Considering a 550B

[Wizard]

Having loaded roughly 16000 rds on my two Lee 4-hole Turret presses in the last couple of years, I think I'm ready for a 550B. Questions: Will my Lee 4-die sets work? Will the powder dies of the Lee work with the Dillon powder measure? .....I load .45acp, 9mm, and 38special.....I do not load for rifle, and probably never will. One more question: because I only load for pistol, would the Square Deal B or the 550B, be the best choice? Thanks for the help.....

[Steve RA]

There is a used one in classifieds you might want to take a look at.

[atbarr]

16,000 rds in two years, IMO you need a 550. Give Brian a call, he will NOT over sell you.

[Sarge]

Having loaded roughly 16000 rds on my two Lee 4-hole Turret presses in the last couple of years, I think I'm ready for a 550B. Questions: Will my Lee 4-die sets work? Absolutely. Will the powder dies of the Lee work with the Dillon powder measure? NO .....I load .45acp, 9mm, and 38special.....I do not load for rifle, and probably never will. One more question: because I only load for pistol, would the Square Deal B or the 550B, be the best choice? While the SDB is, I'm sure, a great press it has one drawback. You must use Dillon proprietary dies with it. You can't swap out seating dies, sizing dies etc. Thanks for the help.....

I used a 550 for over two years and it is a great press. Only you know what your future holds for shooting and reloading. If you think you may soon want a case feeder, bulletfeeder etc then the 650 might be worth looking at first. Either way you will be able to sell the 550 for about what you paid for it if you decide to upgrade later.

[mike l m]

Have two old 450Bs which I converted to the auto primer feeder and auto powder mearsure.

Have used them for 25 plus years. No real problems and it I have one, call Dillion

and they have a NO B/S warranty will treat you right.

Mike

[Leftridge]

I will start by saying that the 550 is the only progressive that I have used, so take it for what it is. I loaded for about 4 years on RCBS and Lee single stage prior to the 550. I load about 8-10k per year, I Love the 550 and would buy it again.

In you case I would say 550 over SDB because you can use most of your dies.

[Hi-Power Jack]

loaded 16000 rds in the last couple of years, I load .45acp, 9mm, and 38special

Wiz, are you loading about equal numbers of the three calibers?

Or, are you loading predominately one caliber, with a few

of the others on occasion?

I have reloaded only on a Square Deal, and I love it -

I can load 16,000 rounds in 64 hours (less than three

hours/month - 40 minutes/week).

If you don't load rifle, I don't see much advantage to

the extra cost of the 550, but that's just my opinion.

[Sal1950]

Yes the Lee dies will work on a Dillon 550B press, it uses any standard 1" die. But not on the Square Deal, it's uses proprietary 7/8's dies.

No you can't use the Lee powder die with a Dillon measure but Dillon 550 caliber conversion kits come with their own powder die/expander, so there will be nothing more to buy.

The Square Deal press is a good press but the 550B is much heavier duty. Since you already have 3 die sets you want to use the 550B will be the better choice and cost will about even out.

Sal

[Alvarez Kelly]

Since you can use the dies you already own, the advantage goes to the 550 over the SDB. I load on both, so I am not bias at all.

Either would serve you well, but the 550 is a little more verstatile...

As always, everyone is going to have their own opinion. Yours is the only one that matters. Have YOU actually loaded on either? Some find the SDB harder to work with, especially if you have big hands.

[Wizard]

Thanks for the replies....I have never reloaded on a progressive press...only single stage and turret....I load about equal amounts of .45acp and 9mm, and less of 38special.....looks like the 550B is the press I want....thanks again, for the help.....