I am thinking about adding a caliber. Will be for SCAR 5.56 and other poodle shooters my friends seem to favor. They have 5.56 or Wylde chambers I believe. I suspect that will be for longer heavier bullets so faster twist rates. Assume I know nothing about 5.56 versus 223. But will be turned out on my vintage 550 B. Thanks.

All Dillon rifle die sets are considered to be Small Base FL sizer dies. They come with a carbide expander ball. A seater and taper crimp die.
They are good dies with a good warranty. When you set up your press make sure you have brass at all 4 stations. Get a case gage ie Wilson or Dillon to aid in your set up.


Make sure you sort your brass by head stamp.
Not all loads will be as accurate in other guns. YOu may be courting trouble loading for other people.

I use a steel Dillon set in my 550. I have had only a couple pieces of brass that the Dillon die did not resize. One or two would not go fully into the case gauge even after several trips through the resizer, and another that did not fully chamber and got stuck in the gun.
After that episode I went home and checked every round I had loaded and, thereafter, every piece that I resized.
Case gauging each piece of brass also checks for trim length and is a good time to do a visual inspection.

The downside of doing this is that it upsets the natural flow of using the 550. It's not that it can't be done, it just seemed awkward to me.
So I got a used single-stage press and, to avoid moving the Dillon die between presses, I bought a second sizing to stay with the other press and decided to make that one a small base die to boot. Re-sizing on a second press also keeps the spent primers, and other debris, from jamming the priming mechanism and keeps this area cleaner. The spent primers will still go all over the floor but they don't force you to stop and see why the bar didn't go all the way in.

Now, when I sit down to load a batch on the Dillon it goes very smoothly.

quote:

Originally posted by 625JME:
All Dillon rifle die sets are considered to be Small Base FL sizer dies. They come with a carbide expander ball. A seater and taper crimp die.
They are good dies with a good warranty. When you set up your press make sure you have brass at all 4 stations. Get a case gage ie Wilson or Dillon to aid in your set up.


Make sure you sort your brass by head stamp.
Not all loads will be as accurate in other guns. YOu may be courting trouble loading for other people.

My nefarious plan is to get them to load their own on my Dillon and then purchase their own reloaders. I just load for myself but they are burying me in 223 brass and the waste bothers me. I have another friend who has a brand new Dillon 550 sitting in a box maybe I will shovel that brass over to him

I use Dillon sizer and decapper (carbide) but I use a Redding Competition Seater Die. They work great for me.