RL 550B vs. XL 650

[texasvwnut]

Anyone got an opinion on the Dillon RL 550B?

I am considering the RL 550B vs. the XL 650. The 650 is cool, but the guy at Dillon said the 550B would be more than enough to handle the amount of ammo I want to reload.

The only negative I see to the 550B is that it's a non auto-indexing machine.

Are there any 550B owners out here that can attest to the ease of use of this machine? The Dillon representative says it is a simple filck of a lever to index to the next station.

 

[OkcPuckfan]

I can speak from experience on this one! I had a 550 years ago and currently load on a 650. I LOVE the 650! I can load well over 1000 rounds an hour. I have a case feeder and the RF 100 primer tube filler. I would much rather shoot than reload. However, all I shoot in volume is 9mm. I shoot .308 but only 40 or so at a time through the bolt gun and with the FAL's I shoot surplus. I have a rockchucker to load all my odd calibers. If I were going to volume reload multiple calibers ( and I couldn't afford a 650 setup for each one!) I would probably buy the 550 for the ease of conversion. Check out this thread at Brianenos.com. Brian has pretty good prices on Dillon or try Eguns.com. Matt Pengar at Eguns is also great to deal with and they can save you some bucks!

Which Dillon should I buy?

 

[LVHospiceRN]

My UZI is approximately 4 months out and i was figuring on just shooting surplus ammo though it, mainly S & B or the white boxed Winchester stuff.

Is there a significant money saving with reloading? I did a ton of reloading back in the 70's and 80's, yes, i am old, but for something like this not sure its worth reinvesting in reloading equipment.

Contemplating getting a Rock Chucker, its what i have experience on and i am only reloading for my Politically Incorrect Sniper Rifle in 300 Win Mag. Not planning on firing it hundreds of rounds a outing.

A buddy gets me deals on PMC ammo in what i shoot, .45 and .40 S & W. I shoot my HB Israeli Fal and my STG-58 with surplus .308 ammo.

Thoughts?

 

[RoverDave]

I bought a 650 last winter. I figure it's costing me about $70/1000 to load 115 gr. FMJ. Most surplus and Winchester White box from Wal-Mart run about $120/1000. Some have found better deals but it's hit and miss. So I'm saving about $50/1000. I'm just starting to load subsonics and the savings will be even higher. I just ordered 8,000 147gr ZERO bullets (jacketed, not plated) for $56.55/1000. (They don't charge any shipping!) That puts my total cost on subsonics at about $81/1000 as opposed to paying Botach $200/1000 for the Samson subsonic stuff.

Between my Mini UZI and my MP5, I burn enough 9mm to pay back the cost of the equipment fairly quickly. It all comes down to how much you value your time. For some it's not worth it. For me, I enjoy reloading.

 

[amphibian]

I have a 650 also and love it. I used to have an RCBS 4x4 - slow.
I used to load mainly 124 gr for 9mm as it is subsonic here in FL out of all my SMG's except for the full size Uzi with its 10" barrel. So now I just use 147 Berry's bullets and have great luck with it.
I do think I would like to try some of those Zero bullets.
Roverdave, where do you order that from? Got a URL?
Thanks,
Amphibian

 

[OkcPuckfan]

Man, I just loaded some QUIET subsonic rounds. I used 158gr RN Rainier .357 bullets and pushed them through a LEE sizer die to resize them down to .356. Loaded them with 4.0 gr of Vihta N340. They Chrono'd around 930 fps and are real quiet! Like bolt noise only with my Coastal can. As always, load data works in MY guns, YMMV.

'Puckfan

 

[RoverDave]

Roverdave, where do you order that from? Got a URL?

I ordered from Roze Distribution. They're the official distributor of ZERO bullets. They have small price breaks at 5,000 and 10,000. Big price break at 25,000.

 

[JIMBO]

Some may have to face the age old question of whether to reload or not. Winchester and others are offering bargain basement prices on some of their loads but there is nothing like being able to tailor make your own loads that have been proven through trial and error. Reloading is a whole new aspect of the hobby that opens up new horizons to ones shooting pleasure.

 

[blasternaz]

If you're not planning on loading thousands of rounds at a time, the 550b will do you fine. I've had one for 20 years, still haven't worn it out, Have a second waiting to get mounted, if/when we move. For real volumn work, I use the 1050. Short run pistol or specialty (odd ball loads or hurry up loads) get done on the SDBs. I've two of them, one small primer the other large. Quick change heads for all of them, of course. The 1050 is the older model, only able to run 7.62 X 39 and .223 in rifle lengths. But when I switch to .223 on 1050, I still use the 550 to run my brass thru the power trimmer. Two heads set up with trimmers, one in the aforementioned .223, the other set in .308. When the price of surplus Berdan primed stuff drops below my cost of manufacture, I buy surplus. Since much of the surplus .223 has dried up and my second FAL will be running soon, I'm starting to prep brass by the bucket full. And we haven't even started to discuss casting yet...

HTH, MTC, YMMV

Blasternaz

 

[UZI SBR AWC]

I shipped my 16yr old 550 out tuesday, delivered to new owner yesterday.

I am upgrading to 650 because of volume of 9mm, 45acp, and 223 I have laying around.

Dillon 650 should be here sometime tomorrow, fed-ex tracking say it left hub (1hr away at 4:45pm) to go to hub here at airport (20 minute away). I'm like a kid at Christmas right now.

 

[texasvwnut]

I bet you'll love it!

 

[the brass man]

if you have spare time in the winter and have nothing else to do, get some rcbs 4 cavity molds for casting bullets. go to a tire shop and get as many 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights as you can and smelt them down in a cast iron dutch oven on a turkey fryer, cast into ingots, and cast your own bullet heads. size the heads, reload onto recovered range brass. total cost for me on my 650 is about $1-1.50 a box for 9mm. as long as you dont count your time into the equasion, you will be fine. the only thing that you have to buy is powder, primers, and bullet lube(for sizing). if you want harder cast bullets you can flash cool them by droping them from the mold into a 5 gallon bucket of water, also you can ad some bar solder or lynotype(sp?) to the mix. this is what I do, and i reload both 9mm and 45acp and i shoot both for about the same price it cost to shoot my 22 match rifle. as far as the debate 550b vs. xl650, go with the 650, or if you have the money and plan on loading mixed(military and commercial) get the 1030 it has a stage that swages the crimp on the military primer pocket. if nothing else sort your brass, scrap the military, and load the commercial.

just my 2 cents. any questions email me

 

[bodybagsryan]

To answer your question, I have a 650 acquired a number of years ago and have over 125,000 rounds through it. On it is the auto feed, among other things and I have 10 of the primer tubes loaded. Use 5 MEM primer trays to set this part of the process up and they work quite nicely. Not too big, not too small.

Friend have 550's and 650's. I used the 550 once and was happy I have the 650. Very high volume shooter.

Both presses are outstanding but for sheer volume, you can't beat the 650. Over the years, we've reloaded about 23 calibers on it from 223 to .45ACP. All the magnums, 10mm, etc. Can't say enough for it.

That's my 2 cents worth.