Opps I was thinking 600. Agree single stage 600 is the way to go for short shells .

William

Not a beginner. I have a Dillon 550 that I have reloaded on for the past 2 years and reloaded on a lee classic turret for about 10 years before that. Also as stated I picked up the 650 exactly because it is the same press I reloaded on from about 12 years old to sometime in college and I reloaded 10s of thousands of shells on that old press.

I found this comment by another poster on this forum and am currently trying to research its feasibility.

"If you pull the bolt that holds the mast in place, and lower the press 1/4", you will see there is room to drill and tap and new hole in the mast. This will lower the whole machine, and still allow adjustment back to 2 3/4" or 3". You will have to re-adjust the drop tubes.

I have a 650 with this done to it, and it works perfectly."

More than one way to refit for 2 1/2. It’s still best to limit you reloads to one size shell, considering time and effort to switch . Used Mecs cheap enough best set up dedicated machines for short and full length. What I do is only shoot short 16 & 10 loaded on Mecs. On Ponsness Warren machines my high volume loads, 2 3/4 inch 20 & 10. Two Mecs two Ponsness Warrens , no reset time they stay adjusted.

Willam

Oh, I am planning on sticking to 2.5". I have been emailing with a gentleman at MEC who says if I send in the reloader along with the recipe and some hulls and wads they should be able to set it up to reload for 2.5 inch shells for me.

While I don't disagree with you the first loader I ever owned and used was a used Ponsness Warren 800B 12 gauge followed very shortly with the other three skeet gauges in PW 800's .

It's almost as if I reverted going from the PW's to 600's and now a menagerie of 600's Sizemasters , 650's , Grabbers and 9000's !

Bill I have three Mec 9000's all set for the 2 1/2 case. These were ordered directly from MEC and I sent them the cases and load data with wads. I couldn't be happier with the results. I think Santa will bring another 9000 this time for a 12.

Pete, think he said he use to reload a ton of shells, so he wouldn't be a novice. Your old charge bar will work if it throws what you want. The newer ones have a powder bushing that is replaceable for different powder charges and you'd buy different bars for different shot charges. Then there is the adjustable charge bar where the powder and the shot can be adjusted for just about anything you'd want. There are two of them, one for single stages and one for progressive presses [ the powder and shot bottles are on different sides ]. If you want to reload short shells it's done with a single stage press, like a 600 or a Sizemaster. I have two 650s - the one thing they don't do [ without a whole lot of fooling around ] is resize. This isn't a big deal if you shoot your shells in the same gun. If you pick up shells some will be bigger because they came from a auto loader or a different gun with just bigger chambers than yours. All of Mecs other presses resize and you'll need one of them. A Super Sizer along with the 650 will also work. They'll resize a loaded or unloaded shell. Good luck.

I like sized, so I don’t have to be gun specific with loads. Still Mec 600 is my preferred press for short shells. I deprime and size on PW 375 presses using a homemad knock out rod longer and thinner than factory . Then prime and load shells on the 600s . You could do the same with a Mec Super Sizer.

Willam

Got the 650 today. It needs a bit of work, but is in good shape overall. Don't have the primer assembly installed on it yet and no idea what that primer rod is where the tray usually fits but it looks to be in nice good shape.

No idea on the age of it yet.

I started with the OLD MEC reloaders and accumulated a bunch of the old charge bars. When they started using bushings I modified all the old bars to take a bushing. I have even honed some of the old bars to get the exact weight of of a specific size of shot. The adjustable bars are easier.
C.G.B.