SteveM

OK, thanks, just making sure I didn't do something wrong.

I purchased the crank upgrade kit from Dillon, I wanted an easier way of keeping things greased. It included a new crank, link arm pins with grease zerks and alignment tool. My press was made shortly before zerks started coming on new presses. On to my question. Is it normal to have movement in the mainshaft and platform? For example, after I've installed the platform to the mainshaft, aligned & tightened, I can grasp the platform by where the primer assembly goes and with little effort I can rotate the platform & mainshaft slightly back and forth. I don't remember if this was the case or not prior to installing the upgrade kit. Thanks.

Looks like I have things sorted out now thanks to the great folks here. I have things set up now to crimp in the groove. My COL is 1.455 to 1.460. I'm thinking the .005 variation is due to different brass headstamps and slight bullet variances. Does this sound OK for range plinking?

Great, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

So this will require a roll crimp die right? The Dillon dies I have, taper crimp. I guess I need to get a different die.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Missouri bullets 158gr LSWC for 38 Special. I'm looking for a good COL. Here's a photo of the bullets. Should I seat these to the groove and crimp or should I load them like a normal LSWC and leave only a very small amount of shoulder above the brass. When I seat them leaving .03" bullet shoulder above the brass, my COL is 1.405". Does this sound like a good place to start. I'm loading for target use only, shooting for about 700 to 750 FPS from a 6" revolver. Any help is appreciated.

I had a similar problem recently on my 650. It began to feel like it was camming over like my single stage press. My first fix was to back out the sizing die as it seemed it was making contact with the shell plate and causing the camming feeling. After a couple more rounds, it started doing the same thing again. It ended up being the decapping pin on my Dillon sizer die had loosened up and was backing itself out. Once I figured out what was going on, I just took the die apart and retightened and readjusted. Solved my problem.

Is there any reason to buy one brand case gauge over another? I've got a Dillon gauge I use for 45 ACP and I've never had any issues with it. Should I just stick with the Dillon brand or maybe try out some Wilson's. I'm going to have to order gauges for 40 and 9mm and would like opinions. Thanks.

Of the loads I worked up, 4.6gr of HP38 seemed the best. They averaged 1030FPS. I loaded them at 1.130 OAL and .377 crimp. These were shot through a Glock 26. They were clean and didn't smoke and fed without incident. They were also fairly accuate. Do you think this setup would function OK in most pistol brands, mostly the XD's and Taurus's. Thanks.

Thanks to all for the info. I have some test loads ready to go to the range. I'll post results later.

Anyone loading Precision Delta 115gr FMJ 9mm bullets or similar? I'm getting ready to start working up a load for these. They will be for punching paper at the range. I'm looking for opinions on which powder to start with. I have on hand HP-38, Titegroup, Power Pistol. I'm looking for an average cleanliness load between 1000 and 1100 FPS. I'm thinking of starting with 4.0gr of HP-38 and chrono them. Also looking for OAL and crimp diameter to start with. Any insight is appreciated.

I do not have a case feeder. One of the first things I did was to make sure everything was nice and clean. I also played with the tightness of the shell plate. I tried it tight to the point that it would just cycle and have no movement at all when I would push down on the shell plate at station 4. I tried it loose to where it would cycle freely and have very slight movement when I press down on it at station 4. I tried it loose, tight, and in between. Nothing seemed to help, I'd still get 2 to 3 messed up rounds per 100 rnds loaded. On a different note, I've now loaded 5000 40 S&W and had absolutely no problems at all. I works perfect without having to ride the round into station 4. Go figure.

After all my adjustments trying to fix this problem, I was still having the occasional upside down or sideways primer. I tried something different yesterday. When I begin the upstroke, I have a bullet in my left hand between my thumb and index finger. As the cartridge rotates from station 3 to station 4, I would place my middle finger behind the cartridge and ride it into station 4. I loaded 1000 rounds last night and no more primer issues and it really doesn't slow the process either. After a few hundered rounds this way, it kinda becomes natural. I guess it's a small price to pay for fixing my problem.

Dillon, Thanks for the info. On my press, both the top and bottom screw holes are slotted. Also, the goove in the indexer block fits snuggly to the rail on the press frame. There is no way to rotate the indexer block. I can loosen both screws and slide the entire indexer block either way. Is this correct or should the block be able to rotate instead of sliding the whole thing. The shell plate is indexing very slightly too far so I will slide the indexer block out towards me and see what happens.

Hello, First off, a little background on my experience level. I've been loading my own ammo for the past 18 years, mostly rifle ammo. For about the first 16 of these years I loaded only on a single stage press. Since then, I've begun loading pistol ammo on a SDB setup for 45 ACP. It's a great press and I will still use it but I wanted to give myself a little more versatility so I purchased a new XL 650. The 650 is setup for 45 ACP, so far I've loaded 1000 rounds. My problem is, I get on average, two upside down or sideways primers per 100 rounds I load. I'm using Winchester Large Pistol primers. So far I have tried the following 1. Disassemble and clean primer unit and shell plate. 2. Try varying degrees of tightness on the shell plate. 3. Made sure primer punch was tight against the bottom of the fixture. 4. Inspected primer wheel and track with bright light and magnifier to look for any burrs. 5. Made sure primer station locator tab was adjusted to be away for the cartridge rim about the thickness Of a business card. None of these things have solved the problem. What I have finally done is position a bright light next to my press and observe the function by filling it with primers and cycling without any brass. What I noticed is, the opening in the shell plate where the primer goes up through, is not centered on the primer after it indexes. There is noticeably more room on one side and I can turn the shell plate back slightly by hand to center it. What this is causing is on occasion, a primer will catch the side of the shell plate hole and flip. Sometimes it ends up upside down and sometimes sideways. This is what is causing my problem and I see no way of adjusting anything to solve it. I even tried another shell plate from another conversion kit I have and it does the same thing. Almost like something is a hair out of alignment. Is this something that can be fixed? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.