Dillon RL-550C: Unboxing, Overview, Setup, Loading Rifle and Pistol Ammunition

[Music] the Dylan RL 550 is a legendary four station progressive reloading press Gavin gear here from ultimate rear loader comm what I've got here is the very latest edition of this press the RL 550 see what we're gonna do in this video is we're gonna unbox this press we're gonna get it set up we're gonna load some pistol ammo I think will load some nine-millimeter we're gonna load some rifle ammo showing the primer size change over I'm thinking some six millimeter Creedmoor cuz I've got an upcoming match that I'm loading ammo for and there's also just a little bit of a twist you're gonna have to watch the rest of the video to hear all about that well let's get this box open and see exactly what's included with our l5 15 seat Dillon is known for really good packaging I'm guessing they don't have a lot of shipping damage returns because you'll find these molded foam inserts check that out check out how nice that is all right so we've got some instruction manual materials we've got the handle we've got priming low primer sensor primer pickup tubes and return rod hardware for the handle okay so that is everything that is in this top foam insert you're gonna go ahead and set that aside let me tilt this so that you all can see what's inside the box here you see that okay so we've got the press frame assembly oh yeah we've got the powder measure assembly and we've got a box of parts all right double-checking looks like we've got everything there this is a good you just got to love it when you see a brand new press come out of the packaging look at that a brand new press to replace my very well patina'd an aged RL 550 original edition you're gonna want to check out those videos on the channel if you haven't already wow that's a beauty look at that I'm loving it we've got a rubber band holding the pins for the tool head they're off okay now let's open this accessories parts box completed cartridge bin we've got priming system parts out of the bag so we've got one primer slider installed and we've got another primer slider that cover is large and small some allen keys indexing parts with this press it's a add the shell plate and pins there's caliber changeover kit and you're gonna also want an additional tool head for additional calibers that you buy parts for the discharge chute okay I'm gonna get this stuff organized I'm gonna get the press mounted on an inline fabrication quick change plate I will note that Dillon also fabricates their own strong mount which is also very good I use the inline fabrication mount system here in the shop so I'm gonna get that set up I'm gonna get everything all organized so that we can see everything that was included here and we'll get this press set up for some nine-millimeter okay real quick before I get this press mounted I just wanted to walk through all of the box contents now that I've got everything laid out in neat and tidy okay we've got the instruction materials we've got the lo primer warning system the press handle sure and net we've got all of the priming system parts and pieces including some extra bits that we need to pick up large and small primers and that we need to prime large and small primers on the press we've got a complete powder measure with a small bar installed we've also got the large bar so this means that we can dispense powder charges for pistol and rifle with what we've got with the kit here we've got the safety return rod we'll see that in a moment a complete set of allen keys three die lock rings the pieces that we're going to need for indexing when we install the shell plate we've got the discharge chute the spent primer collector and the completed cartridge bin now let's get this press mounted and start to put it together so the press is not mounted to the in-line fabrication quick change top plate that means that we can click this into position at well this is a slightly modified version of the in-line fabrication top plate with side bin system I attached another piece of angle iron over here it's just a simple matter of getting the four bolts fed through tightening everything down and then there's an aftermarket discharge chute that's meant to work with this system that attaches to the side next what I want to do is guide you through the process of putting this press together as outlined in the QuickStart guide let's do it similarly the press starts with the handle the handle just drops down through a hole in the linkage you've got a washer on the top and a nut on the bottom there is a through-hole you can put a screwdriver through this hole or an allen key through the hole so that the handle doesn't rotate while you're tightening that lock nut then you're going to drop the primer catcher onto a little saddle on the right hand press linkage it's going to fit right there in place and collect all the spent primers as d priming happens then you're going to take the primer operation rod and insert it into the primer tube block here at the top raise the ramp to the top of its stroke by lowering the handle and then feed the other end on the other side of the pulley you just have to push forward a little bit pop it behind and then operate the press a couple times to make sure that it's operating correctly