Awesome but reloading ignorant wife needs help for hubby's b-day

[Smartsquared]

Hi All,

I Was going to get my husband a new pair of Birkenstocks for his birthday but decided to score wife points and buy him an XL650 instead. I shoot but know nothing about reloading. He has a reloader now but when I make comments about wanting the security of having enough ammo in our house to be able to fill up a bathtub, I get lots of grumbling and catch words like "months", "wives", and "don't understand" as he wanders off to the shop to reload more.

So, I've done my research and the XL650 is what will suit his needs best. What I need help with is exactly what options I need to order. Please keep in mind that I don't have financial carte blanche so I need to be thrifty but still be thorough. Here's what I'm thinking, please advise:

For sure:

XL 650

Electric Casefeeder

Not sure:

Low powder sensor - unless your drunk or stoned, isn't it pretty obvious when you're getting low? The power cylinder is clear, after all. Is there any real benefit to this?

Powdercheck system - I'm not really sure what exactly this does. Can someone explain and advise if it's really necessary?

Don't think I need:

* Strong mount - an elephant could sit on his workbench with no problem so I don't think I need this but do I need the "universal mounting hardware kit"? Doesn't the XL650 come with some sort of mounting ability?

* Bullet tray - this doesn't actually feed anything into the reloader, right? it's just a convenient place to hold the bullets? If so, I have plenty of trays that can sit on the bench next to the reloader

* Aluminum roller handle - he'll just have to man up

* Toolholder with wrench set - it uses straight allen wrenches, correct? Again, lots of methods of storing tools close to the reloader.

* Spent casing collector - I have plenty of paper towel cardboard tubes, milk jugs, and hot glue.

* LED light - little clip on LED's are $3 at ACE hardware - would these work if additional light is really needed?

The final question is what accessories I need to order to be able to reload bullets for the following guns. If you can give me order numbers, separated for each model, that would be great. I may just get dies for a few of the models initially.

Glock 9mm

Larue AR-15 (my favorite gun as this one was my ticket to buy a new horse!)

.22 (do you even reload .22 rounds or are they too cheap and small?)

Savage .11 cal 260 Remington

Remington 30-06 Model 700

300 Weatherby magnum

Ruger .44 magnum

S&W .357 (pre-ban, I'm told!)

Thank you all in advance for your expertise and advice!

Nicole

[seadog_99]

On your list I'd only go with the bullet tray. I wouldn't set it up for all of those rifle calibers either. The 223 and handgun calibers would make more sense for me. My $.02.

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[Hi-Power Jack]

Nicole, you should get in touch with our host, Brian Enos.

He can walk you through everything you'll need, and ship it to your house. :bow:

No, you don't reload .22 rimfire.

I'd probably get him (lucky dude) the 9mm and .223 dies, and let him

start with those two calibers. He can always buy more dies later.

He can probably use his current reloader to reload all the other calibers.

[seadog_99]

Inline Fabrication makes better mount and handle options in my opinion as well. Something you can add come Father's Day.

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[eric4069]

Nicole, you should get in touch with our host, Brian Enos.

He can walk you through everything you'll need, and ship it to your house. :bow:

Yep.

[BritinUSA]

Just call Brian Enos, phone numbers are on this page. http://www.brianenos.com

He will be help to tell you what you need and more importantly what you don't need.

[DarksideCZ]

If it were me I would add the powdercheck system!

[RangerTrace]

Nicole, you should get in touch with our host, Brian Enos.

He can walk you through everything you'll need, and ship it to your house. :bow:

No, you don't reload .22 rimfire.

I'd probably get him (lucky dude) the 9mm and .223 dies, and let him

start with those two calibers. He can always buy more dies later.

He can probably use his current reloader to reload all the other calibers.

^^^^^^^^^^this

[Smartsquared]

Thank you all for your advice - I'll give Brian a call!

Nicole

[Miranda]

... get the 650...

have you any sisters with all your charm?

the powder check die is good to have I do recommend it.

and the strong mount and roller handle are likely to get purchased in any case...

I think the 9mm is likely to be the one that uses the most ammo

If you know what he shoots the most, that would the Shell plate and powder funnel to get to match.

he is very likely to have dies already.

... marry the right one

marry the right one...

