550 or 650 for 223?

[arguy57]

I am looking at buying a dillon press for reloading 223. Which press does best? Are dillon dies the way to go? Can you reload on a 650 without the case feeder? Any other information on reloading 223 with a dillon would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[PJones1911]

You can reload on a 650 without the case feeder, but why do it. The case feeder works great with 223. The auto indexing is very convenient and will save some time but adding the case feeder makes reloading 223 a breeze.

[benos]

Lots of answers here:

Dillon FAQ:

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillonfaqs.html

“Which Dillon”:

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillon.html#which

[CocoBolo]

I use a lee single stage for case prep, Load them on a LNL, while the 650 sits by neglected and lonely. And yes without the case feed even thou I have one, and a bullet feeder. Since the cases are already sized a thousand takes 2 hours.

[GR8GIFT]

I load on 2 650's and 1 550. Use the 650's for high volume with a shared case feeder. Low volume on the 550.

If you're loading high volume for your 223 a 650 with the case feeder will probably be better. You will want a case feeder shortly after you start loading on your 650 so be prepared to buy one if you get the 650 without one.

With the case feeder on my 650's I can load up 500 rounds in about 30-35 minutes.

If you don't mind hand indexing and inserting each case a 550 would do and be a little less money for changing over to other calibers later. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to load high volume on my 550. Although you can load up a couple of hundred rounds pretty fast on one.