njl

Semi-wad-cutters? I thought everyone knew subcompact Glock .45's and SWCs just don't feed. I won't even order Bayou's .45 round nose bullets, because I can see the shoulder on them, and fear they won't feed in my Glocks...and I barely ever shoot my 1911.

Interesting. I thought most experienced Glock shooters "shot from reset". i.e. after the first shot, keep the trigger back, release just enough to let it reset, then all subsequent shots have shorter trigger travel. I never thought about the deliberate reset being a time waster...but now that I think about it, I'm not going to disagree. Another unfortunate possibility with shooting from reset which I have experienced is as I try to let the trigger just forward enough to reset, I end up resetting and immediately breaking the trigger before I'd meant to fire that next shot. I've done that a couple of times in matches, and while it's scared me each time, it's not cost me anything, because I was already on-target before letting it reset. I just hadn't mentally committed to firing that next shot...and there it went.

I have no idea what you shoot in single stack. So, these are 230gr FMJ doing about 740fps? That should be enough to function. Are subsequent rounds feeding into the case head of the fired cartridge, or is the slide not cycling completely (and not stripping a round from the mag)? i.e. after you've fired, what's the state of the pistol?

Can you be more specific about the ammo it's having trouble with? My 30SF and 30S (and 21SF) will all run on minor ammo down around 148pf, so I doubt it's that your ammo is "too weak" for the Glock.

It used to be if you were a GSSF member, you got lifetime warranty on all your Glocks (in writing). I don't think they still advertise that...so I'm not sure if it's still offered.

I don't think you'll have any trouble. All of these places seem to use the same 147gr mold. I've run small numbers of Bayou 147gr through my G17 and G34 without any issues so far. I load them to 1.135".

It doesn't matter whether for profit or not, if money changes hands then you're a manufacturer. I don't/won't load for anyone. It's not worth the agro. If you read the answer on the ATF faq, "...selling or distributing reloads for the purpose of livelihood and profit.", clearly they don't have a problem with you selling reloads at cost (just covering expenses), but if you're doing it trying to make $, you need proper licensing. As has been covered, selling reloads to friends and not having suitable insurance is a recipe for ruining friendships and possibly your finances. Its funny though...people who don't reload don't think much of it, but those of us who do are very reluctant to use anyone else's reloads because we know how easy it is to really screw up and how badly things can go if for instance Bob's reloads accidentally substituted Titegroup for H335 in his .223 reloads, or even just used the right powder but a charge suitable for a 115gr 9mm bullet in a 147gr bullet load.

So, how many small primers (not including the one in the base of the case) does it take to make minor PF?

Same idea as aramid yarn. What do you use at each end to tie it off?

The primer residue gumming up the primer slide is a separate issue from the primer catch issue. Even with a properly functioning primer catch, primer residue seems to spill out and end up under/around the primer slide. I'm still using solid copper wire to hold my primer chute. It's been the most reliable/longest lasting solution for me.

I'd edit my original post, but for some reason, this board doesn't seem to permit editing after a certain time limit. I'd assumed Blue Bullets was using Hi-Tek, but in another thread it's been said they're using something else (unknown what...but not Hi-Tek). I just got back from chronographing 147gr Bayou's in my G17 and found 3.4gr Universal Clays works well with them. Previously, I'd tried 3.2 and wasn't happy. I think the lighter load was too light (erratic and low velocity). The 3.4 was consistent and avg'd right about 900fps...and none of the smoke I've gotten with moly coated bullets and Universal. This is good news, because it means I can reserve WST for my .45 loads and keep to using Universal for 9mm and probably .380 if/when I get one of those...and use either jacketed or Hi-Tek coated bullets.

Has anyone found out what coating Blue Bullets use? i.e. is it just a blue version of the Hi-Tek coating Bayou uses, or something different/proprietary?

That's insane...but (for the seller), that's the beauty of auction sites. If more than one person just has to have it, there's no telling how high they'll bid it up. I've had a couple of ebay experiences like this (but not to such a crazy degree) where people bid items up way higher than I'd expected. One was something I was going to throw away, and figured "why not put it on ebay first?"

