Lee Pro 1000 reloader VS Dillon 550B my impressions....(verbose)

Hello,

For several months now I've reloaded 9mm, .40 S&W, and .38 Spl with the Lee progressive press (a couple of thousand rounds) and I recently bought a Dillon 550B press from a reloader who was cleaning out his garage for a good price. I've reloaded about 350 rounds with the Dillon now, so I thought I'd contribute to the never ending debate on which press is best....

First, for the price, Lee cannot be matched. The Pro 1000 can be bought as a reconditioned (used) but repackaged unit from Lee (www.Leeprecision.com) for the incredible price of $83.00 shipped (Dillon charges $20 shipping for their press). That includes your choice of dies!

However, with the Lee you enter that peculiar state of Lee existence; where sometimes the press works GREAT and the next thing you know, you have a primer which jams, a case that moves when it shouldn't (no doubt do to my less than rock steady bench), or a round that doesn't eject which results in the auto index getting flubbed and requires resetting the index.

I'm getting ahead of things though....The Dillon is a MANUAL Index system without provisions for an automatic case feed nor bullet feed. That's right;using the Dillon, with your left hand you place a bullet on a flared, charged case, and with the right hand you insert a case readied to be resized and deprimed. You then pull the lever down, then fully up to set the new primer. You then advance the shell plate to the next station with oyur thumb. The Dillon has 4 stations the 1st resizes, and deprimes. The second flares the mouth and charges the powder, the third seats the bullet. You can take advantage of the fourth station by getting a Lee factory crimp resizing die as this is a must with revolver rounds (every wonder why your revolver reloads get stuck in the cylinder?-you need to resize them). Dillon also uses a vertical fed primer device. You dump the primers on a flip tray, then flip them over anvil side DOWN, then rather tediously pick them up with a plastic tipped rod (it takes about 60 seconds for 100). Then (and God help you if you forget to place the retaining clip on the end-as you will need to turn the rod upside down-without the pin in place, you will be showered with primers; not fun!) you hold it over the priming tube and carefully remove the pin- WHOOSH all the primers release (oh you do need to push the last primer still in the plastic pickup tip through with a toothpick before releasing the pin).

With the dillon, if you fail to pay attention it is indeed possible to charge the case twice so turn the TV off and put the beer away!

The Lee is a 3 station affair...but what you can get is amazing. You can get an automatic bullet feed for $29 and a gravity fed case feeder for about $20. Lee is really engineered as a KISS system.It is just 3 stations. The caliber change, should you need to switch shell plates is a pain compared to the Dillon. With the Lee, you have to press off the lower assembly. However, you need to do that periodically anyway to clean the powder crud off. Even though Lee has improved it's powder measure, you get flakes of powder which sprinkle onto the shell plate and get into that infamous horizontal priper chute, which not doubt, increases the likelihood of future primer jams. The Dillon's shell plate change is simple; but hey it's because it does not automatically index. Every time you throw the lever on the Lee, the shell plate advances-no chance of a double charge!

So which is best?

Dillon claims 500 to 600 rounds an hour. I think that's courting disaster. I can load half to 2/3rds that. Remember, the automatic primer feed runs out after 100 or so primers, so you need to get that primer pickup tube out.

With the Lee, you pull off the primer tray (which is a flip type design, the primers end up anvil up) insert the tip of a ball point pen in the feed channel, then quickly insert the tray while removing the pen into the primer feed chute/slide.

I can load about the same rate with these presses. The Dillon is more tedious in that you must pick up each bullet and case, but it is more reliable. In the 300 reloads so far with the Dillon, only one primer was damaged, and that is because the shell plate was too tight and did not index quite properly.

You can load great ammo with either, but if you shoot wheelguns, get the 550B as you can put a Lee crimp/resizing die in the last station. If you have a limited budget and are mechanically inclined; get the Lee.

I am going to keep my Lee to load 9mm but will use the Dillon for the others.

I had problems reloading with .40 with the bullet falling out of the plastic tongs of the automatic feeder. However, the 9mm worked great!.

Of course, your experiences may differ!

#The Dillon has 4 stations the 1st resizes, and deprimes. The second flares the #mouth and charges the powder, the third seats the bullet. You can take #advantage of the fourth station by getting a Lee factory crimp resizing die as #this is a must with revolver rounds (every wonder why your revolver reloads get #stuck in the cylinder?-you need to resize them). Dillon also uses a vertical

Those of us who shoot semi-autos typically use a taper crimp die in the fourth station, using the third just to seat.

As for the factory crimp die, you can use it if you like it, but it shouldn't be necessary. A properly adjusted conventional seat/crimp die should roll crimp enough to hold the bullet in place except for VERY hot loads. I've never had a problem.

#Dillon claims 500 to 600 rounds an hour. I think that's courting disaster. I #can load half to 2/3rds that. Remember, the automatic primer feed runs out #after 100 or so primers, so you need to get that primer pickup tube out.

Just make sure you have plenty of extra pickup tubes. I load them three at a time. Makes things much faster.

I had a Lee Pro 1000 45acp that I was going to order parts for so that I could change it over to 9mm when I wanted to load them. I ordered another complete reconditioned Pro 1000 for a about the same price as the parts. Now all I need to do is change presses. I ordered the press on Tue and was told that it would ship either Wed or Thur. I came in Fri. That is what I call fast shipping.

> ...

