jejb

Thanks for the honest review. I've heard that same conclusion from a couple of guys at the range too. I'm sure the 750 is a good machine and would certainly be the one I'd buy if I were in that market. But it makes little to no sense to get rid of a working 650 to get one, IMO.

Same issue with mine. In the end, it turned out to be a problem with that spring loaded finger holding the brass too tightly, so it couldn't self-align to the primer. The adjustment screw is in a recess to the right of it.

I'm not worried about the time it takes to swap the loader over, it's just the economics and case prep parts of it. Probably going with a Bushmaster QRC 5.56. Lots of reviews on them and mostly all positive. Yeah, low end, mil spec starter rifle. But I can build from there, if I want to or need to. Other gun in the running is a DPMS LCAR 5.56, but I've not found a lot of information on them. Seems like a decent starter gun as well, though.

Thanks for the feedback. The reviews I've read about the gun I'm looking at almost all say it eats most any factory loads. But if it does prove to be picky, that would be a good reason to gear up the 650 for loading it. And I do really like shooting my own ammo, a big reason I've been reloading all these years. I guess I just need to get it and see how much I really shoot it. Going to be hard to justify if the cheaper bulk ammo runs well, though. Even at the not including the brass cost per round listed above, I'd be losing money.

Long time reloader, but never rifle. Shotgun and many straight walled pistol calibers. 100's of thousands of rounds over the years. Used to compete in Trap, but never with my handguns. All just for fun and keep sharp for CC. Weekly trips, at least, to the local range. I've always kind of wanted a .223, but never bought one. Just don't have much need for it. But I really enjoyed shooting that caliber in the Army. Black Friday deal on an .223 has me looking hard at one, which brings up the question about converting my 650 over to do 223. Is it worth it? What is the cost per round of an average reloaded 223? I've never had to worry about case prep, and that sounds like a bit of a pain, and a fair expense, for rifle cartridges. I doubt I'm going to be shooting a ton of rounds through it, so just wondering if buying bulk 223 is the way to go. I see lots of 223 options on Ammo Seek for 24-25 cents a round. Not looking for precision per se. Will use a red dot, most likely. Decent groups at 100 yards would work.

I had some issues on my 650 with this when I first got it. Called Dillon about it and they walked me through some adjustments. The one that fixed it was the little spring loaded finger that holds the case in the primer station. It was pushing too hard against the case and not letting the case "find" its center. There is an allen screw adjustment for it. Needs a little gap. It's been almost flawless since getting that dialed.

When I first got my 650 last year, I was not a fan of the primer system. I was used to a slider system, like the 750 apparently has, on my older RCBS progressive press. But once I got it dialed in and added the ebay primer stop switch, I've grown to really like it because it works correctly pretty much 100% of the time. The RCBS was more fussy and you had to keep an eye on it. I almost never have any primers go down the ski jump. I don't have any issues with jerky indexing, either. Very rare to find any powder on the shell plate, even when using powders that come up pretty high in the cases. Maybe they dialed some of that out on the presses over time? Mine was fresh from the factory just over a year ago now. Hopefully the 750 slider system will be as reliable as the 650 system is. Time will tell. But I sure won't be getting rid of my 650 for any of the changes I've seen so far.

Good question. Been wondering about that too, with 4 - R1 equipped Sig's in the house.

That's what I use. Handy primer tube hanger, and catches all the crud. Pretty good value at $13!

When I had this issue, it was about getting the station 2 locator arm set correctly. My alignment was good, but the locator arm was pushing on the side of the shell casing. There needs to be a little room in there so the primer pocket has a little freedom to align itself with the primer as it's being inserted.

Hope you enjoy your new loader! I sure like my 650. As far as the kit, for me personally, the only thing I'd need out of it would be the primer stop. I've loaded 15K rounds through mine in a year now, and have no issues with any of those other items, and don't expect to. I'd for sure recommend the UFO light, though. It is also on ebay.

