Dillon 550C

[DsGrouse]

I tried a buddy's Dillon on loan for a few weeks.

Long and short of it. I don't like having to fiddle with everything all at once. I ended up moving to a Lyman T8 turret press. I've two now and 10 heads.

I prefer to prime off the press. Either a Lee app or by hand.

I've loaded 100 30-30, 150 375 win, 25 38-55, 300 45 colt, 200 44 mag in the last two days.

I run my turret press like manual indexing progressive. I run one cartridge through all the stations.

Size,

Flare,

Powder drop

Bullet drop

Seat.

Crimp.

With the new Lee bullet drop dies, I can crank out one every few seconds.

I keep looking at the Frankford Arsenal X10 for 9mm. 40/10, 45 loads, but have held off due to reports that it is more finicky than a Dillon.

Honestly, I have more ammo loaded than I can shoot in a year. Part of what I've been doing this week is organizing everything i'ce loaded in the last 18 months so I can shoot it. I've a safe full of it, under my loading bench, in a cedar chest, and in three dozen MTM boxes. Not to mention cardboard and plastic tubs labeled for accuracy and load development.

While the turret presses may be slower than a progressive, their output still outpaces my shooting.

[Ernie]

was it a yea or a nay?
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I used a lot of words to say that most of my learning curve issues with a Dillon Square Deal and Hornady LNL were with the auto-indexing feature. The 550 doesn't have that and only requires a flick of your thumb. I'd say YEA.
[/quote]

Thank You. I am not liking the auto indexing either so that is part of why I am leaning toward the 550.

[Ernie]

I tried a buddy's Dillon on loan for a few weeks.

Long and short of it. I don't like having to fiddle with everything all at once. I ended up moving to a Lyman T8 turret press. I've two now and 10 heads.

I prefer to prime off the press. Either a Lee app or by hand.


While the turret presses may be slower than a progressive, their output still outpaces my shooting.

Thanks for the input. I have a Redding press that I have not unboxed but the extra turrets are too expensive and I like the Dillon set up better. I am not in a hurry and prefer to add powder by hand from my RCBS powder scale set up and I have the Lee app if I want to deal with the primers that way. I am just tired of the problems with the auto index and the Dillon seems to be made better than the Lee.

[DsGrouse]

I tried a buddy's Dillon on loan for a few weeks.

Long and short of it. I don't like having to fiddle with everything all at once. I ended up moving to a Lyman T8 turret press. I've two now and 10 heads.

I prefer to prime off the press. Either a Lee app or by hand.


While the turret presses may be slower than a progressive, their output still outpaces my shooting.

Thanks for the input. I have a Redding press that I have not unboxed but the extra turrets are too expensive and I like the Dillon set up better. I am not in a hurry and prefer to add powder by hand from my RCBS powder scale set up and I have the Lee app if I want to deal with the primers that way. I am just tired of the problems with the auto index and the Dillon seems to be made better than the Lee.

Yeah, I most often use my rcbs chargemaster that for rifle powders. However, I do have a Harrell's precision culver measure that does very well with stick powder.

options one and two for dropping powders from a charge master into a case. Clear funnel for pistols, green funnel for anything over 20grns.



The various culver powder measures I use, I've two of the Schutzen pistol measures and one of the larger bladed culver measures for rifle powder.






I like the dillon 550, it just wasn't for me. If i were to be honest, I didn't know enough at the time to make full use of it, and since then, I've refined how I like to reload. That makes the progressive, even manual index, a moot point for me.

[Ernie]

Thanks for the information. I am just not ready to pull the trigger yet and make the change. I may have to take another look at the Redding press.