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I couldn't believe my first squib either. I was even more shocked by having 2 more squibs from the same batch of ammo...and kind of pissed after pulling the rest of the batch (110 of 200) and finding a full charge of clays in every one of them. I was having considerable difficulty with the priming system on my RL550B during that batch, and kept having to stop to deal with non-primed cases...but I didn't think I'd let any uncharged ones through.

Check your barrel for a bulge. I wonder if you had a squib and got away with firing another shot (much higher pressure due to 2 bullets) and the case failed, but the barrel cleared without flying apart. Lead is softer than jacketed ammo, so maybe the two bullets managed to slide down the barrel? Was the metal you pulled from your wounds brass fragments? I had a few squibs recently with .45acp (still not sure exactly what happened) and with those, with hearing protection on, just a primer going off is nothing more than a "click". The first time it happened, I assumed it was just a failure to ignite...until I racked the slide and an empty case fell out.

For those who are using RX inserts, what type of lenses did you have put in the inserts? The optometrist I'm using insisted on polycarb (because they're sports/safety glasses, and reasoning that polycarb will be thinner than cr39), which I thought was silly since the insert sits behind a protective lens. With the inserts in place, do you feel like your eye lashes are hitting the lenses? I guess I may have to have things adjusted a bit so the glasses don't sit quite as close to my eyes.

I mostly shoot 124gr 9mm. 124gr FMJ from PD are $84/1000 delivered. So...loading 1000 rounds, figure $84 for the bullets (more for 147s, less for 115s), $30 for the primers, $12 for the powder, $0 for the brass you pick up at the range, so $126 total. Last I looked, Win value packs at walmart were about $23 for 100 rounds (plus tax). So that's $24 and change for 100 rounds vs $12.60 for 100 rounds. Nearly 50% off. If you don't have access to a range where other shooters leave you free brass, you may have to buy brass, but if you buy wisely, you can get mostly once fired brass for around $30/1000 and re-use it enough times that the cost amortizes out to almost nothing...unless all your shooting is lost-brass events. I just checked Natchez though, and see they have several brands of factory ammo on sale...so you can get a case (1000 rounds of) Federal for (to me) $213 delivered (Blazer aluminum is even cheaper). That's probably a better deal than Walmart Winchester value packs...but still quite a bit more $ than it costs me to reload 9mm...and I'm using heavier bullets and getting less recoil.

A bit cheaper? If you can't load jacketed 9mm bullets for about 50% off commercial ammo prices, you're doing something wrong.

I'm guessing he doesn't reload yet, but is planning ahead, so he wants to make sure his factory ammo has good brass for when he does start reloading it. Of the above, Win and Federal would be my first choices. Speer is probably fine too. I wouldn't recommend S&B. My only real experience with Aguila is in .30 carbine...where their factory stuff is underpowered, not terribly accurate, and some of the brass doesn't survive the first shooting, much less reloading.

WCC and some of the European stuff.

Torogi, thanks for that discount code. My Magsters arrived today. The deal with the rx insert being free or not was that if I had ordered the rx insert filled with my rx, the insert would have been free, but Rudy Project's web site isn't compatible with my rx...so I couldn't. I could have taken advantage of their current 2-for-1 promotion, but it would have required ordering the Magster I wanted with a total of 3 different pairs of lenses, and I kind of doubt I'll use more than the two I ended up getting using the discount code, coming in a few $ cheaper than using the 2-for-1 promo. Now, I just have to get the rx insert filled and fitted to the frame. The instructions talk about bending it to fit the frame...and I tried a little, but was afraid of breaking it, so I figured I'd wait and let the shop do it. I have some concerns about the eye exam I got last week...so I may let the local RP dealer shop do another eye exam before having them fill the insert...so they're going to be making some $. I've only tested them indoors for a few minutes without the insert, but they seem quite secure, comfortable, and fit well with Dillon HP-1's. I should have done this years ago. I ended up ordering the "Magster Matte Black Frame With Impactx Polarphoto Grey Lenses", rx insert, and a set of transparent lenses...which is what I suspect I'll use most. Ordered it yesterday, and it was waiting for me when I got home from work today...shipped for free...and free return shipping if I don't like them...which doesn't seem likely at this point.

