M14 Forum

Francis

I use a tool head with sizing die and trimmer them run it through, then change heads for loading on 650, it's too easy.

kgcoker

I use a 650 - three 550's and a two RCBS - depending on accuracy desired. Most high volume rounds on the 550's as they are all dedicated to a certain round. Love all of them.

30Caliber

I do all my match loads on my 550. I typically size all my brass separately just because trimming, etc doesn't fit in well with the normal progressive processes.

I keep a bucket of primed and prepped brass ready to go. I normally use a seperate powdermeasure; it's a little more consistent and doesn't add any extra time. The dillon measure can work just fine, but it's sensitive to how consistent you operate the press. I don't like weighing charges, but I've done enough to be able to anticipate when the press has dropped a heavy or light charge and I discard those drops.

bad-andy

A co-worker brought in a 308 case with the base ripped off and the neck stretched.
Told him , not enough lube.
Asked what kind of press he uses, the answer was a Dillon 550.
Apparently the index plate is tough enough to rip the base off of a stuck case.

charlesPOSTLEwade

Done that More Times than I care to Remember Stuck Cases
I have Had My 550b for 8 years the only Problem I have is the Priming System. Since Day 1 it has Never Worked right After this Batch of Reloading is Done I am Sending it Back and let them Deal With it.

D308FAM

I have among other presses a Dillon 650.
All my brass gets cleaned first and then prepped off press and I usually prime using either a Sinclair hand tool or an RCBS bench type unit so all cases go onto the 650 ready for powder drop and projectile seating then crimping leaving station one free for other purposes.
I deprime cases often using a Wilson brand punch and base with a small mallet. This lets me get the primer out and clean the cases before they are ever introduced into reloading dies making it much less likely that the die may get scratched by dirt or just get contaminated with gunk from dirty cases. If I preclean cases before reloading them it also gives me a chance to see small cracks in necks, bright lines above the case head, and other such things before I have a loaded round that I then might have to disassemble.
There are adaptor kits to make it possible to get non-Dillon powder measures onto the unit and if I were not using ball powder I might well get one of those units and use it instead of the one Dillon provides. If you make sure your powder measure has a baffle installed in the hopper after you get the powder column settled and flowing the charge coming out of the measure will tend to remain stable if the gunpowder level in the hopper is kept above the level of the baffle.
Some of the reloading die set up special techniques can work just as well on the Dillon as on a single stage press. I like to use O-rings to "float" the resizing dies, the seating dies, and all the dies that are used that otherwise are not already equipped with O-ring type lock nuts. These kinds of things if set up properly can help keep ammunition TIR lower without adding any extra steps to the reloading process.
Dillon does have very good customer service and for those that really use the Dillon products a lot you can be confident that if something happens Dillon will do their best to take care of it.

MoMoPacksa45

I load everything from .223-.358 STA on my Dillion 550. No complaints.

Mike

10mmShooter

I load my for my m1a on my 650, I prime, charge and seat the bullet on the Dillon and I deprime and resize on my Redding BBII

TheTinMan

You all are very happy with your Dillon equipment. There's no question that Dillon stands behind everything they make... forever. That's very impressive.

The Dillon website does not do a good job of explaining and showing the features on the different presses. I do not understand how the manual indexing on the 550B works - can't be rocket science but some description would help. Even the "enlarged" photos don't show enough detail to see how the press works. Honestly, Dillon's attitude seems to be "If you have to ask... sniff, sniff..."

dougfxdl

Love my 550 and load everything on it. I do size/deprime/trim as a separate operation, although I'm thinking about their electric trimmer.

@TinMan- After each stroke, you rotate the star shaped wheel, moving the case to the next station, insert an empty case at station 1, and place a bullet in the case at station 3. Ready for the next stroke. The dies stay in location, and the case progresses through to the next step.

KYShooter

Just to expand a little on the post above regarding manual indexing. There is a little steel ball on the press deck and detents in the shell plate. When you manually move the star wheel to rotate the shell holder, the detents "click" when your cases are in correct position.

Jgun

Additionally, if you mount the optional case feeder, all you do is place the bullet in the case at the seating station, pull the handle to seat the bullet (along with all the operations at the other stations) when you raise the lever and manually rotate the shell plate, a finished round will drop out every time, just like the 650, with the exception of manually rotateing the shell plate.

TheTinMan

Thanks for the explanations. Now I understand.

So could I set up a 550B with the 4 stations as follows?

1) bell and powder drop
2) powder check
3) seat
4) crimp

I prefer to re-size on a single stage press. For priming I use a Hornady hand primer for small primers and a Forster bench mounted unit primarily for large rifle primers.

dougfxdl

The only difficulty of 'moving' the stations is that there is a safety linkage (failsafe rod) that prevents powder dumps if no case is present at station 2. I.m not sure that it can be moved, as it attaches to a plate under the shell plate. I'll take a look at the press later to see if it can be moved/rotated
Do you need to crimp your loads?? I don't crimp my 308 for the M1A or 223 for AR's. With no crimp, you would dumper powder at station 2, check charge at 3, and seat at 4.
I size as a separate operation, and start the case at the powder measure.

dougfxdl

I just looked. You would need to keep the powder measure at station 2 for it to work.