Lee sizer in a Dillon 550b?

[3006guns]

Has anyone used a Lee .38 special sizing die in a Dillon 550b at the first station? My only available die right now is an ancient Texan and, while a good die, it has virtually NO radius at the entrance so almost every case has to be "positioned" which really slows things down.

My other dies are RCBS which are three die sets. I need depriming, resizing in one operation of course, before it goes to the powder measure station.

[Larry Gibson]

Should work fine. It will jut need to be adjusted for the 550B is all.

Larry Gibson

[waco]

Yup. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[3006guns]

Thanks guys.......using this Texan die has turned my progressive into a "retro-gressive".

[Artful]

Only issue I had with setting up lee dies was the lock nuts - just swapped it out for different makers and worked fine. - other thing you can do to the Texan is just radius the mouth of the die.

[dudel]

The only problem I've had with Lee dies on my 550b, have been due to the short threaded portion that Lee puts on their dies. The 45GAP dies were so short, that there was no room for the locknut on top of the die holder. I had to lock the die down by using the locknut UNDER the die holder. Some lock nuts are large enough to interfere with each other. The Dillon lock nuts work great and take up less room.

[Maximumbob54]

You can also just flip the nut over for a bit more thread to grip. And since this is for a .38 special you might also figure if you even need the die body to extend the full length for sizing. It's not like the die gets 100% of the case anyways so a tiny bit more hasn't done anything adverse for any of my loads yet. I've also read of plenty of guys "neck sizing" revolver loads but I'm not clear on what the benefit is unless the chambers are very sloppy.

[David2011]

You might try raising a stage full of cartridges into the dies with the lock nuts on the dies loose. Bring the cartridges fully into the dies and then tighten the lock nuts. That should help center up the dies with the cartridges. (Also suggested in the 550b manual.)

David

[ombesb]

I have had revolvers both ways, with chambers tight that required full length sizing, and loose enough where I did not go full length to let the case help center itself a bit better. I have also found some accuracy improvement with the partial sizing and seating bullets long to run into the throat. It is a bit like the target shooters do with neck sizing only and seating into the lands.

[mjwcaster]

Not for 38spl, but my dillon 9mm sizing die is oversized.
Replaced it with a Lee and my issued went away.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I use whatever brand dies I have for the caliber I am loading on the 550. sometimes there are minor issues.

One that kind of ticked me off is I wanted to use an RCBS Competition Seating die for my .308's. The die is too short and when used on a single station press RCBS includes a "Riser" shell holder to take up the slack. Obviously that wouldn't work on the 550 so I had to use a regular .308 seating die.

Also I have found that when loading High Volume cartridges like .223's you are best off using a Lee Factory Crimp Die to crimp in the cannelure as the minor variations in case length will cause problems trying to roll crimp these rounds.

Randy

[runfiverun]

the Dillon size trimmer takes care of that problem.

I ordered LEE carbide size dies for all of my pistol calibers [except the 41 mag]
I even replaced my Dillon size dies with the LEE ones because the LEE are larger diameter and work better with cast boolits.

[cajun shooter]

I use the Dillon lock nuts on all dies as they are made to allow the user to both tighten and loosing in a small area like the 550 and Lee Turret presses.
I also prefer Redding crimp dies for all calibers, the pro crimp does a better job than any that I've used.

[Rodfac]

Yep they work just fine for me in several calibers. You might need to get thinner lock rings is all. Rod