Well, I screwed up again. Purchased a SD "B" from a local gun shop for a fair price of $349.00 (shipping costs to Hawaii are ludicrous so I think I got a nice deal) in 45 ACP and he threw in the strong mount for $35.00 more. I intend to load only pistol and leave the rifle to my RCBS single. Got it all set up and reloading was a snap. Well I decides to get me a conversion kit for my 44 mag, 45LC and 9mm. Went on the Dillon site and almost crapped my pants! $76.00 for the kit plus $20 something for the tool head! With shipping it's gonna be over $100.00 to convert a caliber. I knew the dies were proprietary to the press but sheesh, what are they mad out of? GOLD:eek:? The RL550 would have been even more expensive if I factor in everything (shell plate, dies, etc) to convert a caliber but at least I would have dies if I ever decided to sell it...... oh well I guess on the positive side, it's cheaper than buying a press for each caliber......Oh well live and learn!:o

Redding and Lyman carbide die sets are on Midway for about $62. If that's now a typical four die set price, $17 more for a shell plate and buttons and powder measure drop and actuator tube doesn't seem like too much of an addition to meet minimum change needs. Keep in mind that the shell plates, like shell holders, often fit more than one round, so you don't always have to have the full kit.

That said, I'll confess my SDB never does anything but .45 ACP. That's just because I make enough of the stuff to justify it. I use a 550B for all other pistol rounds and a Forster Co-ax for rifle. Load development is mostly with a Lee hand tool for bullet seating, with all other case prep done ahead of time. When I got the 550B I already owned dies for most pistol round from when I used a Lyman turret press, so it seemed more economical than an additional SDB for non-.45 ACP loading.

A friend of mine took another route. He got a 550B for everything and couldn't keep up with his .45 ACP demand, so he got a 1050 just for that. Last time I visited we reloaded about 2,000 rounds of it a night, and three of us would shoot it up in a few hours the next day. Steel plates and dueling trees eat ammo like hogs on hard corn. We kept that up for most of a week, so we ran something like 3,000 rounds of .45 ACP apiece. There was no other way than the 1050 to keep up with that demand and still have time to eat and socialize in the evenings.

It boils down to what you need to knock out and when.