Montana77

To: Bob D.......tnx for advice to get some 1" nuts for the dies. I did, got 9 of them along with a couple more powder dies. I've only loaded about 100 ea of 44 mag and 44 spcl so far. I'm just learning the 550. Today I switched from small powder bar to large powder bar, and fiddled around getting it to work. (The key for me was to adjust the little blue plastic nut at bottom of safe return link, so the powder bar would travel FULLY from left to right (shut to open). After some trial, did get the adjustment of the end bolt to drop 34 gr of Win748 with consistency for six or seven drops. Haven't actually dropped the powder into the brass yet, as I'm waiting for the Lee Factory crimp die to arrive for the 30-30 setup. Will check the drops every 8 or 10 times, but am looking forward to loading about 300 cartridges next week. Using 150 gr Speer RN w/ large rifle MAGNUM primers. (Speer #11 book sez CCI 250's for Win 748. Thanks again for info in your post.

To Jackie 40X40: Tnx for 'ole Indian trick'. I'm not familiar with a bushing type sizing die. Will look into it. I've heard it doesn't wear the brass out so quickly for repeated reloads. Is the bushing method similar to "neck sizing"? I don't have any neck sizing dies, but have considered getting some for the calibers I use the most. (270, 30-06).

Not sure what you mean about using case feeder. I don't really know how a case feeder works, or if the brass is prepared (resized-decapped, trimmed, etc) before loading into the case feeder.

Just reread my last post. There would be no primer to remove in stage 1 if one resizes w/the decapper in a prior operation. Still, the use of the 'universal decapper' die is stage 1 is a good move.

Great comments. Thanks to all. Especially Dave's. Never thought of doing 'decapping' only in 1st stage. That does two things with one down pull on lever, 1) removes old primer, 2) cleans flash hole, both WITHOUT working the brass again. Seems some of you do the resizing BEFORE using the 550. That enables chance to check for need of trimming & primer pocket reaming etc. Does increase the time to reload, but there is nothing wrong with that for me. My original question was meant to see if lubing (spray or pad) was going to allow lube gathering in the primer pocket, then when priming in stage 1, sealing that 'lube' in under the primer...and effecting the flash. Maybe much to-do about nothing. This is a good Forum, thanks again. Jerry

I'm fairly experienced at reloading w/ RCBS rockchucker...and have used my 'stuck brass' remover tool a few times when I didn't get proper lube on bottleneck brass, so I know that drill. I load 22-250, 7mm-08, 270, 30-30, 30-06, 300 Win mag, & 338 Win mag. (That's what happens when you have 4 boys who hunt too). Just got a used Dillon 550B & would like to reload rifle cartridges. Most of my rifle dies are NOT carbide. Most are RCBS or Redding. Lube-ing the brass, as usual rolling brass on pad, or even spraying with Dillon spray lube first will (I assume) keep brass from getting stuck in 1st stage of the 550B. Question: Will this lube eventually affect a clean primer seating? I believe using the new Dillon dies will make it easier to clean the inside of dies. But my question is really about the primer pockets getting compromised before the primer is seated. One way to avoid this potential problem is to prime the brass BEFORE lubing, and not use the prime function of the 550B when resizing. I have no problem with that, as I use the RCBS bench primer & it works great! Maybe I need to just go for broke and buy a bunch of Dillon dies? Comments greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi Jack,....senior here too, 77 near 78. Western Montana. Lots of calibers. Been using a Rockchucker for last 25 years and decided to try a 550B, got it 'used' from guy who went to a 650. I'm not too sure I'll load many rifle rounds, as I have time to tinker with reloading. I load 30-30, 7mm-08, 270 Win, 308 Win (for model 88), 30-06, 38 Spcl/357, 44 Spcl/Mag. Loading for 4 sons and 1 grandson keeps me trimming brass! One of my sons has a 300 Win mag, the other a 338 Win mag. I'm thinking of getting the 'Mag' powder bar, or the 'Mag Belted' setup. The latter is kinda spendy tho. I could just do the mag's the old fashioned way. We have 380 acp, 9mm, 40 cal, too...and I'm gonna try loading 9's and 40's. Picking up the brass at the range is getting to be a real effort, especially in the snow. Question: how do you clean your 9mm brass, before or after depriming? Thanks for reply Mr Super Senior, and I understand why you have TWO locations! Take care.

After I posted, I scrolled down and found Classifieds. And read the rules for posting in Classifieds. Will take some time to earn the 50 postings, but maybe some day. Thanks to the organizers for this Forum, it seems to be a good one.

Hello from Montana. New member here, and not sure about the rules regarding 'classifieds'.