loading rifle ammo in a dillon 550???

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ruger22

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Is anybody loading rifle ammo in a dillon 550???

I crank out the fun handgun loads with the 550.
Also some 45 70 target loads for hitting gongs too;)

For the few hunting loads in my 30 06 I shoot a year I use the factory premium stuff.

1) Can you find some good reasons for me to reload the 30 06?

2) For those using the 550 for rifle rounds and going for hunting accuracy what accessories do I need?
 
good reasons to relaod 30-06?:confused:

well cost is a major one what are you paying for premium ammunition $35-40 a box????

relaoding would allow you to use your gun more often with cheaper ammo....

you got relaod with matchkings or another quality bullet for alot less and you might be able to develop a load your rifle likes better than the premium factory stuff....

sorry, i don' kno much about the 550 tho;)....
 
I load .223 and .308 on the 550.
I load for autos, so I do all of the case prep prior to loading on the 550.
First station is prime.
Second is powder
Third is seat
Fourth is crimp

It makes sense for me, as I'll load a couple thousand at a time.
I'm not sure one would really save any time by doing a hundred or so.
I use match dies (Reddings) and can't tell the difference in runout between them set on the Dillon vs. the Rockchucker.
 
i've had one since about 92- in 308 win- came set up that way and the only retractor i have is that there's no auto index- other than that, it's a good machine- i got it back when we could shoot 20 round mags - as far as accessories goes, i'd get a conversion kit- and the differnt shellplate and powder measure so all you have to do is pull the pins and change heads on top, and change the shellplate on the bottom-the conversion kit i have has only the shelplate and pins, so you need a whole new top - dies, powder measure, and toolhead- i'd also get an extra rod or rods( mine;s an old one) so you don't have to change that( connects the powder measure to the carrier)
 
I reload rifle ammo on my 550 in two steps. First, I resize the cases with only the sizing die in the toolhead and then trim if needed. Second, I have a toolhead set up with the powder die and the seating die for each calibre, leaving station 1 for priming only.

If I owned a single stage press, I would probably use it for resizing and prime cases, throw powder charges, and seat bullets on the 550.
 
tjhaile said:
I reload rifle ammo on my 550 in two steps. First, I resize the cases with only the sizing die in the toolhead and then trim if needed. Second, I have a toolhead set up with the powder die and the seating die for each calibre, leaving station 1 for priming only.

If I owned a single stage press, I would probably use it for resizing and prime cases, throw powder charges, and seat bullets on the 550.
Click to expand...

that's a pretty complicated process...
 
charles.emond said:
that's a pretty complicated process...
Click to expand...

The need for trimming bottleneck cases requires that reloading for rifles on a progressive be done in two steps. Also, it provides the opportunity to clean off the sizing lube before loading the cases. The process is actually easier to do than to describe.

Straight-walled pistol cases are much simpler because they don't have the same case preparation requirements as bottleneck rifle cases.
 
My goal is not to save $.
I do not shoot 30 06 for fun or in volume.

I have a fine collection of revolvers for that;)

So help me out here guys...
My tikka T3 gets 1" and less groups with factory premium ammo which are (I suspect) loaded near the max.
If I reload I should be able to to equal this, accuracy and velocity, right?

1) How accurate is the powder throw on a dillon 550 for rifle powders?
Or do I need a powder trickler and measure each round?

2) As cases wear from firing is it better to use a hand primer?
 
Dillon powder throw is fairly accurate with ball powders. While I have not tried extruded, I have a couple of friends who have, and they both recommend against it if your looking for maximum consistancy. For plinking / gen purpose they say it's ok.
Using mine for 308, soon to be 223 & 9mm.
 
With extruded powder like Varget my old Dillon 550 would throw +/- 2 full grains:eek: Not close enough for what I was trying to accomplish.
 
I try to use ball powders in my 550 due to the metering 'issues'. Apparently, you can tweak the powder measure by polishing bits here and there to give more consistency, but for me it's +/- .2 grains with Varget, so not too bad.

Also - I load .223 for my Tikka Varmint, and get 55gr VMAX loads in under 1/2" at 100yards. Right around 0.43" for 5 rounds. Scary accurate.
 
I load 223 (same process as Beltfed) with ball powder, average +/- 0.2 grain.
I noticed that any vibration of the bench/press leads to increase of weight of the next throw... let's say for some reason the handle gets cranked several times without case under the powder station. Next throw will be on the + side. My solution is being consistent with handle and avoiding having less then all 4 stations "busy". This way the accuracy is pretty good. And yes, I have a Rockchucker too. ;)
 
Interesting. If I read this right, beltfed and Stranger size and decap on a single stage then trim etc if necessary then run them through the Dillon for the loading process. I'm thinking about setting my Dillon up to load for my 223 (Black Special) but wasn't sure how much dicking around was necessary to load bottleneck cartridges on a Dillon.

Can one reload the 223 without the seperate sizing process used by beltfed and others? Can you eliminate case lubing?
 
BUM,

You can size, decap, reprime, load powder, seat bullet and crimp all at once if you wish. You just need to make sure your cases aren't too long and need trimming is all.

I do the 'two step' as well. I actually have a separate toolhead that holds my resizing die for my .223. When I'm done trimming, I leave station 1 empty for the rest of the process - it only primes. Stations 2-4 remain the same.

It's really not that tough to do rifle on a 550. I recently was doing almost 400/hour once I got going into a rhythm.

You still need lube - even with carbide dies. Pain in the butt yet, but I just line up 30 or so on the lube pad at once and roll them with my hand a few times.
 
I do precision ammo on a 550, but I don't use the Dillon powder drop. I replace it with a funnel and use a Chargemaster. It's a great press, it gives me lower runout than many of the single stage presses I have tested.
 
I have a Dillon 650, the way I use it most of the time to make precision rifle ammo is more like a single stage press with a case feeder and auto-index ;-) When I first bought it, I did load some .30-06 ammo for my Garand, doing all the steps in one pass. I found it inconvenient to dealing with lubed cases and powder metering in the same pass (e.g. powder sticks to the inside of the case mouth).

You can make ammo good enough for competitively shooting 600 yards on a Dillon using the press-mounted Dillon measure. If you use a nicely metering ball powder it can be "decent enough" for 1,000 yard shooting (not _quite_ good enough to trust to win a national championship, but close). So for nearly all hunting applications, it ought to be good enough.
 
There was an article in "Precision Shooting" a few years back regarding reloadinf 223 on a Dillon. IIRC the reloader claimed he could reload to better than "match" accuracy, completeing all steps on the Dillon, once it was set up properly. "Match accuracy" was les than 1" at 100 yds.
 
pengmcic said:
There was an article in "Precision Shooting" a few years back regarding reloadinf 223 on a Dillon. IIRC the reloader claimed he could reload to better than "match" accuracy, completeing all steps on the Dillon, once it was set up properly. "Match accuracy" was les than 1" at 100 yds.
Click to expand...

That's not too tough to do - I reload all my .223 on my 550, and get around 1/2" at 100 with my Tikka. And I'm a pretty novice reloader.
 
Food for thought: David Tudd reloads on a Dillon RL550. He weighs his powder on a Prometheus. Would he invest in a $1200 powder drop that is accurate to half a kernel of powder only to kill accuracy by sizing and seating on a press that produces high runouts? Doubt it...
 
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