Dillon 550 or 650??

[SIGP240]

Just bought a 550 and don't like it. With it not being a fully progressive press, I do not consider it a high production machine. The machine has too close quarters design, requiring fast, thin articulated hands/wrists to do the yank, thrust, push, grab, sweep, thumb and yank on this toy. The 550 has a ******* "feel" for primer seating on the forward stroke. I still have my Green Machine which is a C H knockoff. It is scary fast, but only for the first 60 or so shells, then it is shutdown, refill repair and tweak time. RCBS had a good idea that turned into a nightmare on this one. The only (550)thing is, without case feed, no bulk primer feed, no auto-index and skimpy powder reserve, you have to have a kid help you keep the thing fed. I have been reloading for 47 years, and when I see 700 rnds/hr claims on these "starter" presses, I can't help wonder how many rounds you could actually do in an 8 hour day/session. Really men, how many guys single-handedly can stoke these cheap rigs to the tune of 6,000 rounds a day? On;y one thing I know fer sure, is I sold 6000 40 and 9mm empties to a guy, and he did them ALL ON A SINGLE STAGE PRESS AFTER POCKET SWAGING THEM. I'd be in surgery getting a new arm if it were me! IMHO, buy the bggest most spend tricked-out Dillon, it's only a little money!

[Stradawhovious]

In my experience most people dont buy the 550 to crank out 6,000 rounds per day. If you are asking a press designed for the casual to personal reloader to perform at commercial production rates you didn't do your homework to begin with. I would recommend to everyone that has read this thread, if you are going to be making the investment to purchase reloading equipment, and don't get me wrong, for the average Joe, it's and investment..... Try one first. Run through a couple hundred rounds. it could be a big help in the decision making process. you might not fall in love with the equipment, but you might decide immediately that you absolutely hate it, and save the money for something else.

My .02 IMHO IANAL IRDKWITA so on, so forth.

FWIW I love my 550. It does everything I need it to do, but then again, I might be cranking out 6,000 rounds per year, not per day.

[Einthoven's Triangle]

There is a RL Super1050 at the Gunstop the last time I checked! Find a KISS bullet feeder and go to town along the PW power conversion you might be upwards of 1800 rds an hour. That will churn out the ammo. Anyone with buyer's remorse about 550 did not do enough research. The 550 is a great press, I bought my original 450 instead of buying a POS Green Machine! I have news for you none of the Dillon machines have any bulk primer housings, each holds about 100 no big deal.....Speed comes from familiarity of operation. I can run off 500 45ACP in 45min. 9mm a bit slower which I attribute to smaller bullets and cases. And, 223 with prepped brass is about 450 an hour. The 650 with the case feeder is about 800rds an hour without the case feeder no so much.

[1911fan]

many years ago I was in a hurry and managed to crush a primer on a old c&h machine and lit it and its forty some odd brothers off with it. Ever since I have not complained about small batched of primers.

[goalie]

I have about a dozen primer tubes for my 550. It makes the smaller primer volume a non-factor.

[1911fan]

I too have a lot of primer tubes, and I have kids who are happy to reload them for me. That is even better. I have thought about buying one Dillons tube loaders though.

[EJSG19]

Just bought a 550 and don't like it. With it not being a fully progressive press, I do not consider it a high production machine. The machine has too close quarters design, requiring fast, thin articulated hands/wrists to do the yank, thrust, push, grab, sweep, thumb and yank on this toy. The 550 has a ******* "feel" for primer seating on the forward stroke. I still have my Green Machine which is a C H knockoff. It is scary fast, but only for the first 60 or so shells, then it is shutdown, refill repair and tweak time. RCBS had a good idea that turned into a nightmare on this one. The only (550)thing is, without case feed, no bulk primer feed, no auto-index and skimpy powder reserve, you have to have a kid help you keep the thing fed. I have been reloading for 47 years, and when I see 700 rnds/hr claims on these "starter" presses, I can't help wonder how many rounds you could actually do in an 8 hour day/session. Really men, how many guys single-handedly can stoke these cheap rigs to the tune of 6,000 rounds a day? On;y one thing I know fer sure, is I sold 6000 40 and 9mm empties to a guy, and he did them ALL ON A SINGLE STAGE PRESS AFTER POCKET SWAGING THEM. I'd be in surgery getting a new arm if it were me! IMHO, buy the bggest most spend tricked-out Dillon, it's only a little money!

With your 550, operating at the stated rating of 500 rounds per hour, you'd need to load for 12 hours straight, not 8, to get to 6,000 rounds per day. Just saying, in case you meant something different.

