It looks intriguing, and I can certainly afford it, but cranking out 500 rounds and hour of 500 S&W ammo that's putting a 325 grain bullet downrange at 1700+ FPS?? If you load it, then you gotta shoot it, and I can only shoot 50 rounds of 500 S&W at a time. For my DE 50 I can do 100, and my 45 Supers and 440 Corbons are about the same.

In addition, I do a LOT of load development where EVERY powder charge has to be dead nuts on within a 1/10th of a grain, so I'm happy with my big cast iron Lyman 6 station turret press.

The one other thing that you have to watch out for if you are a newbie and start out with a Dillon is that if you're loading 5 - 10 times faster than I do, you can screw up 5 -10 times as much. There is simply NO way you can check every move on every station on every case on a progressive, so there's a lot more chances of squibs and other goof-ups, which could cost you big time at the range, PARTICULARLY if you're shooting a revolver. A squib auto load won't cycle the action, but a squib revolver load can stuff the bullet far enough up the barrel to allow the cylinder to turn, and if you are shooting rapid DA, you could be screwed.

As far as reloading is concerned, being anal retentive and/or obsessive-compulsive is not a bad thing, because the penalties are VERY high for making a reloading mistake!!

That's all true, but how often does it really happen and result in some kind of real problem, like a blown up revolver?

Automation may magnify setup problems through repitition, but in the case of an autoindexing machine at least, they go a long way towards mitigating double charges. So maybe you're trading one risk for another.

Oddly, no one ever mentions the real oops that seems to happen far more often than nuked revolvers -- primer magazine explosions that embed plastic rods (part of the low primer alarm) in sheet-rock ceilings and soil underpants.

Woah! What? How does this happen?

Not to say that it could not happen - but it has not happened yet to me...

the design of the Dillon primer system is pretty good - the business end is far away from the storage end of the primer system - at least with the dillon.

This is a good reason to ALWAYS wear safety glasses when reloading at the very least.

As Pinnacle points out, this is a pretty rare occurance, but has happened often enough that it turns up maybe once every couple of months on some of the reloading forums. The low primer sensor is an electronic buzzer tripped by a weighted all-plastic rod that rides inside the primer magazine -- the rod is what gets shot into the ceiling when the primers go.

The source of ignition is almost always a primer that gets crushed in the priming stage. Usually this seems to be the result of a sloppy primer size change (wrong primer magazine tube, punch or locator adjustment). It seems that of all the ones I've read, almost always an entire magazine of primers explode in a chain reaction. The good news is that the priming system completely shields the user with steel and Dillon always seems to replace all the parts for free, even if the cause was/is obviously user negligence. I've never heard of anyone getting hurt from this, only having the crap scared out of them.

I've never had this happen to me personally (nearing 10k loaded rounds). The worst primer problems I've had are the occasional upside down primer or one inadequately seated. My guess is you'd have to not pay attention or make a major mistake changing the priming system between small and large. IMHO Dillon could make the 650 (and maybe the 550, I've never used one) a little more goof proof by making the priming system a SINGLE assembly instead of a primer punch AND the primer disc/magazine assembly. That way you could swap out a single assembly between small & large and not have to tinker with it.

I'm tempted to ask John Walton how often (if ever) he's had to deal with primer kabooms. My guess he's seen a couple -- when I complained about a pickup tube that seemed to catch primers sideways, he just gave me a new one and told me to toss the other one and quit using the low-primer rod to unstick them (Darwin ultimately gets us all...).

You mean to tell me that you do not use a coat hanger to unsitck primers? Oh and a large hammer?

I have had stuck prmers before - not fun - and not easy to undo.

Coat hanger and hammer? No, but I'll admit to still using the low-primer rod to fix the ones that get hung up sideways in the pickup tubes.

I've never had a jam or other problem with the actual priming system (disc, primer tube, punch, etc) on the press itself, so I haven't had a reason to fish out the hammer and coat hanger on that one..

Despite its trouble-free nature thusfar, I do think there are some changes that could be made (single assembly, not ejecting unused primers ala the SDB, etc).

The ^$#@^%^&$&*%(*^)*(&_&* primer tubes. I lived with them early on until Lee came out with their original Auto-prime about 25 years ago, and have never looked back. I understand that Dillon makes a primer tube feeder for about $100 for each primer size, and I could never get past the point of having to mess around with those primer tubes AGAIN.

The other plus of hand priming hot calibers is you can pick up loose primer pockets when you're seating primers because you can FEEL loose primer pockets, and to me that's something worth keeping. With a progressive you have no clue if one of your cases is about ready to give up the ghost.

The Dillon primer tube filler is more than $100, but most people who own one wonder why they didn't get one to begin with; Midway sell a Crapford Arsenal filler that's like $50, but it both built poorly (mine came with the battery door glued shut from overgluing) and works poorly.

The hand-filling tubes are reasonable -- I can fill one in about 45 seconds, and I have 5 or 6, so I can load pretty much non-stop for about 500 or 600 rounds, which is about my limit for sitting still anyway.


Maybe its just me, but I notice the variation in seating effort on nearly every primer on my 650. Probably not as much as a hand-tool, but then again, I'm willing to trade loading 100 complete rounds in the time it takes to hand-prime 100.

I am also able to feel the primers seating while useing my 650s

I have also heard of primer tubes explodeing never had it happen personnely, I was told all the holes in the ceiling above the reloading machines used at Poney Express Reloaders where caused by Federal primers. I used Win primers for years because of this but have recently loaded appx 5k of Federal primers because of the softer primer cup with no Kabooms If the primer doesnt feel like it wants to seat correctly I dont force the issue and check to see what the problem is. I have also while wearing safety glasses gloves etc completely crushed flat primers in a pair of pliers just to see what happened with no kabooms <<MAJOR SAFETY RISK DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON YOUR OWN.

I'm not that brave/stupid, but I have been sorely tempted to put on safety glasses and my motorcycle helmet and hit a primer with a hammer to see what happens (outside, on concrete).

I'm guessing it makes a firecracker-loud noise and would probably pit the concrete.

I did it when I was a teenager. A lot louder and more power than I expected (shotgun primer). I would advise against it.

If you must do it, first load a primer in an empty case and fire it in your gun. I've used the rubber bullets that are loaded using only primers to fire. These will put a hole in paper at 10 feet. I haven't tried it on the cat yet.

A Missionary with a C&R FFL. This movie could go either way I say.

Being you're applying to the BATFE, and the sentiments of some gunnies that the BATFE is synonymous with BOHICA, I would personally resist recommending any position you're not willing to assume

I think the hitting of the concrete with said hammer will do more damage then what the primer will do. Dont ask