which dillon

[ricci]

in the market for a dillon reloader only interested reloading 9mm 40 and 45 pistol ammo/ which would be best for me ?

[CHARLES D]

Go ahead and get a 650. You,ll never regret it

[Merlin Orr]

Go HERE and look at the pinned topics at the top of the page. You will learn a lot in a short time.

Maybe even better start right at this thread

Welcome to the Forums!

Edited September 11, 2012 by Merlin Orr

[Babaganoosh]

Go ahead and get a 650. You,ll never regret it

Without knowing how many rounds his guy is going to shoot a month he could easily go with a SDB or maybe even a 550.

"Hey get a 1050 with a bullet feeder and an autodrive and don't look back."

Cmon guys, we need to hear his needs a little more.

Edited September 11, 2012 by Babaganoosh

[PAcanis]

That is basically what I want to be reloading, throw in a couple rifle cartridges. I went with the 550. I was close to pulling the trigger on a 650 until I read (on Brian's site I think) that if you are only going to load a few hundred rounds at a time in any give cartridge, the 550 will do you just fine. That's my goal, 2-300 at a time and a quick switchover to a different caliber.

[Lifeislarge]

Go ahead and get a 650. You,ll never regret it

"Hey get a 1050 with a bullet feeder and an autodrive and don't look back."

I like your style

[Merlin Orr]

The 550 with a few tool heads will serve you very well. If you have a tool head with powder hopper for a specific caliber (and it is the same size primer cartridge) you can easily change the caliber you are loading in a matter or a couple of minutes.

Really taking your time and being very careful you can load your example goal of 200-300 in less than an hour... very easily.

[MARKAVELI]

RL550B with the "As it should be" upgrade!

[benos]

I'd recommend starting here:

Dillon FAQ:

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillonfaqs.html

“Which Dillon”:

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillon.html#which

be

[Hi-Power Jack]

reloading 9mm , 40, and 45 / which Dillon is best for me ?

Ricci, few questions:

1. how many rounds of each caliber do you shoot per year?

2. how much time do you have to reload/month?

3. what's your budget?

4. how much experience do you have reloading?

These are critical factors to be able to answer your question.

[Reinz]

If you are a true gun guy, buy a Dillon like you would buy a gunsafe; bigger than you can afford. You won't regret it and play the "I wish..." game.

Good Luck

[M-Bear]

I own a 650 because I wanted it not because I needed it. With a Dillon 550 If I reloaded for 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week you would be putting out around 1200 rounds that week. I know once in a while I have shot more than that a week but certainly not every week. For the vast majority of people the 550 is all they will ever need.

[triggerhound]

I've owned a 650 and then upgraded to the 1050. The 650 is a great press. It allows you to change calibers very easily and will allow you to reload many different pistol and rifle cartridges. You can purchase additional tool heads but its not required. Its relatively inexpensive to add additional calibers too. I liked it better than the lower end models because it was auto-indexing. The 1050 is a great press but not easy to change calibers and is very expensive to add new calibers.

[splashdown]

I've loaded on a SDB for 6 or 7 years and it's been a great machine. Never regret the purchase and never wish I had a larger machine. I shoot under 5000 rounds per year. I load between 200-600 in one session depending on the number of matches I have coming up.

[Bek]

I'm in a similar boat as you (OP). I'm just starting out, looking to reload 45 ACP, 9mm, and eventually .223 and .308. I picked up a 550B and after all of the reading & research I've done, am confident that it'll serve me well for years to come.

[Got Juice?]

Speaking from a once newbies perspective who got into IPSC 3 years ago:

Buy a 550. Load with it until you are proficient and get all your rythyms correct. The 550 will make a buttload of high quality ammo in short order.

As my IPSC shooting increased (matches and practice time) I found that I disliked my 550. Mainly because I was shooting more than I could reload comfortably in one sitting.

So, I decided to keep my 550 for my rifle caliber's and lesser shot pistol calibers, and went out and bought a Super1050 and bullet feeder, and could not be happier with my decision.

But I also reloaded for 3 years on the 550 until my IPSC appetite for .40 ammo made the choice for me.

And that IMHO is how to decide what reloader you need.

Once I got up to 800 rounds per week (and beyond) in .40 I decided that overkill was the best path for me.

The 550 is still busy, but 500 rounds in 2 hrs of .204 or 357SIG works well.

My 1050 in 1/2 an hour can keep me practicing for 2-3 days.

Which leaves me more time to practice dry dire drills, spend time with loved ones and... Well you get the idea.

[knh]

have loaded with a lee 1000 for yrs.

but the second press was not the same quality as no.1.loading was a job on the second 1000,finaly fed up with the low powder rounds and hitting the bullet out with a brass rod and hammer.poor setting of the primers ect.after asking on this forum about the dillon square deal and postive respones from the forum I purchased a square deal from brain enos.what a difference in the quare deal to the lee1000 setting up and starting was easy with the instuctions with the press.shot the first rounds loaded from my new press,quality does make a difference.

[renzo808]

+1 On the 550B.

[orangeman711]

Go with the 650 and you'll never look back. Good luck.

[MikeRush]

Depending on how often you are planning on switching calibers the 550 probably makes the most sense. I do a lot of smaller batches of different calibers (when I take people to introduce them to shooting, for example) so I love the 550's versatility. I ended up purchasing a second 550 to keep one machine set up for small primers and one for large. Now that I am starting to get more serious about USPSA I am considering a 650 or 1050 for .40, but I am still glad I can load .223, .38, 9mm, and .45 on the 550s. I can get about 400 rounds per hour out of the pistol calibers.

[njl]

You've got to decide how fast a machine you're willing to pay for, how complicated a setup you want to deal with, and whether you ever might want to load rifle calibers (or any not available for the SDB).

If you're never going to do anything but 9/40/45, the SDB is a good option.

Might want to do rifle in the future, you need at least the RL550B.

Want the flexibility of the 550, but more speed, get a 650 and case feeder.

Made of money, want ammo fast, get 2 650s or 1050s or a mix. Leave one setup for LP, one setup for SP.

[reloader901]

in the market for a dillon reloader only interested reloading 9mm 40 and 45 pistol ammo/ which would be best for me ?

I bought a Square Deal B in the late 1990's. I liked it for .45 ACP, but now 15 years later I am selling it because I recently purchased a 650 to do rifle ammo too.

If you are reasonably sure you will never reload rifle ammo, and you don't need to load tens of thousands of rounds a Square Deal B is great and compact.

The 650 is cool, but it is large. Also the 650 requires some bench overhang; the Square Deal does not. Sometimes this isn't a concern as many benches have overhang. In my case I had to modify my bench for my 650 to provide overhang.

Edited October 7, 2012 by reloader901

[Taylor Murphy]

Go with the 550 if you plan on reloading multiple calibers.

[gregdavidl]

It's really no big deal to change the primer size on a 1050. When you're changing calibers, for example .45 to .40, you already have to take the head off to swap the shell plate out. At that point it's no big deal to switch the primer feed. And it's a good time to clean the press.

[Eric_Vmax]

I have known several people that started with the Square deal and ended up getting the 550 after the first year, the 550 is great for all around since you can use it as a single stage easily, but if you are looking for large volume, then the 650 is the way to go! I have a 550 and a 650. I only reload .38 super and 9mm on the 650, everything else is loaded on the 550 (.44 MAG, .357 & .38 spc, SIG .357, .40 Cal, .45ACP, .223)