What press seems to be the best for reloading rifle sized 22-250 up to and includeing 375 H&H? Eaze of changeing from one to another is a major consideration, as well as cost for the conversions. I like the Hornady projector, will the dillon do the magnums? Also, how does the RCBS presses do? They seem to have a few out there, who has some real I have done it and been there experiences.

I have a Dillon RL550B. I've loaded up to 30-378 on it without any problems. I really love this machine. I don't own any benchrest rifles, but can normally get sub 1" from all my sporters. I called to get a caliber conversion kit for my 470NE and a new guy on the phone said they had one and sent me the wrong parts. I emailed them back and they appologized for the error, then got the R&D dept involved. It took about 1 1/2 weeks and I had a new base plate and shell plate, that was custom made, for less than a standard caliber conversion kit. The only problem I've ever had with it is it doesn't like CCI small pistol primers.

I'v got the 550B also,it works fine for my Ultra Mag. I prefer to weigh all my hunting rifle powder charges,so I use the AT 500 powder die and funnel setup,rather than the powder measure.So far I haven't had any primer feeding problems. I got mine from Chad Pengar http://www.eguns.com/Dillon_Precision/dillon_precision.html
It was a little cheaper than Dillons price (free shipping).Also everything I'v ordered from him has gotten here days faster than my one Dillon order. On one order that he was out of stock on and took a couple days longer,he included a free toolhead.He's got my business.
Jeff
Forgot to add,his website doesn't show all the conversion kits available,theres actually over 160-170,check Dillons site for that.

[ 09-15-2003, 11:28: Message edited by: jsr ]

Chalk me up as another 550B user, the largest I have used mine on though is 45-70 but still a bit of room.

IN MY OPENION......
The Hornady progressive is the only press that will stand up to calibers larger than 223.

I've got a Dillon 650 and have never regretted it. I load everything from 40 s&w to 30-06 on it and never had a serious problem, and when I did have a problem it has always been a mistake I made in the set-up. Give Dillon a serious look, they are pretty spendy, but you'll only have to buy it once. If you get a Dillon go to MRDial.com and get one or their dials for the powder measure. It'll be the best $25.00 you'll ever spend. Get it set up right and the powder measure will be accurate within a tenth of a grain all day long.

I have the RL550B and love it. I am the second owner, have used it for over ten years, and there was a period of about five years when I was a rifle team captain, and the entire team of about 8 guys would do all their handgun and rifle loading on that press. It held up to all but the most ham-handed, hard headed abuse; and when a newbie broke a part in the priming system, Dillon sent the parts free, including shipping.

I prefer the manual advance on the RL550B to the automated one on the RL650. It permits variations in the loading cycle, including using the press as a single stage for resizing/decapping, and primer seating. It allows me to to do certain brass prep steps that I tend to get obsessive about, without needing to play games with the advance feature.

The press is highly capable of permitting the kind of care that supports match ammunition fabrication. I have gotten five round groups that measure 1/4MOA and smaller from factory rifles using my Dillon. It's the only press I've ever owned, and I have no plans to change now.

Greg

rcbs progress 2000, or, if you can find it, rcbs ammomaster progressive.

cheaper than most, works nearly as good.. but doesn't have auto advance on the shellplates...

holds up to 4.5" rounds

jeffe

Lee 1000 with the Lee collet die set. .223, .308, 6.5 x 55; dead easy! I would do .375 H&H on it too if i could get a shell plate.

When I'm weighing max charges or useing large extruded powders, I set the Dillon to drop a light charge, then dump on the scale and trickle to the right amount, then go from there. It works fine to load them one at a time that way. You can prep and prime all your cases, then throw the powder charge, adjust it up and seat the bullet and not have to worry about haveing a loading block with full cases that might get bumped. It also has much more leverage than my RCBS press for case forming. For loading pistol rounds, I can load 100 45acps in about 8min. If I was to get a new press, it would be another Dillon 550 so I could have one for small primers and the other for large ones, but it isn't really that bad to change between the two.

I have a Projector; use it mainly for revolver, but it has been used for everything from 38 S&W to 300 Win Mag and 45-70. No problems

I have several lee 1000's set up for my pistol and 223 and 7tcu calibers that I load for now, this would be for rifle only loading. This would range from 22-250 up to and includeing 375 in length. I also shoot a few improved chamberings, so there would at times be some forming work to do. I now have 10 month twin girls, so my reloading time is down to about nill. I also shoot every day, with a 100yd range off of my deck on the house, and have a gun with me most of the day for the come what may type shooting. Mostly stuff that shows its self around the farm, rocks and other peoples beer cans left on the roads, but several shots are fired a day, and now I need to be able to reload fast. Is the Dillon really that good? What is the cost for conversion to differant rim sizes?

