dillon 550 and lee powder measure question

[stearns]

Hi
I'm new here but not to reloading. I have been reloading on a rockchucker for about 2 years now. I'm looking to move into a progressive press.
I'm looking at the Dillon rl550b I saw a post somewhere recommending the lee powder measure\thrower instead of the one that comes with the press?
Can anyone shed some light on that? Do you like the powder measure\thrower that comes with the Dillon.
What's the process to using lee stuff with the Dillon?
Thanks for your help......I did a searchbut could not find the info!

 

[rfwobbly]

The Dillon RL550 is a kit that comes with every part of the press you'll need to start successfully reloading many pistol and rifle calibers. The only things you'll need besides "brass" and the consumables is dies, a reloading manual, a 6" caliper (for physical measurements), and a powder scale (for powder weight adjustment). That is it.

Some users prefer to mix and match press parts to adapt their reloading outfit to their particular reloading process or need. For instance, you might order your RL550 set up for 9mm with 9mm Dillon dies for your volume pistol shooting. But you might also have need of some precision 308 rifle cartridges for your bench rest gun. For your particular need, you might decide that a precision rifle die set from Redding might be a better choice in that one instance. And that would be your option, based on your need. But it does NOT mean that Dillon dies aren't any good.

In the same way, some people place other brands of powder measures on their presses. But what is best for them does not mean that's going to be better for you. And it certainly doesn't mean that making that modification is worth the extra expenditure.

I've been using the Dillon powder measure for 10 years now and never found it to be lacking for pistol or rifle reloading. I sincerely believe you'll be hard pressed to find any fault. This is a quality powder measure, which is much less sensitive to static than the all-plastic Lee unit.

This does not mean the Dillon unit is perfect. Most 550 and 650 users do end up buying a second Dillon powder measure so that they can leave one unit setup for pistol (small powder bar) and the other set up for rifle (large powder bar). Another generally used upgrade is the fitting of knobs to the adjustment screw to make minor changes easier. (see This Thread)


Hope this helps!

 

[dickttx]

When I moved from a LCT to a LnL AP I moved all my Lee dies and Pro Auto Disk powder measure to the LnL.
In trying to learn the operation of the progressive press I didn't want to be distracted by learning and setting up a new powder measure. Since the Lee expander/flare/powder through die and the PAD work together, it was just a matter of a small adjustment to get it honed in. About the same as the other dies.
A couple of years later I did open the Hornady measure and set it up to load some 9mm. It worked very well, but not enough better to be used instead of my Lee on other calibers.

 

[davestarbuck]

The Lee and the Dillon powder measures both work very well. I still use my Pro Auto Disc to load 50 Beowulf on my 550, using the Lee die set for that caliber.

The Dillons are nice because they are very easy to adjust.

 

[Bamashooter]

I have 2 Dillon 550's as well as a Lee turret. I have 5 Dillon powder measures set up for easy caliber changes .223,.45acp,9mm,.357 sig and .40 SW. I cannot see the reasoning for using the Lee powder measure with the Dillon as my Dillons work well with nearly all the powders I have tried and have been much more consistent than the Lee I have on the Lee turret. I have used the Lee dies on the Dillon, but prefer the Dillon dies, they have a wider throat that works better on progressives IMO. I do know Dillon makes an adapter to use other measures on the Dillon, check their website or Brian Enos site. I don't know if it works with the Lee or not. Just as a side note you do not always have to buy a full caliber exchange kit in some cases, you can purchase just the powder funnels or shell plates as needed as some calipers the pieces are interchangeable. Have fun!

 

[jmorris]

I have at least 8 Dillon's and use the factory powder measure on all of them. To swap out the powder bar, only takes backing off one socket head cap screw. I have found I can preform that operation faster than I can make the $77 (used to be $47) they want for a complete measure.

I keep the labeled and pre adjusted pwder bars with the tool head and dies they belong to.

 

[JBrady555]

Dude the dillon measure is aewsome. Period.