njl

In my tests with the J&M coating the bullet is completely molten and the coating becomes nothing more than a bag of molten lead before it runs out. The blob on the right was an uncoated bullet, heated the bottom of the plate they were on with a torch until the uncoated bullet began to melt. If my method coated better inside the grease ring I bet it wouldn't have leaked out where it did. A hot plate is a much slower heat than a charge of smokeless powder being lit.

Is this another bullet maker using the coating popularized by Bayou? They're not really clear about it on their web site.

Does anyone else find the Bayou bullets are so slick, they can be more difficult than others to pick up from the bullet tray while loading?

Is there a promo code for SNS other than the volume discount codes?

Yet another reason to load brass after sorting by headstamp.

PD was rarely fast before things got nuts...but 18 weeks (>4 months) is ridiculous. Of course Roze Dist hasn't had any of my bullets in stock for ordering on their web site for quite some time too...so I may be forced to find a new favorite .45 bullet when I run out of my cache of 185gr JHPs from PD and Zero. Montana Gold has them in stock...but they're the most expensive. Who else is there for bulk jacketed (not plated) pistol bullets besides PD, MG, and Zero?

Depending on the bullets involved, Universal Clays, WST, or even Longshot...though LS is what I've used the least.

Canman...couple of questions for you. First, how's the replacement track bearing doing? What sort of lube are you using on the bearing? Dry graphite? Grease? Oil? Your primer slide in the video looks heavily polished in the top portion that rides through the primer housing. Did you polish it, or is that just wear from the housing? I'm going to see if a friend can help me make one similar to yours. My existing bearings are: used: 0.055" new: 0.057" According to some googling, 16GA standard steel is 0.0598" thick. Because the track bearing sits between the press and the primer housing / primer slide, if you go just a bit thicker, it's not a problem...the slide and housing just sit a tiny bit higher...and since the cup on the primer slide is what limits the downward travel of the ram, if you can't find an exact thickness match for the original track bearing it's better/safer to go slightly thicker than thinner? Is yours standard steel? You'd think a measurement like gauge would be a constant, but apparently it means different thicknesses for different metals. Galvanized and stainless steels are thicker, and for these, 17GA would be closer to correct. The bearing I just swapped out looked exactly like yours (down to the shiny wear marks on the front), and appears to be just slightly warped, which I'm told happens over time. Did you do anything in particular to ensure flatness of your replacement bearing?

+1. I've got six toolheads today but eventually I'm going to get a second 550 so I can leave one set for small primer and the other for large. I've heard of people doing the multiple press thing so they can have dedicated small and large primer presses...but I'm not sure that makes sense. Swapping out the primer slide and magazine isn't that hard...and the slide needs to be removed from time to time for cleaning anyway. If you want to be able to switch without having to use up the primer magazine (or repackage the primers in it), you could just buy a spare primer housing. The entire housing can be removed / swapped out while full of primers. I load 5 calibers on a 550 and just have dedicated tool heads.

Re: Hodgdon's data, I've found with .45acp, I generally get less FPS than they say I should, and with 9mm, I get more. If you have a recent Speer manual, read the section "Why Ballisticians Get Gray".

Some would say that to work properly, it should destroy the SPP case.

What were the charges and avg velocities of each? Are you saying both were doing 750fps? Did the Precision's take less powder to get to 750?

Is Bayou caught up / accepting orders from new customers again? I'm kind of curious to try some of their 9mm and .38spl bullets.

How were you doing it before when you had squibs? I've always done my powder adjustment using a dedicated set of powder measuring brass. I keep 5 9mm and 5 .45acp cases on the base of the strong mount for this purpose. Those get used for all powder drops when I'm adjusting the measure. Only after I've got it adjusted properly do I start loading with good brass. The powder measuring brass is mostly stuff I wouldn't want to use for reloading. Things like dingy (tumbled, but didn't really clean up well) brass with crimped pockets, AMERC brass, etc.

