Tom S.

Can I respectfully call him an idiot? One area I cut no slack in is gun safety and reloading is part of gun safety. If I can save someone an eye or a hand, or the innocent person standing beside them injury, then I will do whatever I can do.

He said his friend "just loads everything to max load with the Serra book" that and the OP's title strongly suggest that the friend is telling the OP to start off with the maximum loads and ignore the starting points, does it not? And if I told it how I really felt, I'd get banned.

Your friend is an idiot and should READ the warning that every reloading manual comes with stating to NEVER start at maximum loads. Even Dillon's reply is not correct, as it is impossible to obtain the same exact components as what was used by the book's authors, unless you can get brass from the same lot, powder from the same lot, etc. Even two of the same models of guns can produce different pressures. So I'll say it again: your friend is an idiot - and never shoot anything he has reloaded in one of your guns.

That's a decent raise! Congrats!

Lubing is a must, even with carbide dies. Most manufacturers will even tell you so. The purpose of carbide wasn't to eliminate lubing, it was to eliminate scratching/scaring the dies. Can you run without lube? Sure. You can also run your car a quart low on oil, drive on under inflated tires and go out in the sun without sun glasses.

Powder may be sticking to the shells from static electricity. If you smear some lube on the inside of a case and run it up into the powder drop, you should be able to tell immediately if that's the problem. The downside to wet tumbling is it gets the insides so clean, they require lube for this part of the loading process. Normally the carbon residue in fired cases is enough to prevent cases from sticking.

I have seven powder measures and none of them are polished.

Maybe add a prehensile tail too?

I've never seen a need to up grade from my digital bullet feeder.

Mark, thanks for the review. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth. I'll stick with the spray and shake technique.

That system uses oil, which is an inherit no-no (oil in a chamber can send pressures skyward, plus it contaminates powder and primers). I wonder how it would work using Dillon lube, and also what modifications could be made to put a drain in it?

TDA us spot on. A bit of case lube, every so often, is needed inside the case neck for lubrication is to prevent the powder funnel/mouth bell from sticking and causing exactly what Bulldawg is experiencing.

I looked (didn't search) but didn't see it. Sorry.

Read more here:

With much sadness, I report that Mike Dillon has passed away. https://www.dillonprecision.com/rememberingmikedillon.html Mike changed the reloading world forever when he introduced the "blue press" and his no BS warranty, He's responsible for the 650XL that I've loved to use for more than 20 years. RIP, condolences to your family and may your way of business live on forever.

I use the Lee in a separate tool head in my 650 for running batches of brass before wet tumbling.

Here's more info: http://franklin-armory.myshopify.com/blogs/news/45401025-franklin-armory-is-pleased-to-announce-the-limited-availability-the-binary-firing-system

You'd have to ask them. They don't let me write the rules.

Was it one of those UPS deals that gets handed off to the USPS for final delivery? Had one of those go awry, Brownell's sent out a replacement and the original showed up a few days later.

Sorry to say but the simplest 'trick' is to buy another set of dies.

Go buy a new one - everyone has them on sale now in preparation for the 2017 models.

I've shot a boat load of 115 gr SWC from Penn bullet over the years. No feed issues and nice round hole.

This! Makes one less thing I have to monitor.