I don't need a new press...

[razorfish]

I used to swap powder bars and it's a pretty good solution. Unfortunately the BE forum required me to upgrade to the UniqueTec Micrometer powder bar . Much better solution.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited December 3, 2014 by razorfish

[pjames32]

Powder bar swap 1-2 minutes at the most. Powder measure swap 1 minute.

PJ

[varminter22]

Yep, ridiculous. And I bet you'll not regret doing it! Ha.

And darn that razorfish guy for posting the video of his 650! I've been quite happy with my 550. Dang it, note to self: "I am happy with my 550." And its true; I am quite happy with my 550. But I think I'll write that out about 100 times before I start telling myself I 'need' a 650.

Well, like they say, "Life is short." One should have a great press like those from Dillon.

[varminter22]

"... the BE forum required me to upgrade ..."

LOL. Great quote.

Shooters are the best. However, hanging out with such great folks (whether in person or via forums such as this) can be somewhat dangerous to one's financial health! But its all great and worthwhile stuff!

Like my DA says, "This is the kind of people I want to be around."

[Brassaholic13]

Powder Bar swap is easy. The Micrometer addition by UniqueTek is flat out awesome. I have one for each of my 3 powder bars.

[TightLines]

Thanks all for the input. If I end up going with a 650 I'll be sure to let you all know.

[Brassaholic13]

Yeah, right... So has it shipped yet?

[Currently]

Whenever I buy something, I look at purchase price minus resale price.

I'm going to live and at some point I'm going to die or change hobbies. I can't bring it with me ...

So that means looking at material possessions with a rental fee incorporated for the time I have it.

Everything depreciates at different rates.

Cost is not everything, time and quality are intangible factors that do bring something to the equation.

I like reloading but enjoy the time shooting much more. Plus I like customizing loads that cannot be purchased.

So I make my decisions based on that "rental fee" not price. I get my fun out of it then I move on, one way or the other.

A Dillon was a no brainer for me.

[rjacobs]

If you arent going to get the case feeder, the 550b is just as fast IMO. The time "wasted" on the press isnt the indexing IMO, its the placing of the case and the bullet. Ive loaded on a 650 without case feeder and I just dont think its much if any faster than a 550b. Once you get into a rhythm with the 550b, its pretty fast, 400-500 an hour. A 650 without a case feeder might get you another 50-100 an hour. With the case feeder my guess is the 650 becomes an 800-900 round per hour press, which is on par with the 1050. 1050 is easy to crank 1000 rounds per hour, im guessing the 650 could do that if you start with 100% good brass that isnt going to munch any primers due to crimped primer pockets.

650 with case feeder should run you ~900 for pistol. You most likely already have most or all the accessories you need(tumbler, calipers, etc...).

I always recommend getting at least 1 four pack of primer tubes, if not 2. Thats a big slow down on production is filling the primer feeder. If you take the 10 minutes before hand to fill 5-10 tubes and have them ready to go, its about a 30 second operation to refill the primer feed system.

[Kaskillo]

Do yourself a favor and get the 650 with case feeder......this will do while you wait for your 1050 with auto drive

[RJH]

I also use a classic turret and have had this same discussion with myself. As with everything it comes down to time and money. After trying a SDB and a 550 that my son has I've realized that I really like the turret better for my needs. I shoot about 6000 a year pistol and 2000 rifle, sometimes more sometimes less. Basically what I do is load 100 rounds twice a week. That equals over 10000 a year. It only takes 30 min if going real slow and 22 min if going fast. You already know caliber changes only take seconds. I figured the 800-1200 dollars for the press would be better spent on components. The turret press has over 50,000 rounds on it, so last good also. There you go, I gave you what you asked for. :-)

[rjacobs]

I shoot about 6000 a year pistol and 2000 rifle, sometimes more sometimes less. Basically what I do is load 100 rounds twice a week. That equals over 10000 a year. It only takes 30 min if going real slow and 22 min if going fast.

You know with a 1050 you could eat breakfast at 530am, start loading at 6am and load all 6000 of your pistol by noon, eat lunch, do a caliber change and load your 2000 rifle after lunch and have everything packed up and cleaned up in time for dinner by 6pm. Then you only need to load 1 day per year. Think of the time savings of never having to reload for the rest of the year!

[razorfish]

I shoot about 6000 a year pistol and 2000 rifle, sometimes more sometimes less. Basically what I do is load 100 rounds twice a week. That equals over 10000 a year. It only takes 30 min if going real slow and 22 min if going fast.

You know with a 1050 you could eat breakfast at 530am, start loading at 6am and load all 6000 of your pistol by noon, eat lunch, do a caliber change and load your 2000 rifle after lunch and have everything packed up and cleaned up in time for dinner by 6pm. Then you only need to load 1 day per year. Think of the time savings of never having to reload for the rest of the year!

