Can dillon 650 be your only press?

[tnshoot]

My monthly pistol round count has made it back to the point that it's time to get back into reloading. Im going to get a 650 but I'm curious if it will do everything I want. This has been asked in some form or another before, but most of the discussions I've seen don't specifically address precision/ match grade rifle ammo.

I'll be loading 9, 40, 45, 204, 223, 6.8 and 308. I know it's a great press for pistol ( I owned a 550 for years) but I really question whether I can produce high quality rifle ammo on a progressive. To be more specific about my concerns, it's the ability to get accurate charges with powders like varget and 4895 that has me wondering if I'll still end up loading rifle on a single stage to obtain the quality of ammunition I'm looking for in the rifle calibers.

So to the 650 owners out there who load rifle ammo with accuracy as your primary concern, is the 650 capable? Or should I plan on adding a single stage/ turret press for the rifle calibers/ load development in addition to the 650?

Edited March 24, 2013 by tnshoot

[tunaman]

Not sure about a 650, but my 550 works great for bulk as well as precision match rounds... I use it as a progressive for some, and also use it as a single stage for my match ammo.

[Dr Mitch]

To the question about whether a progressive can load high quality rifle ammo: I use a 550 for loading .223, and shoot 3/4" MOA groups with it from a Del-Ton upper receiver and barrel. That seems like high quality to me. Might be better than that, really, because I'm also just using a 1-4X scope.

Edited March 24, 2013 by Dr Mitch

[rrflyer]

I've used a 650 to load precision rifle stuff. 260 and 308 mainly. I use a charge master to drop the powder charges and it worked ok.

The 650'shellplate design is different than the 550.

The 650 the case sits in the shell plate instead of under it like the 550 making it a little less consistent.

I wouldnt plan on using dillons powder drop if you want really accurate charges waits.

I've used varget out of it for my 223 loads and its fine for them but its plus or minus a couple tenths

[Scootertheshooter]

Yes the 650 can be your only press

See

Edited March 25, 2013 by Scootertheshooter

[caspian guy]

If you are willing to use ball powder I don't think you'll have issues with it (unless you are loading benchrest ammo in which case i'd look somewhere else). I have never had good luck with stick powder in my 650. However, there are several threads on here about how to tune the Dillon powder measure to perform better with stick powder that a search ought to turn up. Give that a try... if it doesn't get you sufficient precision for your needs you can always do as rrflyer suggested above and use a chargemaster for the powder. Look at Tom's entry in the thread below.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=54928&hl=+varget%20+dillon%20+powder%20+measure%20+stick%20+powder#entry637563

Edited March 25, 2013 by caspian guy

[Rynnäkökivääri 62]

I have a lee c-frame and handpress for when I am tinkering and experimenting with stuff.

[tkheard]

I think you can have a 550 as your only press. Seems like that's what you had before.

[Sthrngnr]

Yes the 650 can be your only press

See

I like your setup

TNshoot I have only loaded pistol and .223 on the 650.

I have had great results with the 650 so far. Once I started to clean the flash hole on .223 my groups have shrunk to 1/2" at 100 yards.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Sthrngnr

[tnshoot]

I think you can have a 550 as your only press. Seems like that's what you had before.

Thanks for pointing that out! At this point selling that press is like every gun I've ever sold......I'd like to have it back.

Sounds like the general thought is that the 650 will do everything I need it to with some careful powder selection on the rifle side and worst case scenario I'm sticking a $100 single stage on the bench to work up loads, which I probably should have anyway.

[August]

It's kind of like the freeway dilemma in Los Angeles. They needed bigger roads, so they built freeways. Those freeways enabled developers to sell more houses. Those houses put greater demands on the existing freeways, so more were built. Those new, and bigger freeways lead to more development. An unending spiral of growth.

Hopefully, reloading never gets this out of hand for any of us. But, I know many people who use a Dillon 650 press, but very few who own only one press.

A 650 might work for you for a while. But, more loading permits more shooting, which leads to the need for more efficient reloading. Multiple 650s are not unusual among the folks I shoot with.

I'm hard pressed (pun intended) (arg!) to imagine going through life without some kind of single stage or turret press on the bench -- in addition to the 650 (and the others.....)

[anm2_man]

There is a lot of things one can do to insure that you build qualtiy rifle ammo on a Dillon 650. No matter what powder you are using, these steps will insure quaility ammo.

1. Make sure that the shell plate is always tightened correctly. Almost zero up/down movement but it still turns easily.

2. Make sure the press and the bench is SECURE. Any movement is not good.

3. Speed kills. Fast and Jerky will not produce quality ammo. Slow and smooth is the way to go.

4. Pause at least 1 second at the bottom of the stroke and allow the powder drop to clear. If you don't the current round could be short .5gr, and the next one will be +.5 or more.

When using stick powders (ie; IMR4895), the above suggestions become even more critical.

There has been discussions about polishing the powder system to help stick powders flow smoothly. You need to debur and polish the powder system to get consistent drops.

Make it look like this or better.

With my step up loading either .308 or 30-06, I can hold +/- .1grn consistently.

And one last thing that I have found that helps with consistent drops, never let the powder measure go below 1/3 full. A full powder measure is a Happy powder measure.

Hope this helps.

Edited March 31, 2013 by anm2_man

[Steve RA]

From what I've read, David Tubb loads ammo on a 650, unless you can beat him, I wouldn't worry too much about it.