Dillion XL-650 Press!

[Hi Ball]

Well now since the wife and I are shooting a lot more rounds through this pistols we have purchased lately and what with more practice time at the range, I decided to save more money (yeah right!) and reload our pistol ammo from now one.

The press I have had for years is a Rock Chucker RCBS and has served me well over the years loading a 100 rds per session but you just don't crank out any 400 or 500 hundred rds an hour with a Rock Chucker press. We looked real hard at the Hornady but settled on one of those DILLION XL-650's instead. They seem to be the ticket for the amount of shooting the wife and I are doing lately.

I know that the Dillion 550 would be better in some ways, especially if you are not going to be loading but a couple hundred rounds in a particular caliber and then have to change over to another caliber. However, I seldom to that with pistol rounds and now have the brass quantity to load well over a 1500 rds per session. Now does anybody else have a DILLION PRESS?

[billt]

I have 2 Dillon's. One is an older RL-450 with manual powder drop and priming. I purchased in back in the early 80's, and it was the first progressive press Mike Dillon offered via. direct marketing. I've loaded well over 100,000 rounds on it since then. The other Dillon is a Square Deal I have set up strictly to load .44 Magnum. Both presses will easily outlive me.

About the only thing I don't like about the Dillon's is their powder measures. They are made from die cast Aluminum, and because of this tolerances between the sliding powder bar and the housing of the measure itself are quite loose. This can, and does cause them to bind up with very fine grained ball powders like H-110. Dillon has replaced the powder measure twice on my Square Deal. They were very good about it, sending me a replacement before I even sent the old one back. They now apply some type of black coating, (Teflon perhaps?), to the inner workings of the housing as well as the powder bar. This has helped some, but I still prefer the rotating drum like Redding and Hornady use. But overall my 2 Dillon's receive high marks. Bill T.

[Hi Ball]

Bill-T thank you for sharing that bit of information with me sir! I am looking forward to many years and rounds of reloading "fast" with this new DILLION XL 650 press. I am having a real hard time in finding any ammo for my Glock 10mm caliber pistols. I now have brass but just need to get set up down stairs and move a few various things on the reloading bench, that are simply taking up space. Those would be radio's and various other equipment.:)

[DancesWithKnives]

Had a Dillon since the 80s. It is reliable and can knock out well over 1,000 rounds before I get tired.

DWK

[rimrock]

have a dillion 550, that Ive used for many years, but IM seriously looking into buying a 650, DILLON presses are great/dependable equipment

[Hi Ball]

Well my big dillema is trying to figure out just which press it the way to go for me ok. Now I do load pistol rounds and would like to load at least 400 per hour, giving me a 2 hour session at the bench before I have to change calibers and go to something else.

I have heard that the XL Dillion 650 press is NOT EASY to change out for another caliber.....just don't know! I like the idea of loading lots of rounds per hour for those pistols though. Anybody got any real personal experience with a XL 650 Dillion?

[Rembrandt]

Love mine....set up for .223. Thinking of buying another.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/Rembrandt51/reload%20room/reload1.jpg