I am on the fence again. I was just about to order the lnl today and got to thinking again.

 

I load 9mm, 40 and 45 but generally load way more 9mm than anything else. I plan on using my Lee Turret for loading rifle.

 

 

I had a chance to see the LNL last night and the primer seating seemed hokey. The pull handle didn't look ideal but there seems to be upgrades for this.

Bryan, I have the Dillon 550B. I never saw the case feeding as being worth extra $$ for the 650. I have absolutely no complaints with it and would recommend Dillon to anyone. If you ever want to see one in person, you can drop by.

I am on the fence again. I was just about to order the lnl today and got to thinking again.

 

I load 9mm, 40 and 45 but generally load way more 9mm than anything else. I plan on using my Lee Turret for loading rifle.

 

 

I had a chance to see the LNL last night and the primer seating seemed hokey. The pull handle didn't look ideal but there seems to be upgrades for this.

The Dillon is great, I have two of them, both are SQUARE DEAL B's because I never reload for rifles

just for hand guns. The 550 is great if you are going to reload both rifle and handgun loads. if you

are only going to reload for handguns you will save a good deal of $$$ with the SQUARE DEAL B.

 

Scig

knowing Bryan, I know he wants the case feeder. Go 650 and don't look back. As soon as I get a big boy job I'll be trading in my square deal for a 650 with the case feeder.

Matt is right. I want the case feeder. When I start loading, I don't mind staying there for a few hours listening to some tunes on tthe radio. So the case feeder will definitely be wanted.

Bryan, I have the Lnl with Case feeder. works well. The priming system is ok, and works the same as others. To seat the primers well, you need to make sure the seating plunger is screwed in all the way, mine was loose when I got the press and caused my issues.

The priming system is one of the areas where the LnL really shines over the 650. Its easy to switch back and forth from small to large primers and it will never flip any.

Screw it. I load enough calibers, so I will order the LnL. If I don't like it, I'll just set it up for one caliber and get a Dillon.

It is a 5 minute operation to switch primers on Dillon.

on the 550 or the 650 chris?

 

There is also the $$ fact that it will cost me more to go Dilllon. Just comparing apples to apples. Honestly I would prefer to go Dillion from everything you hear but to save $400 would be nice.

I don't know. When I priced everything out, the cost was almost exactly the same between the LNL and the Dillon.

 

Also get with I believe it's vinny who is a Dillon dealer and gets a 10 or 15% discount. Really makes a difference on an over 1k dollar purchase.

on the 550 or the 650 chris?

 

It is a 5 minute operation on my 550B. I can't say how it is on the 650. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the same.

I'm gonna go with the Dillon. I have just read way too many negative things about the LnL today especially regarding the primers. In the end, it will end up costing almost the same.

What negative things on the LnL?

 

And it is significantly cheaper in reality.

 

Bryan, look on Enos forums and others, I picked up my Lnl with casefeeder, dies, for $525 or so, shipped.

 

http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillonLeeHornadyComparison.pdf

From everything that i have read out there the primer system was better on the LNL then the 650. Honestly, there about the exact same thing, each one seems to perform and has perks over the other, and it has mostly come down to cost.

I'm gonna be picking up an LnL very soon.

I like my LnL. If the Dillon is $1000, I would go with the LnL for almost half the price.

My Dillon was $700 for the press and dies/caliber kit for 45ACP. That is without the discount mentioned earlier.

I love my 550B and it's only gotten better since I started using it (break-in smoothed it out?)

 

I don't mind feeding cases and indexing manually. But I've never loaded on anything else so perhaps I'm biased...

I love my 550B and it's only gotten better since I started using it (break-in smoothed it out?)

 

I don't mind feeding cases and indexing manually. But I've never loaded on anything else so perhaps I'm biased...

 

I manually fed cases when I first got the LnL. It's not terrible but it's not very efficient either. One of the things I noticed since adding the case feeder is that it allows you to pay a lot more attention to the actual reloading process. That's a good thing

3 650's at my disposal and happier than a pig in shitte.

