creekwalker

If waiting a bit longer to purchase a 550B is not a problem than you'll not be sorry, I wish I'd bought ones years earlier than I did. As to the Lee turret one should understand that the Classic Turret press is almost a different animal than the earlier turret press. Niether of these were or ever will be progressive presses, but they do serve a purpose as just like the 550B they can be used in a single stage mode also.It all depends upon your want's vs needs. Yes the penny wise comment has a great deal of truth to it but can also be a little misleading. I'm very pleased to have bought a 550B and believe it is a very good progressive press. Best cw

If money's tight now but you still want to get started you can. The Dillon AT500 is no longer avaliable from Dillon, however I've still see it listed by at least one jobber. Used equipment lately runs at near new prices so unless you find a deal it's not always your best option. One set up that works very well at the production levels you've mentioned is the Lee Classic Cast Turret press. It's lower frame is cast iron and I've found it to be a very nice auto indesing four station turret press. Other's have liked it equally we also. Having had a lot of past experence with lee progressive presses I can tell you that the LCTP is unlike any other product ever produced by Lee and I'm comfortable in recommending it to others. It is not however in any way competitive with a progressive press for speed and high level productivity is that is an issue with you as the norm seems to be about 200+ per hour for rounds loaded. Checks around and look for a package deal which contains the press, dies, powder measure and the new press mounted safety prime. No it not a Dillon product and never will be but it does fill a very useful nich for rifle and pistol reloading. Best cw

OK, I'd read a little about the Dillon modification for the Super Star add on and also knew that Star had developed a rifle loader in 223. I'd never read or heard about the Dillon 1000 or 1050 being a more upgraded improved version of the Star though. I haven't had any experience with either of them as my first hand usage/knowledge of Dillon presses has been with the SDB and 550B and I'm really new to the 550B. I guess what I'm beginning to realize at this point was that an entire after market industry existed specifically for the purpose of upgrading or accessorizing the Star progressive presses. That's really not much different than now then as we have quite a few aftermarket companies producing bullet feeders and such for current manufactured progressive presses. So, if a company chose to manufacture Star progressives again and modernized them with what we have become used to operating our equipment with could they be marketable or has that time passed? Very curious, I learn something new but still wonder what was different about the Star progressives, but also wonder what has been carried over from them to current progressive presses. Very nice Thanks all cw

Thanks for all the information so far. I already have a Dillon 550B as well as an RCBS PiggyBack 1 that's been upgraded to PB 2 with a newer case activated powder measure activator linkage, so I'm pretty well covered for now on loading needs. I've viewed the Star site already mentioned...http://www.starreloaders.com/forum/index.php , and yes it has nice information. But what I'm intrested in is hand's on experence and comparison insite from others. Do I want a Star press or will I buy one, not likely, but I am intrested in them and how they worked. So for those of you that choose to do so, enlighten me. cw

Howdy folks, I posted this on GTR but recieved limited response as none of us had the information we were looking for so I'll try here. OK, I’ve read about and heard about the Star progressive loading machines every since I started using reloading presses and such in the mid 1970’s, but I’ve only seen them in pictures. The little that I know about them is that for the most part they were handgun cartridge only loading machines and that the Star and Dillon powder measures have some similarities. I’ve also read that to a point, the Dillon loaders evolved from tinkering around with the Star’s. I guess my question is has anyone here had first hand experience with the Star loaders and if so how good were they. Do they still stack up against the newer equipment available to us now or not? Also, I know that the Star bullet swaggers are still being made by Magma and that the machine shop equipment and such for manufacturing the Star loader’s was purchased some time back. Did someone have intentions to bring the presses back into production or was that only rumors. So, can anyone fill me in or if you own or owned on of these presses can you post some pictures and information? Even better would be if someone owns or had owned a Star that now owns a Dillon or other progressive and can provide a direct comparisson. creekwalker

WOW! Those are some really great pics. Thank you for the link 1911user. PB I have handled and fired several Glocks and Remington 870’s that were modified by Robar, he does very nice work. One of the positive options of sending you G17 to a good smith with experience in frame modifications is that you can completely change your grip angle, while having a non slick stippling and coating surface applied to it also. Good gunsmithing shops are not cheap, but than neither are good guns. creekwalker