]

Slight hijack here.

Hey Lee and Sniper, here is my "Coming to Philly" thread:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/519314-dr-phil-coming-philly-area-6th.html

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by legion

Yes, everything produced in the last 20 years does.

Well, no. The Dillon Square Deal does not.
The 550 is the only Dillon that doesn't auto-index.

[legion]

Originally Posted by dhoward

Well, no. The Dillon Square Deal does not.
The 550 is the only Dillon that doesn't auto-index.

I was answering the question about if the Lee used standard dies.

[azasadny]

I've fixed my 2 Lyman Spar-T turret presses and I'm at about 25,000 rounds loaded with them so far. Not bad for a manual press!!

[azasadny]

Originally Posted by Leland Pate

I have a Dillon XL 650 and love it. This year, I've loaded about 18K rounds of 5.56 through it. It's had it's hickups but overall a very nice machine.

I notice that you also use the Dillon primer pocket swager. I use mine for .223 and .308 military cases and I'm very happy with it. How do you like yours?

[azasadny]

This is a very timely thread since I'm comparing progressive presses. What's confusing me are the costs for each unit to switch from caliber to caliber. I load 14 different calibers and already own the Lee Precision dies, so I'm looking for a way to reduce my manual labor and increase my efficiency to load large quantities of range ammo for both pistol and rifle. I have 3 Lyman turret presses, but I would like to "step up" to a progressive...

[Leland Pate]

The Dillon swager does quite well... but you learn to loathe it after the 15,000th round or so.



Swapping calibers on a Dillon progressive can be done on the cheap (reusing the tool head and powder funnel/primer tube assembly) or on the spendy side (seperate setups per caliber).

It looks like it will cost me about $300 to swap to a .308 setup on my XL650.

That includes the following:

Case feeder plate (large rifle)

Dies

Tool heads (x2)

Caliber conversion kit

Powder funnel

If you go this way, you can build the toolhead up with the dies and powder funnel and not have to swap dies out back and forth on one tool head to change calibers. If you don't mind doing the work to reset your dies everytime you change calibers you only need the following:

Dies

Caliber conversion kit

case feeder plate

(possibly a magnum powder bar)

So, it can be done for a bit less this way.

I also have a copy of the Dillon XL650 owners/operation video on DVD if anyone would like to have it.