Progressive presses

[gjd]

Hi all,

To the people using progressive presses.

Could you please tell me hoe accurate you find your press and which one you use please

[Stuart55]

As regards your question you’d have to define what you mean by ‘accurate’ in relation to a reloading press but if you mean ‘can a progressive press load produce ammunition worthy of being successfully used in competition’ the answer is yes - in principle.

There’s a long history of progressive presses especially the Dillon 550 being used to load ammunition for ‘target’ disciplines. There was an interesting article in a 1990’s edition of the ‘Precision Shooting’ magazine concerning a competitor using one for 100/200 yard benchrest. More recently Scott Harris published a very interesting paper titled ‘Creating Winning Long-Range Ammunition with the Dillon 550 Press & Prometheus Powder Scale’ (you’ll find PDF’s of it). The 550 has also gained a following amongst the PRS shooters. Also you don’t have to look far on YouTube to find some very successful F Class shooters using Dillon 750’s for case prep (if not final loading)

I’ve used the Dillon 550 for some years. The advantage the 550 has over the 650/750 presses is the head of the case is supported by the top of the ram on a 550 (the shell plate only rotates the case) whereas the 650/750 presses support the case on the sheet plate thus sizing uniformity potentially being affected by play in the plate. That said - it doesn’t appear to be much of an issue in practice for users of the 650/750’s.

The main constraint using a progressive such a Dillon is the powder dispensing. The standard press operated measure is excellent for most purposes especially after a couple of minor modifications to the shuttle to avoid any granules of powder dropping late. However if only for peace of mind many hand loaders want to use weighed charges - this can be accomplished by using the Dillon funnel in place of the press mounted powder measure (have a search for ‘F class John’ on YouTube & look at his earlier videos concerning Dillon 550/750). 
 

 

[ds1]

I can only really speak about the bigger Dillons and to a point Mk7s. I have a Dillon 1050 Super. There are 3 presses in this series - RL 1050 ( no longer made), 1050 Super,  RL 1100. Basically it comes down to case size. The RL 1050 will load pistol caliber and 223 size rifle. This is due to the cam design. The RL 1100 lets you load up to 308w length rounds - using a needle bearing cam as per the RL 1050. The RL 1050 Super lets you load up to 30-06 length rounds but replaces the cam with a C linkage to do this. So a good place to start is with the maximum round length you want to reload. If only loading 9mm with no intent of anything else the original RL 1050 would be my first pick  as it has less ram and handle travel.

Powder drop accuracy, using RS12 (3.7grains) for 9mm I am getting +/- 1 tenth grain repeatability. The powder type helps a lot - I would not expect this with larger stick powders.

To make the system worthwhile ( efficient) over other presses you really need at some point the Double Alpha Mr. Bullet feeder and Dillon auto primer filler. This adds about £1k to the cost. I have these but have not auto driven the press. Once set up I have no desire to change calibres. 

For precision rifle low volume reloading I use a couple of Forster Co-Ax presses. It’s a different type of reloading starting with annealing and neck trimming etc. If you really want to go down a more precision route with a progressive press Dillon offer a CP 2000 ( case prep centre). I think there are better ways for my purposes but then again I’m not reloading rifle volumes for something like CSR where a progressive may work well.

Dillon vs Mk7, I have a friend with two Mk7 presses and a Dillon 1100. The Mk7 looks a lot nicer made and offer 10 stations but they both have had primer feed problems, in the end he went with an off-press automatic primer system.

[Nick-St]

I have a Dillon RL1050 and use it as a sort of progressive!

I run through brass to de-prime, size, swage and trim (with the Dillon trimmer mounted). Then I prime off press after the brass has been cleaned, then I load using the primed brass on the Dillon. I'm using RS52 powder and it meters ok through the Dillon powder dispenser - but I have polished internals of the powder hopper to help.