Dillon 550 presses

[41mag]

Conversion kit includes several key components. I'm away from bench right now, so check Dillon catalog. Several adapter/spacer caliber necessaries, a metal feed ramp stage1 plus another case adapter from the feed tube if you
have case feeder. Plus locator buttons . Each part increase precision of guiding the process.

 

[ron]

I have been reloading on my 550 Dillon about 30 years. I reload thousands of pistol and rifle on the 550
annually. I reload match ammo and sometimes weigh each powder charge with certain types of powder
that does not meter well. Just remove powder thrower. I like the manual indexing. No problem stopping and
inspecting at any stage. Caliber conversion is cheaper and easier than the 650/750. Warranty is excellent.
I have worn out and broken crank assembly parts and powder throwers. Dillon always replaced them no hassle.
I would highly recommend the 550.

 

[ron]

How many 7 mag and 06 do you plan on loading per year?
I think most people with a 550 or 650 deprime and prime off the machine when loading bottleneck rifle, leaving just charging and seating so I don't really see the utility there.
If you want a good precision rifle press, a coax is thought to be top tier.

I always prime on my Dillon 550. I have other priming methods but the Dillon works the best. Just finished
reloading a couple hundred 30/06 rounds. Weighed each powder charge with a RCBS Chargemaster. Never
had a case feeder.

 

[ARFrog]

I'm at a loss, is the shell plate the caliber conversion and the tool head is the alumimum block that the dies thread into? This is the one thing I like the most about the dillon 550 press is the tool head or die head, they look like a much easier design to copy. I've been a machiist for 23 plus years and I've made a few Lee turrets on a mill but they are not easy to copy where as the Dillon die head looks pretty simple to recreate

The caliber conversion consists of several parts - shell plate, powder funnel, locator pins, case feed adapter, station 1 locator ramp, casefeed arm bushing, etc. These parts are caliber specific.

The tool head is separate. Likewise, the dies are separate and are then mounted in the tool head.

The XL 750/650 QUICK CHANGE (Stock Number: 22059) allows you to leave your dies and powder charge set up and dedicated to a specific cartridge for faster, easier caliber changes. It is a mix of tool head, dies and powder measure parts.

XL750 - Reloading Machines - Reloading

Dillon Precision: Reloaders, Reloading Equipment, Bullet Reloading, Bullet Reloaders

www.dillonprecision.com

Hope this helps...

 

[Sundance]

If you tavel North and end up in Hillsboro with some extra time, give me a shout and you can take a look at my 550 setup. I've had it almost 40 years and broke several parts - Dillon has repalced each free of charge, great customer service. I reload a dozen different cartridges with it - from 5.7 to 50 Beowulf. There are a few tricks that make it smoother. Never had an issue with manual indexing, kind of like it when setting up, changing dies, etc. You get used to it - insert case and add bullet, pull, push, turn - rinse and repeat...

 

[metalhead68]

If you tavel North and end up in Hillsboro with some extra time, give me a shout and you can take a look at my 550 setup. I've had it almost 40 years and broke several parts - Dillon has repalced each free of charge, great customer service. I reload a dozen different cartridges with it - from 5.7 to 50 Beowulf. There are a few tricks that make it smoother. Never had an issue with manual indexing, kind of like it when setting up, changing dies, etc. You get used to it - insert case and add bullet, pull, push, turn - rinse and repeat...

I've already committed to the purchase and the owner and I have done business on here before. I'm picking it up on the 8th , I'll let you know after I get it set up

 

[MikeInOr]

I have worked on friends Dillon 550 presses and they are very nice solid well engineered presses. For really cranking out ammo they don't really compare to my 25+ year old 650XL with a case feeder though. Back then it was a pretty big purchase but I have NEVER regretted going with the 650 over the 550.

I could probably speed up my 650 even more with a bullet feeder but I reload 8 different cartridges and I really don't know how a bullet feeder would work with so many different bullet styles.

 

[metalhead68]

Understood, I too load many different cartridges but have been using four die presses since I started and the 550 is at a good price and seller is including the Dillon case trimmer in the sale which is press mounted electric trimmer which after watching videos of it it seems like a pretty sound trimmer. I've already committed to the purchase

 

[metalhead68]

How many 7 mag and 06 do you plan on loading per year?
I think most people with a 550 or 650 deprime and prime off the machine when loading bottleneck rifle, leaving just charging and seating so I don't really see the utility there.
If you want a good precision rifle press, a coax is thought to be top tier.

Honestly I don't know off hand, I load 7mm for a friend and .243 and .257 Roberts for family members and 30-06 for myself ( 400 casings ready right now. Perhaps your right, I currently load bottle necks in stages using Hornady classic single. I'm mostly interested in the Dillon for .300 AAC blackout and .308 Winchester

 

[Idaho44]

Dillon (550) - small and large primer setup, most pistol and .223, large volume.
Co-ax - rifle and 10mm, small volume, combined with hand priming.
single stage - other tasks (deprime, pulling bullets, reforming etc.).
Lee hand press for those in the field needs.

Cost, maintenance and tinkering (adjustments) are the considerations. Co-ax and single stage are precision, small volume. Progressives are large volume and a bit in-precise.

