L3324temp

Congrats and enjoy!

One other thing you may want to factor in... Is the press just going to be used as a tool to load ammo, or will reloading become another hobby for you? For me, everything becomes a hobby and buying the 650 with all the bells and whistles was the way it had to be. All I really needed was a basic 550, but if I would have went that route, I would have traded up to a 650 at some point.

It worked for me. Last season I probably had 10-15 failures to extract in matches and zero so far this year. It is also easy to install.

All you really need to do is slow down a bit on the more difficult targets and you will be fine. As you shoot more, your confidence will increase and things like steel and no shoots won't bother you as much.

After 1000+ rds, my pull weight came down to 5.25lbs on the pro with the factory parts but it didn't really smooth out much. The Apex USB is what provided the smoothness. It is possible to modify your striker block as shown in the link above at no cost.

I can confirm the sear in the pro is not the Apex sear. When I changed mine they looked a bit different and my pull weights before and after confirmed it (although part of that was the sear spring). The Apex sear and sear spring alone put my trigger at 4.5lbs.

In my M&P 9 Pro, I installed the APEX competition kit in stages. Just the sear and sear spring put me at 4.5lbs. Adding the USB & trigger spring brought it down to 3.25lbs. I never installed the striker spring since I was happy at 3.25 and I use CCI primers. Each of my measurements were after 200 rds or so. The sear, sear spring and USB might get you the 4lbs you are looking for.

Welcome to the forum. I am also from the NYC area. PM sent about other local match options for you.

I only shoot local matches so I don't make an issue of mistakes on my score sheet. There are no prize tables or anything. One thing to consider, sometimes you get bumped down because of an error on your sheet. Other times you get bumped up because of errors on your sheet, and other times you get bumped up because of errors on other peoples sheets. In the end it probably all balances out. But when you know you got bumped down it does hurt a bit.

Proper shell plate tension would be my guess as well. If you go to Youtube and search for "Dillon 650 caliber conversion" you should find some videos on converting the press. Many of these videos cover proper tension of the shell plate.

On an auto indexing press you really don't need it. But I do have an RCBS lockout die on all my pistol tool heads. The $40 or so is worth the extra safety for me. Now, even with the auto-index and powder check die, it is still possible to have an issue if you get sloppy. Your technique and habits are the most important thing and that is the point the others are making here.

I've never had any issues loading actual brass S&B cases on my 650 and I do come across a lot of it.

I am shooting an M&P Pro9 in production. I added the Apex sear and competition spring kit (less the striker spring), Dawson grip tape, stippled back strap, and 13lb recoil spring. I was also having extraction issues and added the Apex FRE. My load is a 135 Berry over 3.6 titegroup for a 132.7 PF.