Dillion 550 or 650

[Johncandy]

To date I've only used my lee turret press for reloading, but I find myself pondering an upgrade. What are your thoughts on the Dillion 550 or 650. I've never used either and do not know how to set them up. Are they difficult? I will be using them for 38/357, 30 carbine, 45 acp, 223, and possibly 308. I don't know as to how difficult it is to change calibers on either?

What are your thoughts?

 

[pdg45acp]

The only progressive I have is a 550.

I'd like to get a 650 because of the auto indexing but I do like the complete control over indexing that the 550 gives me.

Also, at my age I worry about how easy it would be to drift into "Auto Pilot" with the 650, with the 550 you have to stay focused and do the indexing.

 

[dboz]

Tagged. I have the same question

 

[Johncandy]

The only progressive I have is a 550.

I'd like to get a 650 because of the auto indexing but I do like the complete control over indexing that the 550 gives me.

Also, at my age I worry about how easy it would be to drift into "Auto Pilot" with the 650, with the 550 you have to stay focused and do the indexing.

What kind of round count do you get with the 550? Also will an automatic case feeder work with it?

 

[CB45]

550 for loading less than 10k/yr.

650 for more than 10k/yr.

I just upgraded to a 650 after loading nearly 18k on my 550 this year.

Its all a matter of volume. Loading 500 RDS on my 550 in a hour was a lot of work. 500 on the 650 is a breeze.

Case feeder on a 550 is an option, but not the best one. Price difference becomes minimal when comparing both systems with a case feeder.

Edit: both systems are easy to setup. 550 wins for ease/cost of conversions.

 

[Manatee]

Caliber conversions on the 550 are fast and simple. The 650? Not so much. If you were loading only one type of cartridge, a 650 might be the way to go. But, I'll keep a 550 around for its flexibility.

 

[Steve B]

I really don't see why everyone thinks the 650 is so hard/involved to do changes on. Is it more involved than a turret press? Yes. Is it that big of a deal? I don't think so. I change mine all the time. It takes me 15 minutes while slugging coffee and not trying to work hard. Cleaning/lubing as needed as I go along. I currently run about half a dozen rifle/pistol calibers. The 9mm setup has it's own powder measure as I run so many of them. Over 100K this year. I have another powder measure that "floats" between the rest as needed. I have a single stage, a turret for small batch stuff and the 650 for when it gets serious. If you shoot a lot it's worth it IMHO. Mine kicked out over 150K rounds this year. It just runs.

 

[IndyGlockMan]

I really like loading on my 550 and I agree with the post above that says you should go with a 650 if you load 10k/year.
if you can setup the Lee, you wont have any trouble with a Dillon.
go on youtube and check out some dillon videos

 

[N8RV]

Well, I guess I'm the oddball then. After going through the same due diligence, I decided to buy an XL650 about this time last year (yeah, bad timing on my part.) I figured that I'd be running mainly 9mm, and most likely some .45ACP and that's about it. I found that setting it up without any help (just following the instruction book) was not difficult. A caveman could do it. However, unless I missed something in the instructions or am just unlucky, I got pretty frustrated when I would spend an afternoon reloading. It would crank out a couple hundred and then something would go wrong. It would jam up a primer ... it would skip a primer or two ... crush a case ... it got to be that I would run the press for about 30 minutes and spend the next hour fixing it! At my last attempt at loading a mess of 9mm, it jammed up and I got so pissed that I slammed the handle down and broke the indexing ring. Oops.

When I calmed down a few days later, I called Dillon and explained what I had done. I gave him the part number of the part I broke and he said that he's slip one in the mail on Monday. I insisted on paying for it, since I broke the blasted thing, but he said that it was covered under the lifetime warranty! Wow. And the icing on the cake was that, when the envelope showed up, it had TWO indexing rings (a spare for the next time I get pissed, I guess), an upgraded spring and the indexing tool needed to line up the press. VERY impressive customer service.

So, I tore it all down and started over. After it was all put together again, the powder measure wouldn't operate. It kept jamming up against the powder bar housing. Frustrated, a friend loaned me a brand-new powder measure. I installed it and it had the same problem. I started tinkering with it and discovered that the alignment of the failsafe rod is critical. I had mounted the powder measure just a little bit off and the tension on the failsafe rod was causing the arm to lock up against the powder bar housing. That told me that my powder measure wasn't bad at all, but I had simply misaligned it when mounting.

