Need help getting started in reloading

[44magsam]

I want to get into reloading as a hobby and the Dillon 550b is my choice for a progressive press. What will I need to get it set up and I am not talking about the scales and etc? I want it to reload 44 mag and have been all over the internet trying figure out what kind of 44mag dies I need and come away totally confused every time. Would someone be kind enough to provide me with some information or a link to the dies that work for a 44mag and the Dillon 550b and anything else I will need to get just the press set up.
Thanks in advance for your help

 

[CMD-KY]

http://www.brianenos.com/store/dillon.550.html

 

[john16443]

Not sure of your previous reloading experience, but I'm going to guess none or very little. If that's the case, read here first - For the New Reloader: Thinking about Reloading; Equipment Basics -- READ THIS FIRST - THR You're 'jumping into the deep end of the pool' with the Dillon, make sure it isn't going to be an expensive experiment that will consume lots of money and you end up not pursuing it fully. There are maybe better ways to get started that will let you make sure this is really for you before getting fully immersed in a progressive press. Not saying it can't be done, but I'd caution against it.

Lee has the dies you need, Item# 90512 available here and a gazillion other places - F & M Reloading Equipment Inc.: Lee Carbide Pistol Dies 44 Magnum

I'm sure everyone else has dies for 44 mag as well, and any standard die will work in you Dillon 550.

Make sure you get some reloading manuals first, start reading those and then you'll have a better idea of what you want to do.

 

[novalty]

Wow, never would have thought of starting reloading with a Dillon 550B to reload .44 mag. How many do you rounds do you shoot per week/ or month?

 

[chief38]

Let me prefaces this by saying I am a BIG Dillion Precision fan.

I have a Square Deal B Press and a RCBS Rock Chucker for rifle calibers - the Square Deal is pistol calibers ONLY and at the time of purchase that was all I was interested in.

I bought the SD about 30 years ago and it has served very well. I bought the RC press 15 years later when I got into loading rifle bullets. That said......... if I were in the market for a reloading outfit today, I would buy the Dillon 650, NOT the 550. I am fully aware that the Dillon 550 is one of their best sellers, but I never liked the fact that you have to manually index it. The 650 is (IMHO) a better machine and automatically indexes. The price difference between the two is not all that much, and the expandability of the 650 is much better than the 550.

Since they have a no BS warantee and presumably you will own this press for a long time to come, I would strongly consider the 650 instead.

Chief38

 

[W.E.G.]

If you are new to reloading, do yourself a favor and start with a SINGLE-STAGE press.

Once you are SURE you have the hang of it, you can move to the contraptions.

Starting your reloading career with a progressive press to reload .44 magnum is a sure sign you're on the wrong track.

 

[OKFC05]

link to the dies that work for a 44mag and the Dillon 550b and anything else I will need to get just the press set up.

Any press you buy from DIllon can be bought with the dies installed and the press set up ready to load, except for adjusting the powder measure. Silly for a novice to buy the bare press and set it up themselves, probably better for anybody to buy it set up.
Dillon Precision: Reloaders, Reloading Equipment, Bullet Reloading, Bullet Reloaders

You seriously need to find a mentor who uses a Dillon press. I have mentored several people who started on the Dillon SDB.

 

[SMSgt]

Seems like overkill for .44 Magnum to me. Really, how many rounds are you going to reload at any one time? If you were running thru 100s of rounds a week in 9mm or .45, that would be one thing.

 

[Skip Sackett]

The RL550B is a good choice for a starter press. That is something different for me to say too!

You will have no problem with using it if you can remember "righty tighty, lefty loosey". It just ain't that hard!

Learn the process of reloading. Get several manuals, if there is a video from Dillon for that press, get it and watch it before you start. The mentor thing is the absolute best advice that has been given to this point.

Starting with a single stage is silly, in my opinion. What happens for the guy that wants to load for competition? Just starting out you can use an RL550B in single stage mode really easily and every die you buy for any other press will work in it.

Lee has some good videos on their site too for setting up their dies but the process is the same for all of them.

 

[Skip Sackett]

p.s. I have an RL450B (1/2 converted to an RL550B) that is setup for 44Mag. I shoot 44Mag a lot!

 

[growr]

Get your Dillon with their dies already set up for you. I use Dillon dies in most of my reloading....for the dies that they do not offer I am using Redding when possible.

OKFCO5's advice of a mentor is great advice....the Dillon set up video is excellent but a watchful eye is even better.

Randy

PS. Good manuals, a good scale and being very diligent are must have's as well.

 

[FloridaFlier]

I never reloaded anything before I bought my 550 about 6 years ago. I love it, but you should know that it's not like riding a bike, where suddenly you know it all. Your reloads will get better and better over the years, so you will benefit from finding friends in the local area who can help getting your gear humming. That said, I am very pleased with phone support from Dillon. They will work with you to get you reloading as much as needed.

 

[jwr0201]

Second on the recommendation for Lee dies - go with the carbide deluxe 4 die set - no lube needed. Dillon is surely the best of the best in reloading presses, but in reloading revolver loads, you could easily supply your ammo needs with a single stage. There are a lot of good ones - go with a breech lock capable press. A couple of things not to skimp on are your scale and powder measure. Redding makes a few excellent powder measures that use micrometer measurements and are dead accurate on most powders. I personally like the 3BR - have both universal and pistol measures. On the scale - spend the scratch and get at least one good one - two are better for checking your loads. most of the Ohaus made scales are accurate, easy to use - and most important, they hold zero well. One good thing to do is to make a powder chart for all of your powders.
RR

 

[Neumann]

If you're just starting out, get the Dillon Carbide 3-die set. It's designed to work well with the 550b, or any other progressive press. It's worth the extra money for a carbide resizing die - you don't need to use lubrication, hence you don't need to clean up afterwards.