now we're ready to get into some of the caliber specific parts now the press comes with one tool head but you're gonna have to add to that a conversion kit and a set of dies to get completely set up each time you get another conversion kit you should also order another tool head if you want to leave things set up and you probably do so next we're gonna walk through the process of getting all of the related parts attached to the press so that we can start to set up or dies for the caliber specific part so we're going to attack the shell plate area first the first thing we're going to do is you're going to take the detent ball in the detent spring and drop it into the appropriate hole in the sub plate we can then slide the shell plate into place put the nixing star on top of that and then insert the hold down bolt through the indexing star and through the shell plate into the sub plate and get it finger tight now we're going to want to take the set screw that comes in from the side on the RAM and get that in place with just a little bit of tension here comes the important part we want to make sure that the hold down bolt has enough tension to prevent the shell plate from flopping around but it has enough slop so that we can freely index the shell plate you're going to want to experiment with this a little bit to get the feel just right now it's time to install the powder measure on the press we're going to start by loosening the two clamp bolts that secure the powder measure to the powder die we can now drop in the appropriate powder funnel from our caliber conversion kit for pistol calibers like what we're using here that's also going to include an expanding function for rifle calibers it's just a straight up drop tube now we install a tool head in the press drop the pins in place and we can tighten that powder die down about halfway now it's time to drop on the powder measure onto the powder die and finger tighten those two clamp bolts that we removed previously we want the powder measure to be able to rotate slightly now we can take the fail-safe rod insert it into the linkage plates at the top and through the bracket at the bottom test cycle a couple times and add tension to the return rod so that we get a little bit of spring compression at the bottom of the stroke each time next we're gonna install the low primarily erm it's as simple as installing the included triple-a battery closing the battery door and then pulling the entire assembly down over the knurled cap on the top of the primer tube now when we get close to running out of primers we're gonna get an audible alarm and that's great setting up the dies on the 550 is really straightforward we've got a Dylan 3 die set with a carbide sizer D primer that size Rd primer is going to screw into station number 1 we're gonna raise the shell plate to the top of the stroke screw that die in until it contacts the shell plate tighten the lock ring in station number 2 we're going to come back to that powder die set up we're gonna raise and lower the powder die in the tool head to either apply more case mouth expansion or less what we want is just a little bit just enough so that the bullets it's evenly in the case mouth that's gonna be about five to ten thousands when you're satisfied with that setting tighten down the lock ring and retighten the clamp screws should be ready to go in station number two station number three is our bullet seating I took the die apart real quick to flip the seating stem from the round nose profile to the flat point profile because I've got one D 124 grain xtp bullets proceeding here that's going to work really good for this particular bullet I took a dummy cartridge put it into station number three race to the ramp to the top of the stroke now we can lower that seating die until we feel it contact the bullet and then just a little bit more to account for compression of everything tighten the lock ring seat a dummy round with the actual bullet we're gonna seat confirm the cartridge overall length I was going for about one point zero six zero inches I think I had 105 eight and a half very close plenty good for this particular load finally in station number four we're gonna do the crimp that's just going to remove that expansion that we did in station number two is with the powder through expander and we can again use the dummy cartridge for that put it in station number four raise the RAM to the top of the stroke screw the die down until we feel it contact and then about a half turn more or less we're going to confirm that when we get all done now we can load components and then it's going to be time to run around through the press to confirm all of our setup and for each station so now we've loaded components we've loaded our primers and our powder I just confirmed my powder charge on a digital scale I want five grains of CFE pistol that's the powder we're using we're using quantity 124 grain xtp bullets and we're using brand new Starline brass this is some good step so now what it's time to do is to run a case all the way through and create our first cartridge and we'll just confirm that everything is good to go there so we're gonna each time manually index sized in the first stage and primed now we've got a powder charge we're going to place a bullet in