I'm 5 1/2 years into reloading, more than past time to move up to a progressive press.  In fact, I just pulled the trigger on one (ouch $$) with the extras needed to reload most of my current calibers on it. 
Now that it's too late to change my mind, how about you tell me if I should be drinking red koolaid (Hornady) or the blue (Dillon)?  If you're really persuasive I guess I could box up what I got and get the other one.  Maybe I'll say which one I ordered in a bit...

Note - "red koolaid" does NOT mean Lee even though I have one of their classic turret presses and like it fairly well.  I never seriously considered Lee for a progressive, and recently I ran into a guy who had the Lee progressive.  When I asked him how he liked it, he cheerily piped up "that thing really sucks!"  (priming problems which slow it down to about the level of a turret press)

Gotta go with Dillon. The price you pay is made up for by the quality and service you get. They are good people.

Lots of blue koolaid here.  At the risk of getting boo'd, I settled on the red koolaid and got a Hornady LNL AP press.  I seriously considered a Dillon 550 or 650 as the alternative.  What tipped me over to the red side was having used a friend of mine's LNL AP press a while back and liking it.  At least with the presses, the red koolaid drinkers I know have relayed good stories about Hornady customer service as have the blue drinkers I've talked to.

I would have considered Red, but my favorite gun shop is a Dillon Dealer. I built a shopping list on Dillon's website, walked in with it, and walked out with 3 boxes full of blue goodness. They knocked off about $175 for buying the whole shebang in 3 calibers at one time, cash money.

That was a great use of a travel voucher.

EH? "Progressive"?  What is this progressive of which you youngsters speak? I've been loading on the same RCBS Rockchucker since the 60's. (With an RCBS A-2 - which was discontinued and replaced by the Rockchucker - that I got from an estate sale, for the 'big' stuff)

Seriously, though, when I get the new place and set up my reloading 'stuff', I'm seriously considering adding a Dillon. I've just heard so many good comments from people who use them that it makes me believe that they'd really be worth the money.

My research indicates that both Dillon and Hornady are good presses.  I don't recall anyone ever saying anything negative about a Dillon press, although I have heard people complain about being "nickel and dimed" with the other stuff you'd need for multiple calibers.  Everyone says Dillon has great service.

I have heard some complaints about the $2 case retaining spring that goes around the Hornady AP shellplate, and one complaint of a rough priming system that improved with sandpaper applied to one area.  Even the people I've talked to who had problems thought that Hornady had very good customer service too.  The Hornady AP is about $400-$430 most places and will run me just under $700 when you add in the number of shellplates, extra primer tubes, die bushings  etc that I need for all my calibers.  No extra dies at this point, just using the ones I had.  The Dillon 650 looked to run about $600-some for the press and maybe $300 more for all the other stuff to reload more calibers.

That sounds about right if you don't want a case feeder. And you're really hamstringing a 550/650 if you don't get the case feeder. My total bill, after the discount was $1100 ish with 2 additional conversions and one extra set of dies. Basically the extra accessories (primer flipper, extra tubes, tool set, roller handle, etc) were essentially covered by the discount.

Got the press a few days ago and the remaining shellplates, bushings etc are trickling in.  Had to order from several places since shellplates, especially for handgun calibers, are out of stock at many places.  Still though, after setting it up (maybe 2-3 hours, taking it easy and watching the videos on the CD that comes with it) I ran off some 38 and some 9mm.

Nice press.
The priming system could probably be more robust.  The Hornady AP press has a metal shuttle that runs back and forth in a track to carry the primer from the tube to the right part of the shell plate.  Something got caught last night and one of the few plastic parts, that holds some of the moving parts together, snapped.  Having a loose primer in the now-broken system just jammed everything up and it took more than an hour to recognize a part was broken, unjam everything and fortunately (thanks to having my dad's set of tools and some bar stock he left me) rig up a fix.

Pro-Good customer service by Hornady on getting me the replacement part with no hassle.  The press comes with two case retaining springs which are the weak link in the hornady system - nothing works if that $2 spring gets a kink in it.  One of the two springs that came with it was already kinked, so they also sent me a couple of replacement springs.  On the advice of my friend who already has one, I ordered several replacement springs when I ordered the kit too since they do break or kink occasionally.

Another Pro for the Hornady I forgot to mention is the "Get Loaded" special they run most years.  This year the special is that you get 500 free Hornady bullets when you buy a progressive press.  The 500 308 bullets I asked for have an MSRP of $150, so I suppose that's kind of like knocking at least $100 off the price of the Hornady press.

I have had a 550 for 20 years and a 650 with casefeeder for 3.

I heard good things about the Hornady LNL but just recently was able to play with one.  They are a solid press but the Dillon is nicer in just about every area.  The LNL is definitely better than anything Lee puts out.

I know a guy who has a SDB for every round he loads (helps being a Dillon Dealer). I can't get around the lack of case feeder and the proprietary dies. My 650 has a case feeder, auto index, and it uses standard dies. Those are all deal makers or breakers for me in a progressive press.

That means quite a bit, considering I've only owned my Dillon for about a year and a half, and I've been TDY for a few months of that. Nowhere near as experienced reloading period, muchless on Dillons, as Norseman is.

You mean that all of the cool kids here drink the Blue Kool-aid?

When do I get my cookies?

In the other thread, I welcomed him to the Dillon Club and said "We don't have cookies. But we have a ton of ammo."

In the other thread, I welcomed him to the Dillon Club and said "We don't have cookies. But we have a ton of ammo."

I'm gonna need powder, primers and projectiles.  It may still be a few weeks before I load anything since our family just moved into a new house and things must be squared away first.