Non-Dillon dies in 550B?

[j4570]

broomhandle,

Go to Dillon's site.

It's here:

http://www.dillonhelp.com/rl550bengl..._ref_chart.htm

Caliber Conversion cross reference. It's inside the last page of the instruction manual too, or it's in mine.

JW

[45nut]

been using my 550 for about 10 years and there isnt dillon dies in the house yet.

[rebliss]

I just got my package in from Dillon. They were great about telling me which caliber conversion I already had, just needed a different funnel. I also got the new toolholder for my 550B. It's pretty nice. Don't have to search through a bin of allen wrenches to get the one I need. I recommend it! Also bought 500 Leadsafe bullets for my .40 HK (can't use lead in that).

My wife (bless her heart) said, "your gun stuff arrived." I asked how she knew it was gun stuff? She said, "well, I opened the door, thinking, 'wow! A Christmas present!' but it weighed a ton and sounded like bullets. Then I saw where it was from and I knew." She's a smart one. I'm glad she has patience with my hobbies.

As I said previously, I had bought a set of Lee .40 dies from a pawnshop, so I set them up and churned out 100 rounds; it went flawlessly. Dillon dies do have some great points, but the Lees work just fine in my 550.

Incidentally, I did have some trouble with a set of older RCBS dies in .357 Mag. The mouths on those dies were very tight.

[j4570]

rebliss,

I don't understand what you mean by the mouths were very tight on RCBS dies. Do you mean there is almost no flare to the die opening and cases are hanging up?

Jason

[utk]

I have two very old RCBS die sets, one in .357M and the other in .32SWL. Both sets have "zero radius" mouths. Guess they are from before progressive presses were common.
My modern RCBS die sets all have a generous mouth radius and work fine in my progressive Ammomaster.

Urban

[rebliss]

Precisely utk, thanks.

[yodar]

Hi Sir,

I have Lee, Lyman & Hornaday & RCBS dies. I can load at about 400 cases per hour.
The Dillon dies are nice, but are they worth the extra money?

My pal has all Dillon dies, I see no real improvment in speed or quality of the shells made.

Be well,
broomhandle

I load my own cast boolets, I use my own home made lube (Saeco Green) and by all means the Dillon die is worth it because as in normal cast bullet loading with lubes, you are going to exfoliate lead rings,fragments, and lube bits and much of it goes UP to the top of the die, interfering with proper bullet seating and COAL.

Normally you can stick a solvent coated q-tip up there and clean it out, SORTA, or do it right, Tear open the dies and clean it out with liberal application of naphtha followed by a little ballistol. The Dillon die can be gutted for clean-out and returned to the tool head without changing your settings

Furthermore, the bullet seating insert can be reversed on axis allowing flat point or round nose seating, again, without affecting the die settings.

Worth the money, damn right!

yodar

[utk]

My opinion also, for lead boolits. I bought a separate Dillon seater and a crimper for my .38spl reloading.
Because it´s so easy to disassemble for cleaning, the inserts just drops out of the die after removing a locking clip. And reassembles without changing the settings.
One slight drawback is that the Dillon dies are quite long, only some 1.5-2 threads are engaging the toolhead of my RCBS Ammomaster. And that´s for .38spl. Magnum cases would probably not work. The sizer is a Hornady.
Dillon presses must have a larger distance between the toolhead and shellplate than other makes.

Urban

[j4570]

Dillon's are notorious for liking longer dies. That's why some people have reported problems with LEE dies. They will screw in, but you are sometimes left with no room for a lock ring up top, it is removed and placed on the bottom of the toolhead!

I have very few LEE dies and in odd calibers that I don't normally load in a progressive.

[Sundogg1911]

I have a Dillon 550b. I have a dozen complete caliber changeovers. Not one set of Dillon Dies. (Mostly RCBS) seems to work fine. The only Dillon dies I have ever used are the .45 ACP dies in my Square Deal B, sice they are the only ones that fit, and loading 45's was the sole purpose that I bought that press.