Yeah, I guess it depends on where you're starting from. I just went to the Dillon site and went through the customize option to order a 650 the way I bought it. It comes to $955.80 with case feeder, 4 primer tubes and spare parts bag. Which my local dealer got for me at $810 delivered. If you're starting from scratch, it would come to quite a bit more, of course. The 1050 is $1881 and comes with the case feeder and a set of dies, which is nice. You'd need to add dies and a roller handle to the 650 price to get them to about the same starting point, so $1020.80 with those included, but deleting the spare parts bag and extra primer tubes. So looking at about $850 retail price difference. I could see making that jump if you really load a lot. I'm doing about 15K a year right now, so the 650 is more than adequate for me. With either, if you're starting from scratch, you'd still have to spend the same money for scales, primer flipper trays, bullet extractors, case gauges, extra primer tubes, case cleaner, etc, etc. And all of that stuff does add up fast. The $1300 price for the 650 kit would include some of those things, but the $1900 price for the 1050 does not.

Dang, seems high for that. I paid my local dealer $810 for my 650 a year ago. Came with the spare parts kit, case feeder and setup for 9mm. No dies, bullet tray or strong mount, none of which I wanted or needed. I bought a few accessories from ebay like the UFO light, powder micrometer wheel, primer ramp catcher and slideable primer cutoff. But I'm still well under $1000 invested.

I had that issue at first, too. But a call to Dillon got it adjusted while I was on the phone, and it's been golden ever since. I get a few issues dialing it in, and agree it'd be nice if the manual noted more troubleshooting tips. But it sounds like you have a lot of ongoing issues with all of the things you check each time you reload. If that is the case, I'd suggest calling Dillon. I've heard of them even replacing entire presses if there are a lot of issues with it.

Holy crap, dude! I don't do any of that stuff, and my XL650 just runs and runs. I have put over 15K rounds through it since buying it new not quite a year ago. Yeah, I had to learn some stuff at the beginning about proper setup and a maint schedule. But day to day reloading never finds me checking any parts for tightness or tolerance. I've never had a die nut loose, the COL change, powder drop come loose on top of the die, I have never cleaned my dies, etc. Crazy that you have all those issues. I don't use a strong mount, I use RCBS dies (with Dillon lock nuts) and don't lube my cases beyond the little bit of lube/wax I add to the dry media I tumble them in. In my configuration at least, the XL650 is just a trouble free operation.

Can you list what all you're buying? That's a lot more than I paid for mine a year ago, but I was already into reloading, so had scales, dies, etc. I got mine from a local gun shop that was a Dillon dealer and got a substantial discount from them. It was the first thing I'd ever bought from them, so it was not because I had any special relationship with them. I'd highly recommend getting the UFO led light. Micrometer dial for the powder feed saves a lot of time if you change loads/powders very often. I really like the RCBS dies because they seat and crimp in one station rather than taking up 2 stations for that like Dillon dies do. That gives you extra stations for both a powder checker and a bullet feeder, as you add those things down the road.

Nice!

I'd spend the extra for the 650. Auto indexing will save you a lot of time.

Interesting. They seem to be clearing their inventory. They are literally giving them away right now with the purchase of a Coyote X-Carry. $649 for the gun and the R1 at Cabela's/Bass Pro right now. I wonder if those are new or refurbed R1's, but they are obviously wanting to clear them out. Good choice on the Vortex!

Good choice, IMO. I hope you like the setup.

Precision Delta for FMJ bullets. If you order 2000, the price becomes very reasonable, especially since they are FMJ instead of just plated copper. Free shipping too.

For a 320 buyer, the M17/M18 are good choices because of the option to get the DPP instead of the R1, no question.

Like I said, I've never used a Dillon. Your points are well taken, and suggest Dillon's system is perhaps overly complicated. Makes me glad I use the all mechanical RCBS one. I've never had it fail to work correctly in many 10's of thousands of reloads.

Agreed. This is all at Sig's feet for not producing a reliable optic, even after years of iterations of them. I've had several of their Gen 5's (their most recent generation) fail, even on brand new RX's.

Not me. That is an operation I want to get 100% right, every time. I have the UFO light, and it's great. But I know I'm not perfect. The powder checker never, ever gets distracted or bored. Is the Dillon powder checker hard to adjust for different loads? The RCBS one is very simple to adjust that way.