Dillon Press Owners HELP

[mongo chicago]

I side with Erud and a few others. I wish I could of had the Dillon 550 instead of the Rockchucker when I started reloading. (Dillon wasn't in existance then). I use my 550 both ways. As a progressive for the shorter range rifle loads and pistol loads and as a single stage for my thousand yard loads. Best of both worlds!

 

[klamathsteel]

Dillon 550 is what i use for all my pistol reloading. It is awsome !

 

[rwj]

A Dillon progressive press can be operated as a single stage, the reverse is impossible!

 

[DirtySteve]

I use my 550’s for everything, even loading black powder cartridge. Of course loading black powder I use it as a single stage press and use a drop tube to pour the powder in to the case. Never use a Dillon powder measure for black powder. What I am getting at here is the 550 is very flexible in what you can use it for.

 

[divingin]

You want to be tired and wore out from reloading sessions? WHAT?

Reread my post and look at it from the perspective of someone starting out.

 

[SealT5]

Everyone have a blessed Christmas!

Sister has ordered a 750XL with all the goodies for 9mm. When she is here at Xmas I’m gonna show her my setup and she wants me to help her gear up to reload her rifle calibers with a single stage press like I do. I can’t wait to spend her money

 

[Erud]

Diving right in, love it! 15 year old kids can learn how to fly an airplane on their own in no time flat, there’s no reason a grown woman can’t manage a progressive press. Let us know how it goes!

 

[SealT5]

Diving right in, love it! 15 year old kids can learn how to fly an airplane on their own in no time flat, there’s no reason a grown woman can’t manage a progressive press. Let us know how it goes!

I feel like this thread would have gone a different direction had I not mentioned it being my sister. Sad

But she is far from your typical woman. She’s an award winning architect. Lives basically off the grid in East Texas. The large majority of their food is grown and raised by them. This reloading venture is just another step in her independence from the outside world. Being an engineer by trade she has the buy once, cry once, do it right the first time mentality. Having a large income helps too haha. Unlike poor folk with kids like myself!

 

[Erud]

I feel like this thread would have gone a different direction had I not mentioned it being my sister. Sad

But she is far from your typical woman. She’s an award winning architect. Lives basically off the grid in East Texas. The large majority of their food is grown and raised by them. This reloading venture is just another step in her independence from the outside world. Being an engineer by trade she has the buy once, cry once, do it right the first time mentality. Having a large income helps too haha. Unlike poor folk with kids like myself!

I hope you didn't misunderstand my meaning there, nothing derogatory intended towards your sister or women. I just don't agree with the advice that most give about having to start on a single stage and work your way up to a progressive for some reason. When someone buys a house and needs to cut the grass, no one ever insists that they start with an old-fashioned push-powered mower and work their way up, even though that activity is probably more inherently dangerous than loading your own ammo. Many reloaders like to attach some sort of mysticism to the process, but it's a pretty simple task that anyone can learn to do. We are not splitting the atom.

When I got my pilot's license, there were two 15-year old kids (about to turn 16) who started instruction at the same time as me at the same airport. Neither had any previous experience, and both scheduled lessons 4 days/week. Both tested out on their birthdays, and had their licenses in under 40 days start to finish. People are capable of mastering complicated things very quickly, and reloading is not that complicated.

 

[acloco]

I disagree with the advice of starting with a single stage press. If she is planning to load mainly pistol cartridges in volume, she will hate loading on a single stage. A progressive press is indeed more complicated, but it's just a machine and any reasonably-intelligent person can learn to properly operate one pretty easily. I started loading on a 550B, and I've never found any purpose at all for owning a single stage press. I've had a couple and still have one in a cabinet somewhere, but every time I've set them up I've quickly realized that they don't do anything better than the 550, they just do it a lot slower.

I've got the 550 and also a 650, and for a first press I'd recommend the 550. If I could only have one press it'd be the 550. It can crank out bulk ammo pretty fast, and has a lot fewer parts to maintain and service. With a few minor tweaks, it will also work great for match grade rifle ammo. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a 650/750, if that's a concern. I use the 650 mainly for bulk pistol stuff, and also as a really expensive de-primer for rifle cartridges. It's ok, but it seems like I am always needing to fix something on it whereas the 550 just keeps on going without issue.

Good luck.

.....and EVERY stage of a progressive is another SINGLE STAGE press.

Learn the process....walk....then jog...then run.

 

[rwj]

Learn the process....walk....then jog...then run.

