Dillon 550 or Square Deal for a dedicated 9mm reloader.

[Mitch]

I already have a redding single stage press that I use for everything. I load small batches of .38/357 and 45acp and some precision riffle, I have always bought my 9 mm but saved my brass. I want to start bulk reloading 9mm for practice ammo. This will be a dedicated 9mm machine so for this use does the 550 offer much more with its abbility to add a case feeder are there any other advantages.

If I was willing to spring for the case feeder I'd get a 650. If I was choosing between the 550 and a Square Deal B I'd get the 550 in a heart beat, but I probably wouldn't add a case feeder to it. The increase in production (or lack thereof) with manual indexing wouldn't be worth $200+ to me.

[vcdgrips]

I have a SDB in 9mm and a 550 in .45. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten either another SDB or a 650 for the .45.
Bottom LIne-if you are cranking out rounds in any volume, I like the auto indexing etc. YMMV

My first shooting mentor literally had 4 SDB set up one his bench in 9mm, 38/357, 44 and 45. This was his preferred set up for 20 + years until he sold them all and bought two 650s
with one set up for small primers and the other large.

[ER_STL]

I bought and immediately sold an SDB when I first started getting into loading. It's tiny and the work-area was very cramped. I appreciate the additional space afforded by the bigger presses.

[Sal Picante]

You can run a case feeder and a bullet feeder on a 550... Just saying. sure you have to index all the time, but that's not that bad...

(How? Use the seat & crimp combo die: sure a PITA to setup, but you only need to do it once really...)

[SecondsCount]

I just helped a friend setup his SDB for 9mm, and I own a 550, 650, and a 1050. The advice to go with the 650 is solid. My 650 with casefeeder is my dedicated 9mm press and the 1050 is dedicated to 223. The 1050 would be a little nicer to use for 9mm but not enough to keep changing it back and forth between calibers.

[disseminator]

The number one reason to go 550 or 650 IMO is the incompatible dies that the SDB uses.

Get a 550 at least and you can grow into it without any worries and add calibers at will since it uses industry standard die sets.

[LittleLebowski]

You can run a case feeder and a bullet feeder on a 550... Just saying. sure you have to index all the time, but that's not that bad...

(How? Use the seat & crimp combo die: sure a PITA to setup, but you only need to do it once really...)

Have you done this on the 550? Was it worth it?

[dsa]

Have you done this on the 550? Was it worth it?

I have a close friend that did. He got it all set up and came over one night when I was on my 650 went home and sold his 550 set up and ordered a 650. He said the 650 was much smoother running with the case feeder and bullet feeder.