reloading for rifle

[subiegillis]

Hey I was talkin toi a guy the other night and he said the dillion 500 and 550 aren't really good for reloading is this true?

[Army GI]

Tell him to go stick his phallus in a grapefruit full of razor blades.

[r08ert209cali]

No they are not really good they are one of the best.

[subiegillis]

I am wonderin I don't know...I am just gettin in to reloadin and I have two dillions available to buy for dirt cheap and I am goin to be reloding .357..38 special... .223... And 308 ... I was just wondering

[Bongos]

first time I heard the Blue was no good, most of the time it's the best of the best, and red & green are the sub par reloaders

[mrkubota]

maybe he has a 650 or 1050 to use instead?

[Army GI]

maybe he has a 650 or 1050 to use instead?

True, if you are comparing the Dillon 550b to the 650XL, then obviously the 650 is superior.

However, the OP gave us a misleading statement. The way you made it sound had me thinking he was talking about the Dillon 550 in general. If that were the case, I refer you to my above post. The 550 is an outstanding reloader, the 650 being even better.

[subiegillis]

No I was told that the dillions were not good for reloading rifle round

[joelogic]

No I was told that the dillions were not good for reloading rifle round

Really? Why? I load .223, .308, and 6.8 on my Dillon 650 and it does it just fine.

[ar15barrels]

Really? Why?

People that like stick powders usually don't like progressive presses.
Powder measures don't throw stick powders as consistently as ball powders.
Single stage reloaders often weigh charges to get over this.
To fully utilize a progressive press, you really can't take the time to weigh charges.
Therefore, for best accuracy on a progressive press, just use ball powders.

[10fcp]

I load all my pistol rounds on a turret and my rifle on a single stage. I have heard people that load on a progressive do the case prep prior to running it through the progressive. I would think your not saving too much time if you resize then take the case out to trim,uniform and or clean the primer pocket out. I have never used one myself but would like to know some of your guys methods are when going progresive.

[wilshire1412]

I have a Dillon XL 650 that I use for most all of my hangun reloading, but I prefer to do the rifle stuff on a single stage Redding Big Boss press. I think the Dillon can be used to do the same level of quality ammo for rifle but I had some difficulty with it years ago. I did read somewhere about one reloader that would do his rifle cartridges in three stages through a 650 which required two seperate toolheads. One was setup to do deprime and resize and then trim using the Dillon power trimmer, with no powder or primers involved at this stage. The next step was to run the brass through the vibratory cleaner to remove any lube used in resizing. Step three involved the second toolhead which was set up with the powder measure and the seating die, and he did his priming on this step as well. I found that while trying to do .308 through the press like I would for handgun cartridges with everything on one toolhead it was rough, even with what I thought was plenty of lube on the brass. BTW I was using IMR 4064 at the time which is not easy going through any powder measure, someone else said it meters like toothpicks which pretty much describes it well enough.

[buffybuster]

Hey I was talkin toi a guy the other night and he said the dillion 500 and 550 aren't really good for reloading is this true?

Stop talkin toi that guy.

As Randall stated, ball powders meter better and as a result are better suited to progressive reloading.

[ar15barrels]

I load all my pistol rounds on a turret and my rifle on a single stage. I have heard people that load on a progressive do the case prep prior to running it through the progressive. I would think your not saving too much time if you resize then take the case out to trim,uniform and or clean the primer pocket out. I have never used one myself but would like to know some of your guys methods are when going progresive.

I do all my 223 case prep on a progressive press.
Then I swage primer pockets, prime, seat and crimp on another progressive press.
Besides picking the brass up off the ground, I don't have to handle it at all.
Just pour it from bucket to bucket to bucket...

[jwest]

People that like stick powders usually don't like progressive presses.
Powder measures don't throw stick powders as consistently as ball powders.
Single stage reloaders often weigh charges to get over this.
To fully utilize a progressive press, you really can't take the time to weigh charges.
Therefore, for best accuracy on a progressive press, just use ball powders.

Randall,

How *inaccurate* is it then to use a stick powder with a Dillon progressive press? +/- 0.3 grains?
I haven't collected any statistics yet - but when doing charge checks I've seen it be +/- 0.2 grains.

In this case I am talking small rifle, 0.223.

Thanks,
John

subiegillis - I have a RL 550 and am pretty happy with it.