rwskinner

Hey all, if you need help with any specific commands let me know. I had an interface going and hammered all the command out at the first of the year and wrote a small application to store load data into my database. I had all the interface right at 100% if I remember right but never did get around to the database portion due to excessive work loads. Some of the protocol is poorly written and I think I would have gone about it all in a different fashion (code on the prochrono) but it is what it is. Sending commands to get back the proper string data was a little crazy at first until I finally figured out you have to send certain commands in certain order then everything went very well. Richard

I would be calling and asking about it. Seems odd everyone else is getting before you. My last 2 shipments I did not get any type of shipping notification. My charges actually showed up on my CC after I received my items. Odd. Richard

Learn me something, with a handgun case, the case pushes the powder funnel all the way up until the powder bar runs out of stroke (fully open), then once the powder bar is wide open and doesn't move anymore then the powder funnel expands the case mouth some depending how you have it set. If he is flaring the mouth at all then you know the powder bar made it's full stroke, open. Knowing that, I do not see how having a loaded shell plate makes any difference. It hasn't made a difference anytime I manually pushed a case up on the powder die by hand. On a rifle case where you just adjust the powder die down until the bar makes a full stroke then I could see where it might make a difference. Am I understanding this incorrectly? Richard

Same way I do it and I hadn't much of a variance. My loads are generally within 0.1 grains of each other when using Bullseye or H335. It varies a little more using ARComp. I have not noticed a difference when I actuate it by hand with the FS rod off versus running thru the shell plate and I always check it many times. Richard

Allied Electronics has excellent pricing on the Akro bins believe it or not. Richard

9mm Dies came in the mail today so that order is complete. 7-1/2 weeks. Dillon is standing by their 6-8 weeks and doing slightly better on some items. Richard

A few small Dillon parts (Lock nuts and powder die) ordered from BE on 4/8 and received in the mail on 4/13. That's pretty darn good in my book!! Richard

My 223 stuff came in about 5 weeks if I remember right but I ordered it all with a XL650 loaded. My 9 mm conversion stuff took around4-5 weeks except for the dies. I'm right at at 7 weeks for 9mm dies right now. Hopefully they ship in the next week or so. Everything is in high demand right now, but especially 9mm and 223. Funny, I thought 6 months ago everyone said reloading 9mm was a waste of time and energy Richard

Funny, I just now got a shipping notification from them as well. I don't know which order it is that is shipping but either way it's all good! Richard

What kind of primers? I've had CCI 400's on order from PVI and Brownells since December. Richard

I've been using H335 and absolutely love how well it meters. It does slosh out and spill out the powder measure a little. My last batch of 223 I used some ARCOMP and it did okay but the powder wasn't measuring all that great. The variation didn't make as much difference as I thought. My target was 24.0 and my measure dumped anywhere from 23.9 to 24.2 grains. Out of 10 shots, the Extreme deviation was 30 and standard was 12 fps. I would expected more variation. These were Hornady 55gr V-Max and were averaging 3180 fps. At 24.0 grains, I'm slightly above the base of the neck. You sure aren't going to over load those by much without knowing it !! Richard

That is exactly what I did for awhile then I ended up with a plastic card sort of like a credit card. It hangs on the edge of the case good and doesn't scratch anything. Richard

Here is a bone.... A little more info. It's of course all transmitted in Ascii Hex. Always starts with ":" : Starting char xx String Number xx Shot Number xx Command xx LRC of above byte excluding the ':' Each command is returned by either an ACK message, the data requested, or a Nack message. The data requested can be returned in several different formats depending on the command sent. Richard

:000000037D - The 7D is the LRC Checksum Byte (Last two charaters). The reason it decrements is because your command is incrementing, and since the LRC is subtracted from 255, it's value gets smaller by 1 as your command increments by 1. Richard

I got my FedEx notice today and was jumping from joy, until I found out it was everything except the dies. Waiting was never one of my strong points but I'm trying to contain myself. What else can one do? Seriously though, I was able to score 500 more rounds of 9mm that at least holds me over for awhile longer so that is a good thing!! It looks like some of you are getting your machines now and should be having fun setting them up. I'm still at the point that I love reloading as much as shooting but I'm sure that will eventually wear off as they say. For now, Too much fun !! Richard

Ordered Feb. 24th, XL650 9mm Conversion kit Quick change tool head 9mm dies Small Pistol Plate for case feeder No word on any of it yet. Maybe in another week or two. Richard

Update. I did as I was told and set the shoulders back about 0.002-0.003" (From brass fired in my gun) and everything chambers fine. I've made 1800 reloads so far and shot about 400 and everything is going great. Now, more primers, more bullets!!! I appeciate all the input. Richard

My son tried that but had log jams and flipped primers so I told him not to do it anymore. I personally didn't try it, but after having to pull bullets and deprime so I could fix everything I just found the best way for him so I didn't have to fight the screw ups. Richard

You can either put a blue tip on the end of the Vibra-prime tube so you can load directly into the dillion fixed primer tube, or you can remove the black adapter off the end off the Vibra-primer and slide you Dillon pickup tubes into the black adapter. I did tried both but since it's fast and my son refills the primers when I get low we just opted to put the blue tip on the VibraPrime tube. The other way is to simply use the little clear hose and transfer them from one tube to the other but I didn't like that. Richard

Mine plastic tray flips them quicker and easier than my Dillon flip tray. It took a few tries to get the results I wanted but now I love my Vibra-prime and it works great. I put a dillon plastic tip on mine and dump straight into my Dillon primer tube.

Thanks, Great Info. I did something close to that last weekend and I started writing my own software for it. I wanted extra stuff like to be able to assign items to a string or set of strings and then keep track of it in a database for easy future reference. Stuff like Bullet make, type, weight, powder type and weight, primer type, COL. I didn't like having to push multiple buttons to get what I needed either, so when I go to the next string it automatically pulls the stats and velocities for that string. I will be working some better file saving and printing features as well. I also would like to graph multiple strings on top of each other for comparison. Charts, PDF, HTML, Excel (Native), Standard TXT files, Print Single String or Multiple Strings or All. One button download so it gathers all the string and shot data and imports into a database so you don't have to look at it one at a time. Remote control interface (wireless blue tooth). The command set is a little flaky and cumbersome but with a little work I'm figuring them out. It's getting there, just very limited time to work on it. Richard

I didn't realize a spare pin came with the die set so I'm back in business I needed spares from Dillon anyways. I found the pistol decapping pins on Brian's site but never found the rifle ones so I went direct to Dillon. Richard

Just ordered 3 decapping pins for 223 and a package of pistol decapping pins. Berdan 5.56 got me a while ago. Hopefully small parts don't take too long. Richard

FEDEX

I quit trying to use the Dillon 223 Case Gauge because "every" case was below the minimum step. I started using a comparator as everyone suggested (Thanks). How I went about setting it up was to measure numerous rounds of 223 from my 223/5.56 AR15 and then zero'd my indicator 2 thou less. I then set my FL Dillon Sizing die up to size the cases to Zero (0.002" bump back from my chamber formed rounds). So far so good. I have sized about a 1000 cases from the range. The majority came out dead on Zero according to comparator and some +/- 1 thou. They chamber and eject fine in my AR15. I had a a couple dozen that were + .002 - 0.004 and they would stick in my chamber so I just ran them thru the FL die again and they were fine. Now, finally to my question, if my indicator is zeroed for 2 thou bump back, what is considered too short to load and fire. I have maybe 60 or 70 very nice looking cases but they are -.005 to -.010 (below) my Zero. Are they junk or will they expand that much without separating? Richard