Bought a Dillon 650 a year ago to replace my Lee Progressive 1000, which served well for about 40,000 rounds but began to have too many hiccups for me to live with.

One thing I have always liked about the Lee stuff is the relative ease of caliber conversion.

Since I am now into defensive carbine work, I want to make .223/5.56mm as affordable as possible, so I'm thinking about getting what's necessary to load that caliber on my 650.

1. What parts will I need?

2. Once I learn how to do it efficiently, how much time will it take to shift between calibers?

3. Might I be better served to just dedicate another press to loading .223/5.56mm? (e.g.; I'm thinking another Lee Progressive of some type).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Howdy Murdock.

I have a couple of 650s, and swap out calibers fairly easily with them. I generally keep one set up for small primers, and the other for large primers so I don't have to swap that part out when converting.

Having the one press, you will have to swap out the primer disc, and the tube. It is very easy to do, so don't worry much about it. You will also have to swap out the shell plate and locater pins, dies, and case feeder adapters.

Did you already purchase a Dillon conversion kit for .223? Even though I have the pair of 650s, I load all rifle rounds (30-06, 30-30, .223, and 45-70) on an old Lyman turret press stage press. I am a lot more particular when it comes to precision rifle rounds.

Brass prep is much more labor intensive with rifle rounds as they need to be trimmed to length after tumbling and sizing.

If you are determined to use the 650, you will need to buy a .223 conversion kit. If you use a single stage press, all you need is the dies, and a hand primer.

Good luck,


WG840



R

__________________
Freedom above all else.

Small primer conversion. Should have come with the press, if memory serves me correctly!

A Dillon XL650 223 conversion kit. That will have the shell plate, buttons, case tube feed parts, the two plastic and one aluminum, case slide for station #1, and I think that is it UNLESS you have an automated case feeder too. If you do then you will need the small rifle case attachment for it, the starwheel, if you will.

You will also need a set of good carbide dies, any major brand will work as they are designed. That is like the debate between Ford and Chevy, so I am staying out of that.

You will need a way to lube the 223 cases. Trust me, the pad works the best for lubing but creates other issues.

The thing that you will need MOST though is a way to swage the primer pocket of military brass. They are crimped and you cannot reprime them without dealing with the crimp. There are several tools, Dillon makes one, $90 when I bought mine, but there are others that fit in a 7/8"x14 standard die holder.

Honestly, I love to do 223 on my XL650. Another problem that I ran into was powder selection. What I use for my precision target ammo, Varget, doesn't work too well on the XL650. It fill the case too well and the press "snaps" into position as it rotates. That causes the case to "rock" a little and the full case will spill some of it's contents. I went to a powder that filled the case less but gave me the same results, mostly for lighter bullets though. The powder I chose is Hodgdon's BLC-(2). Great velocity and superb groups.

There are some other things I would suggest but will leave that for another post. Have fun!

You tube has many videos of conversions

Heres one I picked at random

YouTube - ‪Dillon 650 Setup Part 1 ( Seting Up The Conversion Kit)‬‏

I can do the conversion in well under ten mins with out rushing. I do have the dies in a dedicated head and a powder measure.

Thanks, guys! A big help.

Call Dillon, give them a credit card number and tell them what you are trying to do.

Everything you need will be on your doorstep in about three days.

Incredible folks that Dillon has working for them.

If Mike Dillon ever gets bored flying jet aircraft and shooting up the desert with miniguns, he could make a bundle teaching customer service to airlines and banks.