station number three it fits nicely and then we're gonna crimp okay now we need to check our results I've got a Wilson tools engages Ellie Wilson nine-millimeter case gage we're just gonna drop that in sits nice and flush on top we know we're sized to adequately so now we're ready to get down to business and do full progressive loading when we're loading progressively we're in continuous mode that means four operations are happening simultaneously and every time we index the shell plate a complete to the cartridge will go down into the completed cartridge bin we're going to insert a new piece of brass so each time I place a bullet I'm doing a very diligent powder check at station number three Prime on the forward stroke insert a case top off a bullet I'm doing again my my visual on my powder charge forward to prime after a bit you're going to get into a rhythm with this progressive loading and you can see how quickly it can go [Applause] now before we get too far along here I think it's really important that we function check some of the sam'l don't you think so I'm gonna run the press down here I think we need to hit the range real quick so I loaded up a magazine for my canik tp9 sfx this is the fun part I'd say we're running pretty good when I was done loading nine millimetre parabellum it was time to switch over to six millimeter Creedmoor this is a good exercise because it's kind of a worst case scenario in that we're gonna need to switch out the primer size on the primer slider we're gonna need to change from pistol charged bar to the rifle charge bar on a powder major change our shelf plate and change dice so involves all of the different components of switching calibers in many cases it's going to be a lot quicker and easier than this but this will demonstrate all of those different steps the first thing I did was to dump the powder measure and there's two quick ways to do that one is you can loosen the clamp screws and take the return bar off slide the entire powder measure off the powder die and dump it I did that because I knew I would need to disassemble the powder measure to switch from the small charge bar to the large charge bar but if you're leaving your tool head set up you can just remove the return rod pull your pins and then take the entire tool head out invert the entire thing to dump your powder into the canister and that's really the optimal way to get set up for different calibers if you're switching over frequently is to have dedicated tool heads and a dedicated powder measure for each of those setups that way it's a really quick and simple matter to get it slid in and get everything dialed in and confirm then you're often and renting I had to change the powder bar over I did that following the dumping of the powder and it's a simple matter of loosening the screw that collapsed these plates in place and then pulling there's a little square nylon block if you pull that back just a little bit the whole primer slider bar will slide right out and then you slide the new one in place I'm going from pistol which is small here to rifle which is large here retighten this allen screw here being careful not to over tighten it leave it just a little bit of slop so the plates aren't bound up when the powder measure is then it was time to switch over the shell plate and related components there's brass locator pins here that are at three of the stations and those just keep the case rim held in place when you're indexing from one station to another and so I pulled those I pulled the set screw and then pulled the hold down bolt the star and the shell plate comes off the next shell plate goes on the star goes back on top of that then the hold down bolt then the set screw then that tension adjustment where again you want enough slop for this indexing to happen freely but not so much slop that things have too much play in them in terms of the precision of the loading process that's going on that takes care of the shell plate area then it's time to take a look at the priming system and this is a really quick changeover you're going to remove the operating rod detach the return spring there's two allen screws here on the bottom that you're gonna pull out and then the entire assembly will lift off of the press frame you can then swap out the primer slider for the other size that you're switching to and then in your column here you're gonna want to take the knurled cap off the top and remove the tube and switch to the tube that you're switching to in this case it was from small to large since I'm loading large rifle primer six millimeter Creedmoor there's one important step that you need to pay careful attention to with the five fifty and that's when you set this assembly back down you're going to need to align the primer slider at the forward most part of its travel with the sub plate and what you can do is just wiggle it a little bit and then as you're pushing down gently you'll see the priming cup come up through the sub plate that's the alignment that you're going to want to pay careful attention to put your return spring on and get your allen screws up in and then carefully wiggle the back of the primer slider to make sure that it's perfectly centered that priming cup on the front of the slider with the sub plate then tighten those