Thanks for the link and yes, I have enjoyed Gavin's reviews, especially press comparison videos.
It isn't really, other than the 750 is faster to convert primer sizes, only real gain imho, and I've owned both, and currently run 2 750s.
I never used the 750 or 650. I do have the SDB! and it’s good. Wish the powder measure knob was a bit more precise. and I can rig a powder check, thinking about doing the q-tip powder check method.
There have been other pretty looking new presses in the past, like the Hornaday, several Lee presses and Mark 7 presses, that looked great when they were new but don't seem to stack up to the the Dillon offerings in the long run. I also have no doubts that Dillon will be around for another 30 years.
thanks for the write up! for the Dillion SBD I load .45 ACP and .38. .38/.357 has a long case and I can’t see if powder is in the case after drop. So the Q-tip method is simply droping a Q-tip in the charged case. mark with a sharpie on the case top. And that will indicate if it’s charged or not. It’s quick and freeI am sorry, I thought I read that you had a 650XL above. I have had my 650XL for 30 years now and I would highly reccomend it in its newest incarnation, the 750XL. I would have a VERY tough time choosing between the 750XL and the X10 right now if I was in the market for a press. The thing with the 750XL is that it is a very well proven design with a huge track record of very happy customers (like me). It sounds like the X10 designer is responsive to his customers and very motivated to make the best press that he can design. The X10 has no track record though.
If you are thinking of upgrading your press I would reccomend that you put a lot of weight into the amount of time it takes to swap calibers on the press. I seriously looked at upgrading to a 1050XL at one point but the swap over time and complexity made the 650XL a clearly better choice for me and I now have about a dozen heads for different cartridges. Other than changing primer size my 650XL has a very fast change over and swapping primer sizes is supposed to be much quicker on the 750XL. My 650XL (hence 750XL too) also has a much bigger selection of shell plates than the X10 does. I load some less common cartridges like 7.62x54R and 30 carbine which the X10 has no plate for.
The new pretty shiny toy (the X10) sure does look nice in the store window though.
P.S. I was in a gun store doing a private transfer and had a chance to talk to the store owner as the background check was going through. I noticed he had a 1050XL and a 550XL setup in his back room so I asked him about his opinion of the 1050. He told me that he ONLY loaded 45acp on the 1050XL and it doesn't get much use any more after he stopped competing. He said that he used his 550 frequently and for many different cartridges. Basically the swap over time and complexity made it not worth it to use the 1050XL. I recall him saying something about the cost of heads and shell plates for the 1050XL also being a big consideration.
P.P.S. I choose the powders I use based on how well they measure. Some powders, especially stick powders, do not measure well through any powder measures. For the most part I am very happy with the Dillon powder measures and do load many rifle cartridges. The only reason I have the powder check on my .45acp head is because I own a powder check. None of my other 10+ heads have powder checks. The auto indexing on the 650XL makes it so you have to almost deliberately want to make a double charge or a squib to do so. I have never had either.
-- I have no clue what the Q-Tip powder check system is.
What an odd statement.
10 station progressives aren't really meant to go through a lot if caliber swaps. The intent is that you'd get one to load the cartridge you shoot a lot off. That is the advantage of the lower price of the FA, you can get a couple if you want to load a couple of different calibers...and still spend less than you would on a Mark 7 Apex-10. Although...
Well, you could do that....but, as someone who regularly loads in 10k round batches....single pass loading of 5.56 is a huge pain, and you end up loading waaaayyyy slower than doing all the brass prep up front, cleaning it all again, then loading it. Plus, you separate the goats from the sheep that way too, get all the borked brass out in the prep stage. For example, one annoyance, no matter how good your vacuum system you'll have shavings, and they'll build up and start causing priming problems, so you have to stop constantly to clean your shell plate and priming arm.
After trimming I have to chamber the inside and outside of the rim of the neck. Trimming is a whole separate operation than loading. I have an extra head for trim dies for all my rifle cartridges. It is nice to be able to pop in the trim head, screw on the trimmer motor and go to town with automatically fed cases.
For .223 I do run two passes with the first being trimming and second filling. I run a Lyman M step expander and skip chamfering ( I believe you meant that ) and for FMJ it works just fine for me. For certain pistol cartridges I do like to run a single pass, the results are acceptable to me. At some point I’m going to try two pass and see how that works.
By the time you talk yourself into buying one, the price will have gone up. RL1100s have increased over 500$ in a short time like 2-3 years, and yes I know we have inflation but they went up before that as well.
