Reloading on a 550

[Whiskeylima]

I am wading back into reloading after 25 years off. I have been gifted a 550 that I am getting ready to go. What are some thoughts of loading rifle cartridges such as 45-70 and 38-55 on the press ? I plan to use cast and have a couple of Lyman M dies in my mix. What would I use in each station as I like to seat and crimp in separate stages. Will the Dillon powder funnel work ? Thanks.

[LUBEDUDE]

It sounds to me like your asking to do 5 operations on a 4 station press. This means something has to give.
Crimp on #4, Seat on #3. This leaves powder on #2. M-die can't go there unless you manually powder the case off the press. What you can do is M- die #1 and case prep before hand with a single stage press and Size and Prime.

Otherwise, you can seat and crimp at station 4 with one die, M-die at #3, Powder at#2, Size/prime at #1.

I'm sure there will be other suggestions.

I've done fine with Dillon dies for 45-70 and cast Boolits on my 550.

[LEADHOPPER]

What I've done with mine is turned a custom powder funnel that opened the case up more then the standard Dillon powder die. I turned steps in it just like the "M" die so the case gets that nice step at the top for the cast boolit. It seems to work with out a hitch and does 5 stations worth of work in 4 stations. If you want I'm sure that I can turn something for you that would work just fine.

My set up for cast of the 550 is

#1 resize and prime

#2 Bell case with custom funnel and drop powder

#3 seat boolit

#4 crimp

[LUBEDUDE]

That's what I really had in mind Leadhopper!

Didn't know if anyone offered that service or not.

[Whiskeylima]

That sounds like a great plan. Has the Dillon powder funnel worked when you loaded 45-70 ? I have no experience with the 550 and cast. Do I need the M die ?

[ph4570]

I have loaded thousands of 45-70 and 38-55 on my 550. I size and clean after each shoot so brass is ready to load.

Station 1: M die
Station 2: powder drop with custom made flat bottom brass powder funnel
Station 3: Forster micrometer seat die
Station 4: Lee factory collet crimp die set just to remove bell from M die

Results are very good.

[Whiskeylima]

PH4570, so size on single stage then roll ? The powder funnel is straight walled as so not to further expand the case from what the M die did ?

I am uins RCBS cowboy dies allegedly designed for cast. Will that help skip the M die ?

[tsignal]

Just got done load.45-70 for my 1873 trapdoor
Station 1 -Redding sizing die
Station 2 - Dillon powder measure with 543T powder funnel ( I use it to flare the case mouth)
Station 3 - Redding bullet seating and crimp die
It works extremely well for me

pps I am using the Lyman 457125 500 grain cast bullet

[ph4570]

PH4570, so size on single stage then roll ? The powder funnel is straight walled as so not to further expand the case from what the M die did ?

I am uins RCBS cowboy dies allegedly designed for cast. Will that help skip the M die ?

I size on 550 with a Lee universal decapper in station 1 and the sizer die in station 2. I set the sizer die to not full length size, i.e. just close up the mouth a bit. Set up thus the die would not decap. The setup I described above is for the 45-70. For 38-55 I used the RCBS cowboy die for neck expansion with the larger of the two expanders. Again with a custom non-expander powder funnel. Never bought the cowboy die set in 45-70. My wife shoots the 38-55 in a Win 1885 and can put 10 in an inch at 100 yds with peep sight.

[Whiskeylima]

Care to share the recipe for the 38-55 ? I am running a laser cast 240 RNFP with 10 grains of Trail Boss. Good accuracy to 100. Not so good at 200.

[Whiskeylima]

Also, did you start with the Dillon "V" powder funnel for the 38-55 and turn down the expander ball or turn something from scratch ? Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to this game.

[ph4570]

Also, did you start with the Dillon "V" powder funnel for the 38-55 and turn down the expander ball or turn something from scratch ? Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to this game.

38-55 load: Lee 250 gr boolit mold, boolits lubed with Felix homemade lube, 9 gr Unique, Tula Lg rifle primer. Vel is about 1200 -- just right for plinking.

Powder funnels are from scratch using brass rod stock for easy machining.

[LUBEDUDE]

PH4570,

I am uins RCBS cowboy dies allegedly designed for cast. Will that help skip the M die ?

Yes!

I have a set on my Hollywood Universal a Press. They work great!

[W.R.Buchanan]

WL: I would Size and deprime on your single stage then tumble so the cases are perfectly clean. Then prime with some kind of hand priming tool.

Depending on what kind of powder you are using the Dillon PM's may or may not drop consistent charges. For this reason I would substitute the little Dillon funnel atop the powder/ Expander die, as seen on the Dillon 550 BL(Basic Loader.) That way you would pour the weighed charge into the case, and then seat the boolit in the third station and crimp in the fourth.

Some kind of strait line seater die in station #3 and and then either roll crimp with a normal seating die with the guts removed or a Lee FCD in the fourth station.

What this machine is really going ot be about for you is doing all the steps you would normally do to load rounds like this,,, More efficiently. You will have to still do all the steps, it is just faster to do them on the 550 than a single stage press.

You'll make better ammo as well but it will take some work to learn how to set the machine up. Don't let that scare you off. It's just part of the enjoyment.

Randy

[sleeper1428]

Taking into consideration the fact that my 550B is close to 30 years old and I'm still using the original powder measure and powder drop linkage, the problems I ran into reloading 45-70 may not occur with newer machines. Specifically, when I tried to use the 550 to bell the cases while at the same time drop powder, the necks of about 2 out of every 3 cases crumpled under the force of pushing the case upward against the belling/powder drop tube. This was even more evident when using stick powders where the powder bar encountered a stick and had to break it in order to continue moving in order to drop a full measure. I got discouraged real fast when this happened so I quickly developed an alternate sequence which I continue to use at the present time. Basically, I de-prime and resize a case in station #1 and then remove the resized case, clean the empty primer pocket, prime the case with an RCBS hand primer, bell the case using an RCBS belling die in a Lee Challenger single stage press and then I charge the case with powder using an RCBS powder measure. The resized, primed, belled and charged case is now reinserted into station #1 on the 550 and advanced to station #2 (the powder measure and belling/powder drop tube have been removed from this station). A second case is now processed and powder charged as described above, reinserted into station #1 and advanced to station #2. The first processed and charged case is now at station #3 where a boolit is added. As a third case is now resized and de-primed in station #1, the boolit will be seated in the charged case in station #3 and when that third processed and powder charged case is reinserted into station #1 and advanced to station #2, the case with the seated boolit will be advanced to station #4. When the fourth case is de-primed and resized in station #1, the case with the seated boolit in station #4 will be roll crimped while the charged case in station #3, which has had a boolit added, will have that boolit seated. From here on it's just the same thing over and over and it doesn't take long to fill a 50 round box. I know it sounds like a slow, cumbersome process but being retired and no longer on short on time, I don't mind taking the extra time and if I wish, I can actually measure and adjust each powder charge before adding a boolit.

sleeper1428

[ph4570]

Belling cases with the Dillon powder measure's powder funnel is as bad a method today as it was 30 years ago.