Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $1308.91 ...

I know that in the last 7-8 years I have MADE OVER 10K by being a reloader. first off I do gunshows weekly. in the last few years I have been buying people out when they decide to stop reloading. everytime I do I keep anything that I use then sell the rest off at the shows. 4 years ago I bought a whole room full of presses,powder,bullets,primers and abot any tools you could want. I payed 1200.00 for it all and put a 1000.00 worth in my shop. I sold the rest for almost 6k. I have bought out 10-12 guys sense then. I buy lots of prtial boxes of bullets at gunshows for a few dollars a box. about the only I find in reloading that I ever need is a few cans of powder that I use a lot.

rick,most pistol ammo had been running so cheap the last few years that it was not worth loading your own. with this virus pushing prices up and making stuff hard to find again it may now be worth loading it again. BUY IN BULK WHEN YOU CAN.

Money is no obstacle in the pursuit of fun.
Do it.

Rick, the nearest analogy I can come up with is buying a camper. It's a huge upfront cost compared to a few nights in hotels each year.

(If you're thinking of getting a Dillon, try to find a used one and when you do, send it to Dillon for a rehab. They used to do that for free and it'll come back as good as new.)

IF you have the time - go to a single-stage press... It'll save you a ton IF all you're going to reload is the .45... I have the machine that I believe you might be looking at - and I use it for 5-6 different calibers.. It does a very good job, BUT you still really have to pay attention to a lot of things in order to have great success.

Now - IF you're going to add all those other choices, then the bigger machine can make sense - especially considering the differences in reloaded rounds prices compared to retail prices..

You're going to load a lot of rounds with that unit - so be prepared for a LOT of shooting..

Wouldn’t be worth it to me. For high volume stuff, pistol and AR, I’m buying factory stuff now. All my rifle stuff gets loaded on a single stage press. I have considered caliber specific Dillons for 9mm and AR, but like you, can’t make it pencil out.

John

Do it,do it,do it!

If you stay in CA then your 1300 is the price of insurance that you will be able to source what you want to shoot.

Don't know about AZ but I do know that people are importing it from NV.

Giving away my age....I started handloading in '73.....single stage RCBS JR

Now using an RCBS Rock Chucker......load many 40's for target....but use factory self defense

when the 40 is carried...the only factory ammo other the 22LR I have ever bought

45 ACP range brass can be cheap...if not free......9mm steel cased factory is cheap..or was before all the virus

Handloading once set up & established.....is a great hobby....especially loading oddball varmint cartridges

Just looking at value....

Dillon 550 purchased 7 years ago and thousands of rounds loaded on it.

Value of the used machine because of price increases and lifetime warranty is 85-90 % of original price.

Icing on the cake still loading 38 special for 10 cents a round with careful shopping.

Jump off the ledge and enjoy the blue machine

By prepping my brass single-stage on a Co-Ax then priming, charging powder, and seating a bullet on a 550, I see no difference in accuracy vs. doing all of the steps on the co-ax and using a Harrells or digital powder dispenser, assuming that I've chosen a powder that meters well through the Dillon. When sizing bottleneck cases, pulling the neck past the expander-ball is the "death-blow" to powder dispenser accuracy, no matter what powder you use. If using bushing dies sans expander ball you can run the entire process on a 550 and maintain exceptional accuracy.

The one caveat I make to prepping single-stage is 223. I have a separate tool-head for my 650 set up just for prepping 223's. Mighty handy w/the auto case-feeder. I lay cases out on a cookie sheet, spray them down w/One-Shot, dump them into the case-feeder and just pull the handle until the case-feeder is empty. This completes the re-size/de-prime. Then I dump them into the tumbler for as long as it takes me to prep the next batch. Dump the now tumbled cases into the separator, dump the media back into the tumbler and go again. I do this re-sizing without all the other steps again, because of the expander ball issue buggering powder-charge accuracy.

I loaded 1500 rounds of 223 on both the 550 and 650. 26gn of H335 and a 50 V-Max. I cannot discern an accuracy difference between the 2 presses in any of my 223's be they AR type or bolt action. I prefer the 550 to the 650 for ease of setup/swap-out to different cartridges. The 650's speed is undeniable, ~2x faster than a 550.

Currently on a pair of 550's I load 223, 223AI, 22-250, 243, 243AI, 270, 7-08, and 308. I have one 550 set up for small primers and one set up for large. The 550 set up for small primers my dad bought ~1990ish, the one set up for large was the demo unit out of one of the Scheels stores when they combined 2 smaller stores into one large store. Neither have been back to Dillon ever, for anything.

Assuming single-stage prep, and a powder that meters well, a 550 will load 1/2MOA ammo. It might do better, but, I can't consistently shoot better than that to really know.

