THE Progressive Press Shootout (12 presses compared)

Love how they all say everything you need to start reloading. Only they leave out one very critical component. Dies. 🤔

I wish you would pick y
what you think is the best progressive under $2000

Great video. Thank you

After watching a ton of your videos, I decided to take the leap and get an Apex 10 in 10mm, with the conversion to 9mm, the primer upgrade, and Mr Bullet Feeder and of course.....autodrive.
Yeah, I went big, but I'm a believe in quality, and as an old fart, I don't have a lot of time left to sit at the reloading bench for 1000s of hours.
Buy Once. Cry Once. Live the good life.

thank you sir. kl

Just unloaded my LEE Load Master. LEE couldnt give me another press that i would use i would just sell it. Granted for those that cant afford the better presses its a good system and it works but your going to have to work to make it work and along the way learn several new cuss words. I have since gone to Dillon and im not even upset on what i spent to convert from LEE to Dillon. there is just no comparison to the two. Biggest issue with all of the LEE presses is the priming system they are just worthless period, I have owned every single LEE press at one point in time and all of them suffer at the priming stage their just useless period. Your better off (which is what i did) priming on a stand alone primer or hand primer and then loading.

The huge amount of work you’ve done on. this is much appreciated. You’ve helped me decide on the X 10 and saved me hours of research. Definitely following for more of your videos. 👍

I can certainly confirm that Lee Load Master is a recurring splinter under your fingernail. Constant problems with turret indexing and case feeder getting hung up. Sure, it seemed to function good in the very beginning but didnt take long for problems to develop.
Although Lee customer service showed signs of wanting to help, in the end they only kept telling me what I already knew from the manual and from what I already kept trying to correct the issues.
I tried doing my homework before buying the Load Master, but it was fairly new back when I bought it, and there wasnt enough people who had done videos and other reviews on it. So about a year after purchasing it, the more and more searching I did to find reviews on the Load Master, the more and more I continued seeing many others reporting the same or similar problems as I was having
Eventually I had to swallow my losses and just sell it on ebay for significantly less than what I had paid into it .... accessories, shipping costs, lots of time, effort, and frustration but I learned my lesson to wait a little while until after a product has been released so as to give plenty of time for other buyers to actually test it for a decent amount of time to make sure it is quality made, going to do what the manufacture claims it will, and continue doing it for a large number of reloads.

Good video. I hate the Loadmaster because of it's very unreliable priming system. It puts them in upside down or sideways or it doesn't load a primer at all and then powder gets inside the mechanism, causing you to have to stop & take the press apart to clean it out. I bought one, took forever to load 200 rounds on it and that was it. The Pro 1000 has the same bad priming system. The 4 hole turret has the same priming system as the 4000 and I do like that one. Not because it's as fast as fully automatic, but because it's reliable and I can visually inspect if the primer is there, not there, or right side up or not. There is also no risk of blowing up all of the primers and rearranging my face. The new Lee 6000 Pro looks to finally have a good priming system. I've loaded thousands of 9mm, 32acp, & 223 Remington on my LEE 4 hole turret. A friend got the Loadmaster & he loves it. Somehow he has very little problems with his with respect to priming. Mine just doesn't work.

Thanks for the great review and the hard work.
Which one you chose between apex 10, c10 and 1100
1- smoother priming system with no prime crash issue.
2- les operation issues
3- less maintenance required
4- the customer service
I reload 20k to 30k pistol bullets for IPSC a year so far

When discussing Dillon loaders I was waiting for you to mention one of the most important specs. The lifetime warranty. I have two 550s over 15 years old and have loaded so much ammo on them that one has been rebuilt once and the other twice. Free. Something breaks or wears out, they have replaced it or provided parts to rebuild it. Plus, I understood you to talk about "manual index" as a negative. You can index as slowly as you want or as fast when it is manual. If you are loading an almost full pistol case you can index slow enough that you aren't jumping powder out. A positive to me.

Im just starting. I dont supposed you want to give anything away??

I have several caliber and the one I have lot of love for is the 300 win mag. From that middle range price what press would you use for that cartridge?

The Lee factory crimp/carbide resize pistol die is amazing. Produces very nice cartridges. Also the colllet neck sizing for rifles.

The mk7 is also not for reloading actual rifle cartridges due to length. Only pop gun cartridges 😂

Everyone going underground
Good job California

I have 5 single stage press of all brands they are a pain for pistols I would like to cut this to less time I would like to size decal and flair with one stroke I am a real bench shooter which calls for Wilson stuff so just for pistols which is Your recommendation 🤔

I have to give you a big thumbs up on all the work it took to put this together. Great presentation!

Thanks Gavin for simplifying all this for me, I just ordered the x10.

I'm new and or wanna learn to reload ammunition with a progressive reloading press and with that aside moving forward money is NOT a problem but can you please walk me through more detail on what I need I really wanna reload 9mm.... 10mm..... 450bushmaster.....
7.62x39 and .556

Where would the Lee 6000 end up if it were available when you did this test?

