High Lord Gomer

I've just started reloading .223 Remington on a 550 and have been quite happy with the first several hundred I've made and shot. After about 500 rounds through it, the depriming pin pulled out of the Lee die I'm usin g and stuck in the flash hole of the PMC case I was resizing/depriming. I went and got another depriming pin/carrier: http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/parts/2172.jpg That one lasted less than 50 cases before it pulled out and stuck in another flash hole. I lubed the cases liberally with Dillon case lube and let them sit/dry out for over a day (took me that long to get another part). Here is the die: I have been installing it with the top of the depriming "rod" (what is the proper name for that thing?) flush with the top of the "clamping nut" (yet another part for which I don't know the name). Is this right? Here is a pic of where the pin has pulled out:

I'd be careful, without proper maintenance those can emit foul odors. I don't even want to tell you about what happens when they get backed up...

Where are you? Maybe one of us that is already reloading can let you try a few combinations.

I just started reloading .223 on a 550 and originally brought the Dillon resizing down all the way down to the shell plate. After checking with a Dillon case gauge, I had to raise it back up a little as it was resizing the shoulder down too low and I was getting cases at or near the minimum.

I had done a spreadsheet a while ago to see what it cost me to reload, but this prompted me to go back and add some other calculations to it. Specifically, how much I save per hour by reloading. Basically, you enter data in the yellow boxes and it calculates the blue boxes. I found it interesting that I save about the same amount per hour doing .223 as I do 9mm. If anyone wants the spreadsheet to fiddle with themselves, I put it at: http://themxtrack.com/ReloadTracking2.xls BTW, there is also space for tracking the performance of the loads but I must have misrecorded the Load 2 speed through the 92FS in the sample I have in the spreadsheet.

My 11 year old was having to hit the mag release with his left hand on the M&P9 with the small backstrap. I moved it to the right side so he can hit it with his trigger finger. The only downside is that, while shooting, occasionally the mag falls out. I'm thinking his trigger finger is somehow hitting the button during recoil. I moved it back and he didn't like it, so *he* moved it back to the right, again. Oh well, at least he's getting fast at handling the failures when the mag starts to drop.

We convinced Tommy... "Yeah, you could drop the hat, but it would be faster to just leave it on your head!"

I liked his reaction. Rather than staying down, he got back up and looked at him like, "Are you an effin idiot? What else you got?!?"

How do you ensure that the primer pocket is empty? From reading on here, I put a Lee neck sizing die on the first station of toolhead 2 and after 100 rounds I get 4 or 5 granules of corn cobb media in the primer catcher.

NOOO!!If anything, I would figure those atmospheric conditions would justify an "evacuation"! I will be there for the other one, too.

If you're only going to be using one press at a time, I would consider mounting them so that you can swap then quickly and easily. I have my press, and now my Dillon swager and soon-to-be-mounted shotgun shell press, mounted to a piece of 2x12 with t-nuts countersunk underneath so that I can remove them easily by just unbolting from the top. I also have the whole board bolted to the countertop with eye bolts so it can be removed and even C-clamped to another surface if take it elsewhere. I would consider mounting each of the presses on their own piece of board that you can swap them out of the primary workspace. Not a recent pic, as I have switched to a longer board to also mount the other stuff, but it illustrates the idea: http://themxtrack.com/ReloadBench.jpg

WoW!!! These videos are going to make me go next year!

I used to have that happen very often (about 1 out of 20). It always left the whole, old primer in there and it was obvious when I couldn't seat the new primer. I'm using a 550, though. I was told to, and it worked, stick my decapping pins in a drill and sand/polish them so that they would be less likely to drag the old primer back into the pocket. That was worked for me...I only get about 1 out of every 300-400 that hang on the decapping pin, now.

Wow! I got tired just trying to figure out how I was going to drag my butt around those stages. I can't wait, either!

I'll be selling Nemo's next week after he realizes that he needs two men and a grown boy to help him carry that thing around the stages at the Toys for Tots match this weekend. I figure he'll let me have it if I just take it off his gun and make it go away. Now accepting offers

I just started and that is my setup, with the addition that after Toolhead 1 I run them through the Dillon Swager, then vibra-clean with (relatively) clean corn cobb media to get the Dillon case lube off. On Toolhead 2 I run the decapping pin through (prior to priming) and found a surprising number of granules of corn cobb that got pushed out of the pimer picket and fell into the "old primer" catcher. I'm glad to hear that the deburring isn't necessary for practice ammo, as that was the most tedious and painful part.

"Look what I found in my lap!!!"

Linda, can you adjust his score accordingly? Now, seriously, are any of you guys taking pics / videos?

Question about the removal of the mag safety...I was told that dry firing the Mark III (any rimfire, for that matter) was especially hard on whatever-you-call-it-instead-of-a-firing-pin. Any truth to that?

Well, I know at least one of the revolver shooters and I can tell you that he has no class! J/K, Paul...you are defintely a class act!

I don't have a problem with him carrying, if he hadn't had a ND. Wasn't our current government formed by people that chose to break the laws of the previous government because they believed them to be wrong? If, in the not too distant future, our current government decides that we should not be armed, will you turn in all of your guns, knives, and baseball bats because "it's the law"?

As a shooter, your most important job is...see what is happening. A goal of practice should not be...to make yourself do something, but rather to learn what you can do. Whatever you are trying...will get in the way of seeing what you can accomplish.

Wow! I didn't know it was possible to resize .40 cases to .357 Sig. I liked the .357 Sig rounds that I have shot but never considered it because of the cost/scarcity of cases. Now, hmmm....

I rented a Bobcat this weekend to do some work to the backyard as well as finish the trail/track around the house. When I went to pick it up, the guy told me that it was 6500 lbs, so not to try to use the ramps to load it on the trailer I borrowed from a friend. He set the bucket on the trailer, lifted the front of the Bobcat, then drove forward while bringing the bucket back until the tracks got to the edge of the trailer. Once there he raised the bucket and drove it up onto the trailer. After 10 hours of running it around the yard and woods I was able to do the same thing to get it back on the trailer. What I did in 10 hours of run time could have been done in 2 hours by the guy in the video (or any other capable operator).

Cool! Thanks, guys!