Obviously anything steel, aluminum, or berdan primed. AMERC is usually considered trash. S&B opinions are mixed. Win, RP, FC are all plentiful and fine.

Ah...I see that now. I think I'm going to call them tomorrow anyway. Their web site is confusing me. Depending on how I put together the order, it tells me the rx insert is currently free...or not. What lenses are recommended for the Magster, for both indoor and outdoor shooting? I'm still thinking I should get clear and maybe something else...like a laser black or one of their dark polarized lenses, but yellow used to also be common for shooting...not that I see such an option for the Magster.

I don't see any place in the e-rudy.com order process where you can put in a discount code. I do see that there's apparently some kind of promotion right now, where the rx insert is free. I'm going to call the optical shop tomorrow and see if they're able to order them for me and get that promotion.

Do you really want photochromic/transitions lenses for shooting? Everything I've read is that you really shouldn't use "sun glasses" for shooting because more closed down your pupils are, the greater your depth of field is (easier to keep the sights and targets as clear as possible). The advantage to the interchangeable lens system and rx insert, is that I could try a set of photochromic's and if I don't like them for shooting, I'm only out somewhere around $100 rather than several hundred $.

I agree with Skydiver, I ended up with Magster's with RX inserts. I really didn't have anyone's to try on so I called Rudy and I had 5 shipped to me to try on and kept 2 then returned the other three. It turns out, I have a local optical shop that's a Rudy Project dealer, so I went there today...and was disappointed to find they don't have any Magsters in stock. I did try on and handle a similar model, but was concerned that the ear pieces were kind of high profile. With the Magster, do the ear pieces get in the way of wearing ear muff hearing protection? I really wanted to avoid double lenses (rx insert), but if I'm going to blow a fortune on a pair of glasses, I like the idea of comparatively inexpensive interchangeable outer lenses. I figure I'd probably order the Magster with a set of clear, and either the laser black or smoke. I suspect for shooting, I'd generally want them to be clear...but with the other lenses, I'd also have a pair of "sport sunglasses". I mentioned my little incident, and the woman helping me said they have a client who she thought used to be a Rudy Project spokesperson, and that he'd bring his pistol in to try out when they did work for him...so at least I know they're gun-friendly.

Wow...I can't imagine loading without that paper clip in station one. Just tonight I was loading some 9mm, and must have had the paper clip adjusted just a little loose. I had a case where the priming stroke just didn't feel right. I stopped, pulled it out, and the primer was obviously not fully seated. Put it back in, pushed on the handle, pulled out the case...no change. Put it back, pushed harder...finally there was a loud pop, the case flew out of the shell plate, the case in station 2 jumped enough that it lost 1gr of its powder charge. My first assumption was, I'd managed to set off the primer. Looking at it, that doesn't seem to be the case. I did apparently shear off part of the case rim. I don't know if it was the clip being too loose, or if there was something wrong with this case. The primer does look fully seated now...but the case is in my collection of misfit primed/junk brass now. I haven't decided yet whether to try depriming such cases, put them in the trash, or put them in a gun (without powder or bullet) and fire the primers.

I mail ordered a set of ESS ICE years ago, with the rx insert, but they seemed so flimsy to me, I returned them. I'm also not crazy about dual layers of lenses. It seems like it just increases glare and aberration.

