"Dillon 550" Man, am I in lust!

[J.D.Cayhill]

I have always sworn by my Rockchucker press and we have had a long and productive relationship. But lately the quantity of ammo and time involved in reloading for CAS made me question our union. So finally I have strayed, I ordered a Dillon 550 with all the extras. After using it yesterday to load 400 rounds all I can say is "Darlin where have you been all my life?"Those 400 rounds flew compaired to a single stage press and were perfect. My lonely Rockchucker now sits on the far corner of my bench for depriming duties. She will not be forgotten, there will still be big bore rifle to be loaded. But for the future as far as can be seen I am now a big blue man instead of big green.    

[Klondike]

Ain't life Grand

[Cheyenne]

Use the SD myself....my desire is to one day have the 650!

[Shiloh Sharpie]

I have used the 550 for 10 years and it is the limit.  I do not remember what I did without it.  I have used it for Bullseye. IPSC (very short lived, I didn't like it much), and SASS.  I have thousands of rounds through it.  I most appreciate the manual indexing because of the flexibility and in the event I make a mistake.  I can back it up or use the press to prepare brass for BP for instance.  What a great machine.

[Will Pluggum]

The only reloading I've ever done was 30-30 and .41 mag with the basic lee handloading kit.  Man, was that tedious.    What would it cost for a guy starting from scratch to get set up to reload .357 mag for CAS ?  I'm talking a progressive loader and keeping costs to a minimum investment.

[J.D.Cayhill]

Will, the progressive reloader of choice for CAS seems to be the Dillon 550 or 650. The 650 is faster but takes longer and is more expensive to change between calibers. The 550 is a little slower but is more versitile. Check out www.dillonprecision.com to compare models and www.graf.com has a wide selection of reloading products at good prices.

Besides a press you will need dies, a powder scale, and a good digital caliper. At least one good reloading manual like the one published by Lyman is a must. If you go to some of the powder manufacturers web sites there is loading data that you can download, www.hodgdon.com has a cowboy action manual in PDF format. Cabellas has some good instuctional tapes on reloading too.

Good luck with reloading, follow the manuals religously, and take your time. There are too many stories of Pards that made a mistake that ruined a good shootin iron or worse.

[Will Ketchum]

Pluggum, call 800-762-3844 and order the Blue Press.  It is Dillo's catalog but has some articles to.

Will Ketchum

[Foothills Drifter]

Howdy......When I started CAS I had been shootin for most of my life but I had never reloaded. Six months after I started CAS it was gettin real expensive shootin them 45's. A lot of folks said I should get a single stage and start with that. Montana Jack (SASS# 1963) explanded how his Dillon 650 operated and said with you knowledge and mechanical abilities, you should skip the single stage and jump right into a Dillon 550B. I did, I'm happy and I ain't never out of ammo. It has always worked real well for me. Enough said!

Good shootin......
Vern...