Mark 7 Evolution - General Discussion

[mikamarj]

Mark 7 sold to Lyman. 

 

https://youtu.be/5O0n3R0Qph8

[quiller]

I wonder does that mean prices are going up, down or staying as is! I also wonder who’ll be doing custom support?

[tanks]

I doubt much will change as they will be a wholly owned subsidiary with the same personnel. However, Lyman will most likely bring a much needed cash infusion which should help get rid of bottlenecks.

[CrashDodson]

I was an early adopter of the evolution.  Ive loaded only a few thousand rounds.  I haven't had a working press at all since before Christmas.  My powder measure has been sent to M7 twice now.  They never explain what they do to "repair" it.  But the part that rotates gets stuck about half way and stops dropping powder.  It was returned to me for the last time a week ago, but they forgot to send the funnel back that the hopper attaches to.  So I am still waiting.  Luckily I have friends who have loaded ammo for me in the down time. 

 

I have a friend that ordered 2 Revolutions.  He paid to have M7 come to him to set them up and train him.  This was before Nationals last year.  They came down and did not have all the parts to get his presses working.  Over 20k invested and hes still waiting to have working presses.  I have another friend who has a revolution and has broken tons of parts so far and had a lot of problems with the primer collater.  I hope they are able to get their issues worked out.  Maybe this Lyman deal will help their production.

 

My experience so far has been frustrating.  I wish I would have never sold my 1050 with the M7 X to get the new press. 

[B_RAD]

I have the MK7 1050 pro. It's worked fine.  I'm glad I didn't buy the new evolution. Now that they sold to Lyman, I'll really never buy one. 

 

I prefer to use just a 1050 with no automation.  

 

 

[Balakay]

21 hours ago, tanks said:

I doubt much will change as they will be a wholly owned subsidiary....

 Something always changes with acquisitions. Might be better, might be worse but when someone else is In control, change is a certainty

[Chris777]

Looks like Jay can add another successful buyout to his portfolio.  Hope Lyman keeps up the quality of the Mark 7 products but hopefully lowers the prices with their economy of scale operations..  We will see...

[Tanfastic]

It should be a good thing.  It's not an old established company that a bigger company acquires to milk it like a cash cow, it's a fast-growing hot new thing with advanced engineering and serious "growing pains".  The stability of a larger backer with significantly more production capacity and the ability to fund the growth sounds great to me.  They're totally overwhelmed with how fast the presses took off in the market and have been playing catch-up for a year now, and never catching up.  I'm sure it will still take a while to get everything stabilized, and in the meantime I've become pretty well versed in keeping my press running with proactive maintenance and troubleshooting.  I'm well over 40,000 rounds loaded now, starting as a manual Evo press for the first 10,000 or so and then adding the Autodrive.

[Face5535]

I didnt want to start a new thread so I figured popping over to this thread was the right move.  I am considering an EVO!  With that said, I would be getting rid of a lot of blue press stuff to fund it. 

I am hoping you guys can guide me through some decisions...  Is the Evo or Evo pro the better choice?  I currently do not have a drive on my 1050's and pulling a handle doesnt bug me.  I think the auto drive would be sweet but 6K plus on a press is not cheap.  Not gonna get into the whole "is it worth it" convo on this thread but, I am curious if the thoughts are Standard or Pro.

 

Also, is the Evo the Evo?  Meaning if I buy the Evo can I later convert it all the way up to the pro?  I have gotten mixed info on this.  It would be nice to break up the cost a bit and buy the regular evo and add drive later if possible...  I think I read/or was told the Evo pro and the Evo are two totally different presses.

 

Anyway give me some thoughts on this?

 

I would essentially be going from 2 1050's and a 650 to either the Evo or Evo pro (in 9mm and 45) and keeping the 650 (or selling the 650 and keeping 1 1050 and having an evo).  I am not looking for thoughts on what I should keep etc... Just thoughts specific to Evo or Evo Pro.

[Tanfastic]

1 hour ago, Face5535 said:

I didnt want to start a new thread so I figured popping over to this thread was the right move.  I am considering an EVO!  With that said, I would be getting rid of a lot of blue press stuff to fund it. 

I am hoping you guys can guide me through some decisions...  Is the Evo or Evo pro the better choice?  I currently do not have a drive on my 1050's and pulling a handle doesnt bug me.  I think the auto drive would be sweet but 6K plus on a press is not cheap.  Not gonna get into the whole "is it worth it" convo on this thread but, I am curious if the thoughts are Standard or Pro.

 

Also, is the Evo the Evo?  Meaning if I buy the Evo can I later convert it all the way up to the pro?  I have gotten mixed info on this.  It would be nice to break up the cost a bit and buy the regular evo and add drive later if possible...  I think I read/or was told the Evo pro and the Evo are two totally different presses.

 

Anyway give me some thoughts on this?

 

I would essentially be going from 2 1050's and a 650 to either the Evo or Evo pro (in 9mm and 45) and keeping the 650 (or selling the 650 and keeping 1 1050 and having an evo).  I am not looking for thoughts on what I should keep etc... Just thoughts specific to Evo or Evo Pro.

