What would be better overall for my needs - Dillon 550 or 650?

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While red and blue are arguing (gee sounds like a political mess), I just have to wonder why the OP wants a progressive when he does 75% of a prigressive's actions OFF the press.......Seems like he has a good system (even if it is slow and labor intensive) that works well for him.

This is like asking why a guy is considering buying a car when he currently walks to work.
 
So to fill primers on 650 - or a lot of others - you flip them, pick up 100 in a tube, fill press with those 100. Is that all it holds?

That’s pretty much it.

Goes something like this.

 
The primer tube will hold a few more than 100.

Sometimes they will and sometimes they won't.
My Dillon small pickup tube will hold 101-102 WW, CCI, Fed.
It won't even hold a full 100 tray of RP 1 1/2, 98, maybe 99 is max.

However, just buy extra pickup tubes. Takes just a second to drop them in the feed tube. If you have four pickup tubes you can load 500 rounds before you have to pick up more primers.
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By the time I have loaded a hundred, I am ready for the break to check powder level and brass and bullet supply.

I don't know why so many loaders do not include primer pickup in production rate. Doesn't matter if you have one tube or a dozen ready at the start, they have to be filled and unless you have a mechanical primer filler, it takes the same amount of time.
 
I don't know why so many loaders do not include primer pickup in production rate. Doesn't matter if you have one tube or a dozen ready at the start, they have to be filled and unless you have a mechanical primer filler, it takes the same amount of time.

That's fair. I also laugh when people don't count priming time spent off the press, or decapping time if they do that before loading, or whatever.
 
I contemplated on this for my own needs a while back I shoot both rifle and pistol with the bulk being pistol , I preferred to take the extra time prepping and hand weighing powder for each rifle round , I finally settled on a Hornady Iron single stage press for my rifles and a Dillon square deal b for my handguns this arrangement has worked well for me the last few years,
 
That's fair. I also laugh when people don't count priming time spent off the press, or decapping time if they do that before loading, or whatever.

Well, they could be like the guy on Benos who says he is prepping brass and loading primer tubes while his motorized press churns out the ammo.
 
Filling a Dillon primer tube kinda reminded me of chickens pecking for grain....thank goodness I bought a couple of vibra-prime units years ago.

Had a 650 for years, doing 9mm, 40 cal, and .223......no regrets.
 
This is like asking why a guy is considering buying a car when he currently walks to work.
Not at all, because a car can be used for more than going to work. If you are doing half or more of what the progressive should be doing, then what savings is there when you factor in the cost of the progressive and all of the caliber change parts, etc?
 
Intent is to discontinue the offline prepwork, go from bucket full of fired brass to loaded rounds as quickly as possible - while still making good ammo and being safe of course. And to increase production so I stop supplementing with a case of factory ammo here & there.
 
I don't know why so many loaders do not include primer pickup in production rate. Doesn't matter if you have one tube or a dozen ready at the start, they have to be filled and unless you have a mechanical primer filler, it takes the same amount of time.

I only load brand new pre-primed brass. Since nobody else includes loading primer tubes in their rounds per hour the rest of the world must also only load new pre-primed brass! :rofl:
 
The primer pickup/loading thing...reason I asked is it looks like it would take appx 2 minutes to dump & flip a box of primers, pickup 100 in tube, then transfer to press. So if you were expecting say 600/hr pace, that's 12 min of handling primers. So does that mean including those 12 min of primer handling you'd get 600 or you'd really get 480? Does 600/hr assume 6 pre-filled ready to go tubes done ahead of time or it includes refilling the consumables? And 600/hr is random # - I have no idea what to expect for pace, just wondering how pace is calculated.... Like I say 250/hr on my LCT, but that's really how fast I can dump powder & seat bullets to 100% processed & primed brass - my actual rds/hrs is much much lower if all the pre-processing is factored in.

Obviously would be a night/day difference in speed regardless considering I use a Lee hand prime now. Just a question - primers have to be dealt with regardless and I have 0 interest in any type of APS strip....

Measuring & trimming .223 for example as prep work - I wouldn't count that in my rds/hr. But does raise another question - I know you're supposed to trim AFTER resizing and I have seen some slight before/after sizing variation, but don't ever remember it being more than a few thou. Would it be a poor practice to just measure prior to sizing and use 1.755 vs 1.760 as max length? Nothing should be growing .005 from sizing right? I do my accuracy rounds a lot different so not talking about benchrest ammo, but general range use FMJ that has to be reliable in dozens of different guns.
 
RandyP: You will notice I am one of the few that defend the Hornady. But also notice I don't bad mouth Dillon. At the same time notice the defenders of Dillon don't bad mouth Hornady. Now, if the Dillon boys did not defend their press I would no respect for them, and I feel they feel the same.

I just find it entertaining to give you a hard time :)
 
Intent is to discontinue the offline prepwork, go from bucket full of fired brass to loaded rounds as quickly as possible - while still making good ammo and being safe of course. And to increase production so I stop supplementing with a case of factory ammo here & there.
Then use the press for what it is designed for, depriming, sizing, repriming, charging, bullet seating and crimping. I reloaded metallic for 35 years on a single stage. I had a Dillon 550 for a few years; was nothing but a PITA to get tweaked right and stay right - especially the primer feed. In all faIrness, when it comes to ANY progressive, metallic or shotshell, the weakest area always seems to be the auto primer feed. Now, with a LNL, after tumbling in my dry media, the cases are deprimed/sized, reprimed/flared, charged, seated and crimped. Works great for all my handgun reloading.
 
