Finally Made The Plunge

After starting out in handloading with a little Lee hand press (let me tell you doing 100 rds of .45 ACP was wondermous with THAT set up) about 4 yrs ago, for Christmas 2 yrs ago, my wife got me an RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Master reloading kit.

Man, what an improvement. I could actually sit down and load ammo in a normal fashion. It works great for fine tuning loads for hunting and for precision work (not that I'm any kind of a precise marksman). Which will still be its primary function.

But doing bulk reloading was getting to be too much. When I got into the 10mm thing (on top of the .45 ACP thing) last winter/spring, ammo was scarce and components were even worse. So I bought stuff when/where I could. In doing so, I wound up with over 1k pieces of 10mm brass. Using that little RC single stage press took me the better part of 2 months to push out that 1000+ rds of 10mm.

So, I'd been really thinking long and hard about getting a Dillon. Specifically for reloading bulk ammo. But, in looking through the Blue Press (for those of you not in the 'know', the Blue Press is Dillon's catalog) it came down to either the RL 550B, or the 650B.

Decisions, decisions.

So, this past Thursday, I was walking through one of our local big box sporting goods stores and noticed an RL 550B on display. After some questioning back and forth betwixt me and the salesdude, I'm heading out the door the proud owner of a brand spanking new Dillon RL 550B press.

Cost? $50 under book. And without the shipping charges of ordering it from said catalog. Since then, I've got conversion plates for .45 ACP, .40 S&W/10mm, AND .41 Mag. The only other one I need is .308 and I'll be cranking out bulk ammo like a madman.

The sad part is, due to events this weekend, I was unable to get it set up. Between my brother showing up yesterday afternoon, a full afternoon today of watching an absolutely amazing game between my Broncos and the Titans, getting car seats for Hazmat A&B (who are due at any time I might add) and some persistent neck issues, I didn't get much done save getting the area cleared off to set it up. Maybe tomorrow.