Dillon CP 2000 ???s

[CMV]

I just stumbled across this recently - didn't know it existed. I VERY much like the looks of it and seems like it would be wonderful for large batches of military brass .223.

Just a few thoughts rolling around in my head though.......

1. It's expensive. Would be a huge timesaver, but at most I'm going thru a 30cal can every month. So definitely a want & not a need.

2. At $1600, does it make sense? For $400 more have a 1050 with (what I am assuming are) same capabilities + ability to load on it too.

3. I bought my 650 & most all other Dillon stuff used so don't know, but do they ever run sales, are there discount codes, do dealers have better prices than website?

I think that although it looks like something I'd really like to have, I'm ultimately going to balk at $1600 for one. I think even a 10% coupon wouldn't get me there. But if they have sales or something throughout the year, sell demo models, whatever & I can get into one for less $, I might go that route.

But before I fall too in love with it, the process would literally be clean & lubed 1x LC brass into the casefeeder of the CP 2000, then straight into the casefeeder of the XL650 - no other handling or processing other than final tumble to get case lube off outside?

Right now I clean, lube, & size. Then trim offline with a WFT & drill. Then chamfer/deburr with bits in drills. Then swage pockets with SS600. Then tumble again for trimming mess. Then back into casefeeder for loading. Kinda tedious doing all that manual case prep in batches of 2k or so.


And last dumb question...... on Dillon site it has:

Machine is shown with the following options:

RT1500 Case Trimmer & Trim Die
CP2000 Short Trim Die Toolhead (Standard Toolhead included)
300 Blackout Conversion Kit
Universal Depriming Die
Backup Expander die

So the $1600 is NOT including the electric trimmer or the other stuff listed there?

 

[jmorris]

So the $1600 is NOT including the electric trimmer or the other stuff listed there?

Correct, and not for me is the answer to your #2.

I still have a 650 for prepping brass because I am lazy I guess, having two 1050’s for loading .223 but I don’t have to change anything.

No reason to prep with a swager if your going to load with one, IMO.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I still have a 650 for prepping brass because I am lazy I guess, having two 1050’s for loading .223 but I don’t have to change anything.

Most of our local guys who shoot a lot of .223 use a 650 to prep and then load on a 1050. Many of them started with two 650 machines, but finally switched in a 1050

But before I fall too in love with it, the process would literally be clean & lubed 1x LC brass into the casefeeder of the CP 2000, then straight into the casefeeder of the XL650 - no other handling or processing other than final tumble to get case lube off outside?

Don't fall in love with it...fall in love with the Lyman Mark 7 Evolution to do everything you're considering doing on two machines

 

[CMV]

I'd never heard of that Lyman. Looks nice!. Outside my budget I think, but watching a couple videos, both it and the revolution are awesome!

I hadn't considered a 2nd 650 for prep - thought I couldn't swage primer pockets on a 650 long term? But scrounging up another used 650 & then adding the trimmer & some upgrades would be a much cheaper option and equipment i'm already familiar with.

No reason to prep with a swager if your going to load with one, IMO.

Are you saying just do it all on a 1050 and skip a separate prep machine?

 

[9mmepiphany]

...thought I couldn't swage primer pockets on a 650 long term?

I certainly wouldn't swag on the 650 at all...it voids the warranty

That is why guuys who started with two 650 switched over to one 650 and one 1050

I'd never heard of that Lyman. Looks nice!. Outside my budget I think, but watching a couple videos, both it and the revolution are awesome!

Lyman recently bought Mark 7. The Evolution isn't that much more than a Dillon 1100, less than a couple hundred

 

[CMV]

Looks like $1k difference unless they include different things in base price. Either way, I think $1600 is too much for me to spend so going higher doesn't work Nice stuff though,

 

[9mmepiphany]

Looks like $1k difference unless they include different things in base price

Oops, your correct...brain fade on my part

 

[MikeInOr]

I don't shoot a lot of 5.56. I am still using the same 5000 Lake City cases I purchased 20 years ago. When I purchased them I paid a bit extra for tumbled and swaged. I am down to probably about 4500 cases now...

Is the purpose for two presses to have one to prep and one to load???

Every 5th cycle I will aneal the necks then trim them with my Dillon power trimmer. I just have a seperate head setup with the trim die and trimmer. I aneal one at a time and champher one at a time. Other than this I just tumble my 5.56, lube and dump them in my 650 case hopper. After a single trip through the 650 I have 5.56 ammo.

