njl

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.

It looked to me like the depth of the bin and the slope of the strong mount would interfere, with the bottom back edge of the bin and the side of the strong mount needing to occupy the same space. The empty brass bin wouldn't be a problem...but it just didn't seem like the deeper finished cartridge bin would work. Do the 1050 bins fit an RL550B on strong mount (as a finished cartridge bin) with the bin canted up a bit?

I was tempted to buy a few of the next size up akro bins from what Dillon shipped with my RL550B...but after some examination, it looks like the extra inch of depth isn't going to work on the finished cartridge bin on the side of the strong mount. Still...it is tempting to order a few replacement/additional 3" x 4-1/8" x 7-3/8" bins, which I believe are the same ones Dillon uses for the 650/550, at a much better price...and only $1 for shipping. I'd be tempted still to go with the bigger ones for bullet storage, but I generally keep bullets in their original shipping boxes.

I like PD's 124JHP better than MG's...but I'm not convinced either is "better" than MG 124gr CMJ or PD 124 FMJ.

Switch to WST. It shoots much like clays, but has way more room at the top end and can be loaded to major PF without going beyond max.

By slider, do you mean the primer slide, or the primer track bearing that sits under the primer slide?

The instructions for the press don't say anything about lubricating the primer slide. They only say to periodically wipe it with rubbing alcohol to remove decapping residue. Last night, after my squib, I decided to load some more ammo. Since I have some lost brass (GSSF) matches coming up, I figured I may as well switch back to LP .45 brass, since that's what most easily replaced with free range pickup brass. So that meant converting the press back from SP to LP. In the process, I cleaned the primer track bearing, and then decided to hit it with a quick burst of Hornady Oneshot case lube. I did that with it sitting on a paper towel. Then, after putting the primer system together, I used that paper towel that had some HOS overspray and gave the expander portion of the powder funnel a good rub down with it. On my 20th cartridge, the primer slide failed to pick up a primer, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to know if it was due to incomplete travel or if one just failed to drop. The first 19 and next 180 rounds loaded without any problems. The funnel sticking in the brass issue was completely gone. Now, I have no idea if the HOS on the expander helped or if it was just due to my using different brass. This LP brass was mixed stamp (bought here from the same guy I got the .45 SP brass from). I'd tumbled it pretty much the same way as the SP brass, but this stuff then sat in an open box in the garage for a couple months. Normally, I store clean brass in sealed plastic containers (washed out juice jugs), but I'd run out of suitable jugs and just dumped this stuff, after tumbling, into a clean cardboard box. It's "clean", but much dirtier than the SP stuff. Just grabbing several handfuls of it to bring inside, my fingers picked up lots of grey residue. I wonder if this dust left over from tumbling (and not the HOS) is why the powder funnel wasn't sticking at all for this batch? I guess next time I load some SP brass, I'll see if HOS on the primer track bearing helps with that setup...or it'll be time to call Dillon and see about getting some replacement parts.

Well, I think I can blame the problems I had the other night for my first squib. I was already having kind of a bad day today, and it happened during a match, so I'm a little cloudy on exactly what happened...but I was shooting a stage, and after a few bangs, I got a click. I paused for a second, racked the slide, expecting a dud round to fall out. Instead, what fell out was a very sooty piece of brass, and some flakes. I couldn't tell if it was burned powder or unburned. I think at this point, I let the slide go, and it failed to chamber a round. At that point, I dropped the mag, cleared the gun, did a quick field strip, and saw a bullet maybe just outside the chamber, lodged in the barrel. An over-enthusiastic fellow shooter whipped out his squib rod and had the bullet removed before I knew he'd even made the attempt (I'd gone back to the firing position to retrieve the sooty piece of brass). I knew the other night that at one point while trying to remedy the issues I was having, I'd removed the powder failsafe rod and forgotten to put it back in, resulting in what I thought was 2 undercharged rounds, one in station 2, one in station 3. I pulled the bullet from the station 3 one, and dumped the powder from the station 2 one on the scale and found it to be 3gr. I eventually reused these two primed cases, putting one back in on station 2, the other went back to station 1 for resizing with the decapper removed. Is 3gr Clays under a 230gr JHP undercharged enough to cause this? Based on what fell out when I racked the slide after the click, I really don't think it was a powderless cartridge. It sucks...other than the squib, this load shot really well...and after the squib, I was a little spooked. Anytime the report from a shot sounded at all different, I started to wonder did I just have another squib? Fortunately, I was shooting pins, so some quick logic convinced me that a falling pin = not a squib.

I guess I should have mentioned, I reload indoors, in AC...so it's not like humidity/rust should be issues. I think I have the newer style primer slides (press was bought new 3 years ago) that are hollow down the bottom/middle. The bell I'm putting on these cases is pretty minimal. Right now, I'm loading Zero 230gr JHP. They have a relatively squared off bottom edge, not the sort of rounded edge you find on most FMJ, so they need a bit more flare than FMJ. I'm doing just enough to get the bullets inside the case neck, and have them stay put while I raise the ram. Does the primer track bearing just need to be replaced (or resurfaced) every so often?

