Load development 2.0 -
I changed over from Berry's 124 grain plated round nose to SNS 125 poly coated. For kicks I didn't adjust any dies, ran a few, and dropped them into the case gauge. No way do they pass, and it's a good reason to examine why you should double check our dies if you change bullets, even in the same weight range.
The difference is the bullets are .001" larger in diameter, and the straight portion of the bullet profile extends higher in reference to the bullet nose (more gentle ogive) with the bullet being slightly taller and a tapered base. The change in nose profile means the bullet contacts the outer rim of the bullet seater die plug versus the nose - this should result in better concentric runout (it's a semi auto pistol round, whatever) and higher % of rounds that pass case gauge if running near the limits of OAL. This change also means that the OAL must be adjusted at the die, as the bullet shoulder (whatever it's called - the rounded part) will sit deeper into the chamber for the same OAL.
All of this means the bullet must be seated deeper in the case. The taper base also makes it way easier to get the bullet in the case by hand. This means load development and verifying that the ammo meets power factor in both pistols has to be done again. No worries
For kicks/experimentation I also grabbed the lee bullet feed kit to play around with, and force myself to take a longer break during longer sessions. If you're not familiar with the breechblock auto, the due stations are extremely close, and the corners of the lee jam nuts are almost touching if you have to be in that orientation. Once you add the bullet feeder it make it so the bushings weren't fully engaged in one of my stations, and the other one could wiggle loose a bit. My fix was grabbing the Dillon lock rings as they are 1" across instead of 1 1/8" across. As far as the lee jam nuts providing a small free float, that's true - but this press has the same o-ring setup for the bushings themselves, making those slightly free-floating/self centering so running traditional style jam nuts doesn't loose that benefit. I'm not sold on the bullet feeder, since there's no collator - but we'll see what happens.
My thoughts on this press having ran single stages, turrets, Loadmasters, Hornady LnL AP, 650 w/ bullet feeder and case feeder, and 1050 w/ bullet feeder and case feeder is this:
it is quite a bit slower than the Dillon products due to the priming system having to be manually operated for each cycle and the 650/1050 designed from the get go with a high capacity case collator - add a bullet collator/feeder and you will absolutely never want to run anything else from a production standpoint.
This same system also makes it safer than the Loadmaster in the event of a primer detonation while seating (I've had it happen on a Loadmaster). It is simpler to keep running than a Hornady LnL AP while keeping better OAL consistency. It demolishes single stage and turret presses in volume and my elbow/shoulder isn't tight the next morning either.
For about the same price as a Lee turret you get a pretty reliable system with easy caliber changes that pushes higher production and less rushing. It allows for a simple, non-motorized, reasonably effective case feeding mechanism that the press was designed around, albeit the collator/capacity is low and you will need to rotate the tubes to keep the flow going (it's really a very, very small nit pick). The central rod that indexes the shell plate can be removed, making it manually indexing and simpler to teach people new to reloading what's going on and do a single case at a time. If you're not going to reload much rifle ammo, this honestly is the non-Dillon press to get in my opinion; the money you save will go a long way to buying components and buying an upgraded press at some point if you want to later.