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Trying To Decide On My First Dillon


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First, I don't have a 550, so nothing in this post is intended to disparage that machine. When I bought my 650, it was a choice between the 550 and 650. The issues were case feeder and the flexibility of the "5th station."

The former would appear to be moot now, as rumor has that Dillon is going to produce a case feeder for the 550. However, I cannot discount the second.

I am no speed demon while reloading -believe me- but I cannot guarantee that, habit notwithstanding, I will remember to look into a given case. What are the odds that the case I forget to examine is the one without powder, or the one with a double? Hmmm.....probably pretty remote, but as I enter into my seventh decade on this planet, I've also become well acquainted with a chap named Murphy. And when it comes to double charges, it only takes one- "RCBS Lockout Die," enough said.

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I've got both and I have to say they both have their definite advantages. When everything is running right, you can't beat the 650 w/ casefeeder for loading for a single caliber. Ok, you can beat it and it's called a 1050, but for the purposes of this discussion pretend that you can't. Anyway, when things aren't quite right I start thinking about setting my 550 back up.

Ex. night before last. I was having fits because I kept having spent primers stay in the brass in station 1 which prevented the new primer from going in at station 2, etc. When you get one round with a problem like that in a 650, it's a real PITA to back up and correct things and it's an area where the 550 excels. My problem turned out to be that the primers weren't being drawn back into the brass by the punch pin, they were never being completely pushed out. I didn't find this out until I went to remove the decapping die to ease the edges of the pin and noticed that the lock nut on the die had come loose and the die had backed out some. It was an easy fix but I had way more rounds go into a "pull later" box with that problem on a 650 than I would have with a 550.

As far as safety goes, the worst ammo I've ever loaded was on an auto indexing press. A friend of mine let me get started on his square deal and it's amazing how many things a new reloader can screw up no matter what the machine is. My key to safety is getting into a rhythm and doing the same thing over and over again without distractions. I would bet that the people who load 1k rounds in a session have far fewer squibs on average than those that only load a couple hundred because they get into that repetitive rhythm.

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Well, after contemplating the 550B, Hornady L-n-L AP, and XL650, I went w/ the 550 for my first progressive... figured the manual indexing would allow more discrete control over individual steps (I'm doing rifle reloading only at this stage in the game), and even w/o a case feeder it would have to be a massive step forward from what I had had (big herkin' Redding six hole turret).

Turns out I was right, on both counts. Only thing is, right now (about 4/5 of the way thru F/L sizing about 4000 once-fired military .223 cases, which then need to be ran thru the Giraud trimmer, then the Dillon swager...) something w/ an auto case feeder and indexing is looking *awfully* good! Hopefully this will be pretty much a once-a-year evolution to go thru and clean and load a whole bucket or so of practice ammo, plus my short-line match ammo. At that rate, I can probably live w/ the 550 as is, though I might be gettin' in line for a case feeder when they come out. Either that or start saving for a dedicated full progressive w/ auto-index and case feeder just for the .223 Rem...

Monte

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