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Have you purchased a NEW not used Dillon after 2018 ?

Problems with Dillon Precision

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dillon 550
13K views 57 replies 33 participants last post by  DaddyO66 
#1 ·
It seems that forums across the innerwebs are full of people having problems with Dillon Precision products since the change of management over to the next generation.

How they can have problems making the parts for a design as old as the 550 seems odd. How can they not make a fail safe rod after 35 years ? Other issues exist in forums. Many long time users write how they have never had these reported problems.

The 750 has not really rolled out well. Numerous issues in forums. To many fixes required by users to get their press to work. Some have gotten lucky. Others simply cannot achieve 800 per hour do to issues so baby the press does an hour.

Even customer service has been falling in quality over the last two years. Dillon is not paying for shipping problem presses back to the factory. Users are expected to resolve issues.

Have you noticed the problems being reported at an alarming rate in forums over the past (24) months ?
 
#4 ·
Livin in Cincy, It bothers me to see posts like this .... no actual honest reference, just Internet chatter, almost like my brother in law knew a guy that had a friend with a bad Dillon press. Ya right! So unless you have actual first hand factual information, I just don't think its fair to flame a company .... especially one that I truly respect.

Dillon has always been a very reputable company with truly innovative and high quality products .... one of the best in the reloading business with THE best warranty of any manufacturer. I met Mike Dillon in the late 1980's and visited his retail store (about a mile from where I worked in Scottsdale, AZ) many times until I moved to Albuquerque in1995. We went out to lunch on several occasions and I even got invited to a test run of his UH-1H (Huey) mounted M-134 Mini Gun .... what a hoot. Mike passed away in 2015 at 81 years old .... a huge loss for the reloading community. I bought a RL550 from the Scottsdale factory store and used it for more than 25 years to load thousands of cartridges in several different calibers .
 
#7 ·
I never ever thought I'd hear or read the phrase "Problems with Dillon Precision". I can't get my head around that. I own two 550's. One I bought new about 10 years ago and one I bought used from a buddy who bought it from some one else. Never a problem with either one. The used one was the older model 550. I contacted Dillon about purchasing the upgrade components and they sent them to me free. They even paid the shipping. I called them one other time about some minor part I lost or misplaced and they did the same thing.

I occasionally have reason to be in the Phoenix area and one time I stopped by their store just for fun. When they asked if I needed any help I told them I was visiting Pheonix and just wanted to check out the store. He took me in the back and gave me the 10 cent tour of how they build the presses. Pretty cool.

I'm with Iowegan. Unless you have first hand knowledge of something it's not good karma to feed and water internet gossip. I don't doubt that the new 750's might be having some teething problems but the idea Dillon Precision is avoiding the issue or not living up to their stellar customer service reputation I find to be less than credible.

The naming convention for Dillon presses is wildly optimistic IMO. Could I reload 550 rounds per hour on either of my Dillons? No, I could not. Not even close. I typically can crank out 250 @ hour once I get rolling. Maybe 300 on a good day but that's about it. I'm not saying 550 @ hour can't be done but I can't do it.
 
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#8 ·
I’m a 28 year Dillon owner, so I’m not much help.

But lyrics from an REO Speedwagon song comes to mind.....”I heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend, who heard it from another you were messin’ around”.
 
#11 ·
I have a 550C two years no problem , I have SD I bought way back I think about 1974 ant sure paid 129 dollars the frame broke in about 2008 I think called they said send it in got back two weeks no charge I think the only thing that was original was the handle cranked out thousands sense then still working great
 
#12 ·
I bought my Square Deal (pre B) in 1986 and have used it to load a lot of 38 spl, 357 mag, and 45 acp. I’ve sent it back to Dillon twice for overhaul and update. All I ever paid was shipping to them and they did the rest. This year I had to replace some decapping pins and a problem where the decapper was interfering with the powder measure. Sent pictures by email and got a new decapper in 5 days. No charge. I’ve had the opportunity to try a Hornaday lock-n-load for a few weeks while mine was back for a decennial overhaul and never could get used to it. I’ve also got a forester co-linear single stage that I will fight to keep.

Point is that I am as happy with Dillon as I ever was with a Zippo lighter. It just works or, so far, they fix it.

no, I am not a Dillon employee or ad person.
 
