Dillon 550BL

[tranders]

Anyone use the BL 550?

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

Thanks!

[bgw45]

It is the beginning of a great system. IMHO, buy the RL, store those systems you don't want to use now. Later you may choose to use all of the goodies and will not have to pay the upgrade pricing. If you ever decide to sell your press you will get more from the sale if the press is complete.

[jmort]

I have two. I prime off the press and charge off the press.
I like simple, no bullet feeder or case feeder or primer feeder
The BL 550 is a great deal
I would call Dillon and see if they would sell me a "BL 550C"

[John Boy]

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

Other than the MEC series of loaders for shotshells - the Dillion 550 BL is widely used in the reloading community.
I reload all my shotshells on the MEC 650 - Jr and SizeMaster ... cases!
I reload all my handgun calibers on the Dillon 550 BL ... thousands! Both smokeless and black powder
And Dillon says ...

[Boogedy_Man]

I have a hard time understanding this press. It's a progressive, but every motion is manual?

What gain would there be over an auto-advancing turret?

[AllanD]

I have a hard time understanding this press. It's a progressive, but every motion is manual?

What gain would there be over an auto-advancing turret?

Simplicity and reliability, it is NOT a big deal to advance the shell plate with your thumb each time.

I have an RL550 that I've had since about 1990 and you get used to it real fast.
You also have something to chuckle about when you hear people complaining about
indexing problems with their RL650

[Boogedy_Man]

I don't want to be a naysayer having never used it, but also because I'm always looking at new stuff myself.

Aside from being upgradeable to an actual progressive, I have a hard time seeing what this press actually does.

[edp2k]

Auto advance frequently causes more problem than it purportedly "solves".
if there is a hitch in your giddyup (e.g. brass gets crumpled at the seating station)
then the auto advance can snowball things into bigger problems while you are trying to solve a simple problem.

with a 550, after the initial few minutes your left thumb automatically flicks the shell plate to the next station.
It becomes 2nd nature.

its one of these things that, if you have never done it and are reading about it,
it sounds like a big disadvantage (manually indexing), but after doing it a few minutes
it becomes 2nd nature.

[sdb321]

I started reloading with a Dillon Square Deal B. Decided to upgrade to a 550 B. It is GREAT!!!! Really smooth and a lot cheaper than a XL 650.

[Livin_cincy]

On YouTube a channel called The Reloader Dude purchased a Dillon ' BL ' 550 and really likes it. He put a LEE Autodrum powder measure & dies into tool heads for the calibers he wanted to load.

[Boogedy_Man]

Auto advance frequently causes more problem than it purportedly "solves".
if there is a hitch in your giddyup (e.g. brass gets crumpled at the seating station)
then the auto advance can snowball things into bigger problems while you are trying to solve a simple problem.

with a 550, after the initial few minutes your left thumb automatically flicks the shell plate to the next station.
It becomes 2nd nature.

its one of these things that, if you have never done it and are reading about it,
it sounds like a big disadvantage (manually indexing), but after doing it a few minutes
it becomes 2nd nature.

That's missing my point, I believe.

I'm saying what advantage would this press have over a turret that does auto advance.

One poster said he primes and charges off the press. So...decap resize, then off the press for priming and charging and back to the press for manual bullet seating?

That's single stage reloading.

[Drew P]

That's missing my point, I believe.

I'm saying what advantage would this press have over a turret that does auto advance.

One poster said he primes and charges off the press. So...decap resize, then off the press for priming and charging and back to the press for manual bullet seating?

That's single stage reloading.

Because one handle pull on a turret completes one operation but one handle pull on a bl550 completes 4 operations. Also replaceable tool heads stay set up for caliber specific.

[jmort]

I flair/expand first die
Seat second die
Crimp third die
Somtimes I will run a Lee Auto drum and use all four holes, charging in second spot
It is a progressive press that you manually advance the shell plate
It is rightly held in high regard by most every owner

[Boogedy_Man]

Because one handle pull on a turret completes one operation but one handle pull on a bl550 completes 4 operations. Also replaceable tool heads stay set up for caliber specific.

Lol....what four operations are occurring in the scenario I posted? The only thing that is happening is the operator working his butt off.

Yes, I know that tool heads stay set up...just like turrets. Where's the advantage?

[Drew P]

Uhm, well if you think swinging the lever 4 times vs 1 time for the same amount of process completed is similar then there’s no advantage. But to me, that’s a noteworthy advantage over the turret press.
To put another way, on the turret press you’re working on one shell at a time, ont the 550 you’re working on 4 simultaneously.

[Boogedy_Man]

Again..for those troubled with math...you can't accomplish 4x1 with what I asked.

Some people won't ever have the brains to see...

[Livin_cincy]

Again..for those troubled with math...you can't accomplish 4x1 with what I asked.

Some people won't ever have the brains to see...

There was a convesion kit on ebay to make a Dillon 55O a single stage press...

[Drew P]

Again..for those troubled with math...you can't accomplish 4x1 with what I asked.

Some people won't ever have the brains to see...

most people charge in the 550. Otherwise there’s still operations that could benefit like expand, seat, crimp, that’s three stages in one pull. Or if he decided to charge in it, okay. Maybe math isn’t my strongest skill, or maybe I don’t have any skills, but I have common sense enough to see that the 550 is a more flexible tool that’s capable of faster output than a turret.
Lot of fellows out there with many nice presses and the owners are very glad to have their 550’s. Maybe it doesn’t suit your type of reloading and that’s why you can’t understand it. Sorry bub, truly your loss.

[Drew P]

If I have one main gripe about them it’s that I wish they loaded from the left instead of the right. I would prefer to keep my right arm on the lever full time like my other presses.

[jmorris]

Personally I wouldn’t buy the BL, I would get the C and use it as I would the BL.

Why? Because the 550 C will be worth more and it would cost more to later buy the added components to upgrade the BL to the C.

That’s just me though. Sure as I tell myself I don’t care about a priming system and powder measure, something would change and I’d have to buy them.

So then I would order the $90 550 priming system and $85 powder measure and think, now that I have already spent more than the 550C cost in the first place, I was there. Until the box comes and I realize I don’t have a fail safe kit ($28) for the measure and the priming system didn’t come with a low primer alarm ($27). Where if I bought the C in the first place I would have spent less money and had all the parts.