 

I started with an Evo and added the autodrive later to make it an Evo Pro, so yes you can do that.  It costs a few hundred bucks more to upgrade than just buying the Evo Pro up front, so that's a consideration.  My advice would be that if you think you WILL add the autodrive at some point, just do it up front and be done with it.  I pulled the handle on the Evo for 6 months (after 2 years with a manual 650) and definitely wouldn't give up the autodrive now.  Probably depends on how much you load, I'm running about 40,000 rounds per year right now.

[quiller]

9 hours ago, Face5535 said:

I didnt want to start a new thread so I figured popping over to this thread was the right move.  I am considering an EVO!  With that said, I would be getting rid of a lot of blue press stuff to fund it. 

I am hoping you guys can guide me through some decisions...  Is the Evo or Evo pro the better choice?  I currently do not have a drive on my 1050's and pulling a handle doesnt bug me.  I think the auto drive would be sweet but 6K plus on a press is not cheap.  Not gonna get into the whole "is it worth it" convo on this thread but, I am curious if the thoughts are Standard or Pro.

 

Also, is the Evo the Evo?  Meaning if I buy the Evo can I later convert it all the way up to the pro?  I have gotten mixed info on this.  It would be nice to break up the cost a bit and buy the regular evo and add drive later if possible...  I think I read/or was told the Evo pro and the Evo are two totally different presses.

 

Anyway give me some thoughts on this?

 

I would essentially be going from 2 1050's and a 650 to either the Evo or Evo pro (in 9mm and 45) and keeping the 650 (or selling the 650 and keeping 1 1050 and having an evo).  I am not looking for thoughts on what I should keep etc... Just thoughts specific to Evo or Evo Pro.

I bought an Evo last year when they first came out. I waited 5 months for mine and in the meantime made a bunch of ammo on my 650 before selling it to pay for the Evo. I knew the second I took it out of the box that Dillon had some serious competition. The Evo and anything Mk7 makes is light years ahead of anything Dillon produces IMO. I don't shoot a whole lot compared to other folks on this forum, but I shoot more that you're twice a month to range people. The Evo was a easy choice for me as I have no issues pulling the handle on my 650 and I could not justify the cost of an automated machine. To be honest I started to set up my machine and them we sold our house. I moved it to a rentals space I have for my FFL but got side tracked by work and designing the renovations for our new house. I did have enough ammo on hand from my 650 to keep my trigger finger happy. If you shoot a ton go for the Pro upfront. If you are a more casual shooter the Evo is the way to go. Another thing to keep in mind is Black Friday sales.....you could upgrade down the road and save some money.  

[tanks]

One other thing to consider is if you will buy sensors when upgrading to the Pro. If you do it all up front then the the sensors will get installed and tested at the factory.

[CrashDodson]

2 minutes ago, tanks said:

One other thing to consider is if you will buy sensors when upgrading to the Pro. If you do it all up front then the the sensors will get installed and tested at the factory.

What sensors would get installed at the factory?  The only thing that would make sense to be pre-installed is the swage sense.  When I ordered my pro I had to remove the stock swage and install my swage sense, even though I ordered the sensors with the original purchase.  

[tanks]

2 hours ago, CrashDodson said:

What sensors would get installed at the factory?  ...

 

I had decap sense and swage sense installed at the factory. I did make a minor adjustment to the swage sense to make it a bit more sensitive but that was it. 

[mikamarj]

19 hours ago, Face5535 said:

I am hoping you guys can guide me through some decisions...  Is the Evo or Evo pro the better choice?  I currently do not have a drive on my 1050's and pulling a handle doesnt bug me.  I think the auto drive would be sweet but 6K plus on a press is not cheap.  Not gonna get into the whole "is it worth it" convo on this thread but, I am curious if the thoughts are Standard or Pro.

I would essentially be going from 2 1050's and a 650 to either the Evo or Evo pro (in 9mm and 45) and keeping the 650 (or selling the 650 and keeping 1 1050 and having an evo).  I am not looking for thoughts on what I should keep etc... Just thoughts specific to Evo or Evo Pro.

If you're going to stay pulling the handle, then stay with the presses you already have. You will not be gaining much by switching from 1050 to a manual Evolution.

And yes, you can upgrade Evo to the Pro, but usually you get a better deal if you buy it all at once. Get all the sensors available, there is a real reason each and every of them exist.

I have Evo Pro and there is no going back to manual presses...

[Wrist Shot]

My suggestion. No matter if it's an Evo or Evo Pro , if you order either one from M7, keep your Dillons until you have a working Mark 7 on your bench. Then you can decide what you want to sell.

[CrashDodson]

1 minute ago, Wrist Shot said:

My suggestion. No matter if it's an Evo or Evo Pro , if you order either one from M7, keep your Dillons until you have a working Mark 7 on your bench. Then you can decide what you want to sell.

[teros135]

29 minutes ago, Wrist Shot said:

My suggestion. No matter if it's an Evo or Evo Pro , if you order either one from M7, keep your Dillons until you have a working Mark 7 on your bench. Then you can decide what you want to sell.

 

Amen to this.  Getting one that works can be hit and miss.