I hope he is happy with you

miranda

Edited April 8, 2016 by Miranda

[Smartsquared]

Ha Ha - actually I have 3 sisters all as pretty and witty as I but, alas, all happily married as well! As for being happy with me, he'd better be after this birthday present! And if not, after 20 years, it doesn't matter cause he's stuck with me.

Brian said he would be in touch on Monday but I was wondering what exactly does the powder check die do? If it keeps him from accidentally blowing himself up in the shop while reloading, it's probably a "should have". If it keeps our daughter or me from being blown up when we shoot the bullets, then's it's probably a "must have".

He does have a few dies already - I sent Brian pics of the box labels so he can advise if they would fit the 650. What does adding the shell plate and power funnel do for any particular reload size? We shoot mostly the 9mm and the LaRue.

Nicole

[doctordan70s]

The shell plate secures the shell as it rotates from station to station and the powder funnel flares the casing for inserting your bullet and at the same time allows the powder charge to be dropped.

[Miranda]

hi

here is a place you might not have seen

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

the 650 come with the support items for one caliber.

the two things are a powder funnel/expander and a shell plate

a different type of ammo, you may have to change the shell plate or the funnel

and very often both

when I go from 9mm luger to 45 acp

I expect I'll have to get another shell plate and a new powder funnel/expander.

gifts for christmas and future b-days.

:-D it is hard to imagine a 650 will not be a good gift.

miranda

[BeerBaron]

I think you are on the right track.

If your bench is solid and higher than the average computer desk then you don't need the string mount. Without the strong mount you don't need the bullet tray (in fact you couldn't use it anyway as it fits to the strong mount). That's $100 saved.

Yes buy the universal mounting kit. Or buy the bolts needed from a hardware store. It doesn't come with bolts otherwise.

Low powder sensor not needed. You can easily see when it's getting low.

Powder check also not needed. Many think they need one at first. Most end up not using it. It will only alert you to gross over or under charged cases which are easy to detect by eye.

The roller handle is pretty good. Given your spending a heap on 650+case feeder maybe hold off on the roller handle for Xmas or some other occasion?

The toolholder and wrench set is nice but the 650 does actually come with a set of all the Allen keys needed to use and maintain it so I agree go without that one.

The led light kit from inline fabrication is very good. It really helps see the powder charge in each case. I'd rank it over the dillon powder check as a safety item as it really let's you see what's happebing.

I agree with the other guys. Initially start with 9mm and 223.

Most likely your existing dies will work fine. Brian can advise on which shell plate and case feed adapter parts you need for each calibre.

He'll love it.

[b1gcountry]

The powder check die is a small rod that drops inside the case after it gets filed with powder. The rod sits on top of the powder, so if there is no powder in the case, the rod sits lower. If there is 2x the powder in the case, the rod sits higher. When the rod is too high or too low, a buzzer goes off.

In general it sounds like a great thing. In practice, the only times I've set it off are when it isn't calibrated right, or when there isn't a case in that station. I still use it because it's there, but I don't think I would bother if I had to pay for it.

All the upgrades you mention can easily be added later. The real options are the caliber conversion kits, extra toolheads, extra powder measures, dies. These all allow different calibers to be loaded, and the costs add up fast. Again though, they can be added later, and he can use his existing press for the low round count calibers.

The one upgrade I absolutely recommend is a baby sock to put over the handle. It eliminates the friction even better than the roller handle.

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[b1gcountry]

Also I recommend against the 223 kit and dies for now. 9mm will be a great start. 223 is almost not worth it to reload.

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[Miranda]

k... I love the infighting.... :-p

I like the powder check. it tells me when I am being brainless.

and however that might seem...

If you skip the powder check, then you will want some sort of light

or lighting kit to help check the powder level in the case.

I use both.

miranda

[Smartsquared]

Thanks for all the input. Knowing my husband and how OCD he is with anything gun/reloading related, I'm sure he will want to physically see every powder load so I think I will skip the powder check and opt for the LED light instead.

Bench is solid and 3.5' high so no problem there. Hubby also insisted on buying from our retiring neighbor a huge storage shelving unit with about 60 bins filled with every size of bolt you could imagine "just to have in case we need a bolt". I've got bolts to keep the military's equipment running for at least 3 years.