Allen screws down everything's going to they in perfect alignment return the operating rod into its proper position with the pulley captive behind it cycle the press a couple times to verify that everything is going to work and then load your components I loaded CCI PR two primers here I have H 4350 powder I'm using Berger 105 grain hybrid target bullets and Starline large rifle primer six millimeter Creedmoor brand new brass so that's the basic loading setup let me next talk about the different die station utilizations that i've got going on here and how we set up the dies okay so here we've got an RC BS full-length sizer die for six millimeter creed mourn station number one and what I did was I set the height so that I could feel the expander ball go through the case neck and out the other side into the interior and that was it I stopped there so this die is way higher than it would normally be for full length sizing that's because we're using new brass and all we really want to do here is expand the case mouth and the neck and make sure that it's completely uniform so moving over to station number two this setup is just a matter of when there's a case in station number two and the RAM is at the top of the stroke making sure that the linkage is fully to the extent of its range of motion so that the powder bar is fully extended this is super critical for getting very consistent powder charges station number three I've got a Hornady powder cop die at the top of the stroke we can see that little white oring come to the top that's going to give me the ability to check every single loaded round to make sure that the powder charge is in the right proximity stage number four we've got an AR CBS six millimeter cream or standard bullet seating die and what I did here was I raised the RAM to the top of the stroke with a piece of brass in place I lowered the die until I could feel it contact the body now this was actually a loaded cartridge that had loaded previously and had the bullet seated to just the correct depth so I had backed off the seating plug at this point now that the die body is set and I've locked a lock ring we adjust the seating stem until we can feel it contact lower the RAM a little bit give it about an eighth of a turn more lock it down now we're probably within about five thousandths and can adjust our bullet seating depth accordingly so that's an overview of the die setup now let's load some ammo progressively I didn't show running up the press for 9-millimeter so we'll do that here each time we're going to insert a case into station number one look at the process going here and again at the forward stroke I mean a very deliberately Prime the 550 likes for you to back it off just a little bit when you spin I've noticed that makes it work just a little bit smoother just going to continue this process each time now when we get to station number three when there's a case there the top of the stroke we're gonna check our powder charge looks good and I'm gonna let things set at the top because it takes a while for the powder to fall I know that seems funny but with rifle there's a lot of powder going through a small orifice there now all the stations are full so now we're gonna put a bullet in station number four and then at the top of the stroke we're gonna check our powder level same procedure each time you'll notice this goes really fast compared to single stage loading and when I've got say six hundred rounds of practice ammo to load that makes a big big difference I've noticed the donut the height of the donut there's a little o-ring it does change even if you've got a consistent powder charge which I'll talk about in just a moment important thing is that you get a visual that you've got roughly the right amount of powder I am liking this [Applause] you can index this press faster but I like to just take it slow so that I don't spill powder and that's really more of a concern with something like 45 ACP where you've got a high powder level in a short fat case it likes to spin and that's one of the nice things about a manual indexing press is that you can index it at whatever speed you want there's no mechanical limitations you can get that rhythm just perfect [Applause] [Applause] and when we're done we can run the press down so in a relatively short period of time we've been able to crank out a nice pile of six millimeter Creedmoor ammunition but if we go back to the very beginning of the video you might recall me saying there's a little bit of a twist to this story most people are familiar with the RL 550 B or the RL 550 C it's a good all-around handgun or all-around rifle press well a lot of people don't realize is the kind of quality match-grade ammunition of course it depends on what your definition of match grade is you're probably not gonna load benchrest ammo on a progressive but that match grade ammunition can be loaded on this press and in fact my former friend shooting mentor and local shooting sports legend Jim Finlay who passed recently loaded all of his PRS ammunition on Dillon 550's and I want to break down a few ways that that's possible first with the powder charge if you do your low development I just published a video on this you'll be able to find a velocity node where you can have a little bit of a