I've been loading (mostly pistol) on my RL550B for about 3 years now, I think, somewhere between 5k and 10k rounds...so I'm not a total noob...but lately, I've been loading some small primer 45acp using mixed (Win, Federal, Speer) once or more fired brass. I can't remember if I used walnut or corn cob for tumbling this batch, but it was one of those two, with cut up used bounce sheets. Anyway...the two problems are, the powder funnel is really sticking in some of the brass, to the point that the upstroke (until the funnel is released by the brass) is way harder than the downstroke, and I keep having problems with the primer slide not picking up primers because it's not getting full travel. A third issue I just remembered is that every so often, something is binding and not wanting me to quite lower the ram all the way. I know the powder funnel can get stuck in new brass, or brass that's "too clean", but this stuff is neither. I know rubbing the funnel down with a scotchbrite pad can help...and have done that...but it didn't make much difference. I'm starting to wonder if either lubing the funnel or inside case necks is worth trying (or safe to try)? Is there anything else that can be done/tried to reduce the brass getting stuck on the funnel? The primer slide, I'm starting to worry is a lost cause. I've had to take it apart for cleaning every hundred rounds or so lately. I think the problem is that so much crud is released during decapping and gets everywhere, that the bottom front area of the primer slide and the corresponding surface on the primer track bearing have visible pitting that lines up (I assume from decapping residue getting between them), and the pitting is deep enough that a bunch of rubbing by hand with a scotchbrite doesn't smooth them out. Even after these surfaces have been freshly cleaned (wipe down with a paper towel soaked with 90% isopropyl, scotchbrite, then the isopropyl paper towel again), the primer slide doesn't move smoothly. I've heard of people lubing this area with graphite powder (lock lube), and tried that, but I don't think it helped at all. Is there anything else that can be done in this area...or is it time to either use something more aggressive than a scotchbrite pad to really smooth out the surfaces, or bug Dillon support for some replacement parts? The press binding up, I haven't quite figured out. A few times, I've found that it was a spent primer that missed the cup and landed somewhere it shouldn't have on the press (interfering with movement of the primer slide). A few times, it's seemed more like it was the little trap door thing that catches the primers (or doesn't...that problem's been worse recently too), and I wonder if its time to replace the paper clip section I put in there when the original pin bent. Last night, I noticed a couple of times, the trap door wasn't closing on the upstroke...so spent primers would just fall right through.

Start a jug of WTF powder, to be used only for non-reloading purposes.

I just got my first .224 bullets, so I figured I'd do some .223 brass prep and maybe even load some. I sort my brass, and this batch is all Winchester (WCC), probably from a case of Q3131A I bought/shot long ago. They don't seem to fit my #3 shell plate. Occasionally, I'll find one case that relatively easily slides in, but the vast majority are such a tight fit, I have to really fight to get them in/out of the shell plate or just flat out can't get them in. The ones that are borderline, go into one of the 4 shell plate positions easier than the other 3 (if they'll go into those at all). Is this something that happens from time to time, and I'll need to contact Dillon about swapping out the shell plate (or maybe they'll suggest I do some minor sanding?)? I see some people use the 9mm shell plate for .223, but that it's not necessarily recommended by Dillon (or Brian).

That's what I've been doing for .30 carbine, but I've found that tiny bits of corn cob can get stuck to the walls of the primer pocket. The universal decapper doesn't help with those...so I've been considering removing the decapper from my sizing die and not decapping until I get to the loading setup.

What kind of error could even cause that though? Also, when dumping a pickup tube of primers into the magazine, what do you do to get the last one (still caught in the pickup) to drop through? I've always used the primer mag follower to gently push it through...but should you instead use something (fingernail?) to gently spread the pickup until the primer just falls through?

I didn't see that this got any mention here. It spawned a thread on GT. I'm curious what people think happened and what the odds are of anyone else having something like this happen without seriously mis-handling primers? Should we all be wearing heavy leather work gloves when handling the primer pickup tubes? http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=495909

Common setup for any rifle loading is one tool head for prep, and a separate one for loading. If you plan to use a Dillon trimmer, you'd resize and trim with one tool head, charge, seat, and crimp with the other. One thing I wonder...since you have to lube before resizing, and generally tumble the lube off before loading, how many remove the decapping pin from the sizing die, and use a universal decapper in the loading tool head (to avoid issues with media in the primer pocket)?

Zero's appear to be the most expensive too (at least between Zero, PD, and MG), at well over $100/1000 regardless of weight from shooter's connection. I see PD offers 100 count sample packs. Anyone have recommendations for/against their 147gr FMJ or FMJ-TC? I'd be shooting them from a selection of 9mm Glocks.

I've tried the following 9mm bullets: PD 124gr FMJ PD 124gr JHP MG 124gr CMJ MG 124gr JHP X-Treme 147gr plated Speer 147gr GDHP The Speers work great, but unless you find a deal on them, too expensive for regular shooting ammo. I like the PD 124gr JHP too. I think the MG 124gr CMJ is probably the best for accuracy in my guns and the most versatile (can be used on paper, steel, and polymer targets). I'd love to swap a hundred or two MG 124gr JHP or X-Treme 147gr bullets for some PD or MG 147gr FMJ/CMJ to try them out without buying 1-3k of them. Anyone interested?

I'm wanting to get a little more FPS than I'm comfortable trying to squeeze out of Universal or WST with these X-Treme 147gr plated bullets. I know I can get a pound of WSF locally...and maybe Longshot as well. According to Hodgdon's data, Longshot seems to more easily get higher velocity with 147gr bullets. I'm looking to keep this a reasonably soft load (or there's no point, and I'll go back to loading 124gr MG or PD), but want it up around at least 930fps. Is either of these powders better than the other for this load? If I were to use these with moly coated lead (Precision, BBI, etc.), is either less smokey than the other?

If you want low end / soft .45acp, Universal clays is a poor choice. WST is what I'd recommend.

Who makes 130gr FMJ bullets?