DILLON'S CARBIDE PISTOL DIES - 6 YEAR REVIEW

chief38

chief38

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About 6 years ago I sold my Dillon Square Deal B press after making tons of reloads with it over 30+ years. Not that I had any problems with it, but I upgraded 6 years ago to the Dillon 650. The 650 is just so much more capable and easy to use for a person who shoots a lot. As many here know the proprietary Dies for the SD-B are not compatible with any other machine, so new Dies had to be purchased for use in the 650.

While I do own Dies made my RCBS, and Lee, I liked the idea of how the Dillon Carbide Dies have a pull spring pin for quick disassembly without having to disturb adjustments. I purchased 3 new sets in .38 Special, .45acp and .45 Colt. and I absolutely love these Dies!!! With the pull of the spring pin they come apart for a quick & easy cleaning with no adjustments ever needed when put back together. They work great, are built very well, never loose adjustment and I'd not hesitate to recommend them to anyone in need of Dies. At this point they have produced tens of thousands of rounds without a single issue! As we all know by now, even if there was a problem, Dillon takes care of that quickly, friendly and at no charge!! :)

I also purchased the Die Blocks and powder Measures for each caliber set up so changing calibers takes seconds. I just pull two pins, slide out the whole assembly and slide in the new caliber, then replace the two index pins. If I need to change the Primer Tube Feeder size, that takes a few minutes longer. I just wanted to post that even after all the ammo I've reloaded over the last 6 years, I am still thrilled with the Dillon Carbide Dies and highly recommend them to those in need. PS: I have no association with Dillon what so ever!
 
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Mike said:
I use Dillon too.........You spent some major $$$$$.
Click to expand...

Yea, I did spend some money, but it only hurt once. After that it makes reloading a piece of cake and IMHO worth every penny. :) No Powder Measure adjustments, no Die adjustments, each Powder Canister never gets cross contaminated with another Powder, setting up another caliber takes seconds. A little longer if the primer size has to be swapped out. I could not be happier! :D
 
For pistol / revolver on my old 550, Dillon carbides are all I use as well. Rifle calibers are another story.

I've also found their powder measures to be amazingly consistent. For whatever reason, I've found .45acp rounds charged w/ their auto-measure, to shoot tighter groups - then those individually measured on my Dillon beam scale. Go figure...
 
I only have one Dillon carbide die, in 9 MM. It's a well designed die and has loaded many many thousands of rounds and still works just fine. The only problem I've had with it was that I wore out the decapping pin to where it wouldn't consistently push out the old primers. But I replaced the pin with a new one (had to buy it as they claim that is a wear item) and it's back working like new.

My other resizing/decapping dies are Lee and I haven't had any problems with them either.
 
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