TD has a new Lyman reloading press, and offers a review of the equipment. No doubt people will tell him he’s nuts for not just getting a Dillon. I started off with a Lee kit, which worked decently enough. A reader was kind enough to send a Lee progressive press, which I’ve used to reload .44 Magnum. Lee reloading equipment works, but it definitely has its design flaws, especially their progressive presses which have a bit of a Rube Goldberg feel to them, and tend to have minor hiccups which interfere with the reloading process.
Lately I’m pondering getting a rock tumbler so I can handle very significant amounts of brass, and something that will be a little quieter than a vibratory tumbler. Probably not something I’m going to get until I start getting serious about reloading again. But I have been collecting a lot of used brass. Limiting factor for me has been powder, primer, and time.
I’ve used the Model A-R2 No. 115 tumbler for years and for the small batches of brass I do it works well. It’s also quiet enough for me to throw a batch in before I go to bed and let it run overnight if the brass is really dirty.
So, how much did Lyman pay him?!
I have a thumbler … if you want to process brass, get one.
You can let it run for hours and forget about it.
Don’t waste money on their media, just get a small bottle of re-activator liquid from thumbler, and a five pound bag of reptile/snake terrarium litter ( crushed walnut shell ) from a pet store.
I have a Dillon. I do like it a lot. But if I was buying one now, I’d have a hard time choosing between the Dillon 550 I have now and the Hornady Lock-N-Load progressive presses.
Dillon’s are nice, but adding calibers is expensive. You can save money by not getting extra heads, and just swapping out the dies themselves. But that makes caliber changes significantly longer. I’ve also noticed that Dillon seems to be the only one that uses the same spot to feed the powder and flare the case. This means, even if you want to use another brand of die, you still have to get the Dillon powder funnel.