I decided after the first of the year to dip my toe into the reloading pond. Naturally, being late to the party, my order was one of a gazillion for Dillon Precision, and I wasn't to receive my order for 8 weeks! However, they DID send my calendar immediately, so at least I had something to distract me while I waited. 
I had ordered my tumbler, media and separator from another source, so I kept busy cleaning brass. I had plenty of 9mm, .40 cal and .45ACP brass that I'd saved from years of shooting sporadically, enough to keep me busy for awhile.
The rest of my order showed up last week. On Friday, I spent part of the day laying out the various components of the press on my workbench and mounted the press at the end ...
Knowing almost nothing about reloading, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to figure out how it all went together. I had watched a few videos on YouTube about using the XL650, so I had a little headstart. However, I had never even watched someone reload. Fortunately, I had a couple of friends with experience just a phone call away should I run into difficulty. I ended up calling one friend just to tell him that I didn't think I'd be needing his help setting it up, it was all a non-event.
The instructions from Dillon were excellent. Plenty of pictures, and the explanations were even in English. I just followed the instructions and the whole thing went fine.
A couple of hiccups to note: Using the pickup tube to pick up primers was no big deal. Transferring them to the primer tube seemed to cause me grief. More than once I managed to spill them all over, which resulted in me being on my hands and knees, looking for tiny little shiny things that go bang. At one point, I somehow got some into the tube upside-down, which made me wonder what would happen if the press tried to shove a primer into a pocket upside down? For two of them, nothing. For one -- BANG! It wasn't really that loud -- kind of like a loud cap gun. At least now I know what a primer sounds like.
I ended up having to disassemble the primer tube assembly (good practice for switching primer plates to LP, for when I switch to loading .45ACP) to remove all of the incorrectly loaded primers, all spelled out in detail in the owner's manual.
Another hiccup I had was the first time I added gunpowder. I don't know what it's set up for from the factory, but is sure wasn't 9mm! The first time a case rotated under the powder die, it was filled -- and then some. I had gunpowder all over the plate. A few quick turns of the adjusting bolt solved that mess and, using my scale and loading data, I dialed in the correct powder measure for my loads. So, if you ever set up a press for the first time, dial the powder bar adjustment in all the way and start backing it out until you get the right powder drop consistently.
That's about it for assembly. I'm not particularly mechanical, and I did it with minimal difficulty.
Once set up, it was time to begin reloading. Because I'm a slow learner, it took me a few rounds to discover where I was screwing up. The first reloading hiccup was that I wasn't consistently pushing the lever all the way forward with each stroke. I didn't realize that it's that upstroke where the primer is inserted at Station 2. Consequently, I ended up with a few cartridges where the primer wasn't seated all the way. Oops. That's why God made inertial bullet pullers, I guess.
When I ordered my press, I intentionally omitted the automatic case feeder. I figured that, at least initially, I wasn't in any hurry, so it would be good for me to stop every once in awhile to reload the case feed tube. WRONG! It's extremely annoying to get a rhythm going -- place a bullet, pull the lever, place a bullet, pull the lever -- only to have to stop every 20 pulls to reload the case feed tube. I WILL be adding an automatic case feeder ASAP.
The slowest part of the process for me is placing the bullet. Those stupid, slippery, little, 115gr bullets are hard for my fat fingers to manipulate quickly. I think I'll try wearing some latex gloves next time to give my fingers some stickiness.
I spent several hours the first day reloading about 450 rounds of 9mm. A lot of that was stopping to fix something, and discovering better ways to streamline the process. The press itself is capable of cranking out something like 600-800 rounds per hour. However, the only way I could do that is if I had a couple of helpers to keep the brass flowing and the primer tube full! Besides, I don't have that much brass. At that rate, I'd be done in a few hours and then wouldn't have a use for my new press.
A lot of people hold the opinion that a newbie to reloading should start with a single-stage press and leave the progressive presses to those with more experience. I'm sure there is merit to that opinion, depending on the goal of the reloader. Having cranked out about a thousand cartridges now, I can see the issues with changing calibers and changing loads with a progressive. If the day comes that I decide to load rifle cartridges, I think I'd rather set up a single-stage and dedicate that station to rifle cartridges only. It can be done on a progressive, but it's more involved than I would care to do right now.
I went through a couple hundred rounds at the range over the weekend and compared the loads with some other reloads and factory-new. Despite the load data I used, I think my loads are hotter than the others, and I may need to adjust the powder drop. However, with a couple of exceptions (bad primer seating), they all went BANG.
So, if you've considered getting into reloading but have been reluctant because you thought that a progressive press might be overwhelming, I'd suggest visiting somebody with a progressive press up and running and see how they work. It's pretty impressive to see what each station does, and how it all comes together with each stroke of the lever.
Hope that review was helpful.
I had ordered my tumbler, media and separator from another source, so I kept busy cleaning brass. I had plenty of 9mm, .40 cal and .45ACP brass that I'd saved from years of shooting sporadically, enough to keep me busy for awhile.
The rest of my order showed up last week. On Friday, I spent part of the day laying out the various components of the press on my workbench and mounted the press at the end ...
Knowing almost nothing about reloading, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to figure out how it all went together. I had watched a few videos on YouTube about using the XL650, so I had a little headstart. However, I had never even watched someone reload. Fortunately, I had a couple of friends with experience just a phone call away should I run into difficulty. I ended up calling one friend just to tell him that I didn't think I'd be needing his help setting it up, it was all a non-event.
The instructions from Dillon were excellent. Plenty of pictures, and the explanations were even in English. I just followed the instructions and the whole thing went fine.
A couple of hiccups to note: Using the pickup tube to pick up primers was no big deal. Transferring them to the primer tube seemed to cause me grief. More than once I managed to spill them all over, which resulted in me being on my hands and knees, looking for tiny little shiny things that go bang. At one point, I somehow got some into the tube upside-down, which made me wonder what would happen if the press tried to shove a primer into a pocket upside down? For two of them, nothing. For one -- BANG! It wasn't really that loud -- kind of like a loud cap gun. At least now I know what a primer sounds like.
I ended up having to disassemble the primer tube assembly (good practice for switching primer plates to LP, for when I switch to loading .45ACP) to remove all of the incorrectly loaded primers, all spelled out in detail in the owner's manual.
Another hiccup I had was the first time I added gunpowder. I don't know what it's set up for from the factory, but is sure wasn't 9mm! The first time a case rotated under the powder die, it was filled -- and then some. I had gunpowder all over the plate. A few quick turns of the adjusting bolt solved that mess and, using my scale and loading data, I dialed in the correct powder measure for my loads. So, if you ever set up a press for the first time, dial the powder bar adjustment in all the way and start backing it out until you get the right powder drop consistently.
That's about it for assembly. I'm not particularly mechanical, and I did it with minimal difficulty.
Once set up, it was time to begin reloading. Because I'm a slow learner, it took me a few rounds to discover where I was screwing up. The first reloading hiccup was that I wasn't consistently pushing the lever all the way forward with each stroke. I didn't realize that it's that upstroke where the primer is inserted at Station 2. Consequently, I ended up with a few cartridges where the primer wasn't seated all the way. Oops. That's why God made inertial bullet pullers, I guess.
When I ordered my press, I intentionally omitted the automatic case feeder. I figured that, at least initially, I wasn't in any hurry, so it would be good for me to stop every once in awhile to reload the case feed tube. WRONG! It's extremely annoying to get a rhythm going -- place a bullet, pull the lever, place a bullet, pull the lever -- only to have to stop every 20 pulls to reload the case feed tube. I WILL be adding an automatic case feeder ASAP.
The slowest part of the process for me is placing the bullet. Those stupid, slippery, little, 115gr bullets are hard for my fat fingers to manipulate quickly. I think I'll try wearing some latex gloves next time to give my fingers some stickiness.
I spent several hours the first day reloading about 450 rounds of 9mm. A lot of that was stopping to fix something, and discovering better ways to streamline the process. The press itself is capable of cranking out something like 600-800 rounds per hour. However, the only way I could do that is if I had a couple of helpers to keep the brass flowing and the primer tube full! Besides, I don't have that much brass. At that rate, I'd be done in a few hours and then wouldn't have a use for my new press.
A lot of people hold the opinion that a newbie to reloading should start with a single-stage press and leave the progressive presses to those with more experience. I'm sure there is merit to that opinion, depending on the goal of the reloader. Having cranked out about a thousand cartridges now, I can see the issues with changing calibers and changing loads with a progressive. If the day comes that I decide to load rifle cartridges, I think I'd rather set up a single-stage and dedicate that station to rifle cartridges only. It can be done on a progressive, but it's more involved than I would care to do right now.
I went through a couple hundred rounds at the range over the weekend and compared the loads with some other reloads and factory-new. Despite the load data I used, I think my loads are hotter than the others, and I may need to adjust the powder drop. However, with a couple of exceptions (bad primer seating), they all went BANG.
So, if you've considered getting into reloading but have been reluctant because you thought that a progressive press might be overwhelming, I'd suggest visiting somebody with a progressive press up and running and see how they work. It's pretty impressive to see what each station does, and how it all comes together with each stroke of the lever.
Hope that review was helpful.
