Loading with the 550B

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have two SDB's and love them to death.

As I wrote here recently a friend gave me a 550B a couple of months ago.

I fin ally got a chance to set it up for .223's yesterday.

I have never ran one of these before yesterday.

I am loading .223's that I bought completely case prepped and primed so I am only using the first station as the loading station. No sizing die and I removed the priming system. Also using my old Dillon PM.

It blows me away how fast you can make ammo with this tool. I am doing 4 rounds a minute easily, and will speed up as I gain familiarity with the movements.

I like it!

Randy

[Love Life]

Yep. I've had one for years, and it is a fantastic tool. I like it over the 650 due to it's simplicity.

However; if you think that is fast, wait until you get to try a Super 1050...

[HATCH]

I have two 550's and a sdb.
The plan for me is small primer 550 #1, large primer on 550 #1 and the sdb is dedicated 45acp.

The 550 is pretty quick but the sdb has some advantages too. I really like the auto index feature but the drawback is once you pull that handle you better follow thru or it will index to the next spot...

You should check out the automated feature they have done on the 1050's....

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
Don't get me wrong,glad you got a Dillon 550! I HAD one and sold it because of primer problems that me or the techs at Dillon couldn't solve to MY satisfaction! Figured I was done with Dillon until I saw a RL-300 at a Gun Show and fell in love! I now have two 300's and a RL-450 all with MANUAL primer systems and I'm loving life!

When you start priming give an update! I don't think you will have any problems, MOST owners think the 550 does everything, but wash the dishes in the morning!

[Shiloh]

It blows me away how fast you can make ammo with this tool. I am doing 4 rounds a minute easily, and will speed up as I gain familiarity with the movements.

I like it!

Randy

Take all the time you need in learning the procedure. If there is a double charge, it'll spill over. When you get to loading something like .38 WC loads with light loads of powder, that is where the experience kicks in.

Shiloh

[W.R.Buchanan]

I went out last night and finished my first hundred rounds. about 15 minutes! When loading pre-prepped pre-primed cases like I am doing right now. It makes it easy to learn the routine.

When I start loading un-primed cases I will have to add the upstroke priming function even though I still won't have the sizing die installed. I am used to this after running the SDB's for several years.

Pretty happy about this aquisition. I can easily see how one could have this as his only loading machine and still have all the bases covered.

One thing I have ran into so far that is perplexing me is the variation in COAL after bullet seating. I have a consistant variation of .010. The bullets all seat to the same place in the cannelure but vary in OAL. I am thinking it is the difference in the sharpness of the point of the bullets giving me bogus readings. I am not worried about this simply because all of this ammo is destined to be burned up in AR's and my Kel-Tec and the OAL is well below the max for 55 gr bullets. They are Winchester bullets and they really don't look like Bergers.

I will eventually figure it out and I plan to convert to 62 gr pulled/recycled bullets as soon as some become available which will probably solve the problem. Pretty sure it is the differing noses on the bullets. Some are dead sharp some not so much.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Here's what you need,I got it at Sinclairs!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes,,, that would fix the problem.

Randy

[garym1a2]

I noticed this problem back when I loaded Matchkings, I never could get them the same yet they always shot well.

[Love Life]

Base to ogive...

[seagiant]

Hi,
Here's my take on comparitors. When you find out your OAL to the throat of your rifle and then you change bullet styles you can still keep the ogive to the same spot with the comparitor! This is more for bolt action rifles than autos as you have a limit on AOL because of mags!

[Love Life]

Not all bullets are the same. For example: In a box of 500 new 175 gr SMK I'll usually end up with 3-5 batches of sorted bullets when I sort them using a comparator.

How do you expect to get consistant seating length if your ogives are all over the place? You don't.

Now I only do that for the long range thumper. For my other rifles it isn't really worth my time.

[USMC87]

The prime system on the 550 is a problem at times, Keep the primer track bearing clean with a small brush. I use a dry spray lube on my primer track and it seems to help a bit.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Well... I obtained a 550 from a friend of mine,we did a trade on a propane forge I had built. I also had primer issues with it. I would clean it and it would run fine for 40-50 rds. then start pinching primers and jaming. I called Dillon and the techs told me to do what I had already tried to fix the problem? This went on for a few years and finally got rid of it! People have different levels of tolerance,the boy that I sold it to with full disclosure, was happy as a clam at high tide! Go figure!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Like anything mechanical these machines have some idiocyncracies. However over all I think they have less than others out there.

