AZDILLON1965

thanks for the reply. Was just wondering because I have seen Videos of guys reloading .223 and they actually have a good amount showing past the bottom of the tool head. In fact, they grab the doe from under the tool head to continue to adjust down

Hope I can explain/ask this properly: When I set up my Dillon powder die and powder drop for rifle (30-06 and .223) I have to thread down the die to just before it show any threads under the tool head, otherwise if I lower it more the bell crank (plastic cube) travels all the way to the right side (open) but the handle only goes about half way and the cases get destroyed and that is with just a bit of threads showing so I back off to no threads showing and we are in business. Now, watching videos of people reloading .223 as well they have a good amount of thread showing under the tool head as well as with .308 and even 30.06. Am I doing something wrong? is my handle travel stroke wrong? I tried with no dies in the tool head other than the powder die and same issue.....again. I can only set up my die to not show threads for the powder drop to work properly, suggestions? I called Dillon and they said that the die has to be adjusted up or down depending on caliber but when I explained it was with .223 and what it was doing the gentleman said that was strange and never heard ot it. We went over the set up and he belive I was doing it right...no explanation

Has anyone found an alternative other than area 419 funnel extension to raise the funnel that comes with the Dillon powder die( not the die for the powder drop).

I have no modifications on mine other than the shell plate bearing and have loaded dropping powder by hand from the chargemaster and to me there is a slight difference between reloading my 30-06 on a single press and the Dillon but not enough to make a huge difference for the recreational type of shooting I do. As long as I have a case in station one the seating die seats consistently but huge difference if I seat with no case in station one

I was going to ask about the Lee rings because I have read other posts where it was indicated that they felt the Lee rings provided some type of floating benefits. Most of my dies are Lee because of the price. Would like to hear if others feel the lee dies could provide some of the floating benefits

Very cool. The 2 dies with the micrometers, one is the seater and what is the other?

You are correct and thanks. That is why the fellow that I was speaking to was saying that if so great why do one have to modify the tool head the shell plate float the dies etc. For me personally it has been a useful press for 25 years ( on and off) and the lee single press has been good to me if I ever shoot F-class or BR I may consider a foster co-ax or I may not

I have reloaded with lee single stages with no issues. You must be referring to lee progressives ? I did try a Lee turret back in the mid 90s and had lots of issues

Agreed. Great answer

The mods are many from a different toolhead to grinding the shellplate to even sanding the primer cups....and more. It is my understanding that Tubbs 550 has been modified. I forgot to mentioned that long time ago a gentleman told me that he relaoded on his 550 with no mods and made no difference to him to about 300 yards. He did notice a degradation when shooting 500 yards + and for those rounds he did reload on a single stage

Great replies. Obviously the Forster single stage won't be as fast but allegedly it provides better alignment and run out etc etc. I do like the point made that it will make Pretty accute. Not REALLY accurate.The convesation is more for "rifle" than handgun because there is no way a single stage will even compare to a progressive for handgun

Hello: I am new to posting as I usually stay away drom forums although I must admit I have learned much from forums ( and not contributed) but I also find lots of misinformation on the net but that is another topic. I am just a recreational reloader and reload on a 550b and/or a Lee single stage. I have a mix of equipment from different manufacturers but probably lean towards Dillon because I have owned one for 25 years and have good and bad experiences but mainly good ( rifle and pistol reloading) To be honest, because I don’t compete in any form ( BR, F- class etc) I keep things fairly basic and I believe I have seen a slight decline in accuracy when reloading rifle ( 223 and 30-06) vs single stage but not bad enough for my recreation. I do experiment with bump size, mandrels etc but I bump size more for case longevity and yes accuracy. anyway, the other day at the range I got into a conversation with a fellow that had this nice rifle and he was shooting a 6.5 PRC and was producing 5 shots group almost dime size at 200 yards. Some groups were bigger than others but impressive. We got to talk reloading and he mentioned he kept things simple and used a single stage like many others. I mentioned I use a single stage or a Dillon 550 and explained to him that for my standard the decline in accuracy was there but minimal. He did ask a valid question that was asked of me before and to be honest not sure if I answered them to the best way possible. So he mentioned the Dillon leaves much to be desired for precision reloading because of the tool head flex and the shell plate etc. I did answered that there was many ways to mitigate all those issues. He proceed to ask: “ if you spend all that money on a Dillon and then you have to buy a special tool head with dies with floating this and floating that then why buy a Dillon when it would be cheaper to buy a Forster and get it done and no need to purchase extras. what is your opinion. We know that for pistol the Dillon is amazing fast and for my gas gun .223 is a fast machine. Can a stock Dillon produce match class ammo with no modifications? He also mentioned the powder drop issue with extruded powder and I mentioned I have not seen a powder measure flow extruded powder well. He agreed but said his Hornady powder drop does best than any in the market. I did not argue his statement as he may have a great powder drop. You would think that with all the technical advances that someone would make a powder drop that would flow any powder like water I am texting from my phone and multitasking so probably make no sense at all but would like to hear your opinions on why if Dillon is so great why do we need to modify it to get precision ammo from it