B1gcountry - you mention that you would skip the .223 as it's almost not worth it. Is that because you can buy them cheaper new than it costs for the primer, power, etc to reload them or because the cost of the die, plate, etc is too great based on an assumed low round count usage? Our usage of the .223 is probably almost as much as the 9mms. Even our 15 yr old daughter can blow through a box of bullets in that AK faster than I can sneeze! And thanks for the tip about the sock! That's my kind of thinking. Give me duct tape, baling twine, hot glue and old t-shirts and I can give Macgyver a run for his money!

Nicole

[TonytheTiger]

Also I recommend against the 223 kit and dies for now. 9mm will be a great start. 223 is almost not worth it to reload.

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I strongly disagree. Its a lot of work but it's worth it.

[BeerBaron]

I think the reason for division on 223 is it can be more work.

If it's just plinking rounds and you're reloading with 'prepped' brass it's easy. If you want precision and are loading mil surplus (crimped) brass its not so straight forward.

In the case of crimped brass you need to swage the primer pocket. That means either pulling cases off the press after depriming to swage them on a swaging tool OR setting up a tool head for 'case prep' and buying a device like the 'swage it' which goes in place of the primer punch.

In that scenario you need 2 toolheads (and the swager) to process and then load ammo. So everything goes through the press twice. Once to decap the old primer, size the case, swage the primer pocket and possibly even trim the case to length. So that toolhead needs the decapper die, swager in station 2, then the trimmer (rt1500).

After that your processed brass goes into the casefeeder again and you refit the primer system and the 'loading' toolhead to the press to now re-prime, expand neck, add powder, seat and crimp the bullet.

As you can see, it 'can' be a fair bit more work than pistol calibres. If length is not a concern and you don't have crimped brass you can treat it more like pistol and load in one pass. But the 2 pass method obviously yields more consistent ammo.

[b1gcountry]

For short range plinking 223, my costs are not that much cheaper than sale price 223. It's also a pain to prep, swage and trim the brass.

My 223 reloads work out to around 24c each. Vs around 28c each for pmc from cabelas with a coupon

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[Steve RA]

If you should end up deciding to buy .223 vs reloading, be sure to save the brass as it sells easily and will help to defray the cost of more ammunition.

[rhowell309]

I agree with starting with supporting the 9mm and 223 options first. I would add a set of Dillon dies for the 9mm but let him pick a 223 dies later (or use a set he has). I would not trade my Inline fab light kit for a powder check staton. I want to see the powder and the light kit is awesome. The $3 ACE kit is not even n the running.

The one thing I would add that I don't see mentioned. Buy the spare parts kit. The $20-25 is worth it for that one part you loose or break. It will happen. Great value!!

I would also buy a deluxe quick change caliber kit if the budget allows.

I have 3 Dillon strong mounts. All are disassembled and stacked nicely on a shelf in the attic. There are 3 Inline Fabrication quick change strong mounts on my bench.

In my opinion IF you buy a string mount or roller handle, buy a Inline Quick change. He can buy plates for his other equipment to swap things around. If he has a tall bench, buy a low or mid rise.

[Jimk60]

I'll Add my $.02.

Get the standard handle and at a later date upgrade to the Inline Fabrication Ergo handle. ($60 shipped)http://inlinefabrication.com/collections/dillon/products/dillion-650-powdercoated

Don't worry about the case powder check in station 3, in the almost 2 years I've been using a 650, I found it of little value. An Inline Fab or Lite tech LED unit is a much better investment.

http://inlinefabrication.com/collections/dillon/products/skylighttm-led-lighting-kit-for-the-dillon-650

http://www.litetechauto.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Press-Light+D+650

There are several inexpensive bullet feeding options out there that can be added later, they use station 3, so you would loose the powder check anyway.

Wanted to add, that man is lucky to have a wife like you!

Edited April 9, 2016 by Jimk60

[woof]

Smartsquared,

You ROCK! Good choice on a gift.

You have decided against the powder chech system which leaves that station open for a bullet feeder which will at least double the loaded ammunition production. Keep that one in your back pocket come Christmas time as it is a little expensive.

If you change your mind and get the strong mount PM me your address as I have a bullet try collecting dust and I am sure you can provide it a good home.

woof