Non-Dillon Dies in the 550 - 650

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Anyone use Non-Dillon Dies in their 550 or 650? Do they work ok? I have both machines, but all my Dies are RCBS or Redding with Lee factory crimp.

I plan to get some dedicated dies for each machine soon, but just wanted to know if there is any upside to the more pricy Dillon dies.
 
Yes non-Dillon dies work as they should with the 550 and 650. I have over 25 tool heads with a vast assortment of dies. All work perfectly.
 
Yup. 7/8x14 is what counts.
Lee dies have a rather short threaded section, the lock ring on my 9mm CFC die is only engaged about one turn... but it holds.
I use Hornady 9mm and .45 seating dies.
I have EGW "U" sizing dies but use them only for 9mm and .45 JHPs.

My .38 head is Lyman, RCBS, and CH, the .44-40 head is RCBS and CH.
 
The two differences I've seen in Dillon dies are that the sizing die mouths have a greater radius than some others. A Lee sizing die, for example, will often catch the edge of a straight wall case's mouth in the Dillon press because the shell holder plates and brass pins have a little more wiggle room in them than some standard shell holders do. The other is that Dillon sizing dies are on the tight side so as to help insure you don't run a case through that doesn't get sized enough to work. But that's neither here nor there if the cases are ones you've used before in your guns and the die is one you've used successfully before with that same make of case. It's only going to be cases fired in someone else's gun first that may need a little extra squeeze.
 
Yep, I use different brands in my 550 all the time. For 5.56 and 300 BLK I prep all the brass ahead of time on my single stage with a small base RCBS die and then load it on the 550 with the first station empty.

I use Forster Competition seater dies in both cases.

I also use a Redding Competition seating die in my 357 SIG head.

They work great. Redding also sells die sets without expanders specifically for progressive machines that feature the larger radius on the dies like Unclenick mentioned.
 
I don't find a Lee sizing die to be bad about snagging the case mouth in a Dillon. An RCBS will, though.

I don't consider Dillon sizing dies to be very tight, I have to use EGW "U" dies (Made for them by Lee, but not the same as a Lee "U" die.) for short bearing surface bullets like 115 gr 9mm and 185 gr .45s.
 
My first big run on the 650 will be 3000 rounds. 1500 in .LC/556 nato brass and 1500 in .223 rem brass. Some are range brass and such. So I am in the process of capping and tumbling. Then I have to size and trim. So the first run won't be using the first station. But the next time I shoot this brass I won't have to trim.

Tool head will be 1: empty, 2 powder, 3 powder Check, 4: bullet, 5 Lee factory crimp.
The Nato Brass will be H335 and 62 gr balls with cannalure.

The .223 rem brass will be 55gr Hady fmj's with Benchmark.

Should work good for the monthly steels challenge at one of my ranges I go to
 
Oh yeah,

And I have to swage all the FC crimped .223 and of course all the 556 stuff.

It takes a while but I don't do it all at once. I can cap and swage 500 pieces in a few hours. Then work on something else.

I also have 1750 7.62x51LC I need to do, but it has been swaged and trimmed already. That batch is going to be loaded with 147gr fmj's and Benchmark for my AR-10's
 
Have you thought about getting a Dillon RT1200/1500 and a size/trim die?

Lots of guys on the Brian Enos's (Dillon) forum run a size die in station 1, a size/trim die in station 3, a M die in station 5.

That's how I have my prep head set up for my 650.

Pretty much all my dies are the Redding Pro dies. They are designed for progressive presses. The nice part about the Dillon dies is that you can take them apart to clean and not change the settings.

Dillon rifle dies and the trim dies are small base dies.
 
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The nice part about the Dillon dies is that you can take them apart to clean and not change the settings.
Click to expand...

And the bad part is that the seating die is adjustable only by screwing the whole die in and out on its sloppy 14tpi threads. I now have Hornady seating dies.
 
From the beginning I've only used RCBS dies in my RL550. The down side is that I needed to scrounge up another seater die for the 4th position. I already had an extra set of .45 die from when I went from steel to carbide and I used the seater die from my .380 set so I could use the 8mm taper crimp die in the 4th hole...
 
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