I have a couple thousand rounds under my belt on the XL650 with casefeeder now and really like the upgrades from my 550B. I normally do runs of 500-1000 to make clean up and caliber/primer size changes worthwhile.

Having said that, I need 100 rounds of blaster .308 for a match this weekend, but I'm in the middle of a run of 2,000 9mm.

The .308 toolhead is all set and sitting on the Inline Fab wall mount, I just need to get it on the press and confirm powder charge and OAL, like I do at the start of every loading session.

I'm thinking swapping not the toolheads, handpriming 100 pieces of .308, and running them through would be faster than swapping out the primer system twice; from small to large and back again.

With that in mind, has anyone had personal experience with running already primed brass through the casefeeder?

Looking at the cases in the casefeeder tube while resizing they don't appear to have all that much contact between the case mouth and primer area, and I always seat below flush.

Just the little hairs on the back of my neck being afraid of a primer going off as the next piece of brass gets dropped into the casefeeder tube and its primer lands on the casemouth of the one below it.

So, any personal experience with this? I see plenty of primed brass for sale, just never bought any myself and haven't seen this topic covered before.

Thanks much

Eric

Never used a 650, but I don't think the case feeding would be a problem as long as the 308 primers are below flush.

And the primer feed system on the press won't pose any issues if it is empty when you run the 308 through.

You would need to take care not to actuate the press past the point where the small primer punch would contact the primers.

I would just remove the primer punch / primer system. Then you don't have to worry about it. Should take about five minutes tops, if you're slow.

I have a 1050 and have loaded primed brass through case feeder without any problems.  For peace of mind you could prefill the drop tube sideways by hand and put it back in place then the casefeed would have a shorter fill than from an empty tube.

I think you're overthinking this.

I'm not a Dillon guy, but on my LNL AP I run primed brass through the casefeeder all the time because 1)priming on my press is inconsistent and/so 2)I prefer handpriming.

My vote is to prime your cases, swap the toolheads and go to town.

Thanks for the insight to those who've done it.

Pre-filling the tube makes sense as does removing the small primer punch.

prime the 308 on the 650


just change out the priming system when you change the shell plates

I bought an extra priming system, so I have a complete large and small, to swap out quick

running primed brass into a 650 will screw up your muscle memory

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Back when I had a case feeder on my LNL I only used hand primed brass through it.

I prefer to do my entire brass prep, wet tumble the brass, and store completely prepared brass.

When I'm ready to load some I bring a batch into the living room and hand prime with my family and when everyone gets ready for bed I retire to my oasis and load em up!

I hate priming on the press, always have. Makes it hard to feel if a primer pocket has expanded too much.

So yes, no problem running primed brass through a case feeder given you seat the primers properly.

I have two priming systems.  Two bolts and it is swapped.  Gotta swap the anvil too.  

Mucho easier than hand priming.  

This

I load primed brass in my 650 all the time, 223 and 9mm.   I do my brass in batches. It might be double triple work but that's what I do.

This has always baffled me.  Remove two bolts, then remove one short screw, the primer support shim and primer disc.  Replace the primer disc, the primer support shim and one screw then the two screws.  I have saved at most one minute.

For me the killer is replacing the primer punch system.  About as inconveniently placed as possible.

OBTW replace the primer magazine.  Don't ask me how I know this.

Yeah, me too. Not a worry. I do remove the anvil, and also DON'T FORGET to remove the depriming pin from your sizing die!!!

This is why I'm thinking that just hand priming the 100 .308 cases and loading them up is the easier solution.

I always knock the indexer return spring loose, have to find and reinstall that, get some grease on me while messing around in the area, and then do it all again 5min later when my 100 .308 are done being loaded, haha.

The priming assembly is easy, the primer punch swap is the PITA portion, in my opinion.

I shouldn't have to quote this for EMPHASIS, but I'll do it anyway.

If you're using a tool head set up to size (instead of one you've removed the sizing die from), you MUST remove the depriming pin from the sizing die, or your hand priming will be in vain.

I size rifle brass on my Rock Chucker, and when loading on my LnL AP, I can just leave out the sizing die, but sometimes you want to make sure that neck got properly expanded...  ALWAYS think through what your dies are going to do before you start cranking brass through the press.

The distance the case is inserted into the shellholder (at station #1) is controlled by the machine stopping on a primer (live or fired, in station #2).  

You'll need to install the large primer punch to accomplish this setup safely.  Edited to add:  Since the large priming punch will need to be installed, I would just prime on the machine.

It will work perfectly to size the primed brass.  Just make sure you remove the decapping pin from the resizing die, as already described.

I prep bottle necked brass separately from the loading stage as I have to trim off the press with my Giraud.