Originally Posted By: hm1996Dang, Greg, I thought I'd been around a long time. You're showin' your age, now; I never even heard of the 300's.
ETA: When did the 300's come out? I set up my first 450 sometime around 1983. They must have been pretty new then, as I had a few issues that Dillon worked real hard to iron out and were supportive every step of the way. Main problem was the powder measure and I have a whole box of different parts they sent but finally got it working great. I never weigh powder charges (other than to check consistency every 10 rounds or so), once they worked out a solution, and it didn't take them too long. They now measure stick powders (H4895 mostly) consistent enough for match shooting.
Regards,
Clarence
I got my first 300 in 1980, the second in 82 and the last in 85. They were actually made with many machined parts. I think it was about $300.00 but maybe a bit less. Somewhere between 900-1000 were produced and they lost about $100.00 on each one and that's why the 450 has a cast frame. The plates from a 550 can be used. It rotates the opposite of the 550. Powder and primer are manual feed but I swapped over to the newer self dropping measures from Dillon and run a Lee Auto Powder Measure on one. of them.
In 1980 I loaded 1000 rounds of PPC ammo a nigh and shot 1000 rounds the next day for 21 days straight. I won that State Match..LOL I have won literally a pick up bed of trophies with these and still rely on them for much of my competition stuff.
Ad a note o the lava lamp. It gives me ambiance when I load up 45 ACP on the 550 or 9MM. Old school lighting for old school cartridges. Also note that Garfield keeps watch on the general reloading room from his spot over on the little table too..LOL
I haven't loaded for 60 years as I just turned 69 this month. Here is the label on my FIRST box of ammo.
Greg