But, yeah, collators are what takes the work out of it.
That is officially the coolest thing I have seen all day!
May 29, 2017, 03:30 PM
exx1976
quote:
Originally posted by jmorris:
quote:
All things considered, with you loading those tubes and stopping to swap them and such, I bet I'm faster on a 550.
Not if you have small primer cases mixed with large. Having to check every case by hand to separate them is what eats up the time and I had to do that no matter what press I was loading on.
Until I built this device that culls SPP 45 ACP brass while I am loading.
But, yeah, collators are what takes the work out of it.
Small primer brass stays on the ground at the range.
Not to mention that your argument for "sorting primer sizes" only works for one single cartridge, which op isn't going to load anyway. Don't have to sort 9mm.
My original statement stands.
May 29, 2017, 07:44 PM
henryaz
I mark my 9mm and .45 pistol reloads, so when I get them back home, on the screen, I can easily pick out mine. I know the provenance of mine (how many times they've been reloaded), so this saves me having to check for splits, for one thing. It also eliminates pick-ups from helpful brass-pickers tossing odd calibers in with mine. Anything that's not mine gets discarded, even if same caliber (eliminates SPP .45's, too). For 10mm, I'm usually the only one shooting it, so no marking necessary. I just have to pay attention to other calibers, usually .45's, being thrown in there too. The caliber and length combination of the 10mm is easy to recognize.
May 29, 2017, 10:19 PM
ed308
When I bought my 650, I ordered it without the case feeder. Within one month I ordered the case feeder. My arm thanked me too. Not having a case feeder really slows down the 650.This message has been edited. Last edited by: ed308,
May 30, 2017, 07:23 AM
jmorris
quote:
Small primer brass stays on the ground at the range.
If I had eyes good enough to see them before I picked them up, I would do the same. Mine are only good enough to notice aluminum and steel cases so At least I avoid them.
My original statement of "If you get a 650 just go ahead and add the collator to the price." stands too but if getting one is a deal breaker and you "settle" on a less capable press, you would be doing yourself a disservice vs "upgrading" as you could.
Just mentioned the one option that works for a fellow reloader than might not be obvious to everyone.
May 30, 2017, 09:48 AM
tha1000
If you guys come up with a way to easily sort crimped 9mm from non crimped, let me know!
I bought a 650 about 6 months and 10,000 rounds ago. I kept my 550 for loading 9mm. I had built up a reasonable stock pile of 9mm and considering that I shot mostly .40, it was the full 6 months before I loaded any more 9mm on the 550...
Returning to the 550 was painful. I loaded 100 rounds in the time that I could have done 400 on the 650. I sold my 550 the very next day, used the proceeds of the sale to buy a 9mm conversion kit and quick change kit for the 650 and pocketed the rest of the money.
If you are a casual shooter, a SDB or 550 will suffice. If you are a 10,000+ round a year shooter, the 650 pays for itself in time savings. Truthfully, I will probably eventually wind up with a 1050 for .40... and then going back to the 650 for 9mm will be as painful as going from the 650 to 550.
_________________________________________ I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew...
May 30, 2017, 11:53 AM
92fstech
quote:
My original statement of "If you get a 650 just go ahead and add the collator to the price." stands too but if getting one is a deal breaker and you "settle" on a less capable press, you would be doing yourself a disservice vs "upgrading" as you could.
This is the kind of input I'm looking for, so thank you. I am leaning strongly towards the 650 now, and will probably just save up a little longer and get the case feeder with it, but it's nice to know that it can be run without, just not as efficiently. Even if I did buy it without, I'd definitely end up getting it eventually once I could afford it.
You guys have pretty well made my mind up...now I just need to figure out how I'm going to fit everything on my bench .
May 30, 2017, 12:15 PM
fredj338
I run a 550 & 650. About 30yrs ago I made the decision to go progressive & it was the sdb or 550. The proprietary dies & handgun only put me off the sdb. I like options & there are few with the sdb. So I started on the 550, then got another, one small & one large primers. Sold one & got a 650. If you are short on time, not much beats a 650 with case feeder. I still use the 550 a lot because I had tool head setups & conversions for something like 12 calibers. If you switch often, the 550 is simpler to convert. No case feeder to deal with. It still delivers 400+ rds an hour & that is just a moderate pace of one handle pull every 9sec. The 650 though is for calibers I shoot the most & with case feeder easily does 700rds an hour. If yo unever want a case feeder, the Hornady LNL is a decent machine for auto indexing & 5 stns. The 650 really needs a case feeder to be efficient IMO.
IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH! NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading
May 30, 2017, 12:20 PM
fredj338
BTW, I go back & forth between the 550 & 650 all the time, no big deal. If you can only do 100 in an hour on a 550, something is seriously wrong with the press or the technique. How I deal with the sp 45cp on my 650 is keep a pile of size/deprimed cases near by & just pluck the offending sp case out at stn 2, swap in the deprimed case, prime & keep going. It only slows you down a tiny bit. I try to never pick them up but sometimes they get by me.
IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH! NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading
May 30, 2017, 09:33 PM
exx1976
quote:
Originally posted by tha1000: If you guys come up with a way to easily sort crimped 9mm from non crimped, let me know!
I bought a 650 about 6 months and 10,000 rounds ago. I kept my 550 for loading 9mm. I had built up a reasonable stock pile of 9mm and considering that I shot mostly .40, it was the full 6 months before I loaded any more 9mm on the 550...
Returning to the 550 was painful. I loaded 100 rounds in the time that I could have done 400 on the 650. I sold my 550 the very next day, used the proceeds of the sale to buy a 9mm conversion kit and quick change kit for the 650 and pocketed the rest of the money.
If you are a casual shooter, a SDB or 550 will suffice. If you are a 10,000+ round a year shooter, the 650 pays for itself in time savings. Truthfully, I will probably eventually wind up with a 1050 for .40... and then going back to the 650 for 9mm will be as painful as going from the 650 to 550.
Sort them before you tumble them. In my experience, the vast majority of crimped 9mm primers have some sort of colored sealant around the primer. Most commonly I've seen red and green. Those go in my scrap bucket.
May 30, 2017, 11:09 PM
fredj338
quote:
Originally posted by exx1976:
quote:
Originally posted by tha1000: If you guys come up with a way to easily sort crimped 9mm from non crimped, let me know!
I bought a 650 about 6 months and 10,000 rounds ago. I kept my 550 for loading 9mm. I had built up a reasonable stock pile of 9mm and considering that I shot mostly .40, it was the full 6 months before I loaded any more 9mm on the 550...
Returning to the 550 was painful. I loaded 100 rounds in the time that I could have done 400 on the 650. I sold my 550 the very next day, used the proceeds of the sale to buy a 9mm conversion kit and quick change kit for the 650 and pocketed the rest of the money.
If you are a casual shooter, a SDB or 550 will suffice. If you are a 10,000+ round a year shooter, the 650 pays for itself in time savings. Truthfully, I will probably eventually wind up with a 1050 for .40... and then going back to the 650 for 9mm will be as painful as going from the 650 to 550.
Sort them before you tumble them. In my experience, the vast majority of crimped 9mm primers have some sort of colored sealant around the primer. Most commonly I've seen red and green. Those go in my scrap bucket.
Also most nato marked case have crimped primers.
IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH! NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading
May 31, 2017, 09:56 AM
Erick85
I'll take a medium sized Sterilite container full of brass and 4 empty cartridge containers (the kind from a box of manufactured ammo) and throw the cases onto the plastic cartridge container. The brass will fall primer side down which allows me to inspect the cases for Berdan primed cases and stepped cases. I'll remove those and use an empty cartridge container and flip those over and inspect for crimped brass or other undesirable headstamps.
Sure it takes a bit of time, but at 50 at a time, you can mow through them pretty quick.
July 04, 2017, 06:24 PM
houdini26
buy a Dillon, I have the 550b for 25 years.
July 05, 2017, 12:48 AM
XLT
I love my 650 other then wanting the 1050 just because it's king it's a fantastic press, I don't have any issues with it and I highly recommend it.
I load for the 9 mm and .357 sig have quick change tool heads for it all ready to go, takes maybe 5 minutes to do a swap.
(Yes, with my retirement as of last Friday, I'm beginning to look into reloading again. Look out!)
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
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