High primers with Dillon 550

[jetinteriorguy]

I picked up a Dillon 550 last year and have been getting a lot of misfires due to primers not being seated all the way. I have the shell plate as tight as it can go and still turn smoothly, and have reset the primer cup/anvil according to the video tutorial on Dillons website. I’ve been getting about 10% misfires that will fire on a second try, and I’ve gone back to seating by hand with my Lee hand primer which has been 100% reliable. I’ve never had this problem using my Lee turret press, and if I can’t rectify this issue I’m selling the Dillon and going back to the turret. For range shooting it’s not such a big deal, just kind of annoying, but for my CC ammo it’s not going to cut it. Now I know all about the warning concerning handloads for CC, and am not concerned.

[Nathan]

Have you called Dillon?

Is there a better handle (inline fabrication) with more leverage available?

[ghbucky]

+1 on contacting Dillon. They will get it fixed.

[John D]

Loading with a 550 for over 25 years and never had this problem. Call Dillon

[olduser]

Call Dillon.

[Jim Watson]

I had persistent high primers on my 550.
Turned out that the part Dillon calls the "crank" was cracked and flexing. I did not realize it until it broke through and fell apart. Dillon replaced it, as usual.

[Marco Califo]

It is possible to fix the ammo by seating the primers deeper. Any good hand primer can do this. Leave the primer tray off. Just put the round with the high primer in, and squeeze the handler. I like the RCBS Universal Hand Primer for this, no shell holder needed.
I discovered this when I tried using non-Lyman shell-holder in my Lyman hand-primer. It gave me high primers. Solution is seat them deeper.
Yes, call Dillion on the root cause.

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Have you called Dillon?

Is there a better handle (inline fabrication) with more leverage available?

Definitely next week I’m contacting them. Just thought I’d ask here in case it’s something obvious I’ve missed. Weird thing is if I just push the anvil up with no case in place it comes up what looks to be pretty high. I also just extended the anvil into a case without a primer and it clearly swaged a bit of brass well into the primer pocket indicating it’s going well into the pocket.

[44 AMP]

I had an RL 450 back in the day, I don't know if they've changed it since then, but I thought the 550 (when it was first out) was the 450 with the swappable tool head.

IF this is so, raise the ram and look at the underside of the shellplate. My RL 450 had a screw there, (with a locknut) that controlled when the ram "bottomed out".

IF that screw backed out a little, the ram wouldn't go as far down, so primers were seated "high".

Check and see if something like this is possible on your press.

you don't, by any chance have the shellplate on upside down. do you??

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

I had an RL 450 back in the day, I don't know if they've changed it since then, but I thought the 550 (when it was first out) was the 450 with the swappable tool head.

IF this is so, raise the ram and look at the underside of the shellplate. My RL 450 had a screw there, (with a locknut) that controlled when the ram "bottomed out".

IF that screw backed out a little, the ram wouldn't go as far down, so primers were seated "high".

Check and see if something like this is possible on your press.

you don't, by any chance have the shellplate on upside down. do you??

Shell plate is on correctly for sure. I’ll check out the presence of a screw under the shell plate. Thanks.

[Unclenick]

This was a really common issue when I got my Square Deal back around 1990. In that instance, it was CCI primers that always stood proud, while my Federal and Winchester primers went in just fine. I did have to get into the habit of giving the lever a good shove to be sure of getting maximum seating depth with all primers, but no amount of shove would reliably seat the CCI primers. Then in 1992, CCI revamped its primer production lines, and they ceased to be a problem. Allan Jones said they started removing burrs from the cup edges. They may also have altered their cup tolerances or made other refinements I don't know about. I do know the Russian primers made in the Tula plant (Wolf and Tulammo) do not seat reliably in my 550, and I have not tried any on the Square Deal. Other foreign primers may or may not have similar issues, so just be aware you have to try before you can be sure you don't have to seat them off the machine.

One step you can take that may help is to swage your primer pockets as if they were crimped, even though they aren't, or else uniform their profile with something like the Wilson case trimmer's primer pocket reaming tool. These steps tend to open the primer pockets uniformly. Some brass I have, like IMI brass, truly requires this even to seat the U.S. brands without extra effort. They seem to be about three or four ten thousandths narrower than U.S. makers produce. They will probably tolerate higher pressures before the primer pockets get loose because of that, but I have to use a separate bench tool with lots of leverage to seat them reliably.

[jetinteriorguy]

Thanks UN, I have the Lyman swaging tool and might give it a try. I do notice that the screws under the feed ramp in stage one protrude a little and do hit the primer bar limiting the amount of downward movement of the ram. They are supposed to be countersunk but the screw heads do sit a little proud. I could either countersink the hole until the screw rides flush or grind the head off a little to see if that helps. Before I do either though I’ll talk to Dillon first and see what they say. I guess if bad comes to worse I’ll just hand seat all the ammo I load for SD, and then not worry about it for range fodder. I have two different loads that have the same POI as my carry load so I can still stay well practiced without sweating reliability so much.

[jetinteriorguy]

Well I think I got to the bottom of the problem, possible two fold. I hadn’t noticed it but the shell plate apparently had loosened up a bit and was moving up under pressure just enough to make the difference. Plus when I originally worked this load up I was using some old Winchester primers that I think were giving me problems. I tightened the plate down to where it will just rotate easy enough but be tight enough to not move much under the downward pressure. I loaded up a hundred and all fired flawlessly. It seems weird that the central bolt would loosen up like this since it rotates in the direction that should cause it to tighten, not loosen. I’ll keep an eye on it and if it happens regularly I’ll probably put some blue loctite on it to prevent it from coming loose. This press is dedicated to 9mm only and blue loctite isn’t hard to break loose if needed so I’m not worried about using it.

[Dillonhelp]

There is a set screw on the left side of the shaft, about one inch from the top. It has a brass tip. After you set the shellplate bolt tension, snug this set screw to prevent the shellplate bolt from shifting.

[ghbucky]

haha, Dillon found you!

Told you they'd sort it out!

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by Dillonhelp

There is a set screw on the left side of the shaft, about one inch from the top. It has a brass tip. After you set the shellplate bolt tension, snug this set screw to prevent the shellplate bolt from shifting.

That’s right, I’d forgotten about this. Thanks for reminding me.

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by ghbucky

haha, Dillon found you!

Told you they'd sort it out!

Actually I haven’t talked to Dillon yet, I just started thinking about things and figured it out.

[ghbucky]

You must have missed that the user handle that advised you on the set screw was:

Dillonhelp

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by ghbucky

You must have missed that the user handle that advised you on the set screw was:

Oh duh, brain fart on the posters name. I need more coffee. LOL.