Let me start of with saying WOW!!!
What a video & I only watched the presses I have, had & the ones I am considering purchasing.
You are spot on with absolutely ZERO biases which is very nice.
I had the Lee loadmaster. When I decided that press wasn't for me. I decided that there was literally nobody on earth I hated so much that I would have took $$$ from in exchange for the press. So I gave it away to a work friend with TONS of warning's that it's going to take time to set up & get running smooth from day to day or even hr by hr.
It really seems that the best bang for the buck is the X10. I been lurking around that press for a bit now & am confident that I will purchase that one in the near future. I am confident that with most reloaders, we don't mind spending more money on a press if that gets us a more efficient press in the long run. The X10 looks beefy & very well made. I really like the amount of plastic that isn't used. Although I would consider that one a commercial press as it looks like it's built as strong as a tank.
As always, I really appreciate your videos & in depth view & review of the products you're testing.
Keep it up!!!

Thanks Gavin, lots of time in this. Looks like the X-10 is out and maybe a Dillon Square Deal B and an upgraded single stage for my rifles.

Getting into reloading, and this really helped me with my decision. Thank you so much for the video!

Dear sir. I have an old rcbs ammomaster. Ive contacted rcbs. They no longer stock parts for this press. I need the case detection rod. Or the over all dementions for this case detection rod. The parts list looks like its 2 (two) parts. Any help i can get would be appreciated. I dont want to update because this was my dads. It sentimental vale, is tremendous. Thank you for you time.

If there is no conversion kit for a caliber can i still reload that caliber somehow? Specifically im thinking 10mm.

Which progressive press makes the most accurate pistol and which makes most accurate rifle? Expecting super accuracy on a 1 mile rifle is silly but hunting and mild target should be repeatable.
I once heard a professional shooter used a Dillon 550 and won a accuracy competition. Results. Buying a Formula 1 car does NOT make a person a professional race car driver.

Could I reload 308 win large on a Hornady Lock-n-Load? and what about soviet cals 7,62x39, 5,45x39 on it? Please give me an answer. Thanks

Which is better lee pro1000 or 4000?

I am so grateful for this video. I'm just getting into reloading, and this video helped me narrow down my choices. I'm between the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP and the Dillon XL-750. I don't want to start at the bottom and work my way up. I am probably buying my last Press first. The choice isn't made, but it's much narrower now. Thank You, very much.

Hope I don't have to wait too long to afford to get into reloading and hopefully be able to get a progressive press one day that would be the goal need thousands of rounds not dozens, but I will still get a single stage press to begin with.

I just acquired a hornady lock and load. Concerning the bullet case drop, are there after market upgrades, that can be done?

You need to update this to include the six pack.

Hey Gavin, I want to thank you for putting in the hours to get this done. I've been watching a lot of your content over the last couple of weeks as I prepare to start my reloading journey. After doing quite a bit of my own research, and waiting for my head to stop spinning, I had my mind all but set on the Lee Pro 4000 but really was looking for a cumulative comparison of what's out there. This video hit it out of the park for me. Everything about it, the costs associated, pros and cons, comparing everything available from each manufacturer, optional accessories, jist really top notch presentation all the way. Much appreciated!

Yeah I think if I was gonna buy one of these, I’d probably get the Frankfurt XL-10

Info on the T slot clamps in the video please. TYIA

Awesome frikin job with your channel n knowledge of all you content...I learned my progressive from your videos.🔥🔥..hands down brotha...thanx..take care🤙🤙

Is there a way to contact you?

Gavin,
Your so kind with you words to Lee Precision….
It’s really hard for me to use the word “Precision “ combined with Lee.
Go ahead and call it what it is.
POS!!!
Lee has a lot of good budget minded stuff, we all get it, but cheaping-out in a progressive press just gives Lee a bad name.

One simple question.
Which is the best for loading match ammo for comps? I am wanting to load my own and curious as to your opinion on which is best for loading precision ammunition and max volume.

One question I have about these presses: how are the caliber changes performed on each? I have a Dillon 550, and I love the idea of the entire toolhead slide out (super easy), shellplate replace (not too bad a change over), and primer switch if needed, so changing calibers is not too hard, once the dies are set and tightened into the toolhead. I see the Hornady lock and load to remove the dies which seems pretty easy, but what about all the other presses? Do all dies need to be unscrewed, and then re-calibrated each time they are put back in?

Lee is for reloaders who just don't want quality material for quality ammunition

does anyone have a progressive reloading capability. for a 45-70.

Have you done a shootout with turret presses?

My first press is also my favorite. Hornady Lock N Load AP. I think all presses will have a learning curve and the Hornady is no exception. Just hit 25K rounds reloaded and it looks and performs as well as it did brand new.

Fantastic video, your effort is much appreciated.
I hope one day you can do a Turret press shootout to complete the trifecta.

This was very well done and informative. I’m feeling, at least for me, the Hornady Lock-N-Load was a good choice. Cheers!

Why the 30-06 hate? Damn.

thanks

Great video. I'm surprised by how many presses don't allow for decent sized rifle cartridges. I have a 6.5 PRC and .30-06 (family heirloom) and would want to reload those. Overall cartridge for a 6.5 PRC (short action) is over the 2.8-ish OAC that many of these presses max out at. Disappointing.