Question about using other dies in a Dillon 550

The Dillon caliber conversion will come with a shell plate, locator buttons and the powder funnel for station 2 to expand and drop the powder through the powder die.

Some dies won’t be threaded enough to use a large jam hut on top. Dillon makes thin nuts or you just put the one you have under the tool head to keep the die in place. Not a common issue but I have had it occur.

CDR_Glock said:

Background

I bought a Dillon 550C for reloading 40 S&W to make subsonic ammunition for my Keltec Sub 2000 (Sub 2K) with a Suppressor. Turns out, I cannot find a lighter recoil spring to tune the rifle for reliability feeding.

I single stage my 454 Casull, 460 Magnum, and 500 Magnum on a Hornady Lock N Load. So I have dies from RCBS or Lee for them.

Questions

Therefore, I’d like to use my Dillon to reload 454 Casull with Lee or RCBS dies. Will this work, assuming I get the shell plate from Dillon? How do you work the powder measure for station 2 using other branded dies? Or will I just use a manual powder measure for station 2 to work? Or is there an adapter to make the 3rd party dies work?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

You could try reading the manual that came with your Dillon.

I use mostly Redding dies with Dillons.

Short and to the point.... the dies WILL work.

Other dies will work. I use Dillon, Lee, and RCBS dies in my 650. I think one toolhead has all three.

If using a Dillon powder measure you will need the powder die. The funnel comes with the conversion kit. You can use a Lee powder through expander die and a Lee measure if you wish. I also have a Hornady powder funnel die that I use when developing loads.

I have a 550, and I use mostly Dillon and Lee dies for pistol chamberings, and Lee and Hornady (and some RCBS and even a few Pacific) dies for rifle. As long as you get the appropriate powder die for your powder measure, it’s all good.

I will say that as long as the sizing die and seating die are long enough, as @jmorris noted, you can use your other brand dies. I size rifle ammunition on a single stage press, but do use my Dillion 550B for dumping powder and seating bullets. I have absolutely no problem with Hornady, Lee, RCBS, Redding, Lyman rifle seating dies on my Dillion.

As for pistol sizing dies. Check every so often and make sure the spindle is not unscrewing. And that includes the threaded part on the spindle, inside the die, that holds the decapping pin in place. If that pin gets loose, or the decapping spindle moves around, you will bust one or both! This is a major reason I purchased Lee carbide dies for most of my pistol calibers, even though I have dies by other manufacturer's. Lee dies are cheap by comparison and the Lee decapping spindle is one piece and it stays in place, unless you happen to have a Berdan case appear under it!

I did buy a set of Dillion 45 ACP dies, and they are the Cat's Meow. I like the spring loaded decapping spindle, it barely moves with my cases, but I do believe that it helps in ejecting the primer away from the case.

The tool holders are threaded for the industry standard of 7/8x14 dies. Any die that’s 7/8 x14 will work. The tool head are cheap enough to have one for each set of dies.

I've used Dillon, RCBS and Redding dies in mine. The only problem I had was with an older (70's) set of RCBS dies. Their older dies did not have as much radius cut into the mouth of the die and it was a little more difficult to get the cases lined up.