Rifle rounds on a Dillon 550B

pdog72

Hello all,
I have the opportunity to inherit a Dillon 550B reloading press that belonged to my father. I have reloaded rifle rounds off and on for 20 yrs or so on my RCBS single stage. So far, I do not load for handgun. I have a few questions for any of you that use the 550B for reloading rifle rounds:

1. Does it work as well for rifle as it does for pistol rounds?
2. Can I operate it as a single stage unit for hunting rounds or anything I am more particular about?
3. I normally wipe off all the lube, or tumble them between sizing and powdering the cases, would I just wipe them down after they are a completed round with a progressive?
4. Will my current dies work, or will I have to purchase Dillon dies?

I'm just trying to decide whether to keep his press and switch over to a progressive, or sell it with some other items we are not interested in. Any thoughts?

Gary

midnightrunpaintballer

Yes, you can reload rifle ammo on it, whether or not you choose to do so will depend on your own personal standards. I load all of my handgun and AR ammo on mine, but still go back to the ol single stage when I want precision. I'm not saying the dillon can't handle precision, just that I personally prefer a single stage when it comes to being picky.

Do you need Dillon dies? No. Regular dies will work just fine. I have a mixture of RCBS and LEE dies that I use on mine.

Can you operate it as a single stage? You could, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a progressive and again brings us back to your personal preference of pickiness. Try it, then check everything with calipers and see what it's producing for you.

Tumbling lube. Personally, I tumble all of my brass in walnut to clean it, then tumble the finished loaded rounds in corncob to remove the lube and give a little polish. Works great.

Good luck I would definitely keep that press, but then I shoot a lot and load a lot.

pdog72

As far as usng it for a single stage, I just didn't really have the room to keep both presses set up and wondered about loading all my varmint loads as progressive, and still being able to use it single stage for some larger calibers I hunt with.

I've never tumbled loaded cartridges. I guess I thought there might be some danger to that. If its safe to do so, that would make it easy.

Thanks for the info.

Hawk Carse

When the Blue Press wrote up the collegiate rifle team loading their target ammo on Dillons, they described the use of two 550s. One was set up to size, decap, and trim; the other to prime, powder charge, and seat bullets. That way they could turn out good quality ammunition by handling the cases only twice, with an opportunity to degrease between sizing/trimming and loading.

In your limited space you could do that with two headplates on one press.

gunnut505

The 550 will do it all and then some.
I've used mine for precision loads (who gets less than 1/10th of a grain standard deviation from their powder dropper?), pistol and revolver loads, everything that a single stage will do and even faster.
I don't tumble loaded ammo because it MAY break the powder down into dust, and who wants that?
I either use wax or powdered mica for sizing, so I don't relate to having goo all over the cases when I'm done loading.
You could use the 550 as a "single stage" by just pulling the pin at each station after using it, and then get all pinche about your rounds at that point.
The whole idea of a progressive is to load volumes of the exact load every time, without having to drool over each and every round made.
That's why when you first set up your dies; you put them exactly where you want them, and lock 'em down to make the same round every time.
Look at the manual that comes with every Dillon product, and if that doesn't answer all your questions; call them, that's why they have friendly, knowledgable folks on the phone.

midnightrunpaintballer

I would like to add that when I tumble loaded ammunition to remove case lube in the corncob media, only 5 minutes or so is necessary. It really doesn't take much. Will your powder break down into dust and raise pressures? Maybe if you let them tumble non stop for a couple weeks. When tumbling for 5-10 minutes? No. If powder was that easy to break down, then it would already be dust just from the truck ride from the manufacturer to stock in your local stores. Or the truck ride to get wherever you bought it from.

243winxb

You will need to check case trim length after sizing. For bottle neck rounds, a cartridge gage is a good idea. The shell plates are not as exact like a shell holder @ .125" Make sure your full length sized brass will chamber before loading.

NeoBlackdog

I reload for my pistols and my AR with a 550B, but for my precision guns I remove the shells after priming and drop the powder in with a funnel after measuring each charge. Stick powders just don't meter as well as flake or spherical powders do in the Dillon.

pdog72

Sounds like it will do what want it to do. I just didnt want two presses mounted at my bench. I usually run ball powder for all my varmint rounds, so I could probably run them through at full speed. For my more precise hunting rounds, I can de-prime, size and prime on the first station, and then pull them to powder them by hand and go back into the rotation for bullet seating. The Dillon sounds like quite a machine, so I think it will be a welcome addition to my re-loading set-up. I'll just have to figure out a routine that works for me. I guess thats part of the fun. Anyway, Dad would be pleased knowing I am putting it to good use, and enjoying it as well.

Thanks everyone for all the ideas and comments,
Gary

GUNFUNCO

The way I usually use my dillon to load rifle rounds is to first tumble to clean, then lube, size, and decap the brass on my rockchucker. Then I use my RCBS power trimmer to trim all the cases.

I then tumble again to clean off the lube.

When I have a bunch of processed brass, I use the dillon to prime, charge with powder, seat the bullet and crimp (if necessary).

If I have once fired brass that was trimmed with the last loading Like 223 or 308, I can just clean, lube and load.

I usually only use the Dillon on 223 or 308 because I shoot so few of my other rifle calibers that I just reload them on my rockchucker.

Hope this helps....

Pistollero1050

+1 on above info. I to have limited space so when I want to do single stage work I got one of those pedistal stands from midway. I mounted my single stage on that and when I'm not using it I can just take the top off with the press still attached and store it in the closet. You can also get an extra top and mount trimmer or primer press on that.Also if you want to spend more time with the wife you can take it into another room! I only reload pistol,.223 rifle, and 7.62X39 on my 550B. Large cals are all single stage for me.

jednorris

I purchased a very old Dillon 650 that was more than what I needed and decided to sell it. I phoned Dillon to get an idea of what to ask for it. They convinced me that since every part of it was guaranteed for life, and any owner that bought it would never ever need to spend a dime on it, to ask almost full price. New price with acces. was about $1,000.00 and I got $850.00 . the guy phoned me a month later and thanked me for a great deal. Any price less than new,is a bargain.