I'm not a lawyer, and not the ATF...but I think this comes down to whether you're "selling" reloads for profit (i.e. in an attempt to make $) or just trying to cover expenses (break even...and then there's the question of whether you can charge a little something for your time?). The combined legal and liability issues make doing this a pretty bad idea in most cases.

Anyone heard of / tried blackandbluebullets.com? I was googling last night, and found them. They use the Hi-Tek coating. They appear to offer the same 147gr bullet as Bayou and let you pick among several sizing options and maybe a little cheaper. They also have a 180gr .45 RFFP bullet advertised as being for .45LC, but that a reviewer on their site said they loaded some really soft .45acp with for an M&P. I'm curious about trying these in my Glocks at around 800fps.

They're lead, so you'd use lead data.

Anyone know if they plan on offering more sizes in .38/.357? All they have on the web site is 158gr SWC. I'd like to see some lighter options.

That's not necessarily true. If you keep bugging their support people about it (ask for a replacement powder bar...ask them to hand select a "fat one"), they might eventually decide to do something about it to lower support costs.

It really shouldn't be able to do that if it's properly assembled. I've found reinstalling the primer cup on the primer slide to be incredibly difficult to do properly (i.e. not canted). Take it back apart and put it back together again, using the press (with the shell plate between stations) to compress the primer cup spring while tightening the set screw.

I eventually did load several hundred rounds of .30 carbine with H110. I can't remember now which powder bar I used for 14gr...but I don't remember having any trouble with the powder system binding. I need to load some more soon as I've nearly used up what I loaded.

With Montana Gold being $$ and Precision Delta being ............... and my experiences with plated being kind of mixed, I'm looking more at coated bullets. It seems everyone's jumped on this band wagon. There's Precision with their "proprietary dry lube coating", and Bayou, BBI, Blue Bullets, SNS Casting and maybe others I'm not aware of all using the Hi-Tek coating. I'm primarily interested in 9mm (124gr and/or 147gr), .45acp (lighter weights, like 185gr and 200gr), and .38spl (probably just 125gr). I've tried current offerings from Precision and Bayou (though the Bayou's came 2nd hand from another board member). I'm reasonably happy with Precision's bullets. I started off with smaller boxes (500 packs I think), and after trying them out ordered cases. In the cases, I'm finding the occasional bullet that appears to have had its coating damaged (perhaps in shipping). They'll have what looks like a gash in the coating or a chunk of coating stuck to them presumably lost by another bullet. That's really my only complaint with them...maybe about 1% damaged bullets I won't load for my Glocks. The Bayou I have are 147s in small boxes. I've only loaded a few small runs of these to test them. I haven't run into any problems with them yet, but did see that if I don't bell enough or start the bullets straight enough, the brass will cut right through the coating. With jacketed bullets, if the bullet starts off canted a bit, the seating die will generally straighten it out without anything getting damaged. If anyone's tried more than one of the above, I'm curious if you've noticed any notable differences in quality (of the bullets, of the coating, etc.). Are bullets from BBI, Blue, SNS and Bayou pretty much interchangeable?

Actually, Universal works very well for jacketed/plated 9mm, and with 124gr bullets, it's a good beginner's powder as a double charge in the load range for those bullets will make a mess on the shell plate.

I never leave powder in the hopper overnight. You can get a lot of loading done between when the kids go to bed and when you do. I don't think I'd bother trying 15min sessions though. When I load, it's typically more like an hour or two at a time if I'm doing pistol ammo. One thing to consider with the XL650 and kids though, is the case feeder. I have no idea how noisy they are, but it's got to make a racket compared to my hand placing cases in the RL550B. With either of these presses, you could probably load a month's worth of ammo in one or a few nights of reloading after the kids are in bed. The trouble with getting into reloading now is finding suitable powder. If I didn't already have all the stuff and was interested in starting now, I think I'd wait until I actually had some powder to bother buying the press and other related gear.

I don't know why it won't let me edit my last post, but I just realized I said I'd shot Precisions in the 21SF and 30SF in a recent GSSF match. It wasn't the 30SF, but the 30S. I've barely shot the 30SF since I got the 30S.