JoeRinMD

A couple of years ago I saw the following recipe on another BBS: 1 qt mobil syn. 5w30 1 qt syn trans fluid 1 stp oil treatment 1 pint marvel mystery oil 1 oz of militec The poster on that board had gotten the recipe from one of the Baretta armorers in Maryland where it's used as the standard lubricant for their guns. A friend and I thought it seemed like a decent mix of short- and long-term lubricants, with the majority of the volume from two synthetics. So we mixed up a batch and split it. I now use it for my general purpose gun lubricant and I've found it to be a very good product for a fraction of the price of the commerical lubes. It's very slippery, but doesn't run off. With my half of the recipe, I've got enough to last a lifetime. a friend and I mixed up a batch

Thanks for all the information and suggestions. I field stripped my Kimber a couple of nights ago to clean the pistol and then used the bare barrel to see how the rounds would chamber. I put about 25 rounds into it and all of them dropped right in up to the top shroud. So, I don't think it's an oversized case mouth that's hanging things up. I'll make up another batch where I'll seat the bullets to a longer OAL. On another forum, one of the respondents suggested that I seat the bullets so that the shoulder protrudes to about the thickness of a dime. Right now, I'm sure that I don't have much protruding above the case mouth. The next step will be to load up some rounds with a higher powder charge. The current Alliant Powder Reloading Guide has a maximum load of 4.5 grains of Red Dot for a 200 gr LSWC. I think I'll up the powder level from 4.0 up to maybe 4.3 gr.

Ooops. I composed my message last night from memory. When I checked my notebook this morning, I found that I had used 4.0 grains of Red Dot...not 6.0... in both the LRN and SWC loads. Sorry about that...I should have checked before I posted. Joe

I just started loading .45 Auto on my Dillon 550 and am having a minor problem. When I bought the reloading setup, the previous owner gave me about a thousand 200 gr lead semi-wadcutter bullets. However, I wanted to try a load which I thought would be easier to feed in the semi-auto, so I bought a box of 230 gr. lead round nose bullets. My first run of .45 Auto was the 230 gr LRN over 6 gr of Red Dot and set to a COL of 1.240 inches. I've run a couple hundred through my Kimber Stainless II without a single hiccup. So, then I moved on to the SWC bullets. I didn't change the setup, other than to adjust for the different bullet length which came out to a COL of 1.235 inches. When I took the SWC rounds to the range, I had about 4 shots (out of the box of 50) where the slide didn't fully return to battery. In all but one case, it just took a light press on the back of the slide with my thumb to have the slide fully return to battery. In one case, it took a more firm press to get the slide to fully return. At first, I thought it might have been that the gun was getting dirty and hanging up on chambering the rounds. To test that idea, I ran a box of the round-nose bullets without cleaning the pistol. Again, it worked without a hitch. I also checked Brian's suggestion on setting the crimp and both typs are set similarly. So I'm looking for suggestions. Has anyone encountered this problem before? Any thoughts on what could be causing it...and how to fix it? Thanks in advance for your time, Joe

Update -- I took it apart one more time tonite to measure the primer slide height, which turned out to be 1.217 inches -- so right in the band. While I was at it, I decided to clean the "primer track bearing" under the slide. There was a slight film under the plate, which I assume had leached under from the main press shaft lube. Once I re-assembled it, it worked perfectly!! I ran off 200 rounds in about an hour. I'm still not sure what caused the problem...or what fixed it, but I'm glad it's working now. I didn't find anything under the slide and I can't imagine that the film increased the height enough to cause the slide mechanism to bind up. At least now I know one place to check, if it happens again. To answer your question about whether it ever worked right, yes it did. However, the small primer cup has always been more finicky than the large primer.

I've disassembled and checked the primer mechanism at least half a dozen times...and nope, no primer stuck back there. I'll have to keep looking for the solution. My current thought is that the primer cup is sitting too high to slide under the primer at the bottom of the stack and gets hung up as it slides back. Thanks for the suggestions, Joe

Everyone, I'm having a hugely frustrating time with the primer feed mechanism on my RL550B. The primer slide gets caught on something as it moves under the feed tube and so it doesn't slide underneath to push back the pin. The leaf spring doesn't move at all, so i know the pin isn't being touched. It seems like it's hanging up on the edge of the primer. When I try to pull on the slide manually, it seems to be stuck against something hard, because it won't move at all. Have you seen this before? I've replaced the feed tube tip, so that's not the problem. Is there a measurement I can take to see if the primer cup is sitting too high? Any other suggestions...this is driving me crazy and is pretty wasteful of primers, since it drops the full tube of primers when I try fiddling with the feed tube. Thanks for your help, Joe

I built my reloading bench over the Christmas Holidays and used my woodworking workbench as the basis for the design. For the top, I used two layers of 3/4" plywood glued and screwed together. Then over top, I used a 1/4" layer of tempered hardboard (i.e. Masonite) as the sacrificial layer. I put an edge banding of 3/4" oak around the perimeter to hide the plywood and Masonite edges and also to provide a more durable edge to the bench. The Masonite layer is only tacked down with very small brads, so that it can be easily taken off and replaced when it gets dinged up badly. I've had my old workbench for over 25 years and I've replaced the Masonite layer 2 or 3 times. The Masonite layer doesn't really need any finish, it's a pretty hard surface as it is. If you wanted to make it more impervious, you could paint a polyurethan varnish over it. As was noted before, poly varnish won't stand up to harsh solvents like brake cleaner or acetone. Joe