Doby is right, cast or jacketed it makes no difference. A press is a press and dies are dies.
Pick the press and dies that fits your needs and budget and get to work. Any attempt to state a press is "better" for cast is marketing hype to me.
Doby is right, cast or jacketed it makes no difference. A press is a press and dies are dies.
Pick the press and dies that fits your needs and budget and get to work. Any attempt to state a press is "better" for cast is marketing hype to me.
Here are good choices, pick the features and speed you like:
Dillon 550
Dillon 650
Hornady LnL AP EzJect
RCBS Pro 2000
Lee Classic Turret
Changing the order doesn't matter, they all work well if setup properly. Any one I haven't mentioned, I don't have a lot of experience with.
Just my .02,
Dave
Had 2 550's now I use a Hornady LNL. Much cheaper to change over, it is a 5 station and auto indexes. Did keep one of my Dillon powder checks. Hornady has a lifetime warranty also.
I'm using the Loadmaster with great success. I have almost twenty years behind mine, so i know every bump in the road with it.
I load a lot of cast ammo on a progressive so I think I know what I'm talking about. First and foremost, there is a difference when loading cast. You will need an expander stage on your press to slightly bell case mouths. So that means, with a powder cop die, that you need a sizing station, a powder station, a powder cop station, a flaring station and a seating and crimping station. That's five stations, so your press must have five stations. Other than that, I don't think there's a hill of beans difference between the functionality of either the LNL or the Dillon series presses. I have issues with any of the Lee progressives based on my negative experiences with the Pro 1000 and things I've read about their big heavy duty progressive.
R J Talley
Teacher/James Madison Fellow
I've loaded a lot of cast boolits as well as J-words (but not so many) on a Dillon 550B for the last 20 years or so. No problems with the boolits, but I did wear out a couple of the priming slides that had to be replaced.
If you wanna -
Cadillac, get a 550B
Lexus, get an XL 650
Rolls Royce, get a 1050
Simple as that.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |