Dillon 650 Loaded-cartridge Escape Tube.

[Zak Smith]

Brian hooked me up with a XL650 last week and I'm extremely happy with it. I'm done with a box of 500 bullets before I know it, and serious quantities of ammo are easy to produce.

The first modification I made to my machine was a "loaded round tube" to replace the blue plastic box that came with the machine.

The tube is 1.5" I.D. plastic "pool" tubing. I attached it by punching two holes through the tube at the top about 0.25" inch apart, drilling one hole in the loaded-cartridge tray bracket, and using a zip-tie.

Now the loaded rounds accumulate in the destination ammo box and I have one less thing to impede my loading rate. So far I've tested it with .44MAG and it works well.

-z

[Nik Habicht]

I guess you're not case gauging or otherwise inspecting your loaded rounds?

[Zak Smith]

Nik,

I haven't started gauging every round yet. My last stage is the Lee Factory Crimp which should solve a lot of problems... but even on the SDB, I never had a .45 round that wouldn't chamber. If I decide to be that careful, I'll gauge a batch of 1000 at a time. I check primers before I load mags.

-z

[Paul B]

Great mod. I did the same thing with plastic drain pipe (the kind under your sink) and it works great. Luckily, I've never had to guage every round.

[L9X25]

I like your mod too but would like to caution you about allowing the loaded round to drop that far, almost straight downward. Might consider repositioning the tube to reduce the velocity before hitting "the pile". I personally have witnessed detonations where people were dropping bullets into a box from about 12". All it takes is a slightly unstable primer.

Good luck,

Leo

[Zak Smith]

Leo,

That's a good point. I may tweak the last 20" or so of the tube to slow the velocity, but they're not going as fast as one might think. I had to take some care to make sure the rounds would actually travel the entire length of the tube and not get hung up anywhere.

-z