Non-Dillon Dies in a 550

[nicholst55]

My experiences mirror others. I did replace the OEM lock rings with Dillon lock rings to facilitate clearance and adjustments. I also have a couple of sets of Dillon dies, and they do work a treat!

[ioon44]

I have sold most of my Dillon dies and replaced them with new Hornady dies.

[David2011]

Their spring loaded decapping dies excellent because they very positively eject spent primers. Dillon dies are also exceptionally good for cast boolits. The seating dies are easily cleaned without removing them from the toolhead and disturbing the adjustment.

I use all brands of dies in my Dillons but all of my high volume cast handgun dies are Dillon. For lower volume cast handgun and any jacketed loading I use whatever dies I purchased for the purpose originally.

[jsizemore]

What everyone has said, just set it up and run with it. One advantage with Dillon dies is they are really funneled at the opening to guide cases in easier but you will be good to go .

This. I started with RCBS dies but went to the latest generation Dillon. They're very user friendly especially with lubed bullets. You can pull a clip and clean them as needed without having to remove the die, clean and readjust.

[SweetMk]

When I bought my Dillon, the 550 had just become the 550B,,

IIRC,, there were no Dillon dies, Dillon built the 550B specifically for non-Dillon dies.
Heck, they used to sell non-Dillon dies,, they may still,, I haven't looked at their site in a long while.

At that time, Dillon talked about the Dillon dies for the Square Deal,, but, that was it for Dillon.

I think the first dies they started offering for the 550B was a couple carbide dies, for high volume users.

[downzero]

Thanks guys! Considering I didn’t drop an irritant bomb to intentionally troll up responses, the number of (positive) posts here blows me away! It’s obvious that there are a lot of Dillon users here and that they are working well for you with all kinds of dies as well as the prescribed Dillon brand. I should get my conversion kit as described by jmorris in the preceding post by tomorrow or Saturday and will be able to easily convert the press (which is now set up for 38 MRWCs) to be loading 32s for my several S&Ws. Again, thanks for all of the helpful responses.

Regards,
Green Frog

Dillon dies are great for pistol cartridges and that's all I buy now, but in my early days of reloading, I bought whatever dies were available and they worked just fine. Upgraded from 550 to 650 and I'm still using them. I'll probably be old and gray and hand them down to someone else someday. These are lifetime purchases.

[Engineer1911]

Their spring loaded decapping dies excellent because they very positively eject spent primers. ...........

Very true, right up until you have that hidden 32 ACP case in a 45 ACP or 22 LR in 9 MM when you load using a case feeder. Now you have an opportunity for profane language, vise grips, channel locks, or bench vice and a hammer. The indoor range where I reload has provided this opportunity several times. If you don't have a case feeder, there is no problem.

When loading 3K rounds daily, the problem will occur.

[David2011]

Probably so. I don’t often load more than 3000/ month. Any time a mistake like that is made the results are aggravating regardless of the brand of dies or press.