My choice is the Dillon AT500...the single stage version of the RL550B. It loads over 40 calibers right out of the box. Unfortunately 375H&H isn't one of them. You'll have to buy the magnum shellplate at extra cost.
It has almost 4.25" of space between the shellplate and the toolhead. That should be plenty for the 375H&H.

Caliber changeover is super quick. Usually less than 5 minutes cause all your dies are preset on each toolhead. Even quicker if you're going from say, .22-250 to .30-06. Pull 2 guide pins, slide out the toolhead, slide in the next, replace the pins and changeover is done. You can do it faster than you can say it! And it makes very accurate ammo. As an example, my .223AI will regularly print 10 shot groups that can be covered with a dime. Bullet runout as checked with the RCBS Casemaster is normally .002" or less. But that's using the Lee collet sizing die. Makes a great combo with the AT500.

And I don't think it's ever been said on here before but the Dillon stuff is a very pleasing blue color. Quite soothing.

Yes the Dillon is really that good. A caliber conversion kit for the RL550B is 34.95, it comes with the shell plate, locator pins and powder measure funnel. For straight wall cases it bells the case mouth, for necked cases it just puts the powder in when the case is pushed up. If you have a bunch of the same case head, then you can just get extra powder funnels for each caliber. IF you get the AT500, it is the same basic machine as the RL550B, it's just the stripped down model. You can add the auto prime system and auto powder system later if you want. It looks like the AT500 package deal is $162.95, that comes with reloading book, scale, dial caliper..... The RL550B is $329.95 and worth every penny. When I got mine they were $550.

Another vote for the Dillon.

I love my Dillon XL 650. Even though I have not reloaded for my rifles yet I plan on reloading for my 270 weatherby, 7mm rem mag, and 338 win mag.

I can't imagine using another.

Brian

Another vote for the Dillon RL 550B. I bought mine new 5 years ago, and it works great. It comes with an instructional video that makes reloading easy. Elliot, my great grandparents homesteaded in Hillsboro. The homestead is still there.

I have a Dillon 650XL with all the goodies ad do a lot of reloading for my 45ACP fir by\ullseye and a lot for my 223 ar and my 22-250 for hunting varmints and do think there is nothing better for the ease of changing back and forth I use mostly Dillon dies except for my benchrest rounds and then I use Redding competition dies and find that I can hold all of my charges to +- 2 tenths of a gr on all except the large IMR powders I would not hesitate to get a Dillon you will never regret it just dont let the little lady see the check.

Lief Wold, It certainly is a small world. Do you know many people from this area?

I think that most people tend to shoot a lot more pistol than rifle, I still have not had much response for the rifle loading other than the 223 and 22-250.

How about some of you that load up and shoot a lot of 308 for match shooting?

Thanks for all of the imput so far. It looks like I may have to get a 550B

I have had a Hornady Projector for almost 20 years and a Dillon for 7 years.
I really like the Hornady but kept reading about the Dillon so I purchased a blue one.
Both are great machines with a lifetime warranty.
If you load several different calibers ar a reasonable volume get the Hornady. Much cheeper for caliber changes and simpler. The Dillon has way more parts to perform the same tasks.
If you load one load in one caliber in high volume the Dillon is a great machine. If you load many calibers a few hundred at a time you will pay plenty. Does it do anything better than the Hornady?? Not IMHO.

The point a lot of folks miss about the Dillon is that you do NOT need to buy a conversion kit for every caliber you want to load.

ALL the '06-based (.473") calibers use the same shellplate: .22-250, .243, 6mm, .25-06, .35 Whelen, etc. etc. etc., ALL use the same plate. All you need is a powder funnel of the correct diameter for each caliber....and then those funnels will ALSO work with most all of the cartridges within the caliber, such as .223, .22-250, .220, ALL use the same funnel. Same for most .30 calibers, practically all will use the same funnel.

With just three shellplates one can load ALL the cases with the .223 head size, ALL the cases with the '06 head size, and ALL the cases with the H&H head size. Add the funnels for the calibers you want to load, and you are set.

Paying for a complete caliber conversion for every cartridge design you want to load is totally un-necessary and foolishly expensive. I think Dillon is missing a potential selling-point by not making this clear in their literature(though I'm sure they'll be glad to take the money for all those conversions!)

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)