Yup, easily done… just process one case at a time thru each station to ensure they are each properly setup then switch to progressive mode…

 

[justpassinthru]

I disagree with the advice of starting with a single stage press. If she is planning to load mainly pistol cartridges in volume, she will hate loading on a single stage. A progressive press is indeed more complicated, but it's just a machine and any reasonably-intelligent person can learn to properly operate one pretty easily. I started loading on a 550B, and I've never found any purpose at all for owning a single stage press. I've had a couple and still have one in a cabinet somewhere, but every time I've set them up I've quickly realized that they don't do anything better than the 550, they just do it a lot slower.

I've got the 550 and also a 650, and for a first press I'd recommend the 550. If I could only have one press it'd be the 550. It can crank out bulk ammo pretty fast, and has a lot fewer parts to maintain and service. With a few minor tweaks, it will also work great for match grade rifle ammo. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a 650/750, if that's a concern. I use the 650 mainly for bulk pistol stuff, and also as a really expensive de-primer for rifle cartridges. It's ok, but it seems like I am always needing to fix something on it whereas the 550 just keeps on going without issue.

Good luck.

I suppose it would depend a lot on the person. For a total greenhorn starting out without anyone to help or even to ask about something, I think it's best to learn on a single stage.
I started out 50 years ago with an original Lee Loader and a plastic hammer. When I moved up to a Rockchucker, I thought I had it made.

 

[Erud]

I suppose it could depend on the person, but I’m a pretty regular guy of very average intelligence and I started on a 550B 20 years ago. I didn’t know anyone else who loaded ammo at the time. Everything went just fine. It’s not a big deal, especially now when a person can find a step-by-step video tutorial on how to do anything they can imagine within 30 seconds of online searching.

 

[AzMandella]

Everyone have a blessed Christmas!

Sister has ordered a 750XL with all the goodies for 9mm. When she is here at Xmas I’m gonna show her my setup and she wants me to help her gear up to reload her rifle calibers with a single stage press like I do. I can’t wait to spend her money

Did she buy a Dillon package for 9mm from someone other than Dillon .? As of right now Dillon shows the dies being 80 weeks out .

 

[SealT5]

Idk how I’m still alive. 8-9 years ago I bought a Redding big boss 2 and a charge master and went to town with knowledge I had acquired from Internet forums and YouTube. But that’s my personality. I’m self taught In everything I do because that’s how I was raised.

 

[SealT5]

Did she buy a Dillon package for 9mm from someone other than Dillon .? As of right now Dillon shows the dies being 80 weeks out .

Not sure. But yes. Availability is a big issue currently

 

[RegionRat]

Considering the OP's sister sounds like a good scout, she is also an engineer and tries to live "prepared".

That doesn't sound like the MO of a person who won't figure out reloading or blow up her gun, but I am just guessing...

My guess is she will be out reloading and out shooting half the folks on this forum in short order.

Want to win? Shoot like a girl...

 

[Scalloper]

This statement, "my sister is wanting to get into reloading", makes me wonder if she's ever reloaded at all. If not, I think she'd be better off starting with a single stage to learn the basics before going with a progressive.

Can she find enough components to feed a hungry progressive press?

 

[RegionRat]

Can she find enough components to feed a hungry progressive press?

In the last 18 months, I have gifted a few Dillon 550C starter packages to friends.

The challenge was not the reloading supplies since Berry's Bullets have been delivering bullets and stuff like TiteGroup has come available several times. I already had primers to donate cause I learned that lesson well enough during GW1. The folks I was teaching had been saving up their brass for years, but even if they had none the pistol brass calibers are not hard to get.

The challenge has been waiting on the press for several weeks, but their carbide dies are an indefinite wait. They have sent me the presses without dies, so as long as you can find temporary dies getting someone set up from a blank slate has been no problem at all for pistol rounds like 9mm or 38.

 

[DaveCo]

Something to consider, as you set her up:
Not sure what volume of shooting she envisions, but my bottleneck was always having enough clean cases. Your normal tumbler just won't do for really high volumes.
Now I'm talking 1-2 thousand rds per week (the good ol' bullseye, uspsa, and steel challenge days, before elbow and shoulder surgeries), but on a 750, once she gets "up to speed" it's easy to crank out 500 or more an evening.
Gotta feed the case feeder (or get several thousand empties).

ETA: The surgeries weren't necessitated by shooting, totally unrelated, but made it impossible to keep shooting the volume needed to play those games at a reasonable level.
Dave