My #1 question to potential reloaders is: What is your expected volume, per year?
If you're only loading 500 or a 1000 rounds a year, then even a single stage, or a turret, or a Lee loadmaster will be fine.
If, however, you plan on reloading 500+ per MONTH, that is a completely different situation, imho. Almost any dillon will fairly easily turn our 400-500+ rounds per hour once you get a bit of experience.
The thing that made me start with a 550 was reading, literally, 100s of posts where various reloaders would say something along the lines of, "I can easily reload 100 rounds per hour," or, "I don't care about speeding through reloading. I enjoy the process. Rounds per hour is a dangerous metric for a home reloader." etc... All I can see reading that is that my normal practice rounds per month for USPSA/3 Gun is north of 2000 rounds, and if I was loading 100 rounds per hour, then it becomes a 2nd job.
My goal when reloading pistol ammo is to spend as little TIME as possible per round (while maintaining safety, reasonable accuracy...yada yada yada)
Rifle reloading (other than 5.56 for volume) is an entirely different matter... I do NOT reload any of my semi-precision (that's about as high a claim as I'll make about me or my ammo) rifle ammo on a progressive press.
If you're only loading 500 or a 1000 rounds a year, then even a single stage, or a turret, or a Lee loadmaster will be fine.
If, however, you plan on reloading 500+ per MONTH, that is a completely different situation, imho. Almost any dillon will fairly easily turn our 400-500+ rounds per hour once you get a bit of experience.
The thing that made me start with a 550 was reading, literally, 100s of posts where various reloaders would say something along the lines of, "I can easily reload 100 rounds per hour," or, "I don't care about speeding through reloading. I enjoy the process. Rounds per hour is a dangerous metric for a home reloader." etc... All I can see reading that is that my normal practice rounds per month for USPSA/3 Gun is north of 2000 rounds, and if I was loading 100 rounds per hour, then it becomes a 2nd job.
My goal when reloading pistol ammo is to spend as little TIME as possible per round (while maintaining safety, reasonable accuracy...yada yada yada)
Rifle reloading (other than 5.56 for volume) is an entirely different matter... I do NOT reload any of my semi-precision (that's about as high a claim as I'll make about me or my ammo) rifle ammo on a progressive press.