IHAVEGAS Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 It takes about one hour a week to load 1,500 rounds/month on my SDB ($390, total). If you want to save a 5 minutes/day, you could spend double that for a 650. Both, excellent machines. That is why I like my 550 too. If I was shooting more than about 1500 rounds per month or so (much less in winter) it would be different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muldune21 Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 That is what I am thinking rowdyb, one caliber only I will have to check out the 1050. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muldune21 Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 In michigan I would be reloading in the winter and shooting in the summer. So in the winter I do have some free time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randychaps Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 If you can affird it, a super 1050 is an option. Practice taking it apart and putting it back together. Learn how it works. Find its idiosynchosies and adjust. I have two of them can reconfigure for 4 calibers--9mm, 38 super comp, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP. It's the best imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlaineD Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 (edited) Brett, don't forget the single stage as well. Any of the Dillion's will give you the volume you want, you just have to decide if you want auto index or not. The truth is, no matter what you get, you will need and want a single stage as well! There will always be a use for it, and they can be cheap. You can use it to learn theory, and for the multiple chores you will be sorry you didn't have a press to perform as you get more advanced. Now, I have used a SDB, and it will do the volume you are looking to do. The caveat, it doesn't take standard dies. Since you are only looking for 9 major now and possible regular 9 and 40 in the future, it will serve you well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited July 2, 2016 by BlaineD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TANFARM Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 I think a 650 is an excellent machine to start with......See if there is an NRA Metallic reloading class anywhere near you....if so take it!!!...best thing I did starting out. If not see if you can find a Mentor at your local range or loading supply store ......most all the folks involved in this madness are more than willing to share knowledge with people starting out. If you do decide on the 650...get Brian's DVD..Competitive Reloading...it's geared for the 650 and should be included with each machine !!......and you can see a young Brian !! Best of luck !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 I was a beginner and my first was a 1050. If you're going to get a machine for making one caliber and a lot of it quickly, 1050. If you're going to be bouncing around between calibers all the time, 650. If you have a good mentor and are reasonably mechanical you can be a beginner and start with a 650 or 1050. Don't bother with anything less. I started out on a 550...at first I was excited about it...then I began to hate it. Sit down and load 1k rounds on a 550 and see if you still like life. I took a few shooting courses this year and took 2k rounds to each class...loading those on a 550 was a horrible experience. I added a case feeder and that just added to the frustration. Because of that experience I now own a 1050. I own a 1050 because priming on the down stroke is a beautiful thing and I only load .40. A 650 and a 1050 are not that far off in price for one caliber. If you load a bunch of different calibers then the 650 is cheaper on conversions and a little faster to convert. Everything about the 1050 is solid, and if you only load one caliber its the best choice. I walk in the garage and load 100 in 5 minutes. Save your money if you need to in order to get the 1050. Buy from Brian because he makes it easy and takes care of you the whole way. Dont let people scare you about reloading. Yes its serious and you need to be safe but its not rocket surgery and not as big of a deal as everyone says. You dont have to wear a wizard hat and stand over your press chanting magical phrases. I have never opened my reloading manual everyone says you must have since glancing over it after buying it. If you were loading a bunch of different calibers then maybe that's when you need one. Just search around and find what others are using for your bullet, powder and OAL. Step back from that and work up a few rounds..10 or so of each and go to the range and chrono. Find what your gun likes, set your press and crank away. Things you want are a good set of calipers. A good scale, I like beam scales but many like digital. A 100 round case gauge if you shoot competitively and hate racking your slide. Lots of brass, bullets, powder and primers. Good lighting around your press and specifically a light that shines down into the cases before setting the bullet. something to load primer tubes is great if you load a lot. I use the cheap Frankford one and with a little modification it works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
36873687 Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 I started on a turrent load on a 650 now. I'm glad I started on a turrent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 Did you learn how to drive in the same type of car you'd be driving in rather than a slower, less featured, car? No, you learned how to drive most likely in the same car mom and dad would be letting you borrow right after you got your license. You can learn to reload on a progressive press if: -you're mechanically minded -you have a 'mentor' at hand to help you through the errors that will happen -you also have good ancillary stuff in scales, micrometer, chrono ect. You value your personal time, don't start with a lawnmower enginged go cart when you can just get the car you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlaineD Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 The usefulness of a single stage or a turret press will always be there. No reloading room is complete without it. Whether you use it to learn may be a personal thing, and does not diminish its usefulness even as you gain experience. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 The usefulness of a single stage or a turret press will always be there. No reloading room is complete without it. Whether you use it to learn may be a personal thing, and does not diminish its usefulness even as you gain experience. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I have zero use for a single stage press loading .40 on a 1050. If I was loading rifle or something maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlaineD Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 The usefulness of a single stage or a turret press will always be there. No reloading room is complete without it. Whether you use it to learn may be a personal thing, and does not diminish its usefulness even as you gain experience. