I own a Dillon 550B that I rarely use. I've been meaning to use it more, but the whole owning a house thing and the whole rearing offspring thing just eat away at that. I've been merrily collecting brass and buying components when being sold cheap, and I'm getting quite the stash going.

I recently got offered another Dillon (Square Deal) and a slew of components for a song. I said I would pass on the loader, but I would help him shop it around. I then wondered, is there an advantage to having two progressives set up simultaneously, one for pistol and one for rifle? I've done so little switching between calibers and types that I really can't judge whether there is enough of an advantage to this to consider it.

Price aside, is there an advantage? Or is the 550 so easy to switch around that it would be superfluous?

Thanks,

Mike

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My personal opinion is to stay away from the Square Deal. It's the only Dillon machine I don't like. The reasons are, it's a pistol-only press, no case feed capability, and it uses proprietary dies. Your 550 is a far superior machine.

I have a 650 and I've considered a second one so I can use one for large primer and one for small. Right now, I set it up for a certain caliber, load a few thousand rounds (whenever bullets or cases run out), then switch to another.

As fa as you exact press combo question goes, I would do it if both these are true--

1.  You shoot only one pistol caliber and want a dedicated press for it.
2.  You have several pistol calibers, but one particular caliber/load combo that you shoot in such volume that having a dedicated set up for it makes makes sense.  Example-  If your practice/competition loads are being used up at a rate of 500ish or better per month, and all your other loads combined are only hitting that level, it makes sense, especially when spare time is hard to come by.

As for the dual press set up as a general idea goes, I like it, as it offers several advantages.  Run a Dillon 650 and an RCBS RC supreme myself.