In a perfect world where convenience and simplicity trumps $$, and assuming you had enough space, you'd have one 550 set up for large primers and 2 650's one set up for small primers, one set for large. You'd run the 223's , 380's, and 9MM on the small primer 650. All of the large pistol primer stuff on the other 650. The 6.5, 270, 7-08, 308, and 30-06 on the 550.

550's and Forster:



650 and SL 900:

You really need to get out of CA. In real states, there's no reason to load 9mm or 45 and all the rifle cartridges, even if loading for competition, can be handled on a single stage.

Maybe you should just make friends with somebody in Nevada so you can order handgun ammo by the case.

I didn't read the entire thread but I don't have a need to load high volume 223 and have no interest in loading any other bottleneck cased cartridge fast.

I chose Dillon SDB's and have one setup for small primers and one for large, 380, 9mm, 10mm for now and it cranks them out plenty fast.

Pure lunacy to not at least have the capability of loading your own ammo, independent your state of residence. I don't want to have to curtail or stop my recreational shooting because there's been a run on ammo or components. If I can't load my own, I am 100% beholden to whatever I can stockpile. Having a few presses and some components is a hedge against shortages.

I have been controlling reloading costs since getting into reloading almost 50 yrs. ago. At that time I bought an entire RCBS set up from a co-worker going thru a divorce. Since that time I have upgraded my equipment several times, most equipment is purchased off the internet mostly eBay. I won't pay more that 50% of retail even for NIB equipment and look for free shipping too. As for loading manuals I stopped buying them long ago, I borrow from buddies and copy the info for cartridges that I load. That info goes into caliber specific ring binders kept right beside my loading bench. At one time I was reloading large quantities of handgun ammo, I built an electric powered press to handle re-sizing chores. I've built my own powder measures, quick change press mounts and lots of other reloading equipment, there are lots of ways to save money. Cast bullets I found an instate source to save on shipping costs and made a 100K bullet purchase. The caster gave me his best price and allowed me to mix-n-match, this purchase was split up amoung buddies and co-workers. Everyone got what they wanted, in quantity and at best price cost. I also buy out guys quitting reloading, often times I'm able to purchase for pennies on the dollar and sell for a thousand or more profit on the deal. Recently I bought a pickup truck load of factory ammunition, set it up at the local swap meet and it was all gone in a matter of 2-3 hours.

13K rounds of .45 ammo wouldn't have got me thru a season when I was actively competing in IPSC. Back then, I was shooting 3 times a week, 50-51 weeks a year. Of course, I was single and didn't have anything much else to do, but I was dedicated to it, for danged sure.

You don't really save that much reloading, BUT you can shoot 3-4 times more than buying factory ammo, if you cast your own bullets, etc. IOW, the cost of, say, 9mm ammo @ $8.99/box is about 3 times what it would cost you to reload the same with cast bullets at roughly $3.00/box. Those are 1980 prices, more or less, but it is still relevant. When you look at the cost of the more pricey stuff like .44 Magnum or 10mm, your "savings" are even more substantial, because that factory ammo is a LOT more costly, but the component prices are NOT, again, especially if you're shooting cast bullets

. If you shoot jacketed pistol bullets, you'll only load about 100 rounds for the price of 50 rounds of factory stuff. The savings are still there, just not as pronounced.

I have no idea how many rounds of .45ACP I've loaded over the years, but I shot enough to crack the frame of a Colt GM, and it was all FUN. In 9mm, I've turned two Browning HI Powers into rattling wrecks, purely from hard shooting and a lot of it. When I was working at an indoor shooting range, I'd go in early and run thru fifty rounds every day, just to stay in practice.

Savings are even better with .38 Spl/.357, as you rarely if ever lose any brass, and the powder charges are modest. Primer and bullet prices are about the same as with any other pistol cartridge, your savings will be in powder costs.

My 650XL was more then easy to setup, not sure what's considered to be a pita about any aspects of setup, I'm loading 9 and 40 and have been nothing but happy with the purchase, I once loaded a 1000 40 on my single stage and would never wish that on anyone, a hundred here or there maybe but anything over 500 give me a Dillon.

I say jump!

I was born into a handloading family

With 5 presses (3 dedicated full progressives) hundreds of pounds of brass and bullets.
More primers and powder then I care to try and count not to mention having about 200 sg ft of my house dedicated to handloading....there's no telling how much money Ive invested to have the luxury to do it as I please and when I please.

Like today......I can roll as many of anything I'd like but many of you store bought ammo guys can't buy ammo today.

A single stage qualifies.
What's the difference between buying 50,000 rounds of ammo and buying 50,000 rounds worth of components?