To my eyes the Square deal is a good idea if you'll leave a press loaded for one caliber and get another to do the rest or to load another major use caliber. But if you want a bit more general use press then the 550b is well worth the extra money. However if you KNOW you're committed to reloading buckets and buckets of 9 then going a bit cheaper for this time with a Square Deal isn't a bad option. Just make sure you have room for a second 550b or some other options for later on to sit beside your SD.
As for auto indexing since you're new to reloading I'd suggest that a manually indexed press is a good thing. Manual indexing along with the removable retention buttons used by Dillon gives you a lot more flexibility in clearing and recovering from any mis feeds or other errors. Auto index presses just move the point of error and make this harder to figure out. By far the best modification I did on a Lee Classic auto indexing press was to remove the auto feature. That darn auto indexing messed things up royally.
And I'd also suggest that 350 to 400 rounds an hour is just fine. Or call it 300 to 350 while giving it the extra attention it deserves when you're new.
Have you looked at videos on You Tube? I'm not trying to do a cop out play here. There are many great videos which will address most or all of your questions while seeing the parts in use. Good key word combinations are "beginner reloading" and "reloading basics". Also as you consider different presses search You Tube for those as well. Again there's bucket loads of good videos for pretty much anything you can think of.
Keep in mind that the cost savings with 9mm isn't all that great. Where reloading over buying pays off if you're only doing 9mm will be when shooting up over 600 rounds a month all year long. At that amount you'll likely break even sometime during your second year of such use. After that it's all gravy. If you're gonzo over shooting and shoot over 1000 a month then you'll hit the break even within the first year.
Where the savings really mount up much faster is on rifle ammo and any handgun ammo that starts with a ".4" with the possible exception of .40S&W. Also any of the Magnum handgun sizes will quickly pay back the cost of the equipment.
9mm brass? Start by picking up your own brass and any you find that was shot by other folks. And get yourself into some of the competitions in your area and stick around to pick brass at the end of the day. Lots of folks don't pick up 9mm so it does not take at all long to get a good size bucket full for free.
For cleaning you should also consider an ultrasonic cleaner that runs a 1:5 mix of vinegar to water with a dash of liquid laundry detergent. This does a good job of cleaning the brass inside and out and cleans away the grit you'll pick up from ground scrounged brass. The only downside is that it takes a few days to ensure the primers dry fully before you can put them through the press. From what I've heard about stainless pin tumbling it is better but with a simple liquid US cleaning I don't have the expense of the pin media and I don't have any issue with getting all the pin media out of the brass.
Note that for handgun ammo cleaned like this I also don't remove the primers. That would require an extra decapping step that for casual handgun shooting just isn't needed. But it does increase the drying time to a few days as mentioned.
For any ammo I'd be doing for precision shooting I'd decap first then clean and it would be loaded to a higher degree of consistency using individually weighed charges in any case. And that's not something you would do on a progressive machine. Or at least not likely.
As for auto indexing since you're new to reloading I'd suggest that a manually indexed press is a good thing. Manual indexing along with the removable retention buttons used by Dillon gives you a lot more flexibility in clearing and recovering from any mis feeds or other errors. Auto index presses just move the point of error and make this harder to figure out. By far the best modification I did on a Lee Classic auto indexing press was to remove the auto feature. That darn auto indexing messed things up royally.
And I'd also suggest that 350 to 400 rounds an hour is just fine. Or call it 300 to 350 while giving it the extra attention it deserves when you're new.
Have you looked at videos on You Tube? I'm not trying to do a cop out play here. There are many great videos which will address most or all of your questions while seeing the parts in use. Good key word combinations are "beginner reloading" and "reloading basics". Also as you consider different presses search You Tube for those as well. Again there's bucket loads of good videos for pretty much anything you can think of.
Keep in mind that the cost savings with 9mm isn't all that great. Where reloading over buying pays off if you're only doing 9mm will be when shooting up over 600 rounds a month all year long. At that amount you'll likely break even sometime during your second year of such use. After that it's all gravy. If you're gonzo over shooting and shoot over 1000 a month then you'll hit the break even within the first year.
Where the savings really mount up much faster is on rifle ammo and any handgun ammo that starts with a ".4" with the possible exception of .40S&W. Also any of the Magnum handgun sizes will quickly pay back the cost of the equipment.
9mm brass? Start by picking up your own brass and any you find that was shot by other folks. And get yourself into some of the competitions in your area and stick around to pick brass at the end of the day. Lots of folks don't pick up 9mm so it does not take at all long to get a good size bucket full for free.
For cleaning you should also consider an ultrasonic cleaner that runs a 1:5 mix of vinegar to water with a dash of liquid laundry detergent. This does a good job of cleaning the brass inside and out and cleans away the grit you'll pick up from ground scrounged brass. The only downside is that it takes a few days to ensure the primers dry fully before you can put them through the press. From what I've heard about stainless pin tumbling it is better but with a simple liquid US cleaning I don't have the expense of the pin media and I don't have any issue with getting all the pin media out of the brass.
Note that for handgun ammo cleaned like this I also don't remove the primers. That would require an extra decapping step that for casual handgun shooting just isn't needed. But it does increase the drying time to a few days as mentioned.
For any ammo I'd be doing for precision shooting I'd decap first then clean and it would be loaded to a higher degree of consistency using individually weighed charges in any case. And that's not something you would do on a progressive machine. Or at least not likely.
Last edited:
