XD Talk

**slugger6** · 05-25-2012, 05:57 AM

My Dillon 550B has served me quite well for many years. I highly recommend it.

Sunday · 05-31-2012, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredj338

Get the replacement parts. They have been redesigning the slide for ever. It is the weak point of the 550. Mine had about 25K rds thru it when it started to stick badly. I buffed it w/ 600gr & it was better, but eventualy Dillon sent me a new housing & slide, works fine now. I suspect the alum is soft & there is an issue w/ disimilalr metals rubbing against each other. Keep the slide clean, I use compressed air or brush every 100rds.

Sorry to respond so late but that is exactly what happened to mine and the parts sent makes the primer feed better than new.

r0ttie1 · 06-01-2012, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slugger6

My Dillon 550B has served me quite well for many years. I highly recommend it.

I started out with a 550 years ago and have loaded thousands of rounds on it. It gets my vote.

**TacoMalo** · 06-02-2012, 12:46 AM

Dillon 550B, not only for their quality and ease of use but their customer service is outstanding. I was working on my press and managed to lose a few small parts on my powder measure so I sent them an e-mail just to see if I could get a cheaper price on shipping than their standard UPS rate and a few days later they end up sending me the parts free even though it was my mistake you can't beat that kind of service.

Average_Casey · 07-01-2012, 10:17 PM

I was a newbie and I got the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit and it has been perfect for me. I do use the auto indexing feature and it's great. I can crank out rounds fairly fast, faster than I can shoot them, that's for sure. Obviously it's up to you, but I love it. If I were to go to a progressive, I would go to a Dillon or a Hornady, probably whichever I could find at a reasonable price used. The truth is, I probably won't go to one of those anytime soon because they are just too expensive and I don't shoot enough to justify using them. Also, I read Lee's Modern Reloading and would highly recommend it for any new person, it taught me a ton.

Grey Bear · 07-06-2012, 03:27 PM

I'm a happy Dillon 550B owner, and feel they can't be beat. There is one thing to consider, if you think you might need a Dillon 650 at some point, buy it right away.

Before you have too much invested in 550 tool heads; they are not interchangeable between the 550 and 650 presses. The dies are, but the tool heads and conversion kits aren't.

Those aren't cheap on either machine. Just something to consider. Many people have both machines of course, and they are both great machines.

I have two 550B machines, one for large primers and one for small primers. I still have a single stage press, and recently bought a turret press to use for rifle calibers I don't want to put on the Dillons.

I like the time saving aspects of this setup, because my job interferes with my hobbies at least until I can retire in the near future. Travel eats into the time too, so any time saving is welcome. To me, constantly fiddling about with dies wastes a lot of time. A turret press removes a lot of this fiddling, and so does a progressive. Set the dies up, lock them down, and drive on.