Question on Dillon 550/650

[Potatohead]

Ok, I plugged the Spanish above into a translator online to see what you guys are talkin about. I think it must have had trouble because Im pretty sure you didnt say anything about a "tea brand" LOL.
The translation (or lack thereof) below:

The auntoindex can be an advantage and a drawback, as you can't use the 650 as you want but as she tea brand, for large volumes of recharching facilitates the task but to recharge a few cartridges no.Comprendo station that has a more but is not indispensable. For the volumes that we don't clutter here you have more than enough with the 550.
The change of gauge is faster and cheaper.
Greetings.

 

[Nordeste]

Ok, I plugged the Spanish above into a translator online to see what you guys are talkin about. I think it must have had trouble because Im pretty sure you didnt say anything about a "tea brand" LOL.
The translation (or lack thereof) below:

The auntoindex can be an advantage and a drawback, as you can't use the 650 as you want but as she tea brand, for large volumes of recharching facilitates the task but to recharge a few cartridges no.Comprendo station that has a more but is not indispensable. For the volumes that we don't clutter here you have more than enough with the 550.
The change of gauge is faster and cheaper.
Greetings.

Oh my... online translators are funny, man . It's not about tea brands, but something like "autoindexing is both an advantage and a drawback, as you can't use the 650 as you wish to, but as she directs you to use her", instead. This meaning that she will autoindex whether you want it or not. This can be an advantage or a drawback, depending how you look at it. And that a fifth station is a good idea, but that you can live without it. Then, replace "gauge" for "caliber" and you get the whole picture . Nonetheless, I pinpointed what I considered Luis' main point (the fact that for our average reloading needs, the 550 is usually all you'll need) for those of you who can't read Spanish, though I'm sure quite a few of you guys actually can .

 

[Sam1911]

I personally don't care for auto-indexing very much, but that's mostly because manual indexing is what I'm used to, and I appreciate being able to stop for a moment and back up if I need to. There's more safety in auto-indexing ... unless something's going wrong and then it's a pain.

Just to confuse the matter further, 550s are usually favored for loading big rifle ammo, but the 650 can load up in the .30-'06, 7mm Magnum, and even bigger range, so that's not much of an issue for most people. If you're loading for a .308, not a problem at all.

 

[45_auto]

autoindexing is both an advantage and a drawback, as you can't use the 650 as you wish to

If you don't want your 650 to autoindex just lift out the small T-shaped drive pawl under the shellplate. It literally just lifts straight up out of it's hole in the platform. Instantly makes it manual indexing only. But you can always restore the autoindexing capability in about 5 seconds by dropping the pawl back in if you decide that you want it.

Part #18 on page 54 of the manual here:

http://dillonhelp.com/Dillon Manual PDFs/XL650v6p1.pdf

I can't imagine why you would NOT want autoindexing - my 650 is over 20 years old, loaded hundreds of thousands of cartridges from .380 ACP to .30-06, and auto-indexed every single one so far!

 

[LiveLife]

LOL, fun with Google translate.

Nordeste, Spain/Portugal are countries wife and daughter want to visit after my retirement.

As to auto index, when I was trained on Dillon 550/Pro 1000 by my bullseye match shooting reloading mentor, he pointed out that I could lower the ram lever halfway to unlock the auto index to rotate the shell plate back on the Pro 1000. No, you cannot unlock the auto index to rotate the shell plate back on the 650.

Since I was new to reloading, I was afraid of double charging a case with a manual progressive and other match shooters told me stories of shooters blowing up their match guns with double charged loads so I ended up going with Pro 1000 with auto index.

For me, I like the auto index of 650. I tell new reloaders to "auto index" progressive press to just clear the shell plate and start over from station #1 if they run into any issues - keeps things simple.

 

[Rottweiler]

Ii also have both a 550 and 650. The 650 is considerably faster then the 550. Unless I have half a bucket of brass in one caliber that needs loading I use the 550. The 550 can change calibers in less than 5 minutes but the 650 is much longer to set up. To me it just isn't worth the extra time to set up the 650 for a small batch

 

[John C]

So....which one are you getting?

 

[Nordeste]

I'm leaning more towards the 550. It helps that the 650 is out of stock and that to get the best of it you want a case feeder, but my ammo needs don't justify such an expense.

 

[John C]

Either way, you can't go wrong. I highly recommend the Dillon Strong Mount, Bullet Tray, and Empty Case Bin. Though expensive, they have greatly increased the utility of the 550.

Good luck!

 

[Nordeste]

The strong mount will come along with it, that's for sure, but also the ergo roller handle .

 

[HighExpert]

Your change over time from caliber to caliber is about half with the 550. I have almost 1,000,000 founds through mine without breakage. The roller handle is worth it. The shell feeder doubles your change over time and adds significantly to the expense. Just my opinion.