$850 Hornady Ammo Plant!

[Goodcat]

For some reason, a small stock of hornady ammo plants just went on sale for $850 on Midway. Don’t know why, but there are now 6 left available! I had finally decided on building up a Dillon over time, but this happened. I figure overtime, why not both!

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...load-ap-progressive-press-ammo-plant-110-volt

 

[Sniper 79]

Let us know how that works out for you.

 

[BluedSteel]

I just came from this link. There's also a coupon code for 500 free bullets if you buy the plant. That's a hard deal to beat. Anybody out there own one of these? Know how they compare to the Dillon?

 

[Sniper 79]

There is a reason most folks use the Blue one. Customer service, quality, and resale value just to name a few.

For whatever the "deal" is you could buy a used Dillon 650 with extras. Call Bobcat. He sells new and used and takes trades.

 

[Doublehelix]

I am personally a "Dillon Guy" as well, but there are lots of people that can make the Hornady Ammo Plants work just fine for them. The Dillons are just going to work and last forever. No fuss, no muss.

 

[sdb321]

I went "blue". I bought a 550B, got everything to load 38/357,45ACP, and 30-30 Winchester for about the same money.

 

[Goodcat]

Let us know how that works out for you.

Ive been waiting to reply until I got it running.
-5 hour setup
-5-10 hours of tuning, learning, mistakes and understanding, challenging and frustrating
-cranked our 100 rounds of 115 gr 9mm with a few learning hiccups with bullet feeder and PTX powder through die with unique
-nailed the hiccups and cranked 100 of 147gr subsonic with accurate 7, had 2 bad hiccups on primer feed and 3-4 on Case feeder
-nailed in those hiccups and cranked out 400 rounds 147gr 9mm with accurate #7 with about 4-5 bullet feed failure (had to hand place bullets a few times... ohh no. Zero other issues this 400.
-After loading 600 total rounds, I feel I’ve got it tuned to near perfection.

After tuning is dialed in, my biggest annoyance is loading 9mm, tiny powder popping out of the Case while turret is turning. I’ve read this is an issue with all progressives, but don’t know from personal experience. No issues with accuracy though from this. I blow the shell holder off every 100 rounds or so just in case with compressed air.

it was a challenging and frustrating process to tune for sure. You have to have an engineering mind to get the press running, without I highly don’t recommend. Each step, I feel I dimish errors by a significant margin and almost have it running 100% now with Case and bullet feeder.

Im sure the Dillon is more refined, but im 100% happy with the hornady. Customer service to assist with setup you don’t understand, mailout parts, etc... 100% phone call answer within 30 seconds and they will spend all the time you need. I will say, about 5% of instructions were TERRIBLE on paper. Parts are sent without question immediately, without even proof of ownership. Newer parts that were made after your press are shipped 100% free without questions.

So to answer your question, it worked out very well for me for $850 on sale. I also bought the deluxe control panel ($200) , a classic single stage kit ($230 on sale) and 6 sets of dies.

Im happy with the money I spent, and ended up with 1800 free 6.5 CM 129gr interlock bullets and 300 .30 cal bullets free. I won’t be needing 6.5 CM bullets for the duration of my barrel life and got some extra .30s to boot. I did not factor the bullets into my decision, but made my decision based on $650 in savings on the deals I found, then got all those bullets free.

long story short:
Dont have experience with the Dillon, but imagine my hornady took more time and frustration to tune than a Dillon, but not much. Once tuned, I feel it’s running top notch and fast as can be. I’ll be happy using the Case feeder to decap and size .223 and then swage it (using swagger tool $100?), I’ll be happy to load 9mm progressive and I’ll be happy loading .223 general purpose.

ill stick to single stage for any precision rifle.

If you don’t have an engineering mind, I don’t recommend it. I assume and have read that the Dillon has some engineering intracisies too to get running, but probably less.

overall 9/10 stars from the Goodcat

 

[Old Syko]

Local shop sells both red and blue. Anyone local with a problem can call and I will meet them to help with setup on either. Experience makes both much simpler to work of course but some folks just have a problem if things aren't perfect out of the box. It takes a mechanical mind to be a safe reloader all around. Intricacies of both brands are similar but different so both rank about equal in initial setup. Over time certain adjustments have to be revisited on both so again they rank about equal.

As to powder spillage, any progressive is susceptible to this but all can be minimized by developing a steady well timed consistent stroke. A slight hesitation at both the bottom and top of the lever stroke and a smooth transition are key. Much simpler to demonstrate than to explain. Until you get the stroke down pat, simply slow down the whole process. A good dry film lube applied to the right places on occasion can be invaluable on all progressives.

 

[Goodcat]

Local shop sells both red and blue. Anyone local with a problem can call and I will meet them to help with setup on either. Experience makes both much simpler to work of course but some folks just have a problem if things aren't perfect out of the box. It takes a mechanical mind to be a safe reloader all around. Intricacies of both brands are similar but different so both rank about equal in initial setup. Over time certain adjustments have to be revisited on both so again they rank about equal.

As to powder spillage, any progressive is susceptible to this but all can be minimized by developing a steady well timed consistent stroke. A slight hesitation at both the bottom and top of the lever stroke and a smooth transition are key. Much simpler to demonstrate than to explain. Until you get the stroke down pat, simply slow down the whole process. A good dry film lube applied to the right places on occasion can be invaluable on all progressives.

My powder splash isn’t from speed, same slow. it’s from when the bearings on the shell plate index into the indents. If I back off the pawl, it won’t complete the stroke. Ive tried playing with bearing height with no luck either. I’ve seen a few videos of guys who got it nailed it, and man it was smooth.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Good to hear goodcat... I've ran into 'spillage' on 9mm when the shell plate rotates and snaps into the stops. It was mostly with flake powders. I had some spherical powder and that reduced the spillage. And I was working to keep the stroke smooth. Just my