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Dillon 550B $55

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:36 am
by TH3180
With my job I do a ton of driving, from service call to service call. Some days I am 10 miles from home and other days I am 400 miles from home. I see a lot of signs for garage sales all summer long, if I have time I will stop at some. Yesterday I was about 200 miles from home working and saw some signs. I like the garage sales away from the cities you never know what you will find. The first one I stopped at didn’t have much. I was getting ready to leave and then I saw them, a bunch of Hornady dies the red boxes jumped out at me. There was a decent size pile of reloading stuff there. Most of it was junk, someone really didn’t take care of there stuff. All of the stuff was sitting on a big white box. I figured it was an old rusty press considering everything else was junk. I asked the guy what was in the box. He said all he knew was it was unopened and it says press on it. I got all the junk off of it and wouldn’t you know it. An unopened Dillon 550B. We opened the box and it looked like it was all there. I asked how much. He said $100 and I said I will give you $55 and I get one of these little blue boxes (9mm Caliber conversion kit). He said deal and I had trouble keeping the huge smile in. I got to talking to him and he said he bought the house as a foreclosure and the people that walked away from it left a bunch of stuff in it. He didn’t even know what that big pile of stuff was. I explained to him a little about what he had and went on my way. I think I got a good deal what to you think?
I spent last evening setting it up. I have about 600 cases belled and primed, so I just skipped station #1 and cranked out 100 rounds after set up. I think I am going to like my new press.

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 2:26 pm
by blue68f100
You got the deal of the year so far. That was a STEAL.....

Did you get all of the dies too? Most will cleanup and those that don't mfg will warranty. With the Dillons you want a complete tool head for quick easy change over.

You did good.....

If you shooting 9mm I have a few loads that work good. And I have found a great load for 45acp too.

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:37 pm
by Bullseye
And if you have any issues with it, Dillon will back up their product even though you are not the original owner.

R,
Bullseye

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:54 pm
by Georgezilla
Congrats. I paid $450 for mine with only one set of dies.

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:12 pm
by greener
Certainly pays to nose around in your spare time.
blue68f100 wrote: And I have found a great load for 45acp too.
That load is?

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:59 am
by blue68f100
The load I have settled on that shoots super clean and soft is .....

I purchases a 1k of Berry's 200gr FP, and loaded them with 4.8-5.1 gr of WST with a 1.225" OAL. The 4.8 had enough energy to work my new Kimber which is suppose to have a 400 round break-in. The Kimber uses a dual recoil spring rated at 18lbs. 4.8gr is not the min for this powder, 4.5gr is. I started off in the middle knowing that if you go lower in a auto it may not function. The 4.8 is a very soft shooting, almost what my nine is. At 5.1gr your up to around 850 fps according to another reloader who crony the load. 5.1 is his pet load and I now know why. WST burn very clean at these load. There was very little carbon sooting in the brass. WST (452AA) is a shotgun powder for 12 ga for those not familiar with it. WSF (540) was also a shotgun powder used for 20ga. which I still use today.

Even at the 5.1 gr these shoot softer than my shooting partner's 40 with it SS Sig 226. The first shot I was very surprised as to how soft it was and how easy it worked the slide. This is a high loft ball powder so it fills the case better than the other powders I tried. Once my gun is broken in I may see how low I can go, so if someone has a flinch problem it will help them.

I shoot at a indoor range so smoke can be a problem, I did not notice any.

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:31 pm
by Baldy
You stole that press for sure.. Good catch, enjoy. :)

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:38 pm
by laportecharlie
About a year ago I bought a "as new" 550B with two sets of dies and two powder measures for $250.00 I thought that was the best deal of the century but you beat me by a mile.
Charlie

Welcome

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:51 pm
by blue68f100
laportecharlie, Welcome to GTO

Re: Welcome

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:33 am
by Bullseye
blue68f100 wrote:laportecharlie, Welcome to GTO
Let me second that thought!

R,
Bullseye