Dillon 550C or 750/1100?

[Kjc103]

All,

I think it’s time I get into the progressive press game. I have spent hours upon hours tediously loading ammo on a single stage. So much so that I have begun buying Hornady Match ammo in bulk for practice. This is not at all a bad solution, however, the lot to lot consistency was absolutely terrible on this last go around.

I would to have my cake and eat it too. I.e., very high quality, consistent and repeatable ammo with minimal reloading effort and maximum shooting time.

The Dillon 550c is perhaps the most highly regarded for what I am seeking to do here. However, the 750/1100 presses are much quicker. If anyone here has had both, am I giving up any precision with the faster options? If so, is it so inconsequential as to not matter?

 

[Axlrod]

It will depend on which powder you are using- ball powder will meter more consistently out of a powder thrower. But thrown charges usually will be less consistent than weighed charges. Most people I have talked to that use a progressive for match ammo, weigh their charges separately on a good scale. This will slow down your output speed.

I use a progressive (Hornady) mostly for pistol ammo, but have done quite a bit 5.56 for my AR's. I can do 400 or so per hour.
If you want your cake and eat it too, just buy as much factory ammo of the same lot as possible.

 

[Tx_6UM]

I load everything on a 550b. I will reiterate that depending on the powder you are using, there can be significant variations in powder drops. I use mine as a single stage when loading rifle ammo because of how inconsistent it can be.

 

[Shooter Mike]

I had a 750 for a few years. It's what I learned on to start reloading. Because it was my first press my learning curve was steep. EVentually I got to the point where I felt proficient at developing and loading rounds with it. I called Dillon a handful of times and spoke with Gary, who was always very patient and helpful.

One of the things I wasn't super excited about with it was needing a caliber conversion kit every time I wanted to change cartridges. I don't know if other progressive presses do it differently, though.

Some of the challenges I had with it was keeping it "tuned". The shell plate was super sensitive to being over-tightened. If it was jerky at all, when cycling the press it would spit out the primer and inadvertently I would dump powder due to a primer not being seated. The slide that the primer mechanism slides back and forth on is also sensitive and required some attention from time to time to be sure that it was spitting out a primer. Getting the case feed slide tuned was a challenge when changing from rifle to pistol casings. It seemed to either push too far or too little, and there was a fair amount of slop in the slide. That slop was fixed with adding some thick grease on the underside of the case feed plate. The powder dropper was something I felt like I was always fighting with. I had a difficult time getting consistent drops even with ball powders. they would vary sometimes as much as .4gr with some powders. Maybe I was doing something wrong - I don't know. Stick powders - forget it. I gave up that fight.

When everything was right, the press worked well. Being that I was new to reloading, a progressive was not the best place for me to start - hindsight is 20/20, for sure.

I don't load enough to warrant keeping a progressive press on my workbench. By doing things with a single stage, i feel that I have been able to fine-tune the quality of my reloads. The measurements of each round are far more consistent on a single stage. I'm not making more than 100 rounds at a time, so a single stage is just right for me.

If you choose a 750, and have the experience and knowledge to set it up with ease each time, you'll enjoy it.

 

[pbroski]

I have a BL550 and two XL750's. The 550 gets used for magnum case head cartridges like 6.5 PRC and 7 RSAUM. One 750 with case feeder is used for .223 and the other 750 with case feeder is used for .308 case head cartridges. I have found that they all produce very consistent ammo. Shoulder bump is almost always consistent to .0015 variance from case-to-case. But I anneal after every firing with an AMP, so that could be a contributing factor to the consistency.

The exception to consistency is with bullet seating. When a bullet is being seated, the OAL will vary slightly depending on if a case is being resized at the same time, or not. What I end up doing is tweaking the seating stem setting to compensate as needed. I use competition-style seating dies, so it's not hard to do. When I really want to load for precision (which is most of the time), I'll seat the bullets long, then wipe the lube off and finish seating with an LE Wilson in-line seater with an arbor press.


For powder, I weigh each charge and dump it into a funnel that's set up on the powder die. It's fast with an AutoTrikler. Sometimes when using ball powder, I'll use a powder measure. Either the Dillon or a Lee Auto Drum. The Lee is actually more consistent.

Overall I'm very happy with the progressive presses and don't plan to go back to single stage. The added speed, especially with a case feeder and a bullet feeder is well worth it IMO. And the ammo can be match grade, even with the XL750.

BTW, the Lee Six Pack Pro is decent for small cartridges. I use one for 17 Hornet and another one for .22 ARC. They make good ammo. The .22 ARC especially, shoots light out.