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by teros135

[BlindAsABat]

58 minutes ago, teros135 said:

 

Amen to this.  Getting one that works can be hit and miss.

 

 

+1 for this. Took almost 6 months to get almost everything working on my EVO. I still don't have a functional powder measure. I'm using the Dillon powder measure instead. Still having issues with the primer rocker. Customer support while polite, is pretty poor. I bought one of the early EVO's and they have fixed a lot of the issues I had to deal with. However, I now have to buy those "upgraded" parts. What good is the warranty if they deliver a non-working press and then make you pay to fix it???

 

I REALLY wanted to like this company and the press, but if I had it to do over, I would  go with a 1050.

[tanks]

1 hour ago, BlindAsABat said:

 

.... I bought one of the early EVO's and they have fixed a lot of the issues I had to deal with. However, I now have to buy those "upgraded" parts. What good is the warranty if they deliver a non-working press and then make you pay to fix it???...

 

Which parts? On my Revolution they replaced the powder measure and the collator bowl free of charge. They even paid for next day shipping for me to send the powder measure to them.

[Smithcity]

6 hours ago, tanks said:

 

I had decap sense and swage sense installed at the factory. I did make a minor adjustment to the swage sense to make it a bit more sensitive but that was it. 

I bought a host of sensors with my evo pro, m7 installed none of them, in fact I dont think they even tested them. My decap sense came non operational.

[BlindAsABat]

3 hours ago, tanks said:

 

Which parts? On my Revolution they replaced the powder measure and the collator bowl free of charge. They even paid for next day shipping for me to send the powder measure to them.

 

Wow! Not the same experience here. I already sent the powder measure back once. Had to pay shipping in BOTH directions. M7 sent it back to me 3 weeks later and it still did not work (as in it still does not reliably meter). They forgot to send the hopper and screws back with it, which they then sent snail mail which took another week.

When I received the press, the square tube that mounts the case feeder to press had the wrong size holes in it, and came with bolts that were too short . The screws that connect the two square tube sections together were too long and would bottom out against each other before snugging down. They took almost a month to ship me the corrected parts to assemble the press. Those were shipped out USPS priority paid by M7 (another week to receive them).

 

The primer rocker seems to be soft metal and gets deformed by the punch. I've had to disassemble it twice and file it smooth because it would get stuck in the up position preventing the shell plate from advancing. There is supposedly a new hardened version that I can buy to fix this problem.

 

Primers sometime flip half way out of the primer feed mechanism which jams things up. There is another part I can buy which supposedly solves this issue as well.

 

I've has several support requests go completely unanswered. I've found that I get better support posting to their forum than submitting a support request.

 

My last forum post got a fairly quick response which is great. The answer was we have an upgraded part you can buy to help with that....

 

So maybe you see why I'm wondering exactly what the warranty is for?

[dannyd]

Go luck with Lyman,  I used there bullet casting equipment for years, but there customer service was horrible.

[Face5535]

Wow... now rethinking the whole thing.  Uh, total let down reading this stuff:(

[CrashDodson]

10 hours ago, BlindAsABat said:

 

Wow! Not the same experience here. I already sent the powder measure back once. Had to pay shipping in BOTH directions. M7 sent it back to me 3 weeks later and it still did not work (as in it still does not reliably meter). They forgot to send the hopper and screws back with it, which they then sent snail mail which took another week.

When I received the press, the square tube that mounts the case feeder to press had the wrong size holes in it, and came with bolts that were too short . The screws that connect the two square tube sections together were too long and would bottom out against each other before snugging down. They took almost a month to ship me the corrected parts to assemble the press. Those were shipped out USPS priority paid by M7 (another week to receive them).

 

The primer rocker seems to be soft metal and gets deformed by the punch. I've had to disassemble it twice and file it smooth because it would get stuck in the up position preventing the shell plate from advancing. There is supposedly a new hardened version that I can buy to fix this problem.

 

Primers sometime flip half way out of the primer feed mechanism which jams things up. There is another part I can buy which supposedly solves this issue as well.

 

I've has several support requests go completely unanswered. I've found that I get better support posting to their forum than submitting a support request.

 

My last forum post got a fairly quick response which is great. The answer was we have an upgraded part you can buy to help with that....

 

So maybe you see why I'm wondering exactly what the warranty is for?

I've had a similar experience but they have paid for shipping.  Not overnight but thats ok.  My Powder measure has been back twice, each time for weeks.  I had the same thing happen I got the powder measure back last week, no hopper attachment.  I received the hopper attachment yesterday.  I have not loaded but maybe 100 rounds since Christmas.  I've not experienced the issue with the primer rocker but my evo pro has maybe 5k rounds on it.  Keeping my fingers crossed there.  

They really need to get a better ticketing system, perhaps lyman can help in that regard.  The support personal I have worked with have all been friendly enough.  But it seems like they are not doing enough to make sure us early adopters, which are now the voice of the product, are satisfied and running smoothly.  You in no way should have to pay to replace parts they know are defective.  I am sure they are overwhelmed with orders and repairs but if your customer service is poor then it doesn't matter how great a product is.