I haven't set up the priming function yet, however it is not any significant amount different than the SDB system so I'm pretty sure I can get it to work right.

It is also is not that complicated and unless there are physical dimensional issues that need to be corrected, I'm pretty sure I can make it work right. I have loaded literally thousands of rounds with my SDB's (.40S&W and .45ACP) and had exactly no problems whatsoever.

I now have a neato little primer tube filler which solves the only issue I had with it in the past,(IE filling the damn tubes) and that issue was not peculiar to Dillon machines as most Semi/Progressive machines use a tube to store the primers that must be refilled every hundred rounds or so.

I maintain that the engineers at Dillon are a group of some of the best I have seen. The Gatling Gun is just one more instance of superior engineering.

I'd like to define "Superior Engineering" for everyone in case they don't already know.

Superior Engineering is "design that solves problems in a simple and elegant manner and does not create any new problems in the process."

"Development" is solving the problems you did create while trying to design a simple and elegant solution to the original problem.

The longer the development phase, the less "superior" your engineering was.

Marketing a bad product is not in the best interest of the consumer or the company. That's what Microsoft does!

Randy

[David2011]

Randy,

I share everyone's frustration with the priming system in Dillon 550s. IMO it is the one weakness in an otherwise very, very fine piece of equipment. I bought my first 550 new in 1991. I have never tried a dry spray lube but think it wouldn't be a bad idea. If the primer slide is hanging up the first thing I do is get the slide and all of the associated area very clean. I also dress the corners of the primer slide lightly with a fine Swiss file to remove any little dings that might have displaced metal and make a very light pass on the bottom and sides to eliminate any burrs. Make sure the primer seating punch is fully seated in the slide. Dillon suggests turing the shellplate 1/8 turn off of the detented position and pressing the press handle forward to seat the punch against the shellplate while you tighten the punch setscrew. If it isn't fully seated it will rub on the tip of the primer tube and hang up. I've considered rigging up a way to install a second primer slide return spring but seem to only remember that idea when I don't have time.

Jimmy Mitchell, the 1911 'smith, convinced me to try CCI primers in my Dillon presses claiming that they are smoother than other brands. I believe he's right. They have almost eliminated crushed primers. The older CCI primers don't seem to insert as smoothly as the newer ones in the dark boxes.

I have a 650 as well which has a very different primer handling system that eliminates the problems of the 550 but I don't see getting rid of my 550. I have too many different rifle and pistol conversion kits for it. At one time I wanted two 650s, one each for small and large primers but it would cost a small fortune to replace them all with the 650 conversions. It's great for loading lots of .223 and just about everything else I shoot. My 650 stays set up for .40 S&W most of the time because I shoot more .40 than everything else combined. The 550 is incredibly versatile. I wouldn't want to be without a single stage press but if I HAD to choose only one press it would be a 550.

David

[Echd]

Just got a 550 and it does a great job, but the priming system is definitely mediocre at best.

It likes to fling the empty primers everywhere as well because of the crappy cotter pin holding the primer "door"... and when a primer drops onto the slide it really gums up the works!

I do prefer a manual index over auto, though.

[376Steyr]

I hardly ever use my 550 to do the full reloading process anymore. I much prefer to take fired brass and turn it into sized and primed brass, store it for a while, and later do the powder charging and bullet seating. This saves a lot of aggravation if the priming starts to get wonky or the powder measure starts acting up. My #1 cause of priming problems is fired primer residue building up on the primer cup, which messes up the timing on the primer dispenser. Generally can do 2K+ of decapping cases and priming between primer system cleanings.

[Love Life]

Every thousand rounds or so I take apart and clean the priming system. Preventative maintenance is something we should all already understand. When I put it back together I take a carpenters pencil and color all the parts that slide agains another part. Slick as snot!!!!! I don't have to do it every thousand rounds, but since I swap calibers at a thousand rounds I just clean it. Takes about 5 minutes.

[hunter64]

I also had problems with the primer system and basically it all came down to how much dirt the fired primers were leaving on the slide. I would have to take the slide apart about every 300-400 rounds and clean it out.
I jumped on the stainless steel case cleaning craze last year and started depriming with the lee universal deprimer and cleaning the cases before using it on the 550. To deprime I used my trusty old Rock Chucker on the rifle brass and a lee 1000 to deprime pistol cases (only good use for the 1000).

Since the cases are all shinny and new I can literally reload 2000 cases before I take it apart and give it a quick wipe down, difference is night and day.
I did polish the small and large primer slide with 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper which made it nice and slick and no binding.