I am going to save my pennies and buy a better press, thanks for the honest input guys. What is everyones opinion on the Dillon Square D press? I am only loading .40 cal pistol right now. I am looking to load rifle but may not start that till fall or even next year for 308 and 300 win mag. Who has experience with the Square D??
Dillon Square D opinions
- Thread starter Drewz
- Start date
I was in the same dilemma earlier this year. Every friend and salesman I spoke too, told me to skip the "square deal" and purchase the 650. The salesman told me that 90% of his customers come back to put their "square deal B" on consignment and purchase a 650.
You can't reload rifle calibers on the square deal and you might want a case feeder later.
I bought the 650.
You can't reload rifle calibers on the square deal and you might want a case feeder later.
I bought the 650.
I have one in 9mm. Took less than an hour to get setup, and I was going slow. Extremely user friendly. I run 9mm on mine and will be buying another one for 45. Powder measure has been great with hs6 and tight group. No issues priming. I have only ran about 500 through it but once I get into a rhythm I can get into the 2-300 an hour range. That's with pre filled primer tubes. I opted for the strong mount and bullet tray, both worth the cost imo. Lots of people will recommend the 550b as the price difference is close. If you are planning bulk of rifle it might be a better choice. However, if you shoot lots of 40 and want to single stage your rifle loads then the square deal is for you
Barnes_270
Regular
- Location
- Langley, BC
I just picked one up myself - if you do get one, I have a set of 40 S&W dies for it that I do not need.
I use a Lee cast turret press and/or a RCBS rockchucker single stage for loading rifle. My bench is now red, green and blue.
I use a Lee cast turret press and/or a RCBS rockchucker single stage for loading rifle. My bench is now red, green and blue.
I suggest you go with 550B (middle ground between Square D and 650). 550B is only marginally more expensive than square D and yet it allows rifle calibers (with standard dies). Also, you will have more control over your process than with the fully "progressive" 650.
PitBull1973
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Right Behind You
If your only going to reload the 2 calibers I would say go with a Redding T7 your rifle loads will enjoy it better
If you're after a one press solution for both handgun and rifle I'd suggest the 550 as well.
The Square deal is nice if you are willing to live with one press per caliber. Or at most change out the dies between calibers that share the same size primers or maybe primers and shell plate. But even that may prove to be a PITA. The Square Deals are intended for and best used as a one caliber per press sort of deal.
The big difference between the 550 and 650 is the use of auto indexing on the 650. You don't really want that for accuracy rifle reloading. With the 550 I just need to remove the case retention buttons around the shell plate and then I can place casings in at any of the four stations at will. So when used like this the press behaves as a sort of "super turret" style press.
Look at the caliber list for the 550 in terms of the caliber conversion kits. I doubt you'll find any calibers other than the very longest that require a special press anyway.
The Dillon 550 also uses totally standard dies of any brand you wish to buy. So no specialty stuff.
The downside? For loading handgun ammo there is none. It's fast. But not as fast as the much more expensive 650. The caliber conversion kits and die plates are also cheaper than the 5 position plates for the 650. Those that buy a 650 are also the sort that know they'll need enough ammo per hour that they will almost certainly buy case feeders and possibly bullet feeders. And that ups the package price.
My own press is a 550b. Now I do load enough that I could probably justify a 650. In a busy month of matches I shoot roughly 450 to 500 rounds. But that's made up of 3 and sometimes 4 calibers. To avoid having to swap the dies around all the time I try to load at least 2K of any one size before moving on.
I just haven't hit the trigger point yet. But given the fussing around needed to convert from small to large primers I could see myself adding a second press. And if I do it'll likely be a 650 with case feeder setup which will be dedicated to the small primer loading that I do the most. That way I can blast through the more common sizes like 9mm, .38Spl and .357 (loaded down for cowboy action, not full power) in a lot less time and get on with other things.
If was looking for my FIRST press I might also look at the Hornady AP. But do check the conversion kit sizes to be sure it'll handle your rifle plans. I suggest that because those with them tell me that it's not hard to disable the auto indexing if you wish.
Would I buy one? No. But that is based on my already owning the one Dillon. And I'd like to make sure that I can use all the accessories I've already got which are Dillon specific. That's why I'd buy blue if I do ever add a second progressive. But you're not locked in like I am.
IF you look at the price and it's more than you are planning on don't totally set aside the idea of a single stage for now. They are fairly cheap to buy and they have the advantage of using the shell holders that come with the dies. So no expensive conversion kits to use on a progressive when you'll be using it essentially as a single stage anyway. As I mentioned in the other thread once you learn and get your operations tuned up it's not difficult or rushed to zip out 150 rounds of handgun ammo per hour.
In other threads the idea of a single stage as a handy side job press on the reloading bench has come up a lot. I know I sure do find mine to be handy as hell and well worth the cost and space it takes up.
