njl

The only thing that seems to be in really short supply (i.e. out of stock everywhere) is primers. Order your primers and powder together (to save on hazmat fees) now and then worry about where to put the press while you wait for your backordered primers to arrive.

That sounds like you need a longer decapping pin. It should either push the primer out or run through it (preferably the former), no?

.30 carbine isn't a bottleneck. They do look kind of like a longer thinner .38super. My understanding was with carbide, they can be done without lube. I've got a couple of carbines and a couple of cases of Aguila ammo (all from the CMP). I just figured when I used up the Aguila, it'd be much cheaper to reload the brass than buy more ammo.

If you do clean after decapping, I can tell you corn cob from the Wal-Mart pet section is exactly the right size for getting stuck in the primer pockets...at least with large primers. I bought some .45acp brass that was already decapped and cleaned...but I decided it wasn't as clean as my tumbling has been doing, so I threw a batch of it into the tumbler with walnut, corn cob, a bit of turtle wax, and 2 drier sheets cut up (it's a big tumbler). It came out much cleaner, but several pieces had cob stuck in them. The decapper probably would have dealt with it, but I was hand sorting it anyway, so I used a finishing nail to knock the corn cob out of the few that had it stuck.

A friend gave me his old .30 carbine dies. It's an RCBS 3-die set, and from the looks of the cardboard box and paper in it, it's OLD. The dies appear to be: decapper and expander sizer seat & crimp This is a bit confusing, since my RL550b would normally resize/decap/prime in station 1. Are these meant for a turret or single stage press where you would resize first, then decap/bell, then dispense some powder, then seat & crimp? The sizer doesn't appear to be carbide and the generic instructions warn to use a bit of sizing lube. Are these even usable on my 550? I'd planned to just buy a Lee carbide 3-die set and Lee factory crimp die when the time came to start loading for my M1 carbines. Should I continue with this plan?

Seconded. I've only used the Al roller handle, but I can't seem to get the nut tight enough to keep the handle shaft from shifting around. Is there some trick?

I realized that it is possible to remove the pins from the toolhead and pull it out and rotate it to release from the rod. Then the powder can be dumped and the toolhead reinstalled. Thanks. If I understand you correctly, I tried doing this tonight, and found I could only move the tool head maybe half way out before it felt like it was putting too much strain on the failsafe rod to continue. I had to release the bottom end of the failsafe rod in order to get the tool head all the way out. This still seems like a better way to go than what I was doing, as I don't have to mess with the screws or wingnut.

The Glock probably has a much looser chamber and is able to cope with brass that's not been resized to the degree the Trojan needs.

I realized that it is possible to remove the pins from the toolhead and pull it out and rotate it to release from the rod. Then the powder can be dumped and the toolhead reinstalled. Thanks. Doh!...I've been doing it the hard way...undoing the failsafe rod (which requires readjusting the wingnut on reassembly) and loosening the bolts that hold the powder system on the powder die. I'll have to give that a try. I empty the powder hopper every time I finish loading...having seen way too many pictures of presses with badly yellowed or darkened powder hoppers.

I've been reloading 9mm on a 550 using Dillon's dies. I'm getting a buildup of what appears to be brass dust around the shell plate, on the ramp to the finished cartridge tray, and in the finished cartridge tray. I think some of this is even ending up on the bottom of the slide of my guns when I shoot my reloads. Is this buildup normal, or do I have some kind of problem?

I don't see anything about this in the manual, but when it comes time to change back from small to large primer setups, what's the best way to empty the primer magazine? If I remove the early warning buzzer and replace the follower, will all the primers feed through just by working the handle, or will I have to remove the primer assembly and turn it over to dump the last few primers out the top?

I've been tumbling 9mm brass for the past several weeks. I had about 8 years worth of saved up brass (knew I'd start reloading one day). I tried walmart corn cob first and wasn't super impressed with it. Next, I got some of the fine walnut media from harbor freight and that stuff did a much better job. It's what I've used on most of the brass. Yesterday, I decided to try a mix of my old walnut (it's probably done at least 7k rounds) and the corn cob I'd used for a batch or two. I poured them both into the tumbler, added just a bit of turtle wax, and then dumped in about 500 9mm cases I'd picked up at a recent match. Then I did some reloading. I'd meant to give it 2 hours, but because I was busy loading, it ended up getting 4 hours. You almost need sun glasses for looking at this brass. I don't know if it's the mix, or the fact that it's "newer" brass and hasn't sat dirty for years, but my tumbling has never before resulted in such new looking brass. I'm almost tempted to retumble a batch of my walnut tumbled cases in the mix to see if they come out looking like this last batch.

I'm guessing those of you adding mineral spirits to your tumblers don't have Lyman autoflow's. I won't be doing that anymore. I see Lyman sells replacement parts via their web site. New autoflow plugs are $1 + $4 shipping. I wonder if anyone else stocks them and has either more reasonable shipping charges or sells something else...or maybe I'll just order some more plugs when I get around to ordering their case trimmer and other stuff I'll need when I start prepping my 5.56mm brass. Their primer pocket reamer is an awful lot cheaper than a Super Swage 600. If I plan to process my own brass once, and then reuse it as many times as possible, is their tool worth trying rather than shelling out the $ for the SS600...or will I end up buying it eventually? I was tumbling a batch of 9mm yesterday, and when it finished, I noticed the autoflow plug was really deteriorating...I'm guessing because it didn't like mineral spirits. Another odd thing...I guess I may have added a little too much turtle wax and spirits to this batch...some of the brass has gummed up walnut stuck inside it. I've been cleaning those out with a bore brush, and what's really odd is that in a mixed batch of Win, NPA, IMI, S&B, and a few others, the only ones that have had any media stuck to the insides have been the IMI cases. I wonder what about their brass or primer/powder chemicals made them more prone to this than the rest?