If you decide to go this route I'll gladly pay the freight to have your new 1050 shipped to/from me for the remaining 364 days of the year

[RJH]

Hey, he said talk him out of the press. :-) And the cost of the 1050=about 20,000 rounds of handloads. (I cast my own bullets). And reloading is kind-of therapeutic, but to each his own.

[TightLines]

Best reason not to order a new press? Find a brand new press locally.

On CraigsList of all places I found a gentleman that has to get out of shooting due to a shoulder injury. He picked up nicely speced out 650 that he never had a chance to use. No buyer's remorse but actually a bit of guilt for the price I paid. Had he listed it on a forum or eBay he could have received significantly more for it but I don't think it crossed his mind. We even have a pretty good online classifieds system in Florida for all things firearms and that would have been a great solution.

At the end of the day he received an amount he was happy with so I suppose all is well.

Anywho, I assembled the press this evening and will need to put a bit more thought into bench layout before I drill and bolt the press down tomorrow.

I plan to move the bench so that the right hand side will be in a corner. That being the case, I think I'll move the Dillon to the area where you see the mount for the Lee Turret. The Lee Turret will then be moved to about the middle of the bench and is on a quick release mount so it can be taken down when not in use.

I tried to attach a photo (including battery powered light experiments) but let me know if it doesn't work.

Bonus points to the first one that can ID what's hanging on the wall.

Thanks to most of you for your inability to dissuade me.

[Brassaholic13]

Shark tank on the wall?

[TightLines]

Close close close

[polizei1]

650 is awesome, but I'm ready for a 1050!

You should seriously consider a Mr. Bullet Feeder, the upgrade is WELL worth the cost IMO.

[TightLines]

Haha, plenty content with the 650.......for now

[mississaugagunnut]

My first and only press is a Dillon 650. I load mostly 45acp and 9mm but occasionally some 38sp for CAS. I have never loaded rifle but am thinking about it.

I love the Dillon, I run a case feeder and am able to load 100rds of 45acp in around 7mins. I find caliber changes to be simple and fairly painless.

I broke the plastic indexing arm due to my own stupidity and Dillon sent me a replacement at no charge! Their customer service is top notch.

I plan on reloading 223, 308 and 30-06 eventually and I'm not sure if I will use the 650 or go with a single stage press.

[anm2_man]

Opps didn't see the second page, but

There is no reason why you can't swap powder bars. I did his in the beginning because I didn't have the cash for all of those powder measures. The down side is "I have 7-8 extra powder bars laying around today".

The only issue I had when swapping powder bars, is the little nylon square washer. It will eject itself at the bat of an eye. Then you spend all of this time on your hands and knees looking for it. But other than that, make sure all of your tool heads have a powder die and keep the powder funnel (supplied with the conversion kit) inside of the die. First remove the Fail safe rod. There are 2 screws to unscrew to remove the powder measure. Loosen the Bell Crank screw nut (keep an eye out for the nylon square washer - Official name "Bell Crank Cube". Swap the powder bar's and reassemble. Note: Some adjustment maybe needed for the powder drop.

I do 9mm, 40 S&W, 44mag & 45acp in pistol. .223, .308 & 30-06 in rifle. Today they all have powder measures. You will not be disappointment with your decision.

Edited December 7, 2014 by anm2_man

[billm67]

Congrats on the new machine. Looks like you got a great deal. I went from a Rockchucker, to a Lee 1000. Then has a few day stint with a Hornady LNL AP (which got returned after I started having problems with it after using it for two day). Bought a Dillon 550b and never looked back. Great machine...great company. The 650 should do a great job!

[TightLines]

I work from home and took 1/2 an hour at lunch to mess with the press and load up some rounds. I tried 6 different loads over the weekend and managed to test them out so today was the first time I really got to crank on the press. Long story short, the thing absolutely sings. Very excited to get better acquainted with the machine.

Couple hundred rounds of 115 Xtreme over 4.0 red dot in absolutely no time flat. What a pleasure to run.

[mikeinctown]

What a pleasure to run.

Yup. Congrats on the purchase and for becoming an addict.

Now you will start to see Dillon machines all over television shows. I saw two of them on one of the recent NCIS New Orleans episodes a couple weeks back. A 650 and one of the lesser ones, a square deal I presume. they go running through the shop and I see the blue and hit pause to figure out which model it is. lol

Anyway, once you get going and have all the materials stockpiled, you can crank out a hundreds of rounds in no time at all.

[TightLines]

And if I ever had any doubt it wasn't meant to be, my local indoor range just added an unlimited plan for $20 a month. Going to be shooting more volume (Dillon) and more frequently (unlimited at the range). We'll see how quickly this gets expensive.