Like I said, I am not a high volume 5.56 user. You can't use a Dillon press to aneal or chamfer... can you? I know there are other power trimmers that round the ridge so you don't have to chamfer but I am fine with my RCPScase prep for my volume. What is the need for a second press or a dedicated prep press? Is it the swaging that requires a seperate prep trip through a press... every time you reload? Are you not reusing your brass? Are you getting brass with crimped primers mixed in? I am just curious? I just find it interesting how other reloaders operate? Not judging... just interested.

 

[Texas10mm]

There's a local shop that has a used 1050 with three Dillon trimmers and a Ponsness Warren auto-drive. As I understand it's set up to process .223 brass and convert .223 to .300 BLK in one pass.

He's asking $1800 for the whole package. It's been sitting there for over a year. They might accept a lower cash offer. If I had the coin I'd buy it.

 

[choppertime]

Well that's a good deal! What's the location?

 

[jmorris]

Are you saying just do it all on a 1050 and skip a separate prep machine?

That is fairly easy but even if you want one machine to prep and another to load, no reason both need to be able to swage.

 

[GE-Mini-Gun]

I have no dog in this race…I would get a trimmer, swagger and toolhead from Dillon for your 650 and call it a day. Set the toolhead up with universal decapping die and trimmer and go to town. I did that a couple years back with a couple hundred lbs. of 223 brass I had acquired over the years. I would then watch TV while swaging the brass, never looked at it…just started, if it needed it, it did, if not, no problem. Took close to 3 months to do all the brass I had, granted I wasn’t do it every night, probably couple shoe boxes worth at a time. I now have more 223 brass than I’ll ever need, but I have it.

 

[Texas10mm]

Well that's a good deal! What's the location?

Mesquite Texas

 

[CMV]

I ended up trying a RT1500 trimmer & Swage It (I know - break it no warranty). So setup is Lee FL sizing die in station 1 which sizes the brass to just under max limit on case gage. Station 2 is the Swage it. I couldn't adjust it with hours of tinkering to not occasionally hit a pocket wrong & force the case past the shellplate ripping off some brass & wrecking the brass. So I use my fingertip to locate it & maybe miss 1 out of 200 that way which is good enough. Then it hits the trimmer in station 4. That sizing trim die takes the shoulder back to min on case gage & trims to 1.753ish. It's about a 725-750/hr pace. Measured several times & consistently get about 125 in 10 min. Sounds good, but the swaging is a bit of work so I don't go a whole hour. Usually 20 min at a time & want a break from it. 750 sounds like a breakneck pace on a 650, but since there are 0 stoppages - no primers, powder, bullet try to fill, no powder throw spot checks, no hangups of any sort, it's actually moving quite slow.

Working well so far & am happy with the results. I had to put the swage it button in the lathe & put a tiny chamfer at the tip. Maybe .008 removed from tip. But that helped it guide itself into pockets, made the "pop" mostly go away (although it is supposed to do that), and just seemed to work better. Get nice tight pockets but still easily seat primers.

Only issue really is setting up the RT1500 trimmer. I can't get it to 1.750. The cutter would be skimming the trim die to go any lower. Can't seat the trim die any more since I'm bumping shoulder to lower limit on gage. 1.753" is fine so don't really care, just thought 1.750 should be simple. But seems that would require 0 clearance adjustments or bumping shoulder back too far. All 1x LC brass if that matters.

I've read people stating the RT1500 (and 1200) are extremely consistent. My lengths are ± .003. So even though I feel like I'm operating the press consistently, I'm doing something that lets my trim length wander a bit. I pause and count "one thousand one" (slowly so probably almost 2 sec) on the downstroke to make sure I'm leaving the case in the trimmer long enough. For general range/training/plinking ammo that I'm doing this is good enough.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-2-5-Gallon-2-5-HP-Handheld-Shop-Vacuum/1000351335 I'm using this baby shop vac from Lowe's ($40) for the trimmer. Works really well, just the 4' hose is a bother being so short. But I wonder how long can it stay on? Seems OK, but can't be good for it to just run & run & run....I don't think they were designed with the intent to just stay on for long periods of time like a dust collector. Guess I will find out.

Only other question I can think of is how often does the cutter insert on the trimmer need indexed? And how do you know it's time to index (not as clean a cut, chatter, slow, etc?) I'm pretty happy with how clean a cut it makes so far & plan to skip the chamfer/debur step if I can get away with that & still load flat base bullets like Hornady 2266 without an inside mouth chamfer. Haven't tried that yet.

So overall, I think I like turning the 650 into a 1 pass case prep machine. Should be simple enough to convert back to load when I'm done processing brass. I'm about 1k into a batch of 7-8k so will see how I'm feeling toward the end. Definitely much faster and my hands don't hurt like they did dorking around with cordless drill trimmers, 600 super swage, lyman tool, etc.