Each of those charge weights is an avg of 5-10 throws divided by the number of throws.

Will that function the slide of a standard semi-auto? i.e. no mods done like a reduced weight recoil spring or milled slide to reduce slide mass? Your PF is only about 99.

Do you find that adding the liquid car wax/polish to the tumbler actually acts almost like using case lube? Some of my brass was tumbled with a bit of turtle wax or with turtle wax and mineral spirits. I didn't keep any of the different tumbling method batches separate...but I've found some of my brass is resizing much easier than others.

Any of you guys quoting 'soft loads' have chrony results for them? I'll add in what I'm currently loading...not sure how 'soft' it is, but it is darn close to a minimum load. 124gr Precision Delta FMJ, 4.4gr Universal Clays, seated to about 1.155". Out of my Glock 17, it avgs right about 1080fps. According to the Speer manual, 4.5/5gr is the minimum/maximum load for this bullet weight. According to Hodgdon, I think it's 4.3/4.9gr. I haven't had any functioning problems yet.

Opinions on Universal Clays seem to vary quite a bit. I've seen posts from others saying it's got virtually no flash and is their favorite powder for 9mm. I chose it because I found a good source for it, and read that it was a relatively clean burner suitable for 9mm, .45acp, and 12G, and due to its density and typical charge weight, double charging a 9mm case is impossible. As a first time reloader, I figured that last part was key. I'm definitely going to be loading 9mm and .45 with it. 12G is a possibility, but I don't know if I'll get into reloading shotgun ammo.

I shot my first 4 batches of reloads today. I loaded up 10 each using Precision Delta 124gr FMJ, Universal Clays, CCI 500 primers, Winchester brass, COAL 1.150 - 1.158 (mostly right about 1.156). I mostly used my 17, but I put a few of the weakest ones through the 26 to see if it'd function. Everything worked. I got a bit more velocity than I was expecting. 4.40gr G17 1081fps (19.74 SD), G26 1016fps (30.21 SD) 4.57gr G17 1084fps (17.63 SD) 4.66gr G17 1103fps (15.84 SD) 4.80gr G17 1131fps (18.52 SD) My Speer manual says with a 4" barrel and 124gr bullet, the start/max charges are 4.5/5gr and velocities should be 993/1089fps. Hodgdon's reloading data gives (for a 125gr FMJ) 4.3/4.9gr with expected velocities of 1031/1118fps. I seem to be getting a bit more velocity than either source said to expect. Given the above data, would you load up a test batch at 4.3gr, or just go with the 4.4gr load?

It took nearly a month. IIRC, I ordered on Feb 5, and they arrived Feb 28. I emailed them on the 20th to ask what was up and was told they're just behind and shipping the stuff as fast as they can make them. My order was a mix of 124gr and 230gr.

No. Blazer and Federal American Eagle I've been buying up til now measure 1.150. I have some Fiocchi 147gr that measures anywhere from 1.150 to 1.1585, and it's all run through my Glocks without any trouble. I don't know what the limit is for Glock mags, but it's definitely way over 1.135. Based on Glock's philosophy, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they can handle somewhat over 1.169 just to be sure they can handle any round within the specs or even slightly beyond.

My load manual said to do 1.135 COAL, but also said not to go under the specified COAL. I measured a few of the factory rounds I've been using (Blazer, Federal AmEagle), and they were 1.150...so I decided to go with that. Maybe I should have split the difference?

That does make sense, and I kind of figured that'd be the explanation. I'll have to watch again, but I don't think there was any mention of this or the suggestion to load up the shell plate (I suppose at least stations 1-3) when calibrating the seating die. I guess at the same time, my resizing die probably isn't getting all the way down after the first case is resized, and even the belling and crimp could be a tiny bit off. I didn't have any trouble placing bullets on the shells in station 3, so I guess the powder die is ok as is. I didn't even think to measure the crimp on last night's loads.

When I setup my RL550b, I adjusted each die while a single round went from station to station. I adjusted it for a COAL of 1.150 (9mm, 124gr PD, Win brass). Today, I adjusted the powder measure and loaded up 30 rounds (3 different charges of 10). The first thing I noticed was Dillon shipped my small powder bar adjusted kind of on the high end. >8gr of universal clays in a 9mm case makes a bit of a mess. The second thing I noticed is universal clays is a PITA to clean up off the bench and press. I ended up using rolled up bits of tape to pick up the grains. Anyway, after loading my first 10, I was a little disappointed when I measured them and found they were all around 1.157". I measured my dummies loaded individually while calibrating the other night, and they were still 1.150 and 1.151. I found that if I loaded 1 round at a time, I could maintain 1.150-1.151, but if I used the press as intended, the best I could do (really putting my weight into each downstroke) was 1.154. Is this expected? Also, when throwing a bunch of powder charges (a few to let the adjustment settle, then 5-10 to actually measure the charge being thrown), that case which gets belled 8-14 times seems to get extra belled. Do you use a non-live case for this and figure its going to be your dedicated powder measure case for the caliber being loaded? These first 30 took forever, mostly because I was fighting with the powder measure and cleaning up spilled powder. I see now why some people might buy the deluxe quick change kits.

I just got my Precision Delta 124gr and 230gr bullets and started calibrating things for the 9mm load. My digital caliper says the 124gr bullets are .3535 to .3540 and the 230gr ones are .450. My scale says they're generally just a few tenths of a grain over advertised weight. The diameter concerns me...shouldn't the bullets be about 0.001 wider? Maybe I should disassemble one or two factory loads and measure Speer and Federal bullets to see if they come up with similar widths? If I stick to brass cased stuff, is it ok to reassemble a factory load from its original components on my press?