Honady LNL progressive Vs. Dillon 650

Hello all, I have been farting around long enough and it's time to pull the trigger.
and buy a progressive press. Both presses have good points both have bad.

Please tell me what you think.

Bones will vote for the Hornaday

+1 Hornady

i like the hornady never used one but iv seen them in action on youtube!

I like the color red better...and just think of how many free bullets you might be able to get from Hornady's free bullet deal.

the 650 is very good, but I prefer the Hornady.

here is a good article. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

the Hornady is about $400 right now at most places, I also have a $30 Cabelas coupon I could give you. My Dad's neighbor was selling one, he got it for loading 270 and decided it was more then he need, I can ask if he still has it available.

If you decide on the Hornady better hurry, the free bullet offer ends in December.

Thanks Taylor, I wanted to post that same link. I forgot I switched laptops and did not have that link on this one.

XbonesX wrote:the 650 is very good, but I prefer the Hornady.

here is a good article. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

the Hornady is about $400 right now at most places, I also have a $30 Cabelas coupon I could give you. My Dad's neighbor was selling one, he got it for loading 270 and decided it was more then he need, I can ask if he still has it available.

If you decide on the Hornady better hurry, the free bullet offer ends in December.

Tay did you get my email from a couple of days ago?

yeah, I got it yesterday. I will be at my Dad's tomorrow and i'll stop by and ask his neighbor if its still available.

I got the Hornady!!! Thanks to XBONESX for the best price in town. It saved me another 20 bucks.

I'll let you know how it goes.

So now that I ordered it, what kind of toys do I need to go with it? What would be nice to have? What is over kill?

Very nice!!! Defintaly a case feeder, and a Powder Cop Die, 2 of the things I will order if I ever become a man and brave enough to go progressive LOL...

Bones will have to tell you the rest...

When I was shooting a lot of IPSC I had a pair of Dillon XL 650s all tricked out one for .45 ACP and the other for 9mm.

The electric bullet and case feed is awsome and it really speeds up volume production. This was before children so the wife did not mind me burning 10,000+ rounds in a three day match and I got credit for it with the Guard, so even better.

After getting recalled to active duty by "W" for the second great litter box fiasco, I lost my great civilian job and the wife blessed me with our second child. Financial difficulty forced the sale of a lot of my toys which I am slowly regaining now.

My only big complaint against the Dillon other than the astronomical price of the machines is the vertical primer feed system.

While I never had it happen, some of the really high volume shooters and reloaders had a primer cook off in the bottom of the feed tube shotgunning the aparatus towards the ceiling.

I bet it was brown trou time at the reloading press if that happened to me! Dillon supposedly made improvements to the primer system to prevent this, but I hated loading those %^(%#&&%!! tubes. Much cussing was involved getting those little primers in that blasted thing.

The Hornadys are good machines and I like the primer feed system and quick die change. The Dillon's you can change the die head, but space becomes an issue if you are spacially challenged as where do you store all those die heads?

One thing I like about the Hornady is that you can start simple and progress as your experience and wallet allow. The Dillon is a complex monster from the box to the bench.

Although Dillon's phone support is second to none, and if you break something they send you the parts overnight no cost which is awsome.

Price wise for a full dressed press the Dillon and Hornady are about the same.

I see several of each on the on line auction sites, but Evilbay will not carry them anymore.

To me its apples and oranges. Both are about same and are good, just depends which one you want at the moment. Being more familiar with the Dillon I would probably have leaned more to the blue machine, but that is just me.
Steve

Thanks Steve

No bs warranty is a big selling point for me. I dont have never shot enough to justify a progressive or automatic loader in either shotgun or pistol. That being said I have to be Honest I like Hornady dies better but RCBS will stand by their product My ex-wife allowed her son to completely tear my dies apart I mean noting was left assembled. I didnt know anything about it untill I be bopped my self down to my reloading room...which by the was was supposed to be locked and no one in there unless i was. another issue but back on subject. I reassembled my dies the best I could. lots of micrometer time any way as you can imagine there were several parts missing ... I had to pay for the Lee and Hornady missing parts. (not complaining I would expect that) but RCBS sent me parts free of charge said that was part of their no questions warrenty now I can tell you when a company does that for me they have a loyal customer.

When I was setting up my Dillon presses in our first house after the final move from Ft Lost in the Woods MO to Ft Lewis WA I made a mistake and buggered up a part due to my fault & I did not pay attention to the manual.