Having worked with all three styles, single, turret and progressive I found that for myself the turret is likely the one best option for a "one press for all needs and all time". But for that I tend to favor the idea of a Lyman or Redding turret. In particular the Redding has a fantastic primer handling setup. But since I run off more than enough handgun ammo to justify the progressive (and maybe even TWO progressives if I get lazy enough one day) I keep the single stage around for side jobs and rifle loading which I prefer to do on the single stage. In my case I opted for the Hornady LnL single because I liked the bayonet lock bushings that allows for rapid die changes.
Each of the presses by brand and model has a big play list of videos on You Tube. My suggestion is to watch a bunch of them to get a feel for how you see the folks running them and look at the tricks and hints if there are any. I think you'll get a pretty good feel from them about setting up and how would use them in your own loading.
The Square deal is nice if you are willing to live with one press per caliber. Or at most change out the dies between calibers that share the same size primers or maybe primers and shell plate. But even that may prove to be a PITA. The Square Deals are intended for and best used as a one caliber per press sort of deal.
The big difference between the 550 and 650 is the use of auto indexing on the 650. You don't really want that for accuracy rifle reloading. With the 550 I just need to remove the case retention buttons around the shell plate and then I can place casings in at any of the four stations at will. So when used like this the press behaves as a sort of "super turret" style press.
Look at the caliber list for the 550 in terms of the caliber conversion kits. I doubt you'll find any calibers other than the very longest that require a special press anyway.
The Dillon 550 also uses totally standard dies of any brand you wish to buy. So no specialty stuff.
The downside? For loading handgun ammo there is none. It's fast. But not as fast as the much more expensive 650. The caliber conversion kits and die plates are also cheaper than the 5 position plates for the 650. Those that buy a 650 are also the sort that know they'll need enough ammo per hour that they will almost certainly buy case feeders and possibly bullet feeders. And that ups the package price.
My own press is a 550b. Now I do load enough that I could probably justify a 650. In a busy month of matches I shoot roughly 450 to 500 rounds. But that's made up of 3 and sometimes 4 calibers. To avoid having to swap the dies around all the time I try to load at least 2K of any one size before moving on.
I just haven't hit the trigger point yet. But given the fussing around needed to convert from small to large primers I could see myself adding a second press. And if I do it'll likely be a 650 with case feeder setup which will be dedicated to the small primer loading that I do the most. That way I can blast through the more common sizes like 9mm, .38Spl and .357 (loaded down for cowboy action, not full power) in a lot less time and get on with other things.
If was looking for my FIRST press I might also look at the Hornady AP. But do check the conversion kit sizes to be sure it'll handle your rifle plans. I suggest that because those with them tell me that it's not hard to disable the auto indexing if you wish.
Would I buy one? No. But that is based on my already owning the one Dillon. And I'd like to make sure that I can use all the accessories I've already got which are Dillon specific. That's why I'd buy blue if I do ever add a second progressive. But you're not locked in like I am.
IF you look at the price and it's more than you are planning on don't totally set aside the idea of a single stage for now. They are fairly cheap to buy and they have the advantage of using the shell holders that come with the dies. So no expensive conversion kits to use on a progressive when you'll be using it essentially as a single stage anyway. As I mentioned in the other thread once you learn and get your operations tuned up it's not difficult or rushed to zip out 150 rounds of handgun ammo per hour.
In other threads the idea of a single stage as a handy side job press on the reloading bench has come up a lot. I know I sure do find mine to be handy as hell and well worth the cost and space it takes up.
Having worked with all three styles, single, turret and progressive I found that for myself the turret is likely the one best option for a "one press for all needs and all time". But for that I tend to favor the idea of a Lyman or Redding turret. In particular the Redding has a fantastic primer handling setup. But since I run off more than enough handgun ammo to justify the progressive (and maybe even TWO progressives if I get lazy enough one day) I keep the single stage around for side jobs and rifle loading which I prefer to do on the single stage. In my case I opted for the Hornady LnL single because I liked the bayonet lock bushings that allows for rapid die changes.
Each of the presses by brand and model has a big play list of videos on You Tube. My suggestion is to watch a bunch of them to get a feel for how you see the folks running them and look at the tricks and hints if there are any. I think you'll get a pretty good feel from them about setting up and how would use them in your own loading.
If you are only going to load one or two pistol calibres, go with the SDB. I've loaded thousands and thousands and thousands of .40 S&W, plus a little bit of 9mm on my SDB over 16 years of IPSC shooting. I even broke the frame on it once and Dillon sent me a brand new press; not bad at all considering I bought the thing used myself.
I use a single stage Lee Bushing press for my rifle needs as I do not need to load very much of it.
If I was going to do it over again, i would probably go with a higher order Dillon press that uses standard dies and also does auto indexing. I can't believe they even sell a press that requires the user to manually rotate the shell plate. Just my opinion.
If you can get a Square Deal B used at a good price, it is probably worth it. You can always leave it set up for your most common pistol calibre.
I use a single stage Lee Bushing press for my rifle needs as I do not need to load very much of it.
If I was going to do it over again, i would probably go with a higher order Dillon press that uses standard dies and also does auto indexing. I can't believe they even sell a press that requires the user to manually rotate the shell plate. Just my opinion.
If you can get a Square Deal B used at a good price, it is probably worth it. You can always leave it set up for your most common pistol calibre.
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