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Posted: 11/27/2016 7:03:31 PM EDT
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Looking at getting a progressive press - I primarily reload 380 ACP, 9MM, 45 GAP, and 22-250. I quit loading 223 years ago and have no plans to return to it.
Kicking around the idea of a Dillon SDB for the pistol cartridges and sticking to the old single stages for my 22-250. Thousands of rounds through my single stages has definitely contributed to reloading burnout. My only concern with the SDB was the possibly of it throwing powder on the 380 as it auto indexes. Open to others including the 550 and LNL, brand doesn't matter, trying to stay around $400 for a base package. |
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I have to admit first off I've never used one, but have done a fair amount of research on it. I'd really love to pick up a used SDB, or a 550 to dedicate to pistol. Add a case feeder to 550, and could use it for de-capping everything before wet tumbling.
There's times like right now, I just don't want to break down the 1050 from where it set up at. I just need to test this load and then tear off a bunch. If you are reloading pistol only, I SDB or RL 550 would be awesome. It will really free up a lot of time and make reloading much more enjoyable. The like people always say, you need at least one SS around. I don't know if you could do 22-250 on a SDB, but I'm sure you could on a RL 550. I think the SDB is pretty much pistol only, so something to think about for down the road. Say you do want to add 22–250 two your progressive loading. |
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I can't praise my SDB's enough. I have two now in both 45 ACP and 9mm. I set them up for a specific load, index marked the dies/powder measure and haven't touched anything in thousands and thousands of rounds.
For the money they can't be beat. The only thing I dislike about them is a full caliber conversion including toolhead and powder measure is going to set you back about $200. I bought both of mine used for about $300 shipped each... As far as throwing powder, the 9mm seems to toss a couple flakes here and there but nothing to write home about. Not sure if 380 would be worse or not. Keeping the belling die clean seems to alleviate that issue. |
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I think you would be better off going with the 550 over the Square Deal. If you are loading now for the other calibers and already have those dies then it makes even more sense.
With the Square Deal, you must use the Dillon dies specific to that press. Conversion kits are about $88 each. With the 550 you have the dies so to do a change over you would need only a conversion kit that is about $45. If you add a tool head and powder die, then the cost is about the same as a conversion kit for a Square Deal and the caliber conversion is faster. And you can load rifle rounds on the 550. When my wife bought my 550 about 30 years ago, she was going to go with a Square Deal but the person at Dillon asked if I would load for more calibers and when she said yes, he said that a 550 would be a better value long term. Can't argue. I load 9mm, 40 S&W, 357, 44 mag, 45 auto and 223 on mine. No clue of the total number of rounds (in the tens of thousands) and have never had any issues with my press other then operator caused problems. |
| I love my SDB. I usually use Titegroup in .45, so I don't have any issues with the auto index obviously. I personally don't want a press without auto index, though many people love their 550's. A bonus is that it's impossible to double charge with auto index. But if I was wanting a larger press than the SDB, I would go either for a XL650 or a Hornady LNL AP. I ended up choosing the Hornady, but the 650 is certainly not inferior. |
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Quoted:
I love my SDB. I usually use Titegroup in .45, so I don't have any issues with the auto index obviously. I personally don't want a press without auto index, though many people love their 550's. A bonus is that it's impossible to double charge with auto index. But if I was wanting a larger press than the SDB, I would go either for a XL650 or a Hornady LNL AP. I ended up choosing the Hornady, but the 650 is certainly not inferior. This is another reason why I like mine. I have good lighting in my reloading area and I look in each case to ensure powder dropped. Even with the extra time it takes me to verify powder drop I can still load over 500 rounds per hour. You would really have to do some screwy stuff to double charge a case, and get sloppy to have a squib. |
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I have no experience with the Dillon 550. That said, have you considered the Hornady LNL-AP? I have used one for years and it is pretty-much trouble free for pistol cartridges. The conversions are much cheaper than Dillon, and you can purchase a tube-magazine fed bullet feeder for about $40. The case feeder and bullet feeder upgrades are cheaper than their competitors.
The LNL-AP in my experience is a bit more of a problem child when it comes to Rifle cartridges. I have just this last week taken delivery of a Dillon xl650 that will be my .223 prep, .223 load, and .300 blk conversion machine. I am impressed with the quality and workmanship with the Dillon, more so than I was with the Hornady. If you are looking for cheap and works...Have you looked into lee pro 1000s? You could buy one in each caliber for a reasonable price and then not have to worry about adjustments. They are more finicky than either the Dillon or Hornady. I have no experience with the RCBS progressives, but they DO exist...and RCBS is generally good quality. |
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Full disclosure: Hornady AP owner, never used a Dillon, and have no intention of promoting one brand over another . . . just gonna outline the differences.
