Equipment advice

[Army 1911]

To the OP
Start with 2 manuals, Lyman's 49th and one other
You will also need:
Calipers
Powder Scale (balance beam recommended)
Inertial Bullet Puller
A Workbench
Light
Primer Flipper
Some wrenches for dies
Containers for brass (both clean and dirty)
Vibratory Tumbler for cleaning brass
A good deal of patience

That is in addition to the press, dies, and shell plate.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

The SDB won't do rifles or bottleneck pistol. It takes a propriatery die size and is therefore limiting. The 550b takes standard dies and will do rifle and bottlenecks. While it doesn't autoindex, it has the advantage of operating like a single stage for load development which makes it better than the 650 for that purpose. The 650 is a great machine and will operate faster than the 550 but not enough faster to justify the price to me. YMMV

Wow didn't know about the proprietary dies for the SDB. There's no way to turn off the auto indexing of the 650? That's a little lame. I know with my pro 1000 its as easy as taking the indexing rod out of the shelllplate carrier. Takes me all of 5 minutes to turn it into a single stage/manual indexing turret.

 

[Reaper277]

To the OP
Start with 2 manuals, Lyman's 49th and one other
You will also need:
Calipers
Powder Scale (balance beam recommended)
Inertial Bullet Puller
A Workbench
Light
Primer Flipper
Some wrenches for dies
Containers for brass (both clean and dirty)
Vibratory Tumbler for cleaning brass
A good deal of patience

That is in addition to the press, dies, and shell plate.

well I have a workbench, wrenches, containers, and patience... I guess I'm on my way, lol. I'll pick up the Manuals this week

 

[silverbullet]

You may want to look into the LEE Classic Turret also. Not too expensive, almost as fast as a progressive, and can be used as a single stage. I use one for both pistol and rifle. I like the fact that once the dies are set, just change out the die holder and they stay adjusted.

 

[jakharath]

I second the Lyman 49th edition.

Also, I have a Dillon 550, 650 and an RL1050. If the RL1050 could load 308 I would sell the 650. The 550 is much more versatile than the 650. Don't get me wrong, I can load faster on the 650 than the 550. That being said, I can load even faster on the RL1050.

I may sell the RL1050 and the 650 to buy a Super 1050b.

The 550 has been around since the 80's. There's plenty of them to be found used. Caliber conversions and parts are plentiful. It's a wonderful starter 'semi-progressive' press.

 

[Byrd666]

Tagged

 

[rushthezeppelin]

So OP did you ever make a decision on what press to get? Please share and show off some of your reloading porn if you have started.