Dillon 550 primers not seating .45 Auto

[damphir]

Hello All,

Recently i bought my first Dillon after reloading with a single stage rcbs for about 2 years. That being said, i still feel i have quite a bit to learn when it comes to reloading.

When I purchased my 550, I bought the .45 Auto and the .223 Remington kits. During setup, I have had one hell of a time getting the priming functionality to work correctly (including now 8 calls to Dillon). I should preface this explanation by saying that I'm not the most mechanically savvy individual. However, I have actively looked for videos online, read forums, and reached out to Dillon multiple times to get this problem situated. I was unable to find anything that was my exact issue. Thus, I thought reaching out to you all might help.

Caliber: .45 Auto
Brass: Various (have tried multiple brands just in case)
Primers: Fiocchi Large Pistol

My issue originally stemmed from installation of the primer cup as the priming cup seemed to sit too high to be able to pull a new primer (it would ram into the priming magazine rather than pulling a new one). I didn't modify what came in the box, but I suppose its possible that I may have done something wrong that caused that. After reaching out to Dillon they gave me two different ways to adjust the way the priming cup heighth that was acceptable (see page 5 on the manual). One was to use Channel locks with an old primer in the cup, hold it down, and then remove and reset the set screw. The other method was to invert the primer cup on the bench with an older primer in it, push down, and reset the set screw. Upon finally getting the cup heigth correct, I reinstalled the priming cup where it belongs and I now seem to get primers into the cup from the magazine fairly consistently (3/5-seems that i have to help pull back on the priming arm or the cup will not move back far enough to grab a primer).

However, I am still unable to get the primers to seat deep enough. It seems the go in halfway/more but I'm unable to move the shellplate to the next stage. Dillon told me to simply GENTLY deprime the primer and reattempt. They have given me multiple fixes (shellplate too lose, not pushing firmly enough, primer cup being at the wrong heighth) and have done their best to help me, but I am getting nowhere. I've spent about 10 hours at this point and I'm ready to give up. I even went out and bought the DVD to help with installation but it is not nearly detailed enough when it comes to "troubleshooting" or "SNAFUS".

Anybody ever experience anything like this, or could you offer some advice?
Knowing me, it is either bad luck, or something stupid that I missed.


Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Damon555]

Wow that doesn't sound like much fun. My primer arms came set up from the factory....no fuss no muss for me.

Have you made certain that you aren't trying to seat the primers in cases that are set up to use small pistol primers?

And welcome, there is much knowledge to be gleaned from the fine folks here on THR.

 

[dmazur]

I have a 550b and I had minor trouble with primers.

They were slightly crooked. No problems with depth, just going in straight.

It was a loose shellplate. During the priming stroke, the case has to be held horizontally for the primer to go in correctly, and a loose center bolt allowed the shellplate to tip slightly.

But what you're describing sounds different. As you are also having trouble with primer feed from the magazine tube, I'd look at the height of the primer slide assembly, as shown on page 5. Is the height on your assembly 1.215" - 1.220"?

I'm guessing at this, but it is just possible that you don't have the setscrew 13996 in the "groove" of the primer seating punch 13967.

If you miss the groove, the primer seating punch won't seat the primers deeply enough. Also, as the designed height properly operates the fingers on the flexible orifice 14003, if the height is off, I'd bet it affects this as well.

Regardless of the procedures you were given, the setscrew has to be in the groove...

 

[LeonCarr]

What I had to do to mine once upon a time was coat the bottom of the shellplate with graphite, which allows you to tighten the "big bolt" another fraction of a turn and still allow for the shellplate to rotate. I also purchased a large pistol primer pocket uniformer from Sinclair(About 24.95 but made from solid tungsten carbide and should last forever), chucked it in my cordless drill and I uniform all my primer pockets. Makes seating primers much easier and more consistent.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Certaindeaf]

Are you getting full stoke in the lever/handle? Is it interfering with the bench or something?

 

[damphir]

Fellas,

Thank you all for your replies.

To answer all of your replies:

Damon,
You make a great point, but yes they are all set up for large pistol primers.

DM,
More great points, but yes I did measure the height and it looks like the setscrews are ok.

Leon,
I saw that in a YouTube video and I'm not against trying it...but on a brand new piece of equipment, I'd rather send it back then start making modifications of my own.

Certain deaf,
That is a concern I've had all along...To me, it seems like the handle is just not going forward enough....after watching my DVD for the 5th time, a light bulb went off and I thought maybe I don't have the handle tightened enough (it seems like the piece of steel that holds the plastic cartridge bin is almost in the way of the handle performing a full stroke). I just went back to my bench, probably as you were typing this to me, and I retightened down the handle. That definitely seemed to help as I can now seat primers! The negative side is that I felt like I had to still slam the handle down far too hard and I worry about actually setting one off. The primers seem to come out much much farther from the cup than they did before now....but it still is not consistently pulling a primer from the magazine, and they are not seating deep enough...

 

[Certaindeaf]

We all hope you get it worked out. I hate Murphy as well as anyone.

 

[damphir]

Deaf,

Our suspicions look like they were correct. Thankfully, my uncle knows an experienced reloader....it took him about 7 seconds to tell me that it looked like my press was running into the cartridge ramp...sure enough there was a mark on the ramp where my press was running into it. Tomorrow, I will move the ramp, and then retry. Thanks again.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Well heck, I'm glad it worked out for true.

 

[Seedtick]

It sounds like the cavalry has arrived but just in case....make sure your press is solid. You don't want any flex in your bench.

You've got a fine machine so try not to let it get to you. You'll have it humming along in no time.

Oh, and welcome to THR. Where are my manners.

Seedtick

 

[LBEE]

Lots of good Video on you tube, just search Dillon, find a lot of helpful videos

 

[CollinLeon]

On my 450B, there is a allen head screw underneath the shellplate assembly that controls the depth that you can seat the primer. Well, at least I think that is what it is for. I had a similar problem when I first started loading .45-70 and after I screwed the allen head screw in a bit more, it would seat the primer correctly. I guess I *could* read the manual, but there's no fun in doing that.

 

[kelbro]

I had to open up the mounting holes and dremel the front curve of the cartridge ramp on both of mine to get a full stroke.

On the primer seating stroke, don't slam it, just steady pressure is all that it needs.