Recently I went against my gut but with my wallet in mind and bought dies and a conversion kit for my Dillon 550B to reload 9 mm subsonic ammo all the while my gut said spend the extra money to buy a Dillon Square Deal B press for that job.

I have a Square Deal B setup for 45 acp and love it, auto rotate head, short stroke and quick to use, in 20 years time it has reloaded 40,000+ rounds and the only issue I have ever had is the primer arm return spring breaks the end loop off, Dillon will happily send you a free replacement if it happens, I keep extra springs on hand but have only ever needed 4 so far.

While the 550 is more versatile and quick change heads etc make it a great press but it's long stroke and handle throw makes it a monster to reload little bitty 9 mm cases, kinda like putting a 454 cu engine in a Pinto, gets the job done but creates problems.

I know what some of you are thinking......Gunner has lost his mind because Dillon offers conversion kit for the Square Deal and you would be right but I ain't having any of that. When it come to the Square I like to load primers, fill the hopper with powder and get to work, as I shoot a lot of 45 acp ammo . The SDB takes a bit of time to convert, adjust and I would just prefer not take that road.

In my opinion the Square Deal is the go to press for short case ammo that you will shoot a lot of like the 9 or 45 and the bigger brother 550 handle bigger cases, just food for thought.

By the way I have been reloading lots of 45 acp ammo on the SDB lately, weather sucks so I have been cranking out ammo (185gr Sierra JHP today) waiting on the weather fairy to smile on me.

Dillon Press list

Gunner

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41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

almost all my cases are loaded. Weather is poor and I have not been shooting. I have a bunch of .22 Long Rifle cases to load and decided I am going to load a .22 caliber lead round ball in some and see what I can do to develop a quiet indoor load.

I have cases loaded with 38 gr. and 45 gr. bullets but like I said, haven't been shooting. When it clears up I will be out on the Range as I have 4 or 5 different calibers to test.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

I have a pre-B SD for 45 acp as well. I doubled up the primer bar return spring for function and reliability. Never had one break. I seem to go through a lot of the plastic primer tube tips. I load 45 acp, 45 Colt, 41 Magnum on the SD. I agree it is a little involved to change calibers, I deal with it by loading in batches. When I get down to a couple hundred loaded rounds I will process all the empties. Few months ago was 41's Will take me a while to go through 1600 rounds with a FA 97 and Taurus Ti 41. I'm only about half way through my loaded 45 acp's, but am getting pretty close to needing 45 Colt. I have a lot more 45 acp brass than Colt and shoot acp more than Colt and 41, the rotations is usually one batch acp, one 41, three Colt. I have two old Lee 1000's, one for 32 H&R/327, one for 44 spc/mg. One came to me free as parts in a box the other I bought from Jerry Miculek in the 80's, he probably won it off of a prize table. loaded 50k acp's on it, before the SD, when I was shooting IPSC.

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I have both a 550b and a SDB and oddly enough, I ve not changed calibers in either. Both were bought used and came with some extras. The 550b came with two tool heads and powder measures Ad few caliber conversion kits in calibers I do shoot. The SDB came with three or fou caliber conversions so far, I’ve only loaded 9mm on the 550 and 45 acp on the SDB. I don’t like the thought of changing primer feeds over, so that has kept me from experimenting too much. I have a bunch of prepped 223 brass and a lot of bullets and powder. I should swap the 550 over to load a few ammo cans of blasting ammo up, but I honestly don’t shoot my AR’s that much anymore. I should do the same with my 300 blk brass and get my sbr out more than I do too. I’ve been shooting more .45’s lately than anything! Mostly 45 colt and S&W loads but a fair number of acp’s as well

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I like the ability of the 550 to use other brands of dies and while it doesn’t shorten the stroke, bending the handle like the Inline Fabrication handle puts it in a much better position for my shoulder.