dillon square deal b vs 550

I finally picked up my first progressive a few months ago.
It was the Dillon 550.
I have really ramped up my pistol usage, so I needed a progressive.
I am very happy with it so far.

I can't imagine being without a Single Stage. (I load a lot of various rifle as well)
They are more versatile than we think.
If you get rid of it, you'll probably wish you hadn't.

Yes, the Dillon can act as a Single Stage, but I think you would regret not having a "real" Single Stage at your disposal.
I have two Rock Chuckers and no plans on getting rid of them.

Isn't the Square Deal B just for pistols? Sounds like you'll be set for the 9mm which you shoot most.
The levels of the others say the single stage is more than enough.

The 550B does fine with rifle, and you can use it like a single stage if you like. Just move the shell plate like normal, but only put one case on it.

I would never dissuade anybody from buying a Dillon, they're great. You can do the 400 .223 in one night with the 550B without breaking a sweat. Once you're set up and everything is adjusted, it goes quick. Every 100 rounds fill up the primer tube, and away you go.

The SD is for pistol only and not all pistol at that. If you are wanting to load 308 and 223 you don't have the press you need.

I see your total round count is 2,200/per year. You should be able to do that with just about any press.

Well for pistol rounds I run my SD's a little faster than my 550.

With everything set the same, same powder charge etc, My 550 will load as good of ammunition as any of my single stage or turret presses.

That said the 550 can convert pretty quick.


But not near as fast across the board as some single stages.


If there was one best answer for everyone we wouldn't have as many to choose from.

I have a Redding T7 press and it isn't much faster than a single stage. It certainly isn't as fast as my 550C. Turrets do have their place though. The convenience of having any die needed already set up is a nice feature.

I upgraded from a SDB to a 550B a few years ago. I however kept my Lee Classic single stage on my bench. The 550B works great as a single stage, however remember it's not as simple as one. Getting a bunch of fired primer residue into your single stage is usually a 15 minute job to clean and relube it, the 550 is going to take more time to clean up and set back up. Unless you put some money into multiple heads and powder measures for your 550B it's not as convenient to go from caliber to caliber (particularly different primer sizes), as it is with a single stage. I'd personally recommend going to the 550B and leaving one of your single stages on your bench.

I turned out a lot of ammo with my SDB, but I didn't do it any faster or better then I did on my 550B. Both require you to manually handle a bullet and a casing. Auto-indexing doesn't really speed anything up in that situation. I also visually check every single powder charge, especially when running pistol as a double charge won't overflow out the case usually. Things like this means I'm always operating below the potential speed of the 550 or SDB, but it also prevents a lot of headaches later on down the road.

-Jenrick

...550B it's not as convenient to go from caliber to caliber (particularly different primer sizes)...

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The 550 is the easiest press to swap primer size, one can swap them in 2 min, if it's already empty, then again if your not even loading 100 and swapping you don't need a progressive anyway.

Both require you to manually handle a bullet and a casing.

Click to expand...

Dillon sells a case feed conversion for the 550, I don't have on on mine because I like the speed of swapping things on the 550, why I bought it, if I wanted to swap the extra stuff around I'd just convert one of the 650's of 1050's.

I threw this together one day too. After it was concluded in another thread to be impossible for an SD to be case fed.



I can do 100 rounds on an SD in nine and a half minutes if everything is ready to go and am slightly slower on the 550. That said the gap between the two is much smaller than the gap between the 550 and one of my turret presses.

Maybe just don't leave the presses on the bench all the time? I have one press location that I use for a single stage, turret, and progressives. Just bolt down the press with wingnuts, and draw a line around the base of the press. Mount your next press making sure none of the holes are too close to each other (obviously it is OK to reuse a hole.) Draw a line around that one too. Repeat as needed.

Changing presses is quick, and it is easy to align them with the base drawn on the bench.

I THINK I have come to a similar conclusion. I currently have the Lee Classic Turret press, and the Lee single stage breach lock press. I have been wanting to get a Dillon, but keep going back and forth between the 550b and 650.

Right now, I THINK I have decided on adding the 550, subject to change.

While my rifle reloading has mainly been on the Turret press, it is so used in semi single stage mode.

I tend to do rifle, (right now .223 but soon to add 6.5 CM) in batches of 3 to 500 at a time, cleaning 1000 in two 500 case batches, then resizing, trimming then repriming. Some time the resize, trim and priming are done at separate times, some times size and prime together. Thst way I have brass ready to charge and seat the bullet.

My single stage is mainly used with a universal decapper to decap large batches of brass.

Back to the turret, it is nice to have all the dies available, offset by the need to pull the lever several times to get to the die being used. Yes, the rod could be removed, but I have the reverse direction kit from inline fabrication, so l had rather pull the lever when necessary.

Look I'm looking at the 550, I could really pump out a LOT of pistol ammo, and still do rifle the way I do on the turret but on the 550 or the Turret.

Again, having all the turrets available is nice. Or, do high speed plinking rifle ammo for the AR rifles, assuming a powder that drops in a trustworthy fashion.

Now the Square Deal. An argument could be made to get one of these for pistol, save money over the 550, and continue doing rifle on the Lee Turret.

I am watching this to see how you work through this!

Russellc

I'll happily give you $200 for the SD

...550B it's not as convenient to go from caliber to caliber (particularly different primer sizes)...

Click to expand...

The 550 is the easiest press to swap primer size, one can swap them in 2 min, if it's already empty, then again if your not even loading 100 and swapping you don't need a progressive anyway.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying the 550B is difficult to swap primer sizes on, I am saying it is slower then a single stage. On my Lee Classic, it is literally one part, that drops in, takes maybe 5 seconds.

-Jenrick

saying the 550B is difficult to swap primer sizes on, I am saying it is slower then a single stage. On my Lee Classic, it is literally one part, that drops in, takes maybe 5 seconds.

Click to expand...

Sure, where the speed comes from on a progressive is production not converting.

If you set out to size/deprime and prime 100 cases the extra time it took to swap the system on the 550 would be inconsequential. Sure you could get - head start on a single stage but you would have finished sooner on the 550.

Case feeder is way cool J.Morris were can one purchase for the sd? You are very handy been following/watching your vids. for years!

Thanks, it's a one of a kind. I just made it to prove it could be done and once it worked that was the last time I used it.