I called Dillon and explained my screw up and that I needed to pay for a replacement part since I screwed it up.

The nice lady explained that they had updated that part and sent me the new parts next day air free of charge.

I was flabergasted - no one these days has that kind of warranty. I tried a second time to explain to the lady that I screwed up the part and she told me the company did not care, if a part breaks they will replace it no matter what.

Talk about an honest no BS warranty!! If you are going to be doing a lot of military brass, do yourself a favor and save your fingers and save up to get the Dillon trimmer and swager. Worth its weight and space - believe me.

I have bought several used RCBS dies at swap meets and gun shows and they have always been great at replacing stuff that I did not even know was missing.

I called because I could not get a RCBS die to work which I thought was operator error. Turns out I was missing some essential parts - maybe that is why it was so cheap!! So now I think I have a pig in a poke but the nice lady said they were sending the parts to me no cost!!

I only have a couple of Hornady dies but I shoot a lot of their bullets. Some of my friends have their press, seems like a good machine. Free bullet scheme is pretty smart especially now with bullets so dear.

Seems to me the difference between Hornady, RCBS, Redding, etc is like the difference between the three big auto makers.

All make decent products but have different levels of BS and different features. Some are good some are not so good. I know some Ford or Chevy fan is going to flame me!!!

I had bad results with Dillon customer service on multiple occasions. Hornady has been great.

I have never had cause to call Hornady customer service.

Bones you are only one of maybe a handful that I have heard say had bad customer service from Dillon.

When I finally made it here to Ft Lewis WA in 1996, we bought our first house which was our second dream.

After getting all our stuff from the movers, I realized that the movers must have retired Samsonite tester as my presses and other items were pretty mangled.

It looked they had stacked as much as possible on top of the wooden crates that I had packed my Dillon presses in to see what the load limit was.

I ended up calling Dillon for so many parts that I got to know the customer service lady pretty well. My bullet feed tubes were tweaked, my case hoppers were cracked, both powder measures were split (thank God they were empty) and the box that I packed the primer tubes in had a nice 90 degree bend.

Dillon replaced about $600 worth of parts including a new case feed motor without question. Dillon overnighted each part I discovered I needed. The DHL driver got to know our place pretty well too, and I got to know his routine and would be outside with the dog waiting for him when he drove down our street.

What really amazed me was that Dillon never asked for the old and broken parts back to prove that I needed the new parts. I offered to ship them the parts, and the only one that they wanted was the electric motor because they are not supposed to die.

As long as you are in the computer as a Dillon customer they will replace parts no question.

I have heard of people that have bought second hand Dillon presses off Fleabay and other sites that have had trouble with Dillon.

You have to purchase the equipment from Dillon directly and new to get the full appreciation of the no BS warranty. If you do not show in the computer they are hesitant to help because they have no proof that you own a Dillon press.

If you purchase a Dillon make sure it comes with the owner registration card or hit the web site to register your press. Rumor has it there is some cheap Chinese made junk coming from somewhere that is not Dillon-made.

Leupold and Burris are having fits with the Chinese knock-offs. Burris and Leupold are getting these POS knock-offs for service and repair and they have to tell the customer, sorry we are going to destroy this violation of our trademark and you are not getting it or your money back and we are not going to give you a discount on another scope.

Some people are furious with Leupold for this but when you buy a $1,200 "Leupold" scope off Evilbay for $300, something should tell you that this is not right. I think greed bites these people in the a$$.

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I have had the 550B for almost 5 years now. First time I called was when I first got the press and was having primer feed issues, the guy talked down to me and was rude because I didn't know the technical terms, he basically told me to call back when I knew what I was talking about. After that I called and they said they upgraded the primer slide bar but I had to pay $20. That fixed that problem but others sprung up so while my Uncle was in town he got on the phone with Dillon because he has been a customer for 20+ years and he got them to send me some parts, this time for free. Sadly, the press still doesn't operate as it should and at last contact Dillon wanted $100+ for me to ship it in to them so they would fix anything thats wrong and set it up. 5 years and I've turned out less than 1000 rounds on the thing.

In the last 7 months I bought the Hornady LNL AP and have turned out thousands of rounds. The Dillon 550 just sits in the garage collecting dust. When I got the Hornady a part was bent in shipping, called em up and had a replacement a few days later, no questions and didn't cost me a thing. Then when I went to order my 500 free bullets I had thrown the UPC from the box out, called em up they said no problem just send a picture of the serial #, got my bullets a few weeks later.