I discovered another little gizmo that was bent (gee, maybe from slamming down on the arm?) and I bent it back where it belonged. Once all that was done and the press lubricated, it started running like a champ. I cranked out 1K rounds without breaking a sweat (but my shoulder got pretty tired.)

On the other hand, another friend brought over his Square Deal B set up for .45ACP. After loading all that 9mm, I decided to try my hand with that press. While it certainly isn't as fast as the 650, I found that I liked the pace better. I felt that I had more control of the process. Frustratingly, it would miss seating a primer about 15% of the time (no primer popped up at all, for some reason), which made for a bunch of cartridges that needed to be disassembled.

Looking back, I think I wish I'd gotten either the SDB or the 550. Personally, I can't imagine cranking out rifle cartridges like .223 or .308 on an XL650, but that's just me. When I decide to do that, I think I'll look into getting a single-stage press.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[pdg45acp]

What kind of round count do you get with the 550? Also will an automatic case feeder work with it?

I've done 500 45acp an hour without feeling rushed but you will need to pre-load primer tubes to do that and have enough components to do 500 right beside you.

I like to hold it to 100 at a time, then check that 100 either with a plunk test or cartridge gauge.

You can make a lot of mistakes real fast with a 550 if you aren't 100% focused and one way to really compound those mistakes is to do runs of 500 to 1000 without checking each one.

I don't have a case feeder, I like to look each case over as I put it in station 1, I can see a case feader really causing problems with brass like 45acp large and small primer cases, 9mm with a few 380 and Makarov tossed in..

I don't know if the 550 supports a case feeder.

 

[MikeDVB]

I've run into a few snags with my XL650 but overall I'm happy with it. That said - I did do a LOT of rounds on a turret press before going for the XL650.

I went with the full set-up case feeder and all. I can easily crank out 1,000~2,000/hour so long as I have all of the components set up and ready to go.

That said - I still do my de-priming and cleaning prior to running it through my progressive. It allows me to make sure all of my cases are the right size, right primer size, etc. I inspect them during this process and often sort them by headstamp and/or times fired.

When I sit down at the XL650 to run some ammo I tend to run into very few problems. I've gotten to where I even size and chamfer my primer pockets as a part of my pre-loading process. Not only does this pretty much guarantee that I won't jam up a primer but it makes the whole process smoother/easier.

At the end of the day with a progressive it comes down to how much you prepare as to how quickly you can run through a batch.

I do stop every 250~500 rounds and test a few for weight, dimensions, etc. I'll pull a couple apart if I suspect anything is amiss and weigh the powder charge, etc.

I found I made more mistakes with my turret press but that was largely due to inexperience. I'm glad I didn't start with a progressive!

 

[85t5mcss]

I'm running a 550 with case feeder and love it. I had a few issues with the entire setup at first and had to get an alignment tool and a new plate but it all worked out and was fairly simple. I'm probably going to remove the case feeder so I can do different rifle rounds on it and find me a 650 for the pistol stuff I've been doing. I started with a 550 against many peoples recommendations but it worked well for me (extreme AR and OCD).

I agree if low volume loading then a 550 is more than adequate. I'll probably end up with a single stage for rifle stuff as well.

My my issues with the Dillon all seemed to be a rare fluke. Between Dillon and Procire here in Indy I got it sorted out and am completely satisfied.

 

[Dead Duck]

Sounds like its the XL650 for me.









Anyone have $1000 I can borrow?

 

[indianabob]

I had the 550 and was very pleased but at the end of the day I wanted a 650, I have a stand-by I do my hunting loads with (lee turret press) now I have a new 650 and next week will hopefully have her humming right along!

 

[Broom_jm]

Because of the frustration level that can be encountered when using a progressive press, the only way I'll ever own a 550 or 650 (or Hornady LNL) is if I really NEED that volume of ammunition. The thought of getting angry while reloading is so contrary to the experience I enjoy every time I run my RockChucker or Classic Turret press. Last weekend I was helping a buddy get his 550 set up and we could not get the primer cup adjusted low enough to stop hitting the end of the primer feed tube, so it wouldn't pick up a primer cleanly. We spent at least a couple of frustrating hours working on it.

In the same time frame, I would have loaded around 300 rounds on a turret press, and been more relaxed when I was done than I felt when I started. I surely hope I never have need of more rounds of ammo than my family and I currently shoot.

