Minimm requirements and options

[UNK]

Looking at the 650.
As the title says what is the minimum needed to begin loading safely and effectively.
Secondary is don't buy abc from Dillon buy this xyz brand because its better than Dillons.
Here is an example https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?20953-Dillon-RF-100-Automatic-Primer-Filler
Third is what options are nice to have but not necessary.

[GuanoLoco]

Go buy a quality load book. Read it.

Scale for weighing your charge setting, Analog Caliper for measuring OAL. A way to clean brass.

You aren't providing any information on caliber(s) or purpose of reloaded ammo.

[UNK]

initially for 9mm. For increased shooting without paying new ammo cost. I have reloaded before on a single stage so I understand the concept.

[Welder]

Some random thoughts - I went from a Rock Chucker to a 650 a couple years back.

1. You're wanting to save money, but I consider a case feeder to be part of the 'bare minimum' for a 650 even though you can run it without one. A 650 without the case feeder is a crippled machine in contrast to one with....manually loading that tube would be super inconvenient and slow.

2. You do spend a fair percent of total reloading time filling primers by hand if you only have a pickup tube vs the auto filler. That said, I only use the pickup tubes and I still easily load 300 or so rds an hour including filling the tubes, checking my email, drinking Dr Pepper, and putting the loose ammo into boxes. I don't rush reloading; it's my rest time at the end of a work day.

3. You don't need a case gauge if you are OK with using your pistol barrel for that duty.

4. Digital scale is way more better than a balance beam, esp the atrocious Lee Safety Scale that I started out with.

5. I welded up my own 'Strong Mount' or whatever they call it that raised my press to eye level - it works with the Rock Chucker or the 650, and the Dillon plastic loaded cartridge box / aggro bin or whatever they call it.

6. You don't need the Bullet Tray - I just dump my bullets into the empty die box and set that on top of a cardboard box of the right height.

7. The Bench Wrench is a good thing - not much room btw dies and that wrench both tightens dies and adjusts the powder measure charge.

8. The roller handles are nice but not necessary for starting out with. I do have a roller handle now, and do prefer it.

9. Buy your primer flip tray from wherever - the Dillon one at $21 is pretty ridiculous.

10. A 10 cent garbage bag will do the same thing a $40 machine cover does.

11. Don't buy the low powder sensor - the measure is right in front of your face and if you can't see the powder level you really shouldn't be reloading.

12. I do think the powder check system (checks level in cartridges) is a good idea.

13. I like the Dillon dies because of how you can remove the insert while leaving the body locked into the toolhead. So you can clean the gunk from lead bullets or whatever out of the insert without affecting your adjustment.

14. Don't buy other locknuts for the dies. I normally prefer Hornady locknuts, but they don't fit in the limited space avail on the toolhead. The Dillon nuts are fine.

15. Just a tip - when you're working up loads, remove the plastic wedge from the front of the frame once you have a primed case that you can use for weighing charges. This is the part that advances the primer system. If you don't do this, you'll have a ton of unused primers building up in the little primer dump tray. You can also lock up the casefeeder advance mechanism with a fired rifle case to keep new cases from feeding. I find making new loads very simple with the 650 since you can lock the primers and feeder out so easily.

16. Have a bunch of Allen wrenches around for adjusting stuff - most components are secured with Allen head screws or bolts.

17. People store their loaded ammo differently. A shooting buddy drops his into old jelly jars or ammo cans, which is much faster. I'm a little more anal and bought a bunch of those 100 rd Berry's ammo boxes because I want to inspect each round for the primer being in the right way....so if I'm going to do that I might as well put the stuff in boxes where it's easy to load out of.

18. The SS media craze and all that are probably great for rifle cartridges but totally unnecessary for pistol cases. You'll do just fine with a reg'lar old Lyman tumbler and walnut hull media. I use the Dillon polish but only because I haven't tried others.

19. Keep the powder measure at least half full to prevent inconsistency in charge weight. You can probably get away with a lot less powder in it and still get good measuring, but pistol cartridges use so little that there's no excuse not to fill it up every few hundred rounds just to break the monotony.

20. My 650 will sling powder out of the cases if I don't hold onto a case when the shellhead snaps to the next position when auto-indexing. I've seen various fixes for this online, but I find it easy to just catch a case with my fingers to control that snap. You'll see what I mean if yours has the same issue.

21. You will occasionally get a case feed upside down into the shellhead, and if you don't see it, you'll immediately know it when the sizing die hits it. It's no biggie and I'm not sure if there's any fix for it.

22. You'll also very rarely get a case that falls from the feeder into the little plastic funnel just so, and it'll cause the falling cases to bridge up and spill out of the funnel because the limit switch to tell the feeder to cut off is below your stuck case and not activated. This might not make sense until it happens, but you'll remember I said it when it happens. The key is to keep an ear out for the feeder running 'too long' between lever pulls. The first time it happens you likely won't catch it and cases will start raining down on you until you figure it out and hit the 'off' switch.

Hope some of this helps. :)

[FPS]

I am a couple weeks into my new XL 650.

Musts (IMO)

1. Case feeder. Yes, you must, listen to everyone on the interwebz.
2. Inline Fabrication upgrades - strong mount, LED light (cooler than I thought it would be). I really like the swing out bullet tray too.
3. +1 on the Dillon lock rings.
4. DillonUpgrades.com - both primer modifications (spent and unseated live primer mods). These are excellent. The Dillon stock stuff is a sucky design, no one can figure out why they haven't addressed it yet.

Maybe

1. Frankford Arsenal vibra prime has worked well for me so far (except for operator error dumbshit moves like forgetting to put the pin that blocks the primers back in...).
2. Inline Fabrication case feeder mirror. Works great for me, you can probably rig something up for cheaper.

Not necessary

1. Dillon tool holder. Very optional IMO.
2. I definitely overspent on the primer flip tray.

I am sure I am missing something with all the crap I have bought the last few weeks but so far I love this thing, great machine and well worth the cost.