They are all set up the same way.

Will do a video of me loading for a certain match in a few days... to see exactly how much I can get done.

 

Right now the press is setup with the case feeder and Lee Dies and powder measure.

 

Station 1 - Resizer/deprime.

Station 2 - Lee Powder Through Expander

Station 3 - RCBS Powder Lock out Die (just installed properly) (will stop the press if too much or too little powder in case, prevents double charges and squibs.

Station 4 - Seating/Crimp (just set to seat)

Station 5 - Lee Factory Crimp Die (performs two things, puts a very light crimp on the bullet, but most of all, post sizes the case to get rid of any bulges).

 

When I originally got the press, it came with a set of RCBS dies, without factory crimp die, or powder through expander. Without powder through expander, you have an extra station taking up, so it means you either give up the powder lock out die, or the separate crimp die.

 

Furthermore, RCBS did not do a good job of taking out the bulge of the 40 cal, and why had to use a redding undersize die. As a result, a good amount of cases would be a little hard to put fully into the chamber (just testing it in the chamber), but would go under pressure of slide smacking it in.

 

Lee dies do 100% job with it, at least in 40 cal, and out of the 3k or so rounds I reloaded with them on, including a factory crimp die, not one round that was loaded, did not drop as easily into the chamber as factory ammo. No bulges either.

I have a LnL AP with case feeder. I'm happy with it after 60k + rounds. That being said, I can't recommend hornady right now from the business side of things. The press is fine, I even like a number of its features better than dillon.

 

However, there are problems with hornady.

 

When dillon has a defective run of parts, you can't get that part form them. When hornady has a run of defective parts, you can get nothing but that part out of them until it is gone. this isn't new. There have been at least three critical parts with QC issues that went into distribution that they replaced with the exact same lot under warranty knowing it was just going to have more of the same issues. Probably the WORST was the drive hubs that were cast poorly and cracked easily. Most recently it is either a slightly out of spec primer seating punch, or sub plate. neither is ideal, but at least dillon's method doesn't have me paying to ship stuff an unknown number of times.

 

The other horrible thing they are doing right now is boxing and shipping items without all the parts in them. I ordered two new powder measures recently, one was missing the mounting bracket, it's not very usable without it, and I was fortunate that one of them was for my press, so I only needed one. My bullet feeder was missing a lock ring fortunately I had parts to make do, but had I just ordered a press and feeder I would have been SOL. I've seen posts by people whose press was missing parts.

 

On top of that, although the engineering behind the press is pretty sound, the instructions are sparse. At least with dillon, you can buy a very comprehensive setup video.

 

In the last couple of years, I think a lot of new people have gotten into reloading. I think hornady is getting a lot of new customers from this due to having a larger presence in retail storefronts compared to dillon. I think hornady is having trouble keeping up with demand without quality control suffering. I don't think they expect the boom to last and aren't building out their manufacturing, inventory control, and QC capabilities fast because of that. I can tell you that they have put more people in the CS department. Last call to them I talked to more people in one call than I had talked to the first 4 years of owning my press. Unfortunately, there is only so much they can help you with. Missing parts? No problem. The out of spec primer ram? They can ship you a new one, but can't tell you it will help, and you are playing lotto to see if you get one of the couple of people who knows that if you can sed it back, they can machine down the right bit so it extends a hair further and fixes your issue.

 

For the moment I don't see me buying hornady reloading gear outside of things like shell plates, bushings, and powder measures. Mainly because their powder measure is as good as ones costing $60+ dollars more, and I'm willing to wait for a replacement part for a $60 price difference.

Raz-0,

Thanks. I am not a Hornady basher (I own a case trimmer from them that I like), but that is good to know for people considering a purchase.

id go dillon i have 2 650's they are perfect

When you guys have multiple Dillion 650's, I assume they are set up for different calibers?

I have a LnL AP with case feeder. I'm happy with it after 60k + rounds. That being said, I can't recommend hornady right now from the business side of things. The press is fine, I even like a number of its features better than dillon.