I kind of doubt that the tool head center hole mounted light helps with viewing the primer slide/cup...but if you mount strips of LEDs next to the tool head and on the vertical portion of the press facing the shell plate, those lower LEDs light up the primer slide/cup very nicely.

That makes sense with multiple explanations. N320 is a much faster powder than WSF. Faster powders tend to produce less perceived recoil than slower powders. You're also using less of it...and less powder for same velocity should produce less recoil. This makes me wonder now though about some loads I've done. I've used mostly Universal for 9mm (124gr and 147gr), but also some WST. WST is a faster powder than Universal (but not as much faster as N320 is than WSF). I have to use a couple tenths of a grain more WST to get the same velocity as Universal with either of the above bullet weights. I guess WST burns faster than Universal, but produces less gas?

The downside to this is it sits in the tool head, and as someone posted a while back, if you forget to remove it before removing the tool head (like to dump out your powder), one of two things is likely to happen. Either you're going to break the wires loose from the light, or the wire is going to act like a short leash, and you're going to spill powder all over the bench when it abruptly stops the tool head from moving away from the press. The LED strips mounted on the press work really well and avoid this issue. Inline sells those. If you're handy, and have some of the necessary parts on-hand, you can build your own for cheap lunch money and have lots of LED strip left over for other projects.

Those Win look like they have large flash holes and pocket crimps. Those are both common for factory brass loaded with non-toxic primers. Has Winchester totally switched over (and stopped marking the brass Win NT)?

Yeah...I've reused some primers too...but it's not something to be done lightly. Actually, lightly is exactly what's called for when doing it.

You can decap a case with a live primer and put that primer into a different case. Theoretically, the primer could "go off" while you try doing this first step...which is why, IIRC, Dillon's instructions say not to try it.

Look at Hodgdon's online load data. Their 147gr Universal data is for a JHP and really short OAL...but they list 3.3gr as max. I'd read about other sources claiming 3.5gr as max. I've gone as far as 3.5gr with 147gr FMJ or X-Treme plated...but as far as I know, you're basically right at (if not beyond) max.

If you had a squib (little or no powder), I would think you'd notice it. I've had a couple, all from one bad run of .45acp, and in each case, it was obvious from lack of "bang" or recoil and manual extraction of a case with no bullet that it was time to stop and clear a squib. Do you really think it's possible you missed that and the resulting next shot, which I assume must have sounded/felt unusual when you sent two bullets downrange at once? Also, if you're using jacketed/plated bullets, why the aftermarket barrel? IIRC, someone posted recently about shooting plated bullets and finding rings of plating in their chamber. I wonder if that could have happened to you? BTW, depending on who's data you believe, 3.6gr Universal and a 147gr bullet is beyond max for jacketed bullets...which would worry me if your 147s are plated.

Assuming you have a modern style powder measure, if you remove the failsafe rod and forget to put it back, you will create rounds with no powder. Short of that, running the powder measure out of powder, or really screwing around with the cases on the press, I'm not sure how you'd make powderless cartridges on a 650.

That sounds like the shop you purchased from sold you a a G34 that was either a law enforcement gun (blue label) or one that wasn't meant to be sold in CA. If they won't provide you with "correct" 10 round mags, you could try contacting Glock in Smyrna, GA. Tell them your story and see if they'll exchange your bubba'd mags for some 10-rounders. Maybe the idea will show them how they can start selling the full product line in NY again. I've heard they won't ship anything but the G36 and G39 to NY currently due to the new 7-round magazine law.

Not enough info. Gauge check some resized brass before doing anything else to it. If resizing isn't the problem, is it possible your're not seating the bullets quite straight, and so you have side bulges? Thick brass and bullets seated too deep? Also, have you run a bunch of factory ammo through your gauge to make sure it's not undersized? Do the rounds that fail to gauge drop into your gun's barrel? What bullets are you having this problem with? What's your finished cartridge neck diameter at the case mouth? i.e. crimping to 0.379" for example.