 

[MikeInOr]

On my 650 I load .380, 9mm, .45acp, .44mag, .50ae, .30 carbine, .223, 6.5 x 55 sweed, .308, 30-06 and 8x57. I do have the Dillon case trimmer and itdoes a good job but I don't find that I use it that much... .223 and .308 mostly. I also have an RCBS Rock chucker for calibers in which I don't want to buy a whole 650 head. When I use the Dillon trimmer I pretty much always use it on the Rock Chucker. You pretty much have too attach a vacuum to the case trimmer or you end up with a big mess. It can still get a bit messy even with the vacuum. Between the trimmer and vacuum trimming brass is a VERY noisy job. An RCBS case prep center is really nice to have when trimming a lot of brass, the trimmer leaves quite sharp edges on the neck of the brass.

.45acp, 6.5x55, .308, .30-06 and 8x57 all use the same shell plate so i didn't buy multiples which saved a bit of money. .44mag and .50ae are the same too. For the above 10 calibers I have 10 heads but only 6 (I think) powder measures. Some calibers I don't load very often so I don't find that I have to swap powder measures too often.

There are tons of very happy 550 press owners!

 

[Sundance]

Honestly I don't know off hand, I load 7mm for a friend and .243 and .257 Roberts for family members and 30-06 for myself ( 400 casings ready right now. Perhaps your right, I currently load bottle necks in stages using Hornady classic single. I'm mostly interested in the Dillon for .300 AAC blackout and .308 Winchester

For all my bottle neck cartridges - 5.7, 223, 300BO, 30-06, etc. I have a separate tool head I use for the depriming/sizing die, then continue the case prep stuff. This has a couple benefits for me, mostly it keeps case lube out of the powder measure.
Straight case ammo doesn't get the little extra attention .

 

[Lennie]

I have owned two 550s. Yes, they were great machines.

I currently own a Hornady progressive. It has five stations. I feel a five station design is necessary if you use a powder cop or a Lee pistol carbide crimp die.

I feel Hornady's primer and powder measure designs are a better setup. I also much prefer the spring case retention set up over Dillon's pin arrangement

My experience with Hornady's support, warranty and broken parts replacement without charge has been excellent.

 

[American123]

I use the 550 and I have set ups to reload many calibers on it. The biggest "downside" is that it does not have auto-indexing, so your ability to just sit there and pull the handle and place a bullet also requires a short second or two to index the stations. I've found the manual index can be helpful if there is a issue that needs to be corrected, like maybe something didn't feel right on the upstroke or downstroke and you want to inspect a single cartridge but leave the others there, you can easily stop everything and do that without difficulty and resume again without interrupting the other stations. I don't know if this is also possible with the auto index set ups. If nothing ever went wrong you could set up the whole thing to automate, but with what I have experienced,

I gauge my reloading speed by 100 round intervals because that is how many primers fit in the primer tube. It takes about 27 minutes for me to complete 100 loaded cartridges from first handle pull to last handle pull. That process is like this:
1) place brass in station 1
2) pull handle (push on upstroke to prime)
3) index
4) place brass in station 1
5) pull handle (push on upstroke to prime)
6) index
7) place bullet in brass on station 3
8) place brass in station 1
9) pull handle (push on upstroke to prime
10) index (and repeat 1-10)

The "serious" 550 users actually have two of them, 1 for small primer and 1 for large primer, because then all you have to change is the tool head and the caliber disc/pins. Takes less than 5 minutes to do that if you are set up with multiple tool heads and dedicated quick disconnect powder hoppers.

I grew up on a single stage RCBS, I keep in for "emergencies" but have no plans to use it.

 

[Justmoe]

I own two presses currently ( a Lee classic turret ) and ( a lee breech lock pro progressive) . I'm not familiar with Dillon but I do understand that they are so called the best in most worlds. I'm looking at possibly getting a Dillon 550 but after a little research discovered that they are a manual indexing press. I'm curious to hear some comments from other owners as to whether or not I'd be doing myself any favors by purchasing a manually indexing press when I already have a full indexable. What are the pros and cons?

I couldn't be happier with my 550B, once you get the hang of it. Don't believe the bs of 500+ rounds an hour though, I only average a tad over 400 with straight wall pistol ammo. And their No BS warranty is just that, you have a problem, they'll fix it!

 

[metalhead68]

I couldn't be happier with my 550B, once you get the hang of it. Don't believe the bs of 500+ rounds an hour though, I only average a tad over 400 with straight wall pistol ammo. And their No BS warranty is just that, you have a problem, they'll fix it!

No BS warranty is valid even if you purchase one of they're products used?

 

[P7M13]

On my 650 I load .380, 9mm, .45acp, .44mag, .50ae, .30 carbine, .223, 6.5 x 55 sweed, .308, 30-06 and 8x57.

Impressive!

 

[Justmoe]

No BS warranty is valid even if you purchase one of they're products used?

Had a buddy of mine pick up a square deal press 2nd hand, it and the bench it was mounted on fell out of the truck. We shipped the pieces back and got a brand new press. They even covered the shipping. I've had primers hang up in in the primer tube. Gave them a call, they said soak the primers down well with WD-40 and toss the tube. They sent me back 2 tubes! If you have a question or a problem, they will do what it takes.

 

[GWS]

No BS warranty is valid even if you purchase one of they're products used?

Yes it is
I prefer the 650 over the 550 The 650 is worth the money
Caliber change takes about 10 minutes and you can really crank out ammo. The auto-indexing and case feeding truly accelerates the output.

 

[orygun]

I have a 550. I wouldn't have bought it for myself, but my wife gave it as a present many moons ago. I use it two ways, either just as Dillon designed as a progressive when loading handgun ammo, or as a single stage when loading hunting ammo for rifles that I prime with a handheld primer seater.
My only complaint has to do with the primer feeder. Seems like powder kernels have a way of finding themselves in the primer cup and cause dents when seating primers.