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  #1  
Old 01-29-2014, 06:14 PM
albertacoyotecaller albertacoyotecaller is offline
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Default Dillon progressive question

I have both a Dillion 550 and a couple single stage presses that I use. I mainly use the Dillion for my pistol and AR reloading and the single stage for more precision rounds. However I want to switch to the Dillon for some of my gopher rounds. My question is this...

I see Sinclair offer tool heads for the Dillon and one is a free floated head. Anyone have experience with it and does it make a difference for runout and such?

Greg
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  #2  
Old 01-29-2014, 08:48 PM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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Had not even heard of the Whidden toolhead until your post today. Looking at the pictures on the Sinclair site, it looks like it might work, but I have never had any concentricity issues with my standard Dillon toolheads. I have been using Hornady and Redding dies for my rifle calibers, and Dillon carbide pistol calibers, and each caliber is set up with their own tooheads. I shoot mostly varmint rounds and target rounds, and am not a BR shooter.

One additional thing I do is to use shim stock (~0.010") to shim the gap between the toolhead and the press frame to take the vertical slop out of the gap, which seems to make the bullet seating more consistent. There is some tolerance/variability in the thickness of tenon on the toolhead, where the toolhead slides into the press frame. Since I have around 20 or so die/toolhead set-ups, and only one press frame, it seemed simple enough to shim the gap to tighten it up.
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Old 01-29-2014, 09:08 PM
albertacoyotecaller albertacoyotecaller is offline
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I remember reading an article about a year ago comparing run out on progressives to single stage and the Dillon 550 was consistently better than some of the single stages. I can't see any issues but I too am going to have a tool head for each caliber so just looking to buy some when I saw these and started thinking about the issue they say the floating head resolves.
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  #4  
Old 01-30-2014, 12:56 AM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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Another point is that the shellplate on the Dillon 550 is located by the end of the ram, the ground ID and the bottom of the shellplate and the ground OD of the shouldered attaching bolt to the ram. That is a pretty robust system. The design of shellplate itself does allow a little movement around the cartridge "cut-outs" and the variability in rim size, which will some minor alignment compared to the axis of a cartridge.

I believe arrangement of the shellplate and the ram in the Dillon 650 is different. When I was considering moving up to a 650 many years when I was shooting mostly pistol rounds, I was told at that time that the 550 had stronger and better design for the use in rifle rounds. I stayed with the 550, and have not been sorry.
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Old 01-30-2014, 03:37 PM
jim saubier jim saubier is offline
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Default concentricity

I'd be interested to see what folks find when measuring concentricity from a progressive press and a single stage.

I also use a Dillon to load 9mm and now .223 as well, for volume shooting in 3 gun style matches with my son. I have the 550 and it seems to do a fine job.

Back when I was shooting benchrest, I did some concentricity measurements for my loaded cartridges. I found some variation that concerned me, so I tested them on paper. I was unable to ascertain any measureable difference from the rounds that had some runout vs. the rounds that were measured with very little to zero variance on the concentricity gauge. These were my limited findings from a few tests that were not done in a scientific manner.
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Old 01-30-2014, 04:53 PM
albertacoyotecaller albertacoyotecaller is offline
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I will have to try to find the article I read about the 550 compared to the single stages.

I too use mine mainly for my 3 gun ammo. Guys at the range find me a funny breed. 3 gun shooter and a small "f" fudd that loves small cals.

But hell with what they think. I am the club prez. I will do what I want!
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  #7  
Old 01-30-2014, 08:01 PM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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I think an interesting test was in John Feamster's book about AR's - something like Black Magic -he loaded ammo for his Compass Lake AR on a Dillon 550 using 52gr SMK (Without digging the book out) and H335. He won a registered BR match using that ammo and his AR.

For my bolt guns, I typically segregate the prepped brass for my individual rifles and then neck size only on a single stage press. I then load the neck sized brass progressively on the Dillon to prime, throw powder and seat bullets. I do not crimp any match or varmint rounds that do not have cannelures.
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  #8  
Old 01-30-2014, 09:31 PM
ray h ray h is offline
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GW loads all his PD rounds (usually the night before leaving) on a Hornady progressive and he does quite well. Good part is his auto case and bullet feeders. I'm not sure he loads anything on a single stage anymore.
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  #9  
Old 02-01-2014, 11:38 AM
Dean2 Dean2 is offline
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http://www.saubier.com/forum/showthr...ghlight=dillon

Greg

I bumped this thread for you as it has some run out info on the stock tool heads.

Last edited by Dean2; 02-01-2014 at 01:17 PM.
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  #10  
Old 02-03-2014, 12:26 AM
GLWenzl GLWenzl is offline
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Yes, a progressive is a procrastinators best friend, more than one occasion I ran a bunch through the progressive to have ready to shoot the next day or so.

I do use my single stage press but not very often. Matter of fact I run everything through my progressive press as small as the 17 Squirrel. The exceptions are the smaller odd size cases that would require a custom shell plate such as the 5mm Mag, 17 CCM and the 17 Short Mag all get done on my single stage. I have seen (and some of you here saw it) a 17 HM2 getting loaded on a Hornady progressive press and I think that is when the light when on for me.

Progressives work well for forming and that is the only reason I bought mine in the first place. That said I have 4 forming dies and that is too much but I can form three steps every pull of the handle.

On the powder measuring concern it really isn’t a concern at all for me but then I have found favor with Ramshot (and other ball powders) in the small calibers and what I can’t get there the flake works almost equally as well, 1680 and lilgun. I have lo0aded 4227 with pretty good results but caution to a lighter load.

Cant comment on the Dillon but on the Hornady if you want to load small stuff then be sure to purchase their pistol metering drum and insets. I did have to learn my press and after fine tuning it I drops powder very evenly.

I already was setup with the Hornady L&L bushing for my single stage and in every dies box has its own metering insert so I can go from loading a 17 Squirrel to a 7mm stw super fast.

Stopping to load primers is my biggest slowdown and someday maybe I’ll just purchase several drop tubes and have them loaded and ready to go??

Edit-forgot to mention that I also use my p-press and a single stage sometimes.
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