Poll: dillon 550 or hornady lnl ap progressive

[JO JO]

dillon 550 or hornady lnl ap progressive , which one to choose ?
just between these two presses and why you would pick one over the other

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[Camelfilter]

LNL, because that's what I have, because that's what was in the store when I was thinking on it.

Haven't looked too much into any other progressive, but I can reload 200 9mm per hour safely. I've only been reloading for a few months now. I suppose once I get a bit better at it, I might be able to do 300/hr, but 200 is a nice happy pace for me.

That's (obviously) with decapped cleaned/sized brass. No idea actually on how many brass I can proccess / hour on it, but a whole lot. Then I tumble a whole bunch at a time as well. Never counted, but probably 4-500/at a time.

 

[Greenbug]

Had a Hornady LNL AP and was thoroughly unimpressed. Broken pawls, spilling powder with the jerking movement of the shell plate, primers getting jammed up etc... Returned it after a couple of weeks. The only thing that was good was the powder measure, and it was exceptionally good by the way....

Never had a Dillon, so can't speak to those.

 

[JO JO]

Camelfilter Did you have any trouble setting up or using the hornady

 

[joken]

I'd buy the Dillion because of their no BS warranty, and they have been doing it for awhile.

 

[JO JO]

Thanks for any and all input

 

[Papercidal]

The Dillon 650 usually prices out about the same as the hornadey if you ever want a case feeder, I've never cared for the 550 for the small difference in price between it and the vastly superior 650, as for the lock and load I've never seen one that worked to try out

 

[Camelfilter]

Camelfilter Did you have any trouble setting up or using the hornady

No real big problems, a bunch of new reloader small problems, which would go along with any progressive anyone uses (is my understanding anyways).

Did brake a pawl, but that was due to poor indexing setup on my part. Spent primers were getting stuck while decapping, due to my poor index setup. Kind of a fail safe actually that the pawl snaps before something expensive/irreparable does. Nice feature IMO, particularly for a newby.

Outstanding customer service though. Thought I had bent/broke/marred the index wheel, so they sent out a new one free. Hadent even registered it for the warranty. (That was the poor index setup, which ended up breaking a pawl, which I thought was me having chipped/bent /broken the index wheel...).

 

[Crohnos01]

I have both: 650 and a LNL.

I like both for different reasons. The LNL is really hard to argue with for the money. The Dillon gets expensive quickly if you feed it multiple calibers. Both have powder spills with the indexs on the shell plates for low base shells. Both can be modified to mitigate the problem. The no BS warranty thing gets thrown around a lot, but I have contacted Hornady on problems several times and been delighted with their service as well. Oh... and the LNL bushing system is AWESOME.

 

[FA9]

Speaking from experience, hornady is a POS that works and dillon is like a rolex when it does work.

 

[fxdc]

They ALL will have problems.

I use a pro2000 and a piggyback 3
So I have no problems..... Or the same as a 550
LOL

 

[fredball]

Dillon NO B.S. Warranty any part fails they give you a new one period

 

[3MTA3]

No experience with the LNL, but Hornady is a great company and I'd have confidence in any of their products.

I bought my Dillon 550B in the mid 1980's, so that model has been around over 30 years. There have been a few changes since then none of which are major until this year. When I got ahold of them a few years ago they helped me find the least expensive way to get it up to the current model. There is now a "C" version that has an improved head, and older models can upgrade to this version fairly inexpensively considering the part. Any shortcomings over the last decades have been recognized and addressed or at the very least known workarounds. Great press and a great company. I like the manual indexing operation of the 550 over the 650 and above since it also doubles as a single stage press for precision loads.

If you buy Dillon through Curt's in Gladstone you won't pay any shipping charges if you have it delivered to the store.

 

[Escaped from CA]

I'm happy with my LNL. No experience with Dillon.

 

[Retired Guy]

I bought a 550B in the late 80s and am still using it. Once you get the hang of it, it just runs.

I especially like the Dillon Warranty. I worked for a Dillon dealer in the mid 90s. Had a customer buy a 550B from us, put it in the back of his truck and headed south on I-5. Don't know how it happened but it fell out of his truck at 70 mph. He brought back what few pieces he had. We called Dillon on their "800" number. They told him you ship back (at his cost) whatever parts he had and they would send him a new one for free. Customer came back 3 weeks later to tell me he had a new press sitting at the house.

Three months ago I was cleaning my 550B. Wouldn't you know it? Primer bar return spring went "zing!" I called Dillon to buy another and they mailed me two for free. Only asked whether it broke or I lost it.

On my press, I currently load handgun and 5.56. I have loaded 7.62 and 30-06 but have gone back to single stage because I can't seem to train myself to pause long enough to let all the powder fall.

 

[bbbass]

550 manual indexing... I like to have the control. Back in the day I could load 200/hr easy, now I could give a rip about speed. Great powder bar. Like all progressives, the primer shuttle needs to be kept clean.

 

[JO JO]

thanks for all the input time to start rebuilding the bench

 

[Crohnos01]

Jojo, if you want to try the LNL first hand, pm me. I don't have the Dillon set up at the moment, but you can get a feel for the LNL if you want.

 

[matts]

Hornady since I found a great deal on a lnl ap nib at a pawn shop in Beaverton.
Still setting it up, so i guess true feedback yet to come.
I liked the idea of not having to let go of the handle, since I won't be using a shell/bullet feeder, my right hand stays on the handle and my left hand adds a shell and bullet.
Matt

 

[HotRod61]

I went from a Lee single stage to a Dillon 650 and never looked back. Did research on both Dillon and LNL Hornady. Dillon had less problems.
Spend the extra go with Dillon you won't be sorry.