FN509Fan

I know my 1990 SDB is a toy compared to some of Dillon's presses, but I never intended to load anything but pistol carts and it does a great job. Only I longed for a handle like on Dillon's higher power presses. I also have a single stage RCBS JR3 which had a stupid bicycle grip and I went looking for a mod for it and found Inline Fabrication and got rollers for both it (which I'm using for low volume revolver loads) and my SDB. The products came well packaged and installation was a snap. I'm an engineer, anal retentive and all I can say is I think Dillon should team up with these guys and offer it as an option on the SDB. Maybe selling in volume should shave the price a little since it wasn't exactly cheap, but what is cheap for handloaders today?

Thanks for the link. I can't believe how many retailers there are out there that are hard to find. Not in AmmoSeek, don't come up in the search engines,... Of course the last time I bought primers they were $03 each so this is painful.

Don't all handloaders know about AmmoSeek? https://ammoseek.com/reloading/primers?ikw=Ginex Small Pistol Primers

I must be tired, I had to stare at the above for a while. From: https://www.glocktalk.com/threads/9mm-160-grain.1893851/ Coated cast bullets , Hodgdon Universal powder 2.4 grains I get 830 fps (132 PF)

I didn't have or didn't know about them fancy gauges when I started handloading and still don't have any. Hmm, Christmas is coming. Hopefully that bullet and powder gets pulled before the round goes in the trash. And heck with primers costing ~dime each, I'd want to gaute before wasting a primer. (I'm a tight wad.) I've never trimmed 9mm, but just started loading 45 Colt. Instructions with the NIB Starline brass included trimming (and not eating.) I forgot this instruction for my first 48 rounds, they were darn fine accuracy/consistency but I didn't chrono them. I ignored the instruction for the second batch. I only have 100 cases so once they are all dirty and cleaned, I'll probably measure a few and or trim them all.

I used to try to keep track of number of times I'd fired brass and just gave up. I've scrounged plenty of indoor range brass that I assume is once fired but who can be sure? When I started loading in the 90's the only brass I bought was Starline from Midway and that was mostly 38s & 357s cause I could scrounge 9's and 45 ACPs at the range. I've also used Starline for some oddball loads like 45 Auto Rim and 357 SIG. I've never had a bulge or crack. Now I'm using it for 45 Colt and am fat, dumb and happy with it. I'll probably try counting again for the 45 Colts since they have a roll crimp that could stress/crack the case lip. Though others shoot dirty brass, I'm anal about cleaning it as it gives me another chance to spot issues before recharging.

It is amazing how well it fits considering it was designed for a different head set. It appears they could advertise it as fitting both. The LED lamp I just added to my SDB isn't even worth bringing up compared to your rig. I am (Dillon) blue with envy.

I recently picked up a New Vaquero and noticed that one of the two back edges of the trigger is much sharper than the other. It kinda seems like the edge didn't get deburred. It obviously doesn't impact operation and it isn't in a position where I would cut myself on it, it's just that now that I know about, I can't seem to leave it alone. Any thoughts about the best way to "break the edge" as one would say in woodworking?

I bought my very first firearm in 1990 when the house my first wife and I were general contracting in a fairly isolated area in a far west Chicago suburb got burglarized shortly before we moved in. Illinois required we get a Firearm Owner's Identification Cards (FOID) from what I thought at the time was a highly restrictive state. As soon as my FOID arrived, I headed to the next gun show and bought a NIB Sig 226 for $600 that had spent some time on the shelf. The wife headed to a breeder and picked out a beautiful white German shepherd puppy who wound up weighing in at 125lbs fully grown. What started with the SIG turned into a 300 round a week shooting habit for me and the ex for several years and me getting into reloading with a Dillon Square Deal and picking up other shoot'n toys. Fast forward to 2006, I moved to what my brother calls the People's Republic of Maryland (he's lived here for decades) where I met my 2nd wife who can't believe she hooked up with a guy with a NRA sticker in the back window of his pickup. She was fairly anti gun (and anti NRA) and as of this year, I hadn't been to the range in 15 years or more. With all the political turmoil of late, wife #2 expressed an interest in learning to handle a gun and be able to defend herself. During the COVID lockdown, I taught her gun safety with my trusty SIG 226, we reviewed numerous gun safety videos on YouTube and I scoped out our next acquisition. You can guess from my handle what our latest acquisition was. The wife is kinda ambidextrous so I wanted a fully ambi gun for her to decide which she wants to use a her dominant hand and to "qualify" on and build up her muscle memory on. This will be our self defense gun and since it arrived, we've both put sever hundred rounds of cheap Russian steal cased ammo through it. She started out shooting right handed but shifted to left and pretty much stuck there. With my gun nut tendencies rejuvenated, I had also been drooling over the New Vaquero in 45 Colt. Though hard to find, I located one in Georgia just shy of the prior MSRP and snatched it up. I don't plan to get into cowboy shooting, just like the experience of shooting a (replicated) part of gun history. While I had plenty of supplies for my Dillon SCB from a couple of decades ago, I had no experience with 45 Colt and Dillon didn't have any dies so I bought bullets and cases and regular dies for my single stage RCBS JR3. The first 48 rounds were 250 gr XTPs with the lightest loads of Unique and VV#N350, both of which discouraged the wife from trying it out. So I've loaded some lighter loads using bullets that were gathering dust. We'll see how they work out, the first round were right on point of aim and I was pleased with them, I'm a little worried about lighter loads. At work I sit in front of a computer for 10 hours a day, so I'm not up for spending much time on the computer at home. But I hope to utilize the forums to find the best places to go shoot, and maybe do some socializing once this COVID crisis is over. Back in Illinois, my ex and I were part of a small cadre that went shooting every Saturday and pizza afterwards. It would be great to find that again.

Having had my SDB since 1992, I've often wondered about having "blanks" made that duplicate the powder measure bars (most likely the small bar as that is all I have needed) that I would drill a fixed hole in for a set measure for my favorite charges. Has anyone else tried this? Would anyone like to get in on a batch order if I design and order some? (I'm not looking to make money on this, just spread out the machining setup cost across a larger number of pieces.)

I've seen some articles comparing the Dillon powder measures with other stand alone equipment and Dillon typically comes out on top. So I was wondering if instead of spending money on yet another piece of equipment to clutter up my tiny reloading bench, there was any way to set up my SDB's measure on a stand so I can use it with my single stage RCBS Rockchucker which I use for 45 Colt and Auto Rim.

Where to start? Aside from what was already mentioned, the 9mm is a tapered case, the 38 is straight walled. The 9mm has a taper crimp, the 38 is rolled.