#13 ·
Bonk, Funny you should mention the speed of a RL550. One day when I was visiting the Dillon factory and retail store, I witnessed the Dillon techs doing a "speed test". First, they used clean once fired 38 Special cases, FMJ bullets, W-231 powder and Winchester primers .... probably the easiest cartridge combination to load. This test used three employees .... one just pulled the handle and rotated the shell holder. The second person fed cases into stage one, and the third person kept the primer tube full and the bins for spent cases and bullets filled plus they emptied the completed cartridge bin. The powder measure was large enough where it held plenty of powder for the test without needing to be refilled. The team ran for exactly one hour and loaded exactly 553 cartridges, proving the RL 550 was capable of producing it's namesake, which amounts to one loaded cartridge every 6 1/2 seconds. The test went off without a single hitch. BTW, this test was done on the "then new" RL 550B versus the older RL550 (which was the press I had). You could say Dillon cheated but in fact the press did indeed produce at least 550 rounds per hour.

I don't think I could possibly produce more the 250 cartridges per hour without an assistant ... however I seldom loaded more than 100 cartridges per session so top speed never really mattered. I always took a few extra seconds per cartridge to inspect each case after it had been powdered and of course I had to take short breaks when adding primers, bullets, spent cases, and dumping the loaded cartridge bin. If there was a flaw in the operation (such as a bad piece of brass) it took extra time to clear the malfunction.
 
#23 ·
I don't think I could possibly produce more the 250 cartridges per hour without an assistant ... however I seldom loaded more than 100 cartridges per session so top speed never really mattered.
There was a time when I shot my Gold Cup every Saturday......usually 300 rounds. I was happy reloading them in an hour and a half or two hours. About three years ago I thought I’d see how long it took to run 100. I did it in 14 minutes, it was flat out balls-to-the-walls loading......there was nothing enjoyable or relaxing about that experience. Never again!!!
 
#24 ·
Here’s a couple of pics of my powder hopper. Definitely different than the one in the vid. All of mine look like this and they are all 28 years old. They work flawlessly.

Auto part Machine Tire Engine Automotive engine part


Machine Tool
 
#25 ·
Livin in Cincy Lets see if I got this right .... Dillon came out with a new press (XL 750) that has some noted issues. This is true but it doesn't warrant the comments you made in your opening post like "It seems that forums across the innerwebs are full of people having problems with Dillon Precision products since the change of management over to the next generation." or "Even customer service has been falling in quality over the last two years." This sounds like unwarranted product bashing to me. Maybe some people don't know how to set their machine up or maybe Dillon hasn't worked all the bugs out but most likely, the press isn't being operated correctly. Some people are still stuck on single stage presses and will use any means possible to bash Dillon or any other progressive press. have you ever noticed a similarity when a gun company like Ruger comes out with a new model?

This is pretty common with any mechanical device so let's give Dillon some time to work things out. Maybe just better instructions for setup. I don't have a XL750 so I can't comment on these problems but I do remember when the RL550 first went on the market and had similar issues that turned out to be "user error".

In case you don't know .... this Covid pandemic has hit all industries. With the current political climate and ammo shortage, the demand for reloading equipment has skyrocketed. Based on Dillon's web site, it's obvious they are swamped but I'm sure they will get things sorted out like they have done in the past.
 
#56 ·
<snip>
My guess is operator error for any other issues he was having
This has been my experience for a LOT of internet complaining.

Even though I chose the RED pill over the BLUE pill :),
I doubt Dillon has changed that much in quality or service.
 
#27 ·
To echo Iowegan's comment and to answer the OP's original question, no, we haven't heard of the Dillon issues on this forum. In as much as we are one of the larger forums and have many members that reload using Dillon products I suspect if the problems were as widespread as the OP suggests we certainly should have heard of it from one of our members before today. I'm not questioning whether the issues are real but I am suggesting they aren't as common as originally suggested. Even a hundred examples is a very small subset of the total number of Dillon presses sold. The one thing I will question is the accusation that Dillon has become tone deaf and unresponsive to customer issues. Frankly, I don't believe that for a second. They may be overwhelmed at the moment but that doesn't mean they don't care. I'm absolutely certain they will fix what ever issues exist and they will eventually make every customer whole and satisfied. That is the core theme of their business and I doubt it's changed simply because they rolled out a new product.
 
#28 ·
I too will echo the “operator error “ responses.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but what company was offering a “No BS Warranty “ when the rest were still charging you? That was the driving force behind me purchasing a Dillon. Lee, at the time, wanted to charge me when their plastic parts stripped out. Now you’d be hard pressed to find any company that will charge for parts. Bottom line is Dillon set the bar.

Get on handle side of Dillon and then go back to your old press......it’s like driving aCorvette and then going back to a Yugo.......
 
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