Ball park rate for the 550 seems to be between 350 and 650 rounds per hour, according to various claims I have heard. Guys go at different speeds, according to how concerned they are about double charging, no charging, double checking measurements, checking your powder measure for accuracy, etc. So you get a big range of speed that the 550 is capable of. If you were planning on 6,000 rounds per day, on a fairly often basis, say once a week or so, then the 550 may not cut the mustard for you.

I like to shoot between 150 and 300 rounds per trip to the range. I like to hit the range once or twice a month, more if I'm lucky or if there are any shooting events going on in the area. So me and my 550 fit together pretty well, and I don't have to spend endless hours reloading on a single stage to hit my needs of roughly 500 rounds of shooting per month.

Sounds like you were expecting a lot more out of the 550.

As for the primer tubes, I still have just the one that came with the press. It takes 2 minutes to refill the tube and refill the press's primer magazine. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I spend more time scratching my butt during an hour of reloading than I do filling primer tubes or refilling the powder magazine. It isn't a big deal to me yet anyway. I'm not concerned if it takes me 60 minutes, or 62 minutes to reload 500 rounds.

[justaguy]

Just bought a 550 and don't like it. With it not being a fully progressive press, I do not consider it a high production machine. The machine has too close quarters design, requiring fast, thin articulated hands/wrists to do the yank, thrust, push, grab, sweep, thumb and yank on this toy. The 550 has a ******* "feel" for primer seating on the forward stroke. I still have my Green Machine which is a C H knockoff. It is scary fast, but only for the first 60 or so shells, then it is shutdown, refill repair and tweak time. RCBS had a good idea that turned into a nightmare on this one. The only (550)thing is, without case feed, no bulk primer feed, no auto-index and skimpy powder reserve, you have to have a kid help you keep the thing fed. I have been reloading for 47 years, and when I see 700 rnds/hr claims on these "starter" presses, I can't help wonder how many rounds you could actually do in an 8 hour day/session. Really men, how many guys single-handedly can stoke these cheap rigs to the tune of 6,000 rounds a day? On;y one thing I know fer sure, is I sold 6000 40 and 9mm empties to a guy, and he did them ALL ON A SINGLE STAGE PRESS AFTER POCKET SWAGING THEM. I'd be in surgery getting a new arm if it were me! IMHO, buy the bggest most spend tricked-out Dillon, it's only a little money!

So how much are you selling it for?

[hammAR]

So how much are you selling it for?

Make him an offer.......we can start the bidding anytime.......

[Stradawhovious]

So how much are you selling it for?

Make him an offer.......we can start the bidding anytime.......

Yeah, but he paid $475 for it, so he'd like to get at least that.....

[mnglocker]

<---- Just drank the Blue Kool-Aid.

I've got a 650 bolted to the Bench now and I'm thinking that my .223RCBS dies aren't going ot work for **** with this machine, due to the seating/crimping die having too deep of a throat and not being able to sufficiently crimp the bullet before the press bottoms out.

[Vlad]

If you have the 650 or the 550 for that matter, you have enough space to put in a seperate crimp station. I have used and like the Lee factory crimp die. Easy on the wallet too. Good luck!

[EJSG19]

<---- Just drank the Blue Kool-Aid.

I've got a 650 bolted to the Bench now and I'm thinking that my .223RCBS dies aren't going ot work for **** with this machine, due to the seating/crimping die having too deep of a throat and not being able to sufficiently crimp the bullet before the press bottoms out.

What was that an upgrade from? Congrats, time to make a serious pile of ammo.

[justaguy]

<---- Just drank the Blue Kool-Aid.

I've got a 650 bolted to the Bench now and I'm thinking that my .223RCBS dies aren't going ot work for **** with this machine, due to the seating/crimping die having too deep of a throat and not being able to sufficiently crimp the bullet before the press bottoms out.

Did you buy before or after the '09 price increase? I have never heard that RCBS dies wouldn’t work.

[mnglocker]

<---- Just drank the Blue Kool-Aid.

I've got a 650 bolted to the Bench now and I'm thinking that my .223RCBS dies aren't going ot work for **** with this machine, due to the seating/crimping die having too deep of a throat and not being able to sufficiently crimp the bullet before the press bottoms out.

What was that an upgrade from? Congrats, time to make a serious pile of ammo.

An RCBS Rock Chucker.

The Rock Chucker is an awsome press for freaky precission ammo, but GaWWWWWWWWWWWWWWD is it slow to make mass quantites of pistol ammo on.