The Dillon 550b is best used with dies that have separate seating and crimping dies. The powder funnel in the 550b serves as the expansion/belling die. About the only thing in common with other sets is the resizing die. Even so, the Dillon resizing die has more of an entrance taper than dies meant for single-stage presses.

The powder funnel/expansion die is the hardest to set up - mostly by trial an error. The others take less time to adjust than to describe the process.

I've been reloading for 40 years, but just got a 550b last week. It took a couple of hours to assemble and adjust, but it might take a raw beginner longer. I'm loading 200 .45 ACP an hour, about 600 the first week alone, and I haven't even got my wind up. That's about as fast as I can shoot.

Unless you are into punishment, .44 Magnum doesn't seem a likely candidate for this kind of productivity. A single-stage press would be cheaper, and more than adequate for that caliber. Even with a progressive press nearby, you never outgrow the need for a single-stage press for low-volume work or large rifle cases.

Whatever you choose, have fun, and be careful. It takes 100% of your attention, no eating and no distractions.

 

[*chris*]

If you are new to reloading, do yourself a favor and start with a SINGLE-STAGE press.

Once you are SURE you have the hang of it, you can move to the contraptions.

Starting your reloading career with a progressive press to reload .44 magnum is a sure sign you're on the wrong track.

I don't want to be argumentative, but I think an auto-progressive (not the 550) press is the easiest to start out with. I just bought a Hornady LNL AP a month or so ago and after a few hours of trial and error setting it up, I was cranking out 357 mag rounds very easily. Once you are running the machine, it appears to me to be almost impossible to double charge, miss a charge or not install a primer. When you have to run a bunch of cartridges through the same process in waves with a single stage press, there is a much better chance of doubling or missing a process in my opinion. I have run around 500 rounds already and only had 1 FTF.

Chris

 

[CMD-KY]

Let me prefaces this by saying I am a BIG Dillion Precision fan.

I have a Square Deal B Press and a RCBS Rock Chucker for rifle calibers - the Square Deal is pistol calibers ONLY and at the time of purchase that was all I was interested in.

I bought the SD about 30 years ago and it has served very well. I bought the RC press 15 years later when I got into loading rifle bullets. That said......... if I were in the market for a reloading outfit today, I would buy the Dillon 650, NOT the 550. I am fully aware that the Dillon 550 is one of their best sellers, but I never liked the fact that you have to manually index it. The 650 is (IMHO) a better machine and automatically indexes. The price difference between the two is not all that much, and the expandability of the 650 is much better than the 550.

Since they have a no BS warantee and presumably you will own this press for a long time to come, I would strongly consider the 650 instead.

Chief38

I agree, I would recommend the 650 over the 550.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

I believe that the reloading equipment that you buy should be based on how many rounds you will use over a short period of time. While Dillion products are great if you load thousands of rounds at a time, if you only use a couple of hundred rounds a month, Dillion, while great, is overkill. I may shoot a couple of hundred rounds a month, if that. I reload over 10 different calibers, but I only load a few hundred at a time. I use a 4 hole Lee Turret press and I did not pay a lot for it and it does what I want to do at the rate I need.

It you are just starting to reload, I recommend that you spend $100-$150 to see if this is what you want to do before investing hundreds in equipment that may sit unused. If you start simpler, you will learn more about the details of each step in reloading.

Another mistake I see beginners make is trying to see how powerful a load they can create. Start with a few minimum to mid loads and you will use less powder and enjoy the shooting experience better.

I am getting older and I now load for accuracy, not pain.

 

[novalty]

LouisianaJoe:I believe that the reloading equipment that you buy should be based on how many rounds you will use over a short period of time. While Dillion products are great if you load thousands of rounds at a time, if you only use a couple of hundred rounds a month, Dillion, while great, is overkill. I may shoot a couple of hundred rounds a month, if that. I reload over 10 different calibers, but I only load a few hundred at a time. I use a 4 hole Lee Turret press and I did not pay a lot for it and it does what I want to do at the rate I need.

It you are just starting to reload, I recommend that you spend $100-$150 to see if this is what you want to do before investing hundreds in equipment that may sit unused. If you start simpler, you will learn more about the details of each step in reloading.

Completely agree with you Joe. Dillon does have it's place, and they are great presses, but to hear that as the auto-response when someone asks about reloading gets pretty tiring. There are a lot of factors that should go into purchasing a press. For me, I reload 9mm and 45acp and I know if I asked the first suggestions I am going to hear is buy a Dillon. I shoot about 1,000 rounds of each per year, with missing a lot of shooting time during the winter because of lack of in-door ranges. So I have all winter to reload, which is easily done on the RCBS RockChucker II that I picked up locally at a yard sale, with Uniflow Powder measure, 5-0-5 scale, and few other accessories for $125. With the money that I would have spent on a Dillon, I bought the material for my reloading bench, dies, and components. When I have time I generally work up batches of brass, so that if I need additional rounds I can quickly put them together. I have a Folger's jug of fired brass, a Folger's jug of sized/deprimed brass once that is full enough I throw that in my tumbler, once out of there they go in another bin for resizing, then to another bin which I will complete the final steps of priming, charging, and seating/crimping.

 

[Revolver M65]

I am just getting into reloading myself, I don’t know how much you shoot but I just got a Lee classic loader for 38. Spl you only really load one round at a time but you don't need a press just a Rubber Mallet and the supplies these are fairly cheap kits to on for a 44 might run you 40 depend on where you live

Best of Luck
Greg R.

 

[john16443]

So, the OP appears to have abandoned this thread and started another one about should he get a Loadmaster. Now he can get the same responses on that one!