fluctuation in powder charge weight and not have a huge effect on velocity I was able to use a manual thrower and get sub 10 SSD on my velocity which is exactly what I need for this particular match I verified this powder measure it's also running at about plus or minus point 1 grains with the Hodgson h40 350 powder that I'm using there check also this press has a small diameter shell plate and that means that there's less of a tendency for tipping if you have an imbalance in force say you're running the press up or running it down or you have different things that are going on that are a part of the reloading process but you can also mitigate the bulk of those force fluctuations if you don't full-length size on the progressive press I'm using new brass so I'm just punching the expander ball through the case neck to open that up a little bit in uniform it if I've got previously fired brass I can always size that on a single-stage tumble off the lube and then pull it into this process as I've shown here so if you're not full length sizing on the press you get much more consistency in things like bullets eating depth let me show you that here I've got a bullet comparator tool that's going to allow us to check the base to ogive for a few of the cartridges that we've loaded so we're going to do is I'm going to rotate my cartridge just a little bit to get things set here settled in and we're going to zero that and let's double-check that if we resettle things here okay so that's good let's check a couple more to see what kind of consistency we're getting here okay so that's within a thousandth of an inch I help I find it helps to spin just a little bit that's within a thousandth of an inch you see where this is going this is the way to do it again well last few have all been the same so so extremely good consistency and I attribute that to the fact that I'm not full-length sizing on the press and this is a great stable platform for this kind of precision now you see why I like this press for batch ammunition before we conclude let's run through some quick pros and cons pros for the 550 B versatility and flexibility you can load regular ammo you can load match ammunition cost is a pro quality is a pro you're getting great quality Dillon is known for that you're getting the no BS warranty and it's coming at a price that's really affordable not just for the press these caliber conversion kits are very simple due to the simple nature of this press is setup and that just means you have to pay less for each additional caliber that you add Dillon is also known for all of their accessories tools you can configure this thing however you want it's going to be a good investment it's got good resale value on the con side anytime that you're limited to four stations you're gonna have to make some compromises when you get into more complicated reloading setups for instance if you wanted to check your powder charge and you wanted separate bullet seating and bullet crimping you can't do that with this particular press is that an issue well it kind of depends on what your requirements are and what you're trying to accomplish for stations is definitely adequate for most reloading scenarios but if you want more stations you might want to look at a press that has more like the XL 750 or the 1050 and so on and so forth it doesn't have the auto indexing either which again is both a pro and a con you can control it precisely you don't have to worry about spilled powder because you can control that at the same time there's a little bit of a cost for safety if you do double charge you know that can be an issue all you need to keep in mind is that you need to be really diligent and get into a rhythm and never make exceptions if you ever have a problem with your progressive press don't continue check every station remove every cartridge if you need to better safe than sorry in all cases I absolutely love this press I'm gonna be loading some match ammunition in the next coming weeks with it so I'm really glad that I got it set up here I would like to know what you think what do you think of the 550 are you running one of these two of these four of these please drop a comment and share your feedback on this particular press let's start a discussion if you liked the video please give it a thumbs up don't forget I got a full article if you click on that link in the video description that's gonna have more detail more feeds and speeds links to product pages and so on and so forth thank you for watching don't forget I've got altima tree loader shirts of the old reload or storm on patreon make sure you're subscribed with notifications because I got a lot more Dillon content coming up until next time happy shooting and happy reloading [Music]

Channel: Ultimate Reloader

Views: 344,030

Keywords: 6mm Creedmoor, 9mm parabellum, Dillon Precision, Dillon RL 1100, Dillon RL-550B, Dillon RL-550C, Dillon Super 1050, Dillon XL-650, Dillon XL-750, Pistol Reloading, Reloading, Reloading Blog, Reloading Press, Reloading Videos, Rifle Reloading, Ultimate Reloader, reloading press quick change mount, reloading press stand, reloading press light, dillon 550b, dillon 550, dillon precision rl1100

Id: ACs8WW0Y2dU

Length: 32min 35sec (1955 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020