 

However, there are problems with hornady.

 

When dillon has a defective run of parts, you can't get that part form them. When hornady has a run of defective parts, you can get nothing but that part out of them until it is gone. this isn't new. There have been at least three critical parts with QC issues that went into distribution that they replaced with the exact same lot under warranty knowing it was just going to have more of the same issues. Probably the WORST was the drive hubs that were cast poorly and cracked easily. Most recently it is either a slightly out of spec primer seating punch, or sub plate. neither is ideal, but at least dillon's method doesn't have me paying to ship stuff an unknown number of times.

 

The other horrible thing they are doing right now is boxing and shipping items without all the parts in them. I ordered two new powder measures recently, one was missing the mounting bracket, it's not very usable without it, and I was fortunate that one of them was for my press, so I only needed one. My bullet feeder was missing a lock ring fortunately I had parts to make do, but had I just ordered a press and feeder I would have been SOL. I've seen posts by people whose press was missing parts.

 

On top of that, although the engineering behind the press is pretty sound, the instructions are sparse. At least with dillon, you can buy a very comprehensive setup video.

 

In the last couple of years, I think a lot of new people have gotten into reloading. I think hornady is getting a lot of new customers from this due to having a larger presence in retail storefronts compared to dillon. I think hornady is having trouble keeping up with demand without quality control suffering. I don't think they expect the boom to last and aren't building out their manufacturing, inventory control, and QC capabilities fast because of that. I can tell you that they have put more people in the CS department. Last call to them I talked to more people in one call than I had talked to the first 4 years of owning my press. Unfortunately, there is only so much they can help you with. Missing parts? No problem. The out of spec primer ram? They can ship you a new one, but can't tell you it will help, and you are playing lotto to see if you get one of the couple of people who knows that if you can sed it back, they can machine down the right bit so it extends a hair further and fixes your issue.

 

For the moment I don't see me buying hornady reloading gear outside of things like shell plates, bushings, and powder measures. Mainly because their powder measure is as good as ones costing $60+ dollars more, and I'm willing to wait for a replacement part for a $60 price difference.

I'm not sure why your paying to ship Hornady parts, the few parts I had break, I called them and the part was in my mailbox 4 days later no questions asked and no cost to me.

When you guys have multiple Dillion 650's, I assume they are set up for different calibers?

Yup. When its such a PITA and so expensive to switch calibers, its easier to just buy another press. i keed!

 

Truth is, for any press, it takes a nominal amount of time to switch calibers when you're just switching out toolhead/bushings, dies, shell plates and primer systems. But when you add in the powder measure, case feeder and bullet feeders, its frankly easier to have another setup if you shoot a substantial amount of those calibers. Figuratively, time is money, and although you can't charge anyone for your time spent reloading (or not reloading cuz you're resetting the press), its time wasted going back and forth all the time.

I dunno about a 650, but I can change calibers on a square deal in a matter of two minutes and that's even going from .45 to 9mm. Once you have your dies setup it's only a matter of unbolting the powder measure, unbolting the 3 bolts holding the plate on, unbolting the three bolts for the primer, and one for the shellplate, and slap everything back on and tighten it. It's really not a big deal.

 

I know it's even easier on the 650 b/c the die plate slides out instead of being bolted so that's even quicker.

I'm not sure why your paying to ship Hornady parts, the few parts I had break, I called them and the part was in my mailbox 4 days later no questions asked and no cost to me.

 

Because with a number of their qc problem parts, the only answer to getting it working with your press is to have their machine shop alter the part. Often, they will ask you to send in the one you have because they know if it is going just flush, they only have to take a thousandth off in the right place.

 

Also, in the past I have been asked to send things in rather than just get a replacement. Like overly tight shell plates. (you mean you dont want to be able to put a 9mm case in every slot while off the press, be able to toss it like a frisbee, and have none come out? Makes for reaal smooth press operation) Also, higher priced items they tend to not take your word on defects and want them sent in. Sometimes. They have gotten a bit more consistent on the CS side of the equation in the last couple years.