I know you have researched this, so excuse me if I am being Mr. Obvious, no insult is intended, but the downside to the Square Deal is the use of proprietary dies. Not a huge deal, but that would kill it for me.
I don't have the exact answer for you, but for all intents and purposes, most changes are minor and the basic design is the same. I know the 550 had a frame change where they beefed up the unit, and that is a fairly significant change. Not sure with the XL650 or the square deal.
I have a SDB, it's probably about 10 years old (gift from a friend), looking at the new ones you can tell there's a couple differences but nothing serious and AFAIK the older presses are "updateable".
Using proprietary dies, meh, it's a slick little press and I love reloading on it, not a deal breaker
I bought a SDB from a guy at work that came with 9, 45, 40, 38/357 dies and the whole shebang plus another $100 in extras for $400. It was from 1987 and Dillon did the upgrades no charge. I only had to pay shipping. I can't remember what all of the were but they updated the powder measure, primer unit and some other minor stuff.
I like that deal even better than what I figure it’ll take to put together a setup. Looks like there’s not much downside to any year model. Appreciate the thoughts.
you should also consider the 550.
1) uses standard dies
2) more versatile than SDB
3) easier to use than a 650
^^^+1 Here..
My 25+ year old RL550 works out fine for me..With my 15 or so die blocks set up for different calibers switch over is VERY easy.
I do not need the speed (or problems that comes with it) of a 650, and I do prefer the manual indexing of the 550..And YES, I have loaded on a 650. (also on a 1050 for that matter).
If I were to add on to my system, it would another 550, so I would not have to switch over primer systems when I go from small primer to large primer.
Another Each to His Own here...Bill.
With no intent to ever reload rifle.
You have my gears turning. Why would you prefer manual indexing? That’s the one feature that is swinging my away from the 550.
I’m more open to a 550, taking a closer look at the one for sale in the classified here. Even manual indexing will be a major improvement vs the Lee I’m using now. 1 pull=1 round sounds appealing indexing or not.
...Just LOOK IN EVERY CASE before you set the bullet on top. I don't trust things like powder checks...
Visual check on rifle cases too? No powder check for bottleneck cases either?