The primer pickup/loading thing...reason I asked is it looks like it would take appx 2 minutes to dump & flip a box of primers, pickup 100 in tube, then transfer to press. So if you were expecting say 600/hr pace, that's 12 min of handling primers. So does that mean including those 12 min of primer handling you'd get 600 or you'd really get 480? Does 600/hr assume 6 pre-filled ready to go tubes done ahead of time or it includes refilling the consumables? And 600/hr is random # - I have no idea what to expect for pace, just wondering how pace is calculated.... Like I say 250/hr on my LCT, but that's really how fast I can dump powder & seat bullets to 100% processed & primed brass - my actual rds/hrs is much much lower if all the pre-processing is factored in.

Obviously would be a night/day difference in speed regardless considering I use a Lee hand prime now. Just a question - primers have to be dealt with regardless and I have 0 interest in any type of APS strip....

Measuring & trimming .223 for example as prep work - I wouldn't count that in my rds/hr. But does raise another question - I know you're supposed to trim AFTER resizing and I have seen some slight before/after sizing variation, but don't ever remember it being more than a few thou. Would it be a poor practice to just measure prior to sizing and use 1.755 vs 1.760 as max length? Nothing should be growing .005 from sizing right? I do my accuracy rounds a lot different so not talking about benchrest ammo, but general range use FMJ that has to be reliable in dozens of different guns.


Bottom line... all the rounds per hour figures that people are quoting are complete B.S.!

I enjoy reloading on my Dillon 650xl and I can produce rounds as fast as I need to. A couple of months ago my boss bought a new S&W and asked me if I would like to go out shooting with him the following day... a Saturday. I was out of 45 ammo. That evening after I put my daughter to bed I went out to my reloading room, pulled the 9mm head from my 650 and changed the shell plate and primer system to large primers. In about an hour or so I had several of those plastic boxes full of .45 acp and I had plenty of ammo to shoot the next day. How many rounds per hour or even the exact number of rounds I actually reloaded... I honestly do not know. I started reloading around 9:00pm or so and I stopped when it looked like I had enough. This is why I love my Dillon 650xl! I don't know if my Dillon 650xl would be a better press for you than the 550 or even the Hornaday... all I really know is that I love my Dillon 650xl press!

P.S. I mentioned to my boss that I stayed up to load some ammo to go shooting. He laughed and told me he got up early to load the 357's on his Dillon 550 to go shooting. Pfft... morning people... I will never understand them! :)
 
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My boss would have just told me to load some ammo for him too.....:mad:


I think just to have more realistic expectations, I'm going to stop thinking in rds/hr. Kinda dumb anyway, gonna take as long as it takes to get thru a batch.

Instead maybe times faster. I'll be 3 times as fast on this, 4 times as fast on that.... Or what really matters in time saved.....I can do what was 10 hrs of work in 7 hrs, or 4 hrs or whatever the case may be.
 
I think most of the numbers you see tossed around are rates.
Fill the primer feed, powder measure, bullet tray, brass feeder, GO. Load 100 in ten minutes = 600 rounds per hour RATE.
Obviously if you pre-fill primer tubes "while watching TV", top up the powder measure, heap up the bullets and brass, you can sustain that rate for a good while. A case of ammo in two hours might be possible if you have everything ready in quantity.

Me? I usually load a hundred or two in idle moments, with the goal of replacing the ammo I shot last week and accumulating enough to shoot this week.
 
Intent is to discontinue the offline prepwork, go from bucket full of fired brass to loaded rounds as quickly as possible - while still making good ammo and being safe of course. And to increase production so I stop supplementing with a case of factory ammo here & there.

Then use a progressive as intended. No issues. It works fine doing all ofhte reloading steps at once.

My boss would have just told me to load some ammo for him too.....:mad:


I think just to have more realistic expectations, I'm going to stop thinking in rds/hr. Kinda dumb anyway, gonna take as long as it takes to get thru a batch.

Instead maybe times faster. I'll be 3 times as fast on this, 4 times as fast on that.... Or what really matters in time saved.....I can do what was 10 hrs of work in 7 hrs, or 4 hrs or whatever the case may be.

Realistically, a progressive without a case feeder is, at a minimum, twice as fast as the turret (performing all steps on the press and loading primers as well- 200RPH vs. 400RPH. ). Most likely more. With a case feeder, you are 3-4 times faster.
 
Found a local used for sale that sounds like a fair deal. 4 cal conversion kits (only 1 in cal I want but oter 3 are calibers I load in lower volumes), primer & powder alarms, case collater with 2 different size plates, strong mount, bullet tray, plastic bin. No dies, regular handle, some spare/extra parts. $780. So it would be ready to run .223 immediately, I'd have to buy some various widgets to get 9mm & 45ACP going. Sounds like that's roughly 1/2 of new.
 
Found a local used for sale that sounds like a fair deal. 4 cal conversion kits (only 1 in cal I want but oter 3 are calibers I load in lower volumes), primer & powder alarms, case collater with 2 different size plates, strong mount, bullet tray, plastic bin. No dies, regular handle, some spare/extra parts. $780. So it would be ready to run .223 immediately, I'd have to buy some various widgets to get 9mm & 45ACP going. Sounds like that's roughly 1/2 of new.

Which press is this?

What caliber conversions does it come with? The .45acp shell plate is the same as 30-06, 308 and all those rifle rounds.
 
That does sound like a very good deal... unless it has a case feeder, then it would be an incredible deal! Most used Dillon presses I see are advertised for around 80% of retail.


Often used Dillon presses will have little upgrades that you don't think to factor into the price it would be if it were new... roller handle, bullet tray, strong mount, etc.
 
Don't they come with case feeder and the collator is the upgrade that fills the case feeder? Or am I not understanding. From talking with the guy, I got the impression it was the add-on electric collator that spins around and fills the case feeder tube.
 
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