to Lee or not to Lee
- Thread starter Darkpriest667
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If your goal is savings, hold out for the Lee. If you want to tell everyone else they should have bought a Dillon, get a Dillon.
Kidding of course. Dillons are real nice, but for many the cost isn’t justified. I’ve been very happy with the 4 Lee presses I’ve owned. 3 are still on the bench and only sold the other because it was redundant. I did have to tinker with the Pro 1000 and it only likes Winchester and CCI primers, but it’s been great and does what I want. It makes good safe ammo without making me cry once when I purchased it.
As far as customer service, I suspect it’s pretty good from all the manufacturers. I busted the die holder on my Lee Classic Turret abusing the hell out of it. I had rigged it up so I could swage primer pockets and was swaging crimps out of .223 brass and going overboard with it. Called Lee and they sent me a new one. Didn’t care that I’d abused it and I had called with the intention of buying the part.
All that said, if you want to crank a handle with “less” care and don’t care how much a small accessory or caliber conversion costs the Dillon is probably what you want. But a Lee will load ammo just fine for less money. It all depends on what’s important to you.
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Kidding of course. Dillons are real nice, but for many the cost isn’t justified. I’ve been very happy with the 4 Lee presses I’ve owned. 3 are still on the bench and only sold the other because it was redundant. I did have to tinker with the Pro 1000 and it only likes Winchester and CCI primers, but it’s been great and does what I want. It makes good safe ammo without making me cry once when I purchased it.
As far as customer service, I suspect it’s pretty good from all the manufacturers. I busted the die holder on my Lee Classic Turret abusing the hell out of it. I had rigged it up so I could swage primer pockets and was swaging crimps out of .223 brass and going overboard with it. Called Lee and they sent me a new one. Didn’t care that I’d abused it and I had called with the intention of buying the part.
All that said, if you want to crank a handle with “less” care and don’t care how much a small accessory or caliber conversion costs the Dillon is probably what you want. But a Lee will load ammo just fine for less money. It all depends on what’s important to you.
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I was thinking you were looking at a progressive for some reason. The Lee turret is just fine. I don’t use mine as a turret though. Run all my brass through one die, then rotate to the next and run that step. For precision rounds it may have some disadvantage in that the die plate can lift a little and alignment may be imperfect. But I only load precision stuff on a single stage anyways. And a small clamp would prevent it.
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You will NOT regret the 550 but you may regret the Lee if you ever use a Dillon. Lee's price reflects the quality and I'm not bashing them. You'll find a single stage Lee not far from some much bigger equipment, it has its place but... Dillon.
So my $0.02 for all it's worth.
Get a single stage press and a good progressive.
I've never seen the need for a turret if you have the other two.
I run a RockChucker and a Hornady LnL AP and love them both.
I recently converted my RC to the LnL quick change system and it's as fast to change dies as a turret press. One twist and it's done.
Yes, I've had to tinker with my AP but it runs great now.
Price out caliber conversions and you'll see where the Hornady shines.
Dillon makes great machines but are spendy. If going that route I'd get a 750 though. When you get to full production you'll see why automated cycling pays for itself. A case feeder is handy too.
If I had to start all over again I'd go the same route as I am now.
Polkwright
Active Member
I'd cancel, but it's not really a fair comparison. There's a big difference in cost and speed between the two.
I have a Dillon. It's a 450 upgraded with a 550 frame so I have the replaceable tool head but otherwise it's a 450, manual primer feed and all. I could upgrade it more but the manual primer feed doesn't bother me. I use a Lee Auto Disk on it so the powder drop is automated.
The Lee Turret isn't really a progressive in my mind. It's an automated turret. You have more handle pulls to get a loaded round with the Lee than the single pull per loaded round with the Dillon.
The worst progressive I ever had was a RCBS Green Machine. It required more patience and mechanical skill than most people have. Caliber conversions were so difficult RCBS quit selling conversion kits. After a couple of conversions I decided to leave it dedicated to .38 Special.
Dillon has been there for support for decades for me. Don't need them often, but every once in a while.
But the Lee is a great value and a versatile press.
I have a Dillon. It's a 450 upgraded with a 550 frame so I have the replaceable tool head but otherwise it's a 450, manual primer feed and all. I could upgrade it more but the manual primer feed doesn't bother me. I use a Lee Auto Disk on it so the powder drop is automated.
