gacker

One other possibility here is time. When the powder measure gets activated on the downstroke of the press handle, there needs to be time for the powder to physically fall from the powder bar down through the funnel into the case. I pause momentairly at the bottom of the stroke, to give that time to happen.

Lube 'em. In addition to making sizing easier, it cuts down on all the jerking and banging. Much smoother.

About three years ago, I was asking myself that same question. Ended up with the 650, and have never looked back. If the price will work for you, go for it. Three years from now, you'll wonder why you ever asked the question.

If your wife won't let you hang the calender up, I'd be glad to take it off your hands...

I load plated brass for 9mm and .45ACP with no problem, but when I load .38 Special I try to avoid these. The .38s just don't seem to hold up nearly as well; I've seen several with splits lenghwise. Maybe due to the significantly longer case....

I find at a little spray of One-Shot makes a huge difference in how easy it is to cycle the press, and like Sarge stated above the end result seems to be much more consistant. Cuts out all the banging and jerking as the cases move in and out of the various dies.

Welcome revokat!

"Pretty clean" might be part of your issue. There is a forum post on the Dillon website describing cases getting stuck on the powder funnels, and the solution seems to be to not have the brass too clean inside. Evidently some of the "dirty brass residue" helps to make the cases release from the funnel easier. I clean brass using corn cob and walnut (instead of SS) and don't have much of a problem. My cases are not "shiny clean", but they sure do load easy, and seem to shoot just fine.

BEFORE the press arrived, the wife was all over "Absolutely I'm going to help! You load yours, I'll load mine." The we got the press installed and running, and she took a shot at her first batch. NOW it's "You seem to enjoy the technical aspects of loading, and I wouldn't want to deprive you of that, so if you want to do mine, too, I don't have a problem with it". I knew it was too good to be true....