Dillon Square Deal and 45 colt / 357 mag

[BeemerMark]

I have a Dillon Square Deal that I've used to load thousands of 45 acp. I never shot 45 colt or 357 magnum near as much as the 1911 so I've always done them on a single stage press.

I'm thinking about buying the conversion dies to load the colt and magnum in the Square Deal but I'm worried about finger clearance. There isn't a lot of room to insert the boolit into the case. I have fat fingers.

Anybody load these cartridges in a SD have any advice?

[stubshaft]

There is plenty of clearance. I use the SDB for 357, 44, 45 acp, 45 LC and 454. It's a PITA to change over but works great.

[imashooter2]

Many thousands of .357s. No .45 Colt, but plenty of .44 Mag. You'll have no issues. Buy tool heads with the kits. It will sting a little now, but you'll be glad you did down the line...

[KYCaster]

I load 38/357 and 44 Spl/Mag on a SD. My only complaint is, I can't look into the case to see the powder charge before I insert the boolit, so I leave the brass pin out at station #3, pull the charged case out, visually check the powder charge, insert the boolit, replace the case w/boolit in station 3 and continue. Takes longer to say it than it does to do it...slows down the production some, but that's OK with me.

Changing primer size is a minor PITA so I try not to do that very often.

Jerry

[imashooter2]

I got tired of it and bought a second assembly. Now the change is 3 cap screws.

[Walter Laich]

I found a deal on a second SDB--that's how I solved my large primer/small primer problem

[BeemerMark]

Thanks for all the replies. I'd like to buy another SD, but don't have much room left to mount another press. I generally make a lot of 45 acp at one sitting and then go 6 months to a year before needing to reload. So I won't be doing a lot of switching back and forth. I am going to buy another tool head for each caliber, just too much of a PIA getting the dies set up correct.