Dillon RL 550 Casefeeder

[Tatume]

Does anyone here use one of these? Does it work well? How does it get the case into the shell plate? Is it used in conjunction with the auto-eject kit?

[dkonrai]

Does anyone here use one of these? Does it work well? How does it get the case into the shell plate? Is it used in conjunction with the auto-eject kit?

I use one. It bolts onto station one and has a arm that pushes the brass forward into the shell holder. It's works great. Biggest I've used is 223. 308 is a bit tall.

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[Gus Youmans]

Tatume,

I have one on my 550 and like it. The only downside is that once you have converted the press to use the case feeder it becomes very difficult to load cases into the shell plate plate by hand. Maybe someone else has found a way around it but I have not. That's not a big deal to me because I already have a Rock Chucker mounted on the bench but if the 550 is your only press it may be problematic. The Dillon 550 case feeder works better for me than the Hornady case feeder.

Gus Youmans

[Lloyd Smale]

Tatume,

I have one on my 550 and like it. The only downside is that once you have converted the press to use the case feeder it becomes very difficult to load cases into the shell plate plate by hand. Maybe someone else has found a way around it but I have not. That's not a big deal to me because I already have a Rock Chucker mounted on the bench but if the 550 is your only press it may be problematic. The Dillon 550 case feeder works better for me than the Hornady case feeder.

Gus Youmans

yup a friend of mine bought a new 550 and a case feeder. I went over to set it up and the first thing i noticed was it about makes it impossible to use without the case feeder. Case feeder does work well though but if it were my 550 id leave it as is. The beauty of a 550 is its simplicity. If i was looking for a press to really make time with id just get a 650 and be done with it. I have to *** lock and loads and a 550 and 90 percent of my loading is on that 550. It just runs like the energizer bunny. i think in a 4 hour session id get more ammo out of it then the lnl with a case feeder. Plus my blood pressure wouldnt go through the roof every couple hundred rounds.

[dverna]

I won one at a competition and promptly sold it. Lloyd nailed it. I love my Dillons but the beauty of the 550 is how simple it is. At the time I had two 1050's and a 650 so I had no use for a faster 550. If I need to load 200-500, I do it on the 550. So keeping it simple worked for me. The volume reloading is done on the 1050.

Not being able to manually feed cases is something to consider in your decision. It will depend on how much you reload at one sitting and how many calibers you want to set up for.

[David2011]

Won’t the case feeder increase the time for changing calibers as well? I agree with Don; the simplicity of the 550 is part of its appeal.

[Gus Youmans]

David2011,

Casefeeder change over is much simpler than changing calibers and can be done in about a minute. There are a total of three parts that may have to be changed; the casefeeder plate and a conversion kit that contains a metal slide plate and a short plastic tube that fits on the end of the drop tube. The small casefeeder plate is intended for cases with bases smaller than .38 Special and the large plate for .38 Special and larger. The plastic tube is designed for a fairly narrow range of case lengths and controls the case as it is dropped onto the metal slide plate. The metal slide plate is designed for a specific cartridge case bases/rims and controls the case as it is pushed into the shell plate. Unlike the Hornady case feeder, there are no tedious adjustments for cartridge length. Some of the conversion kits can handle multiple cartridges, such as .38 Special and .357 Magnum, while other cartridge families require separate conversion kits, such as .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R/.327 Federal, because of the difference in case lengths.

Gus Youmans