 

[Weldor]

I ran one for awhile, then decided that having to size and clean brass (rifle)before the drop tube took as long as running a co-ax. I still use it for 10mm and 40. carbide dies no lube.

 

[wind gypsy]

I just started with a 550C from only ever using a single stage. I'd think a 750 would be nice if a guy is going to do truly large batches especially if dropping powder from the measure. If waiting for a powder dispenser to throw off press the savings might be a lot less.

I don't foresee ever loading truly progressively where I size and prime/charge/seat in one pass. For now i'm still sizing on single stage and the benefit of the progressive is priming, powder charge, bullet seating can happen with one press pull and handling the brass once.

Thus far it seems like the dillon powder measure will throw 8028xbr and ball powders well enough for my uses.

There is a lot of talk about these applications on snipershide.

 

[Kjc103]

I figure I can just by a second RCBS Chargemaster and keep loading at a pretty good pace. I wouldn’t use the powder throw.

If I could hit 200-250 cases an hour this way, I would be pretty happy. From what you are all saying, it sounds like that would be more realistic to accomplish with a 750 because of the case feeder and bullet feeder option.

One of you mentioned some inconsistency with a 750 and bullet seating. Can you elaborate on that? I haven’t heard that complaint about a 550.

 

[Robobiss]

I use a 550 for “precision” ish 223. It works well, I’m a big fan. I do size in a separate step with a single stage, then wet tumble, but that’s just me. You could easily NOT do that. I run full progressive with pistol and 300BLK subs. Stuff where a little lube making it into the brass with the bullet doesn’t matter so much.

I load everything 5.56 and pistol with ball powders, I feel like the Dillon powder measure does a good enough job throwing charges for me. Every 30 rounds or so I will pull one off and measure it and it is always within .1 of a grain using TAC specifically. For me, that is plenty accurate enough.

I have yet to mess around with stick powders, my hopes wouldn’t be very high, but that’s why I have an autotrickler and a funnel.

 

[wind gypsy]

I figure I can just by a second RCBS Chargemaster and keep loading at a pretty good pace. I wouldn’t use the powder throw.

If I could hit 200-250 cases an hour this way, I would be pretty happy. From what you are all saying, it sounds like that would be more realistic to accomplish with a 750 because of the case feeder and bullet feeder option.

One of you mentioned some inconsistency with a 750 and bullet seating. Can you elaborate on that? I haven’t heard that complaint about a 550.

200-250 cases an hour sized or that many loaded? I’d expect to easily accomplish that priming, charging (on press), seating with a 550 with prepped brass. Probably be in the ballpark if charging on an AutoTrickler off press too.

If you don’t have a shell kicker/ejector for your single stage, get one. That greatly speeds up single stage loading only having to handle each piece of brass once for each time through the press.

 

[pbroski]

Here's what I mean about variance in bullet seating consistency. I just ran a test to get some real numbers. I loaded 6.5cm with annealed Alpha brass, seating 147 ELD-M's with no powder compression on an XL750. The bullet seating operation is at station 5 and case sizing is at station 1.

If there is a case in station 1 being resized, while there is a bullet being seated in station 5 simultaneously, I got these CBTO measurements - 2.0890", 2.0885, 2.0885, 2.0885, 2.0875, 2.0885.

If there is no case in station 1 while a bullet is being seated in station 5, I got these measurements - 2.0835", 2.0845, 2.0845, 2.0840, 2.0845, 2.0835.

That's a difference of about .0045". Not a huge amount and many people would just be happy with it. If you wanted it to be more precise you would have to adjust the die as needed. Not that big of a deal.

Bear in mind, this is not exclusive to the XL750. You will see this with all progressives, including the 550, the question is just to what degree. It's because the operations are not directly in line with the ram, but are offset to a degree, resulting in some flex.

Just some additional info. The case head to shoulder dimension for those 12 cases are as follows - 1.5520", 1.5515, 1.5510,1.5510, 1.5510, 1.5515, 1.5520, 1.5520, 1.5520, 1.5525, 1.5515, 1.5520. That's the kind of consistency I typically get, and it doesn't change with the number of firing on the brass. Consistent annealing is the key, which equals AMP.

The XL 750 in a nice press and is considerably larger than a 550. One thing to note is that when being used to loading on a single stage, it takes some time to get used to a progressive with auto indexing, which the XL750 has. The 550 has manual indexing.

 

[aachey]

I've thrown 2400 and 700x on my 650. 2400 throws the same pretty much every time, 700x being flakey was +-.1 of a grain. So biggest issue would be throwing stick powders consistently. I bought my progressive to do pistol rounds, but more recently I had the thought of doing rifle rounds on it. It is pretty sweet when its tuned perfectly and you're just cranking out rounds.

