jfrey

Spring for the SDB and you'll never be sorry you did. They show up occassionally on eBay too. Just be patient.

Another fan of WSF. Very accurate loads with 115 gr and 124 gr bullets.

Make the swap and sell the 1050. The SDB is a great machine as you already know and at twice the volume you currently load, the SDB will still serve you well. If you were shooting 2000 to 4000 rounds a week that would be a totally different situation.

I believe this is the same outfit that had them on sale a while back. I ordered 3 or 4(don't remember exactly) from them and got them in less than a week. They turned out to be Gen 4 mags but they work so no problems in a Gen 3 pistol.

WSF and Unique both work for me.

Like others have said, put the factory striker spring back in and all should be well. Some guns just don't like certain parts combinations. My G19 doesn't like 3.5# connectors. Functions fine with the 5# polished connector. I've learned to live with it.

Glock has a new ejector for the Gen 4 G19's. It will also work in a late model Gen 3 G19 as well. Have heard other models are having problems too. Not sure if there is a fix for them yet or not. I put the new ejector in my G19 and brass stopped banging me in the head.

Unique and WSF work pretty well for me. 200 gr Berry's plated bullets give me good results too.

What bullet are you wanting to shoot? My Speer no. 13 manual shows WSF loads for 158, 110, and 125 gr. bullets.

I prefer WSF under my 115s. Shoots softer than Unique and very accurate.

I don't remember why I did it but I mounted my first SDB on the left side of the desk I load on. When I got my second one, I had plenty of room to mount it equally across on the right side of the desk. Now I have a matched pair and plenty of room to load on either.

Switched from Unique to WSF in 9mm and like it a lot more. Not as dirty and more of a push than a snap in the same level load as Unique.

I always check my powder throw when I start a new session by dropping several charges in an empty case, just to be sure. The first 3 or 4 will be heavy but then it normally goes back to what ever setting I have on the powder die. I found it really helps with powders like Unique, to polish the inside and flat portions of the powder bar with polishing compound and a Dremel tool. I recently changed to WSF and this powder meters much more consistently than Unique.

Several years ago my FIL and I decided we wanted to start shooting together. We had both shot on and off for years but nothing serious. At first we would go to the range and shoot our box and go home. It didn't take long before I started looking into reloading. I bought my first SDB press and loaded over 10,000 rounds on it the first year. I would have never expected it. We got to shooting 300 to 500 rounds a weekend almost every weekend. It started to add up and I paid for the press the first year. Now I have a second SDB dedicated to 9mm and the first to .45 ACP. I have paid for both and we shoot a lot more and really enjoy it. We split all the costs on a 50/50 basis so it doesn't break either of us. I've never regretted geting the setups and ammo is never a problem. My advice would be "go for it" and enjoy shooting more.

I found a little gooseneck LED light at TSC and clipped it on the primer tube of my SDB. I works well except the light is blue instead of white but you can see right down into the cases.

One more vote for contacts. That way I can wear what ever shooting glasses I want over them and still see clearly.

Since you are just getting started, I would really suggest you take a close look at the Dillon Square Deal B press. It is great and highly under rated. I got my first one for .45 ACP and liked so much I got a second one for 9mm. They can crank out a lot of ammo in a fairly shot amount of time and are easy to learn on. Dillon supplies great directions with their presses and their customer service is the best, hands down. I don't load an enormous amount of ammo but the two I have keep my pistols well fed all the time.

I load .45 ACp with Unique which is a coarse powder to run through the Dillon powder measure. I thought it was an original idea on my part but I took my powder measure apart and polished the bar with my dremel. It worked really well and metering was greatly improved. It doesn't take a lot but I did the flat surfaces and the area inside the bar where the powder flows through. It takes any burrs and tool marks off the bar that can hang powder grains.

Since one of my range/fun guns is a Glock I shoot the plated bullets from Berry's. They shoot well in all my pistols regardless of caliber. I also recently switched from Unique to WSF for my 9mm plinking rounds and found accuracy to increase in doing so.

Just curious, what caliber are you converting it to?

I used to load a lot of Unique in 9mm but recently switched to WSF and like it a lot better. Seems to be more accurate in my guns and softer shooting at the same velocity levels. It also meters very well through my Dillon powder measure.

Lane has two designs of grip reduction. The standard takes the hump off and the other one makes the grip straighter and he can even do the bobtail like a 1911. Check his website for a better description. He explains it a lot better than I can.

Check out coldborecustom.com. He can do a major grip reduction that may be more to your liking. He has several options on texturing as well. Call him and talk to him about it. You may find he can do you some good and your son too.

I try to clean my dies with alcohol about every 5000 rounds or so. So far on my .45 press I've got way over 10,000 rounds and no problems. Coming up on 5000 on the 9mm press and I figure it is time to clean 'em but no real problems yet. The only thing I do regularly is clean the dirt off the shell plate and press when I finish a loading session and relube the arm bearings again around 5000 rounds. If you take care of the dies, they should last 2 or 3 generations I would think.

The 4.7 load for WSF is interesting. My #13 Speer book shows 5.0 for a start and 5.6 max. That is for 115 gr. bullets. I run the 115 gr Berry's at 5.0 grns. and it shoots very well for me. What bullet weight are you looking at?