After some consideration I bought the Lee Load Master skipping the 1000. it has 5 die positions. as with the 1000 you can get case, primer and bullet feeders. using the extra position to crimp, when I load .45ACP and .38spl. thus the seating process and crimping process are separate. works better. positions as follows:

1 deprime and size 2 primer 3 expand and drop powder. 4 seat bullet 5 crimp case.

I got the milti tube case and bullet feeders and found with the 200gr .45ACP bullets filling the tubes up all the way would sometimes cause things to go amiss. the directions said this but I had to find out for myself.

When loading for my rifles I strip everything off and use it somewhat like a turret. I deprime and inspect every case, prime by hand and trickle charge the powder. and check COAL frequently. I don't need to do it that way but I want to do it that way. The last batch of 22-250 I loaded I loaded up the perfect powder measure and set it to drop 39gr of H380. not much spillage and the charge never varied more than .1gr as measured on my dillon electronic scale. the secret of getting the powder measure not to leak is to disassemble it and put some very fine dry graphite on the surfaces of the cone. The thing I have found with the loadmaster and other lee stuff is you must follow the directions exactly. The directions tell you what will happen if you don't and it will.

# # For several months now I've reloaded 9mm, .40 S&W, and .38 Spl with the Lee # progressive press (a couple of thousand rounds) and I recently bought a Dillon # 550B press from a reloader who was cleaning out his garage for a good price. # I've reloaded about 350 rounds with the Dillon now, so I thought I'd contribute # to the never ending debate on which press is best.... # # Of course, your experiences may differ! # # Margana #

# (oh you do need to push the last primer still in the plastic # pickup tip through with a toothpick before releasing the pin).

I just pull out the cotter pin and let the 99 primers empty into the primer feed, then use the tip of the cotter pin to push out the 100th primer that's still in the tip.

# With the dillon, if you fail to pay attention it is indeed possible to charge # the case twice so turn the TV off and put the beer away!

Good advice that should be followed for any reloading system.

# So which is best? # # Dillon claims 500 to 600 rounds an hour. I think that's courting disaster. I # can load half to 2/3rds that. Remember, the automatic primer feed runs out # after 100 or so primers, so you need to get that primer pickup tube out.

I can do about 450 given a reasonable rhythm and no issues (primer pocket crimps really slow me down). I've thought about buying a primer tube filler machine but it won't really save that much time.

# With the Lee, you pull off the primer tray (which is a flip type design, the # primers end up anvil up) insert the tip of a ball point pen in the feed # channel, then quickly insert the tray while removing the pen into the primer # feed chute/slide.

There are mods you can do to fix the finicky-ness of the primer feed system. Do a search in rec.guns at groups.google.com

# I can load about the same rate with these presses. The Dillon is more tedious # in that you must pick up each bullet and case, but it is more reliable. In the # 300 reloads so far with the Dillon, only one primer was damaged, and that is # because the shell plate was too tight and did not index quite properly.

Seating primers is the only part of the system I have ever had troubles with. Usually the primer pockets are either too tight, crimped, or simply out of position.

# You can load great ammo with either, but if you shoot wheelguns, get the 550B # as you can put a Lee crimp/resizing die in the last station. If you have a # limited budget and are mechanically inclined; get the Lee.

Now I'm tempted to get a Lee just for curiosity's sake, but I really won't have any place to put it.

another thing about the lee presses. if you get the turret and then upgrade to the 1000 they have the same foot print no need to drill new holes in your bench. upgrade again to the LoadMaster? again the same footprint. done loading pistol ammo and want to remount the turret for some rifle load development. if you used wing nuts under the bench its a no tools no brainer to swap out presses.

# # Now I'm tempted to get a Lee just for curiosity's sake, but I really # won't have any place to put it.

# After some consideration I bought the Lee Load Master skipping the # 1000. it has 5 die positions. as with the 1000 you can get case, # primer and bullet feeders. using the extra position to crimp, when I # load .45ACP and .38spl. thus the seating process and crimping process # are separate. works better. positions as follows: # # 1 deprime and size # 2 primer # 3 expand and drop powder. # 4 seat bullet # 5 crimp case.

I've had one for a while now. For .45 ACP, I have my stations set up a little differently:

1. deprime ( in the case of 7.62x25, I use and RCBS Lube Die in this station ) 2. prime and resize ( I was having primer feeding problems and this was recommended by Lee ) 3. expand and drop powder 4. seat bullet 5. post size and crimp

# I got the milti tube case and bullet feeders and found with the # 200gr .45ACP bullets filling the tubes up all the way would sometimes # cause things to go amiss. the directions said this but I had to find # out for myself.

I haven't had much luck with the bullet feeders. If you put too many bullets, you can't pull them out. My feed fingers raise up too early and push the bullet against the die, knocking it out. I also find that it doesn't actually save me any time, just a little effort.

'<'One thing I've done is jury-rig a Lee Perfect Powder Measure on one of '<'their 'Powder Through Expander Dies.'

Must be defective, Lee should have already done that at the factory!!!!

# # # '<'One thing I've done is jury-rig a Lee Perfect Powder Measure on one of # '<'their 'Powder Through Expander Dies.' # # Must be defective, Lee should have already done that at the factory!!!!

Quite. Expect something from Lee to be jerry-rigged.

Derald Yancey. I agree with you on the turret press. Been loading with mine since they first came out. Very many years ago. I solved the primer problem by adapting a Lyman 'auto' primer arm and feeder tub. You know the one used for the old single station presses. Works like a champ. My normal reload rate is 8 rounds per with this set up on 9mm and 38. I still use it for smaller batches rather than set up the Loadmaster.