Dillon 38 HBWC Reloading

I'm looking hard at setting myself up with a Dillon 550.  I'll be reloading a lot of 38 Spec with HBWC or DEWC bullets.  Do the Dillon 38 dies have bullet seater plugs suited to seating them?

I don't think so.  Could probably make them work but Redding or RCBS might be better.

The good thing about the Dillon powder-through expander die, is that it expands enough that the HBWC's and DEWC's seat so easy it really doesn't matter what shape the seating die is.

I do use an RCBS seater and it has a good flat seater, and it doesn't deform the nose of my zero or hornady swaged HBWC's.

The Dillon seater dies have a neat feature where you can pop out the seater and flip flop it between round nose or SWC.  The SWC profile would do a pretty good job of seating by the shoulder.

It would be pretty easy to turn the die seater to match your bullet profile.

So you replace the Dillon seater die with the RCBS seater/crimp die?  Do you also crimp with the RCBS die or do you crimp with a Dillon die using the RCBS die with the bullet seater plug lowered to the right distance for seating and not engaging the crimp ring in the RCBS die?

My ribs seater the die is a seater die only. For .38 spl I use an ribs crimp die....I'm thinking about switching to a Lee factory crimp die.
My Dillon press came set up for .45acp so I never used Dillon dies for .38 because I already had the other brands.

I've used different brands. They all work.

The only dies that are special are the micrometer seating dies from redding. But you still set those, and never set them again....

Always crimp as a separate step.  If you use a taper crimp you will find that it is much less dependent on over all case length.
 Bottom line use the type of crimp die you like, but do the seating and crimping in 2 steps.

Dave C.

If you're loading for an autoloader in 38 spec should you taper or roll crimp for better feeding?  What I've done is roll crimp for my 52 and Colt MR.  or is taper crimp preferred now?

Roll crimp for .38 special. it's a rimmed case so the headspace is not controlled by the rim. It  is necessary for proper feeding with that cartridge in a semi-auto.