At a recent pin match, I was hit in the face with my own 230gr JHP (I picked it up and just weighed it, it didn't even lose a grain bouncing off the pin it hit). It scared the crap out of me. It hurt. It bled. But, I was really lucky. I always wear glasses to shoot (because I need them to see down range), but these are just my every day glasses. They don't give me the sort of eye coverage I'd like, and AFAIK, the lenses are plastic, and I have no idea how they'd have handled the impact. Additionally, since I haven't had an eye exam since Clinton was president, I've decided it's time to get my prescription updated and get a few new pairs of glasses. For shooting, I think I'd really like something with lenses that have a bit of curve to them such that they really cover the eye socket. Pretty much all the ones I've seen in this style are sun glasses (some of which can be Rx'd). AFAIK, I really don't want sun glasses. Even for outdoor shooting, isn't it better to let the pupils close down as much as possible (improving depth of field)? I've checked out a few optical shops recently, and the first frame I saw that caught my eye was a Callaway Mag 101, but I'm not sure if those are even available as anything but sun glasses. I did verify that they can be Rx'd. So...what I'm looking for is better coverage/protection than every day glasses, but they also have to be comfortable and compatible with wearing ear muff hearing protection. Last time I looked, Oakley had some frames I liked, but they generally had very fat/contoured temples, which might interfere with muffs.

I got nasty smoke from Universal Clays with BBI moly bullets. I'd recommend trying about 4gr WST instead. You may need a few tenths more than that to make PF. Especially when loading strange bullets, you really should have and use a chronograph.

As I suspected, that next size up bin (longer and deeper) really doesn't fit the 550 strong mount as a finished cartridge bin. The back/bottom edge of the bin needs to be where the strong mount is...so you can hang one there, but it'll be canted up a bit.

Not really. I was curious, as I have both small primer and large primer .45 brass and 3 different brands of LPP (CCI which is what I normally buy, Magtech, and Wolf). I did several batches of .45acp 230gr Zero JHP (1.234" COAL) with 4.4gr WST and the various mentioned primers. These were all loaded in the same session...so the powder charges were as consistent as can be. Wolf: 690.6-762.7 725avg Magtech: 711.1-745.1 725avg CCI LP: 668.1-711.6 700.3avg CCI SP: 654.2-707.1 682.5avg So, depending on the actual primers you use, you may lose 20-40fps. If you're loading light and just making PF, that could take you to minor.

The guy is apparently brand new to reloading, plans to shoot 147gr 9mm minor, and people are suggesting Clays?

Well, I guess I'll be calling them tomorrow. They screwed up my second order, and what should have been (and says on the packing slip) larger stack and hang bins are actually some kind of nesting bins that don't have any sort of hanging lip. I can't even find this product on their web site...but it's definitely not what I ordered.

My first order of bins arrived today. There are some subtle differences between these and the Akro ones Dillon ships, but they are so similar, if I were Akro, and I didn't make these, I'd be looking at suing for patent infringement. They certainly seem to be Dillon-compatible. The blue is a darker shade that doesn't match "Dillon blue" After looking at the press again, I just went ahead and ordered some of the deeper/longer ones, thinking they may actually fit and allow for longer reloading sessions without having to empty/replace the finished bin. The $1 shipping deal is apparently still active.

I typically adjust shell plate tightness by tightening the shell plate bolt all the way down, then back it off roughly 90* (1 quarter turn).

I prepped my first batch of .223 (all WCC) brass today. This was stuff I lubed a couple weeks ago with Dillon lube and had left in a ziplock. At the time, I couldn't continue, because I had a bad shell plate. Today, I was curious if it'd need to be re-lubed, but figured the lube couldn't have gone anywhere, and it resized without any trouble. I did the size/decap, primer pocket swage with the SS600, and trim on my Lyman power trimmer. I think I had a similar problem with the SS600. Some of the cases just didn't want to go all the way down into the swager. They were hitting the backup plate and had to be wiggled a bit. I think they either weren't fully seating on the locator rod, or were riding up on it a bit while rotating down. I don't recall having this trouble swaging .30 carbine. I haven't loaded any .223 yet, but I found I had similar problems to the OP when I did some .30 carbine. You have to slow down a bit with rifle compared to pistol...and it's important that the shell plate be as tight as it can be without binding. The station I remember having the most trouble with was the powder drop...making sure the funnel landed inside the case mouth...stopping fast if it didn't.

Moly ) doesn't get along with all guns/barrels. ) can be messier to load than jacketed ) can be nasty smoky compared to jacketed, depending on powder used ) is a bit more difficult to load properly (requiring more flare and less crimp) The only time I shoot moly is when jacketed ammo is forbidden.