I own 4 Dillon die sets and really like them, as well as the Super Swage, but I will never again own one of their presses.

XbonesX wrote:I have had the 550B for almost 5 years now. First time I called was when I first got the press and was having primer feed issues, the guy talked down to me and was rude because I didn't know the technical terms, he basically told me to call back when I knew what I was talking about. After that I called and they said they upgraded the primer slide bar but I had to pay $20. That fixed that problem but others sprung up so while my Uncle was in town he got on the phone with Dillon because he has been a customer for 20+ years and he got them to send me some parts, this time for free. Sadly, the press still doesn't operate as it should and at last contact Dillon wanted $100+ for me to ship it in to them so they would fix anything thats wrong and set it up. 5 years and I've turned out less than 1000 rounds on the thing.

In the last 7 months I bought the Hornady LNL AP and have turned out thousands of rounds. The Dillon 550 just sits in the garage collecting dust. When I got the Hornady a part was bent in shipping, called em up and had a replacement a few days later, no questions and didn't cost me a thing. Then when I went to order my 500 free bullets I had thrown the UPC from the box out, called em up they said no problem just send a picture of the serial #, got my bullets a few weeks later.

I own 4 Dillon die sets and really like them, as well as the Super Swage, but I will never again own one of their presses.

This is the saddest and only bad thing I have ever heard about with Dillon.... this is amazing....

I have a Dillon 550

I have not had a Dillon now in over 4 years so Kcatto I appreciate the update. Nice to hear they are still taking care of the machines.

I was not aware the Dillon warranty was so general. When I called since I was in the computer, I had no issues but I have heard of people buying Dillons second hand and having issues with warranty.

Dont have any first hand knowledge as I had to sell my Dillons several years ago and got back into reloading slowly as I return to financial solvency.

The Dillon minigun AKA Mk134 to us Army guys we also called the "fight stopper" or the "instant gazpacho maker."

I got to go to the school in the desert outside Phoenix to learn the care and feeding of a Mk134 as our Strykers had one on every 4th vehicle and the Hummers were fitted with some too. Everyone in the Batt got to learn to handle, feed and clean that beast.

My old Stryker (a M1132 ESV) had a remote controlled Ma Deuce, or a Mk19, or a dual-feed 25mm, but the one in front of us had a Mk134. We usually carried either the M2 or the 25mm.

Man I thought the SAW was loud!!! The SAW has nothing on the Mk134 at full roar!!

The gunner had to merly swing that weapon and the street miracloulsly cleared!!

No matter how bad a$$ the Mujhadeen was he did not want to go toe to toe with a Mk134.

EXACTLY....... THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!!

kcatto,

At this point I just want to sell the Dillon, but I can't in good conscious until the thing works properly. At this point I don't have faith in Dillon's customer service to help whoever buys it, I wouldn't wish the problems I've had on it to my worst enemy. Like I said my Uncle has had a 550 for about 20 years now, even he couldn't help me get it working right.

I have been in the system since day 1, I still get the Blue Press. I have also visited their showroom when I went to Phoenix last December; my Grandparents took me straight from the airport to buy the Super Swage for Xmas. I also picked up the yearly calendars for my cousin, he's been collecting them for several years.

I did read about the 550 auto index update. Part of the reason I went with the LNL.

The Super Swage is a great tool if you are going to be doing a lot of old mil-surp brass - saves the fingers!!

If you are doing a lot of mil-surp brass I would invest in the power trimmer set up from Dillon too. Costs a bit and takes up some space, and I used to get tired of the shop vac screaming next to me - but it makes trimming 55 gal barrels NATO 7.62 and 5.56 brass a breeze. We had one in the Armory that we all chipped in to buy and it was great.

I have never heard of someone having so many issues with a Dillon machine. Wonder if you got a buggered machine? Not outside the total realm of possibility.

I still get the Blue Press too although I have not owned a Dillon machine in near 6 years.

Sounds like they fixed the old primer tube issue because man I hated filling those damn little tubes with primers! Always had to get my wife to help or I would dump them all over the floor.

I wish u were closer I would come over and try and get your dillon running....

The super swage is awesome... I saw a video on youtube where a guy used a rubber band to make it self eject.... I tried it and it works great....

Boy wish I had seen that trick for my old super swage a long time ago!!

If money and space were not an issue, I would get a Dillon 1050 but I still cringe thinking of filling those damn verticle primer tubes.

I see the LNL has a very similar vertical primer storage system but I see the difference is at the base where the press feeds the primer to the cartridge.