 

[rabbithuntr]

No experience with 750 but I really like my 550, I have only done 223 and mainly use staball powder but it does fine with short grain extruded powder. I do everything in one pass.

 

[Castle Rock]

All,

I think it’s time I get into the progressive press game. I have spent hours upon hours tediously loading ammo on a single stage. So much so that I have begun buying Hornady Match ammo in bulk for practice. This is not at all a bad solution, however, the lot to lot consistency was absolutely terrible on this last go around.

I would to have my cake and eat it too. I.e., very high quality, consistent and repeatable ammo with minimal reloading effort and maximum shooting time.

The Dillon 550c is perhaps the most highly regarded for what I am seeking to do here. However, the 750/1100 presses are much quicker. If anyone here has had both, am I giving up any precision with the faster options? If so, is it so inconsequential as to not matter?

Which and how many different calibres do you want to to load?

 

[Rome]

Really depends on what your goal is with the press. I've got a 550. I shoot IDPA and USPSA, so most of my reloading, I'd say 80% of it, is pistol cartridges. The rest is 44 and 357 mag and tinkering with subsonic loads etc. The small minority is precision 223, 300, or 308.

I say all that to say this. My primary goal isn't producing bottleneck cartridges that are better than 1 MOA. If I was neck tuning, measuring and sorting cases by volume, and chasing crazy SD....I wouldn't be on a 550, or any progressive.

 

[RockAndSage]

Anyone load 8208 XBR on a Dillon?

 

[wind gypsy]

Anyone load 8208 XBR on a Dillon?

Yes, just recently. I’m new to it, feel like I’ve posted about it too much but I’m excited about early results. 18” 223, 23.0 gr behind a 75 ELDm.




15 shots.

 

[RockAndSage]

Yes, just recently. I’m new to it, feel like I’ve posted about it too much but I’m excited about early results. 18” 223, 23.0 gr behind a 75 ELDm.


View attachment 886221

15 shots.
View attachment 886222

Man, those SDs are what I was hoping to see. Good to know the 8208 seems to meter well in the Dillon.

 

[Kjc103]

Here's what I mean about variance in bullet seating consistency. I just ran a test to get some real numbers. I loaded 6.5cm with annealed Alpha brass, seating 147 ELD-M's with no powder compression on an XL750. The bullet seating operation is at station 5 and case sizing is at station 1.

If there is a case in station 1 being resized, while there is a bullet being seated in station 5 simultaneously, I got these CBTO measurements - 2.0890", 2.0885, 2.0885, 2.0885, 2.0875, 2.0885.

If there is no case in station 1 while a bullet is being seated in station 5, I got these measurements - 2.0835", 2.0845, 2.0845, 2.0840, 2.0845, 2.0835.

That's a difference of about .0045". Not a huge amount and many people would just be happy with it. If you wanted it to be more precise you would have to adjust the die as needed. Not that big of a deal.

Bear in mind, this is not exclusive to the XL750. You will see this with all progressives, including the 550, the question is just to what degree. It's because the operations are not directly in line with the ram, but are offset to a degree, resulting in some flex.

Just some additional info. The case head to shoulder dimension for those 12 cases are as follows - 1.5520", 1.5515, 1.5510,1.5510, 1.5510, 1.5515, 1.5520, 1.5520, 1.5520, 1.5525, 1.5515, 1.5520. That's the kind of consistency I typically get, and it doesn't change with the number of firing on the brass. Consistent annealing is the key, which equals AMP.

The XL 750 in a nice press and is considerably larger than a 550. One thing to note is that when being used to loading on a single stage, it takes some time to get used to a progressive with auto indexing, which the XL750 has. The 550 has manual indexing.

That’s very helpful.

I suspect you would have to be competing in benches comp or 1,000 yard f-class to even detect that variance. Have you observed anything?

I would think the greatest raw gain over factory ammo is the velocity consistency. Of course you get to pick higher quality components, potentially, as well.

Which and how many different calibres do you want to to load?

Likely just one caliber. 6.5 creed or maybe 25 creed if I decide the potential advantages are worth it.

I had originally considered two caliber, .223 and 6.5 /25 creed. However,Norma bulk .223 ammo is extremely affordable. Every experience I have had with Norma ammo has been stellar. If that holds true for .223, I would forgo loading.

 

[wind gypsy]

If you want to load 223 and 6.5 creed on it, plan on using SRP 6.5 brass if it’s an option so you don’t have to swap out primer setups between small and large primers every time you change cartridges.

All my creed brass is LRP so I haven’t even bothered with setting up a Dillon tool head for it yet.