 

[BE Mike]

I have both the 550 and 650. The pluses of the 650 are that it is faster, so if you do a lot of competition shooting, like I used to do, you can crank out a lot of quality ammo in a short time. The slight drawbacks are that if you load pistol ammo with a lot of powder, a little of the powder tends to jump out of the case when indexing. I even installed a ball bearing mod and clipped the index ball spring and it still happens. The other drawbacks are that it takes a little longer to switch calibers. The 650 has no advantage unless you get the case feeder assembly. I keep my 650 set up for .45 ACP, which is what I shoot most. I use my 550 for .38 SPL and 9mm. Unless you are really into heavy shooting, like serious competition or have a full auto, I'd say the 550 will please you at less cost.

 

[MikeDVB]

I have both the 550 and 650. The pluses of the 650 are that it is faster, so if you do a lot of competition shooting, like I used to do, you can crank out a lot of quality ammo in a short time. The slight drawbacks are that if you load pistol ammo with a lot of powder, a little of the powder tends to jump out of the case when indexing. I even installed a ball bearing mod and clipped the index ball spring and it still happens. The other drawbacks are that it takes a little longer to switch calibers. The 650 has no advantage unless you get the case feeder assembly. I keep my 650 set up for .45 ACP, which is what I shoot most. I use my 550 for .38 SPL and 9mm. Unless you are really into heavy shooting, like serious competition or have a full auto, I'd say the 550 will please you at less cost.

I took the spring that pushes the ball bearing against the bottom of the plate out and cut it roughly in half [had spares first] and put it back in. I then adjusted the index on the plate perfectly so that even without the indent so long as I gave the handle a full swing it would index perfectly.

The ball bearing is really there to keep your indexing plate from turning backwards when you cycle the handle [take the ball and spring out, then see what happens]. So long as when you swing the handle the other way and the plate doesn't turn backwards you're golden. I have mine tuned so that it keeps the plate from turning back but does not cause the plate to *snap* into it's final position from 1/8" to 1/4" away from the final index - I let the indexing system handle that.

Try it - I think you'll find you never [or almost never] spill powder again. I tried the ball bearing mod - I didn't like it in that I kept getting cases jammed on the ejector wire no matter how careful I was about bending it the way it needed bent. I can run my press 100% stock and not spill a grain [and yes, I crank it out]. I simply removed all of the 'snap' out of the indexing.

 

[N8RV]

Another thing to consider if you're wanting an XL650 but you're on a tight budget, is that there is a company out there that makes a plug-n-play case feeder that's less pricey than Dillon's model. Plus, you can load various sizes of cases without having to swap out the feed plate.

http://www.budgetreloader.com/

As much as I like Dillon as a company and like their products, they were so backed up with orders when I decided to add one that I gave this product a chance and put the savings toward more supplies or accessories. It plugs together right out of the box and fits the XL650 like a glove. I plugged it in, fed it some cases and it started whirring and dropping cases into the feed tube without objection. It has functioned flawlessly so far, and the only time it has had a hiccup is when I accidentally had a couple of .40 cases mixed in with my 9mm. Oops.

Just something to consider.

 

[rvb]

I;ve loaded ~150k on my 550B, some years as much as 24k on it (lately about 5k/yr). It just runs and runs. I can load 500 rounds in 50 minutes w/o working too hard at it (w/o the case feeder).

If doing 15-20k / yr the 650 might be worth it. You have to decide at what point the time saved in throughput is worth the extra cost.

-rvb

 

[Gluemanz28]

Another thing to consider if you're wanting an XL650 but you're on a tight budget, is that there is a company out there that makes a plug-n-play case feeder that's less pricey than Dillon's model. Plus, you can load various sizes of cases without having to swap out the feed plate.

http://www.budgetreloader.com/

As much as I like Dillon as a company and like their products, they were so backed up with orders when I decided to add one that I gave this product a chance and put the savings toward more supplies or accessories. It plugs together right out of the box and fits the XL650 like a glove. I plugged it in, fed it some cases and it started whirring and dropping cases into the feed tube without objection. It has functioned flawlessly so far, and the only time it has had a hiccup is when I accidentally had a couple of .40 cases mixed in with my 9mm. Oops.

Just something to consider.

I have the same setup as well with the budget reloader case feeder. Lens Ammo in South Bend has presses and is a dealer for the feeders at about the same price as online.