SDB: 4-hole, manual index, tightest working quarters, pistol only, requires proprietary Dillon dies. 550: 4-hole, manual index, uses you current dies, does pistol and can do rifle should you choose in the future. LnL AP: 5-hole, auto index, uses your current dies and can do rifle should you choose in the future. The LnL's extra hole gives some flexibility eg allowing you to separate seating from crimping/bell closure while using a powder cop die or a bullet feeder. (Note that the 650 will of course also do those things.) The LnL will not pop powder if the shellplate ball bearings are properly adjusted. At the end of the day, like anything else, it's a question of budget (but include dies in your SDB price comparison) and what features you personally think are important. |
| I love my SDB but it can be finicky with primers though. I only have one caliber in all my pistols so I don't mind the proprietary dies. I load my rifle rounds on a Lee 3 hole haney have for 10 years but I just ordered a 550BL so I may do away the turret. I don't like the fact the 550 doesn't have auto indexing and for me if I were distracted I could potentially double charge a pistol case. That is one of my main reasons going to the SDB, auto indexing. That and I got it at cost from my LGS. |
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Quoted: I love my SDB but it can be finicky with primers though. I only have one caliber in all my pistols so I don't mind the proprietary dies. I load my rifle rounds on a Lee 3 hole haney have for 10 years but I just ordered a 550BL so I may do away the turret. I don't like the fact the 550 doesn't have auto indexing and for me if I were distracted I could potentially double charge a pistol case. That is one of my main reasons going to the SDB, auto indexing. That and I got it at cost from my LGS. Hit the manual and adjust your primer feed to work correctly. It's normal to never have a primer issue. At least I don't. |
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For what it's worth, I reload .380 on my LnL AP. Two challenges with .380
1) it's a tiny very thin walled casing - so if anything goes awry, you can crush a wall very easily. I've wrecked a few couple in my progressive. I suspect this would apply to all brands of presses. 2) the powder charges are tiny, and with some powders I just can't adjust down far enough in my LnL AP powder drop. Bulkier powders like Win 231 work fine in it though. Powder jump usually isn't a problem on the autoindexing unless something is wrong with the adjustments, as the powder usually won't fill up more than half the case of a .380. I don't have powder jump problems with anything except fine ball powders filled to the top of a case. Some compressed .223 loads will do this, especially since the long cases will have a little more whip - but this only applies if the powder is all the way up into the neck, which isn't common. I will say, when I was loading 4895 with 40 gr bullets, that filled all the way up to the mouth of a .223 case - it just didn't work, and I had to change powders. Someone posted that it's impossible to double charge in an autoindexing press. This is not true - very not true. Partial strokes and hang-ups can easily result in the careless operator ending with a double charge. I've done it (and caught it thankfully), but don't be complacent, because it can happen. While progressives are awesome, just be aware that the do require a considerably higher level of attention to operate - and it's easier for something to slip past your Quality Control practices. For this reason, I prefer powders that result in double charges being very visually apparently (and empty casings being noticeable). |
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Quoted:
I have no experience with the Dillon 550. That said, have you considered the Hornady LNL-AP? I have used one for years and it is pretty-much trouble free for pistol cartridges. The conversions are much cheaper than Dillon, and you can purchase a tube-magazine fed bullet feeder for about $40. The case feeder and bullet feeder upgrades are cheaper than their competitors. The LNL-AP in my experience is a bit more of a problem child when it comes to Rifle cartridges. I have just this last week taken delivery of a Dillon xl650 that will be my .223 prep, .223 load, and .300 blk conversion machine. I am impressed with the quality and workmanship with the Dillon, more so than I was with the Hornady. If you are looking for cheap and works...Have you looked into lee pro 1000s? You could buy one in each caliber for a reasonable price and then not have to worry about adjustments. They are more finicky than either the Dillon or Hornady. I have no experience with the RCBS progressives, but they DO exist...and RCBS is generally good quality. I agree about the LnL for rifle. It can be an exercise in frustration. I'm thinking about going back to single stage for rifle anyway, and this might be the last impetus that gets me to do it. |
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I've been using my SDB for more than 21 years. I also have an XL650. I've loaded more .380 using the SDB using Winchester 231 than I could possibly remember. Never did I have a problem with powder flipping out during the auto-index process. Dryflash is correct, though. It's important to not fill the case more than 3/4 full to reduce that possibility. But I think that would be true with any auto-index progressive press. I have also had zero primer issues, but I have stuck to Federal, Winchester, Tula, Wolf and Remington primers; avoiding CCI primers.
I load .380, .38 spec., .357, .40 and .45 ACP on the SDB. I have a .44 magnum conversion for it but have not yet set it up. Swapping takes me about 10 minutes. When the SDB turned 15 years old, the back of the frame cracked. Dillon rebuilt it completely and shipped it back to me at no cost. It was set for .40 at that time, and they adjusted it to fully resize the case so that using my Redding GRx push-thru sizer probably wasn't necessary. Based on long experience, I recommend the SDB without any qualms at all. |
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