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I have zero use for a single stage press loading .40 on a 1050. If I was loading rifle or something maybe. I guess I am speaking from a reloader angle vs a shooter angle. If making your own ammo is a hobby as well, you will need a single stage. If your only reason to reload is to supply ammo to shoot in high volume, then you are a shooter and probably would not require a single stage. I do know from experience however, load development is much easier and less time consuming if you run a few through the single stage before you mess with your settings on the big machine. If you are never going to touch it again after you find your load, then not so much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HotRod61 Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 I started with rifle on Lee single stage and glad I did. Then moved to a 650. Load development is easier on a single stage. I mass produce 223/ 45acp and soon 9mm on the 650. All my hunting rds,highpower match rds I do on my Lee single stage. I almost love reloading as much as shooting ALMOST! Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlaineD Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 I started with rifle on Lee single stage and glad I did. Then moved to a 650. Load development is easier on a single stage. I mass produce 223/ 45acp and soon 9mm on the 650. All my hunting rds,highpower match rds I do on my Lee single stage. I almost love reloading as much as shooting ALMOST! Good luck Exactly!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunsngeeks Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 What about starting on a cheaper progressive press like the Lee Pro 1000? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 If you're a reloader first and a shooter second you'll have a different opinin and different needs than a person who is a shooter first and reloading is just part of that. If I could buy 147gr, 130power factor, brass case ammo for 10 cents a round it costs me to make it, i would far rather do that than spend the hours a week i do reloading. Reloading for me is a necessary economic evil more than a secondary benefit or enjoyable side effect to shooting a lot. Off soap box, hahahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 If you're a reloader first and a shooter second you'll have a different opinin and different needs than a person who is a shooter first and reloading is just part of that. If I could buy 147gr, 130power factor, brass case ammo for 10 cents a round it costs me to make it, i would far rather do that than spend the hours a week i do reloading. Reloading for me is a necessary economic evil more than a secondary benefit or enjoyable side effect to shooting a lot. Off soap box, hahahaha. I guess that's the boat I'm in. Definitely not reloading because it's fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 If you're a reloader first and a shooter second you'll have a different opinin and different needs than a person who is a shooter first and reloading is just part of that. If I could buy 147gr, 130power factor, brass case ammo for 10 cents a round it costs me to make it, i would far rather do that than spend the hours a week i do reloading. Reloading for me is a necessary economic evil more than a secondary benefit or enjoyable side effect to shooting a lot. Off soap box, hahahaha. To use your car driving analogy. I loved working on my cars years ago when I raced. I love making that special ammo that I shoot. Are there times when even the fun things can get to be a chore?................Nah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 What about starting on a cheaper progressive press like the Lee Pro 1000? I would say 90% of reloaders doing it in volume are running dillon presses. The reason is they work and dillon stands behind their product and there are plenty of dillon users to bounce ideas off of. Dillon hold their value well if you ever wanted to sell or upgrade. If you have a safe full of hi-points then you can ignore this post and buy whatever you want buy once cry once as they say. The sdb is a good choice for lower volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schultztec Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 650xl with case feeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHAVEGAS Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 On July 22, 2016 at 7:06 PM, CrashDodson said: I guess that's the boat I'm in. Definitely not reloading because it's fun. Used to be fun, if I was not shooting so much it probably still would be. For now I have had as much fun as I can stand. Ordered a 1050, my 550 will be used for short batches of this or that and load development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Used to be fun, if I was not shooting so much it probably still would be. For now I have had as much fun as I can stand. Ordered a 1050, my 550 will be used for short batches of this or that and load development. You will love the 1050 coming from the 550. Priming on the downstroke alone is worth the cost.Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmlyDeMented Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 I started on a single stage several years ago when I was more into precision rifles. After several years without a reloading setup, I bought a Dillon 550 to reload 9mm earlier this year. I've made more than 5000 rounds on it so far. It's great being able to do things individually, advance or return the shell plate as needed. If I feel like the primer isn't going in correctly or there are any other problems, I like that it is not auto-indexing. However, if you had someone to teach you or help you set it up correctly and work out all the kinks, I think the bigger the better. A properly tuned 650 would save a lot of time, a 1050 even more so. If you aren't reloading high volume, might not matter. I'll probably make 15-20k rounds of 9mm this year and I'm already wishing I had went bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerBaron Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 On 6/23/2016 at 7:00 AM, Hi-Power Jack said: It takes about one hour a week to load 1,500 rounds/month on my SDB ($390, total). If you want to save a 5 minutes/day, you could spend double that for a 650. Both, excellent machines. That's about 375 an hour which is pretty dedicated output on a SDB. A bullet fed 650 does 1200/hr just loading at a steady comfortable pace (that's 100/5min). If you take it real easy and go 100/6min that's still 1000 an hour and close to double the pace of a SDB. it's also more than double the price. It depends what that time is worth to the individual. The SDB is a good press for a purpose. if all I loaded was say 9mm plinking ammo I'd be happy with it. but beyond that I want to be able to chose which dies I run. I want a sizing die which is adjustable. I also want to be able to use an auto casefeeder at a minimum and preferably a bullet feeder too. For a newbie I'd suggest as the other guys have said if you have a mentor, OR if you are willing to spend some time trawling this forum and youtube and if you have enough patience to really take time on the setup then a 650 is a great choice. The SDB will basically run ammo out of the box. the 650 will need some serious time spent initially on setup and tuning it. Once that's done it's the much faster and more flexible machine. But you do need to be a little patient in the beginning. As someone mentioned don't just expect to sit down on day 1 and bang out 1000 rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHAVEGAS Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 What are you 1050 people using for a bullet tray? Just putting things together but the stock one seems like it is going to be a bit awkward to grab bullets from. For what it is worth, 550 ammo bin fits and takes up a lot less room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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