[georgeld]

Read all this the other night and didn't see anything to comment about, tonight I do and have questions maybe you fellows can help on.

Last spring I picked up an old rusted up RL450 press pretty cheap, I thought. It cleaned up nice, but, a lot of parts are missing. I'm trying to make it work now.
Got one order in Sat. Still missing the primer magazine, pick up tubes that didnt' come with the kit like I thought would. And that tiny little plastic bushing down in the primer hole.

Two major problems so far.
Primer cup hits the top of the hole it slides under, when I pressed it down to go in. Damned thing popped up into the primer hole inside and had to take the pipe off and press it down with a pin to get it out of there. WHATS wrong??

Am trying to use Lee's disk powdermeasure. Head of the thru die hits the shell plate, yet the case won't go up far enough to push the activator.
What do I need to do to make this work??

What's the difference's between these blue presses and others? IS the head thicker? Is that why the dies need to be longer?

The 450 is a solid topped press, don't have the tool head that comes out.
Yes, I know they've got a replacement program for a bunch of bucks. But, wanted to see if I can make this work.

Appreciate any suggestions you may have. This is my first Dillon experience. 8yrs ago I debated long and hard on whether to get the 550, or Load Master. Guess what mistake I made?? Lee refunded my money, but, lost all these years over making the wrong decision. Am looking forward to using this old blue press.

Thank you,

[PatMarlin]

I'd be tempted to drop it in a box and send it to Dillon and say you can't make it work... what's wrong? I bet they fix it for free and send it back to you.

I bought my 550B back and 97, and what a great investment. So glad I didn't by the RCBS piggyback progressive every one was pushing..

[Sundogg1911]

the only problem i've had with using my RCBS dies in a Dillon 550, is that with taller cases (In my case the 7.62 x 39 cases) if i'm going a little to fast sometimes i'll smash a case, because it's not completly straight going into the die. with the Dillon dies this is less likely to happin. all I do to avoid it is slow down a bit. I've never noticed this with any of my pistol brass with the RCBS dies. just the .223 and the 7.62 x 39 (the only rifle/bottleneck cases I load with the dillon) and they are also the tallest so they are most likely to be a little bit out of line.

[Texasflyboy]

I load my own cast boolets, I use my own home made lube (Saeco Green) and by all means the Dillon die is worth it because as in normal cast bullet loading with lubes, you are going to exfoliate lead rings,fragments, and lube bits and much of it goes UP to the top of the die, interfering with proper bullet seating and COAL.yodar

I second that. The only reason I use Dillon dies is the easy quick clean feature.

On calibers where I don't load long strings of ammo (like 44MAG hunting loads, etc....) I can afford to take the time to unscrew an RCBS seating die to clean it out.

However, with volume loading calibers (like 9mm 125 gr LRN cast) that I load when I know I am going to have a run of 2 or 3 .30 caliber ammo cans of loaded ammo, the Dillon dies are the cat's meow. Easy to clean is the key here. Get a lot of gunk up in the seating die and your OAL and crimp points are going to wander all over the place.

[ELFEGO BACA]

I have had my 550B since the mid-80's and have yet to use a set of Dillon dies. I use RCBS and Lyman dies with a few Lee crimp dies.

It is critical to minimize the space between the shellplate and base of the Dillon.

I reload for a variety of rifle and handgun rounds. The 223 and 45acp are two of the smoothest!

My RCBS 41 magnum die set should be replaced. Cases entering the old carbide sizer quite often get 'hung up' and slow the reloading process!

[rebliss]

Georgeld,

One of the best points of Dillon is their customer service. Boxing the press up and sending it to them for a once-over is great advice--I'm sure you'd be pleased-as-punch with the results of that endeavor.

If you're not interested in doing that, just give the folks over there a call. Their technicians are wizards at listening to your description of what's going wrong, and explaining to you how to fix it.

Enjoy that Blue Press!

[Redleg99]

Another happy Dillon 550 user here.
My dies are mostly Redding, but I have some RCBS and one set of Dillon dies.
No issues using other than Dillon brand dies.