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Yesterday my new Dillon XL650 arrived, and at the end of the day I was able to produce about 100 rounds of what looks like perfect .45ACP ammunition. Here's a brief summary.
My reloading background goes back about fifteen years, all of which until now had been using a single-stage RCBS press. My goal was perfection and safety, thinking that I had to choose between those and speed.
As it turns out, I may have been wrong.
I have done a lot of rifle reloading and a little for pistol, but when I got a 1911 and began to shoot in USPSA Single Stack division, it became clear that the ammo cost was going to be a problem if I intended to continue. With that in mind, I shopped around for a couple of months and finally bought a Dillon XL650. My primary reason for choosing the XL650 over the 550 was the powder check system, which introduces an automatic safeguard to prevent over-filled or empty cases. I saved up my allowance and bought the all-singing, all-dancing package, with every option including the case feeder, tools, DVD, just about everything. The tab was a little over $1,200 delivered....Gulp.
The boxes arrived yesterday at 2PM by FedEx. I got to work immediately, and by 5PM the press was entirely set up and ready for powder measure adjustment. Rather than write a(nother) booklet on reloading, here is a list of comments on the process.
. The shipment was perfect: everything I ordered was there, well packed and labeled.
. There were zero significant quality problems with the equipment. I had to deburr a couple of holes in the casting (with a screwdriver), other than that it was perfect.
. The instructions are correct, I would only have changed the order of some steps to avoid re-work to install an accessory.
. You really DO need to read the instructions beforehand. I copied them off the web from the Dillon site and went through them a couple of days ago, so I had a good idea of the process when the shipment arrived.
. The design and execution of the XL650 is a thing of beauty. As an amateur hack "engineer", I will just leave it at that. The look of good casting, machining, and welding makes me smile.
. Although I left the powder measure adjustment until after dinner, it turned out to be quite easy to do. I got it dialed in for 5.5 grains of Winchester 231 in about ten minutes.
. Operating the press requires a certain rhythm. If you don't establish it, you will fail to seat primers completely and will probably have problems with cases hitting the resizing die at the rim. Once you are pulling and pushing the arm deliberately through the full down and up strokes, things begin to work very smoothly. I had to resist the temptation to go too fast at this early stage.
. After two hours of use (after 3 hours of setup) I produced about 100 rounds of what I think is perfect .45ACP ammunition, all of which look perfect in the Chamber Checker. I rejected or mangled about 20 rounds while I began to learn to operate the press, mostly by failing to seat primers fully. I pulled the bullets, oiled the primers, and discarded those cases. Kept the bullets, though.
. I do not know what my production rate will be, and right now it is not a concern to me. I still marvel that every complete cycle produces a finished round!
Questions? I'm off to a match this morning, but I will look in later on today.
Chris
My reloading background goes back about fifteen years, all of which until now had been using a single-stage RCBS press. My goal was perfection and safety, thinking that I had to choose between those and speed.
As it turns out, I may have been wrong.
I have done a lot of rifle reloading and a little for pistol, but when I got a 1911 and began to shoot in USPSA Single Stack division, it became clear that the ammo cost was going to be a problem if I intended to continue. With that in mind, I shopped around for a couple of months and finally bought a Dillon XL650. My primary reason for choosing the XL650 over the 550 was the powder check system, which introduces an automatic safeguard to prevent over-filled or empty cases. I saved up my allowance and bought the all-singing, all-dancing package, with every option including the case feeder, tools, DVD, just about everything. The tab was a little over $1,200 delivered....Gulp.
The boxes arrived yesterday at 2PM by FedEx. I got to work immediately, and by 5PM the press was entirely set up and ready for powder measure adjustment. Rather than write a(nother) booklet on reloading, here is a list of comments on the process.
. The shipment was perfect: everything I ordered was there, well packed and labeled.
. There were zero significant quality problems with the equipment. I had to deburr a couple of holes in the casting (with a screwdriver), other than that it was perfect.
. The instructions are correct, I would only have changed the order of some steps to avoid re-work to install an accessory.
. You really DO need to read the instructions beforehand. I copied them off the web from the Dillon site and went through them a couple of days ago, so I had a good idea of the process when the shipment arrived.
. The design and execution of the XL650 is a thing of beauty. As an amateur hack "engineer", I will just leave it at that. The look of good casting, machining, and welding makes me smile.
. Although I left the powder measure adjustment until after dinner, it turned out to be quite easy to do. I got it dialed in for 5.5 grains of Winchester 231 in about ten minutes.
. Operating the press requires a certain rhythm. If you don't establish it, you will fail to seat primers completely and will probably have problems with cases hitting the resizing die at the rim. Once you are pulling and pushing the arm deliberately through the full down and up strokes, things begin to work very smoothly. I had to resist the temptation to go too fast at this early stage.
. After two hours of use (after 3 hours of setup) I produced about 100 rounds of what I think is perfect .45ACP ammunition, all of which look perfect in the Chamber Checker. I rejected or mangled about 20 rounds while I began to learn to operate the press, mostly by failing to seat primers fully. I pulled the bullets, oiled the primers, and discarded those cases. Kept the bullets, though.
. I do not know what my production rate will be, and right now it is not a concern to me. I still marvel that every complete cycle produces a finished round!
Questions? I'm off to a match this morning, but I will look in later on today.
Chris