The Lee Turret isn't really a progressive in my mind. It's an automated turret. You have more handle pulls to get a loaded round with the Lee than the single pull per loaded round with the Dillon.
The worst progressive I ever had was a RCBS Green Machine. It required more patience and mechanical skill than most people have. Caliber conversions were so difficult RCBS quit selling conversion kits. After a couple of conversions I decided to leave it dedicated to .38 Special.
Dillon has been there for support for decades for me. Don't need them often, but every once in a while.
But the Lee is a great value and a versatile press.
Good advice; where I balked on the 750 was the added price of the case feeder and bullet feeder, because I don’t think auto-indexing alone really adds that much value. Once you add that all up, it’s not really a stretch to the 1050 which comes with some of those components
The 550 only has pistol casefeeders, but the 650/650s have pistol and rifle at $300+ a pop for each size. Bulletfeeders also have some limitations, so I just don’t see any value in those as accessories for the 550.
I know blue is shipping again, but there’s still a backlog of orders to get through.
I've got a Lee Classic Turret, a Lee Classic Cast single stage, and a Dillon 550b. The single stage gets the larger rifle cartridges, the turret for small runs of odd calibers, and the Dillon gets the volume stuff...45 Colt, 45 Auto, 10mm/40, 38/357, 9mm/380, 44 Mag/Special. All the presses have their uses, all load good ammo.
Backordered? midway has them in stock.
I use my Dillon for mass production, my lee single stage for depriming, and a redding turret for precision rifle.
I was just considering selling my lee single stage and upgrading to a lee turret just for processing smaller batches of pistol ammo in calibers I don't shoot in high volume.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1013020843
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I use my Dillon for mass production, my lee single stage for depriming, and a redding turret for precision rifle.
I was just considering selling my lee single stage and upgrading to a lee turret just for processing smaller batches of pistol ammo in calibers I don't shoot in high volume.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1013020843
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The 650/750 comes with one shellplate. There are only 4 so add $120 for the other 3 to the $300 to cover everything. Where did you get the $300 a pop???
contender buff
TGT Addict
It all comes down to how much you reload, how often and of course your budget. I use both lee and Dillion products.you wont be sorry either way you decide to go !
I've used Lee stuff since around 1990, and have been happy with it. If I did high volume I think the Dillon would be awesome, but I don't.
Most of my reloading has been rifle loads, and for 20-50 at a time its great. I have had a Lee 4 hole turret for a long time and am very happy with it.
The dies are under $40 per caliber, and I love the Lee case length guages for trimming. Its very affordable and their customer service is outstanding.
I am a huge fan of the red die boxes too. You setup your dies on a shell plate. I have a shell plate for each caliber I load. When you are done loading you lift it out and it sits in one of the round die boxes. Next time you are ready to load that caliber the adjusted dies are ready to roll.
Most of my reloading has been rifle loads, and for 20-50 at a time its great. I have had a Lee 4 hole turret for a long time and am very happy with it.
The dies are under $40 per caliber, and I love the Lee case length guages for trimming. Its very affordable and their customer service is outstanding.
I am a huge fan of the red die boxes too. You setup your dies on a shell plate. I have a shell plate for each caliber I load. When you are done loading you lift it out and it sits in one of the round die boxes. Next time you are ready to load that caliber the adjusted dies are ready to roll.
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My issue is I plan on reloading 1k rounds at a time. Currently waiting for yearly bonus to push for the XL 750 (need the case and bullet feeder because I'm lazy)
on my 550 and square deal, My son feeds the cases I feed the bullets. Not a bad deal.
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Casefeeder prices right off Dillon’s website.
Read closer, that for the casefeeder with your choice of a shell plate it's $305.95. Additional shell plates are abt $42 and they only make 5 TOTAL. The Magnum rifle shell plate is abt $10 higher. SP, LP, SR, LR, MR.
XL750 - Reloading Machines - Reloading
Dillon Precision: Reloaders, Reloading Equipment, Bullet Reloading, Bullet Reloaders
www.dillonprecision.com
Read closer, that for the casefeeder with your choice of a shell plate it's $305.95. Additional shell plates are abt $42 and they only make 5 TOTAL. The Magnum rifle shell plate is abt $10 higher. SP, LP, SR, LR, MR.
XL750 - Reloading Machines - Reloading
Dillon Precision: Reloaders, Reloading Equipment, Bullet Reloading, Bullet Reloaders
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