Primers and Progressive Presses

[Slufoot]

I called Dillon today and asked this question.

On your 550B what would you consider to be normal for messing up primers?

The answer he gave me was 1 out of 10.

He also said that CCI and Federal were the worst and recommended either Winchester or Remington primers.

I've got a LEE Loadmaster and loaded 150 rounds of 40S&W today and had 4 primers to mess up. I have been thinking about getting another progressive because of the primer issue with my Lee, but after talking with the person at Dillon I'm not so sure. According to him I could have had 15 bad primers out of the 150 I loaded and he would have considered it normal.

I have also been thinking about the RCBS Pro 2000. This press gives you two options for priming, the primer strips or the tubes. I just have to believe that the primer strips would work.

Please tell me your real world experiences with your brand of progressive press and how reliable it is seating primers.

Thanks!
Slufoot

[KN]

I load a couple thousand rounds a year on my square deal and I can't remember the last time it messed up a primer. 1 in 10 would be totally unacceptable to me.   KN

[Hairtrigger]

I have never noticed one brand of primer to feed and or seat better than another brand.

1 in 10? Send the press back to Dillon and have them get it right

[Davemuzz]

1 in 10??? That guy use to sell used cars. Maybe 1 in 1,000.....and that would be something I probably did to cause it.

Dave.

[GregP42]

1 in 10 is nuts! In the 15+ years I have had and used my 550 I think I can safely say that I have had less than a dozen primers go in sideways or backwards. I don't know if it is just me being careful or what, but I have no issues with CCI primers or any other brand I have tried in my Dillon.

Greg

[warf73]

I think the person at Dillon misspoke, he should have said 1 in 1000 not 1 in 10.
The 1 in 1000 is still too often.

Warf

[Rum River]

I have the 550, and like many others have loaded tens of thousands of rounds.

The only time I had primer troubles was my own fault. The area where the primer bar slides had become dirty, resulting in a jerky motion of the bar which caused some primers to flip. Five or ten minutes of cleaning, a tiny bit of lube and it never bothered again.

[Lloyd Smale]

I run 6 differnt dillons and would say that the 1 in 10 is pessimistic and the 1 in 1000 is optimsitic. Now understand that my equiptment is set up in my pole barn and is subject to dust and dirt and is very well used. I proably load at least 5000 rounds a year on each and there all around 10 years old or older. Id say i get a messed up primer or a primer missfead about once in  a tube of 100.

[John R.]

I haven't had near that many primers mess up on my 550. It's as good a system as there is . I would not hesitate to buy anything with Dillon's name on it.

[Luckyducker]

I have the Red Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto-progressive and it will run a hundred primers through without a hiccup, but sometimes when I reload the primer feed tube it will crap the bed for a few times before it straightens out again.  It doesn't load them wrong, it just fails to load a primer sometimes.  This is an awesome press but the weakest thing about it is the primer feed system.

[Wingman26]

I've been reloading on a Dillon 550 for 21 years, I seldom have priming issues, not to say never.  Normally the only time I have primer seating problems is with military brass with crimped primers, getting rid of the crimp can be a real pain, but with commercial brass, no real problems.

[PlacitasSlim]

I have the RCBS Pro2000 with the primers in strips and love the set up. You almost never have a problem with primers. On one of my cowboy guns the mainspring is so light that I have to use Federal primers, but they are easy to insert into the strips with the loader that came with the press. There is also an option to use standard primer tubes, but I have never seen the need for it.

[Davemuzz]

I have the Red Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto-progressive and it will run a hundred primers through without a hiccup, but sometimes when I reload the primer feed tube it will (censored word) the bed for a few times before it straightens out again.  It doesn't load them wrong, it just fails to load a primer sometimes.  This is an awesome press but the weakest thing about it is the primer feed system.

Ducker....I have found a fix to that problem and it will cost you about $.20 to fix. I went to my local hardware store and bot a small dowell rod (wooden) and cut it so when the primer tube is empty it sticks out about 1". Then I marked this with a majic marker so I know when I'm getting low. The small amount of weight the little dowel rod puts on the primers is enough to give a constant feed of the primers into the primer feed.

You may want to give it a try. It's been working for me for over 2 years.

Dave.

[gary0529]

D'muzz,
What a great idea for the L-N-L.
Will head over to the Home Despot tomorrow and get  a small section of dowel and "git 'er done"
Thanks,
you are never too old to learn something new.
Gary

[Savage]

The Lee priming  system works well for me, maybe one or two failures to feed primers in 400-500 rds. It's usually caused by allowing the primer tray to get too low of primers or an inconsistant stroke of the handle. The Dillon system works almost as well for me, it's just slow to load the primer tubes. Haven't used the RCBS strips, but bet they work well also.
Savage

[Lloyd Smale]

the tubes are what i like about the dillon. I can take a brick of primers and 10 tubes in the house and using a frankford arsenal primer tube filler fill all ten in about 15 minutes. Then when your loading theres absoultly nothing slowing you down. By the time youve cranked out 1000 rounds your about ready for a break anyway.

The Lee priming  system works well for me, maybe one or two failures to feed primers in 400-500 rds. It's usually caused by allowing the primer tray to get too low of primers or an inconsistant stroke of the handle. The Dillon system works almost as well for me, it's just slow to load the primer tubes. Haven't used the RCBS strips, but bet they work well also.
Savage

[Savage]

The Frankford Arsenal tool sounds like a good idea. What does one cost? The problem I/ve always had with the Dillon is the price of all the options you need to buy in addition to the basic 550 to actually have a progressive press. Even after spending close to 1k to buy these options and a 550 you still don/t have auto index. If I were buying another Dillon now, it would have to be the 650. Or-----multiple Square Deals set up in the primary pistol calibers I shoot. Of course I'd still want something like the tool you mentioned to load primer tubes.
Savage