belus

I've not yet bent a swage rod, though I've read of that happening. The press is automated so I won't be able to feel if a primer pulls back. If I could get a couple chances to decap before the swage station I would feel more comfortable swaging while processing. As it is, I swage when I load. Drilling another hole for decapping would be pretty straight forward so I'm not worried about that.

I have a 1050 dedicated to brass processing which I run with two universal decaping dies. Unfortunately that limits my ability to swage while processing brass. Has anyone attempted to reverse the direction a 1050 indexes? That would put the swage station at the end of the process like the option on the CP2000. It doesn't seem hard to flip the casefeed shuttle over, or build a cartridge kicker for station 2. The primer plunger could become a sensor for primer sizes too. There's probably more than just flipping the index arm/paw. But it seems plausible when looking that press torn down.

Texas has a lot of hidden taxes, especially county property taxes. Depending on how much you plan to put into a house and your salary it can be a higher tax burden than states with income taxes. I moved from Harris County Texas to Pima County Arizona recently for a slight pay raise. We gained a ~2% state income tax burden but lost ~2% of our property tax burden and since I make less than our house is worth, we have more to save every month. We also don't have to worry about power outages caused by a stubborn legislature with poor foresight, hopefully.

I have two different processes for 9mm vs 40sw at the moment, but soon they'll be the same. 9mm gets deprimed before cleaning and then resized + swaged during loading. 40sw gets cleaned and then deprimed + sized before loading. It's a consequence of wanting a dedicated depriming setup, and finding our that 9mm runs pretty reliably on a 40sw 1050, as long as you don't need to swage. Now that I've moved to Arizona from Houston, I plan to take advantage of the low humidity to wet tumble brass before depriming because I can air dry it. I wasn't willing to wet tumble in Houston because it would take too long to dry naturally and I didn't want to buy a dehumidifier.

I process 9mm on a 1050 set up for 40sw with two decapping dies, no swage rod, and no 9mm sizing dies. The far side of the tool head has a Dillon 40sw die and a Lee U-die in 40. The 9mm passes through unaffected, while 40sw gets resized making the 550 I use to load 40sw very smooth. This lets me process 9mm or 40sw without changing anything about the press. But it won't process a mixed batch of brass because the cases nest. During loading I use a 1050 set up for 9mm and size in station 2 with a Dillon die, and use a Lee U-die as my swage backer in station 3. I haven't seen a need for a primer backing die though I find them interesting. I tried simply turning the Lee decapping stem up side down, but the collet doesn't provide enough resistance to the swage rod and slips. It's currently running without a rod in the center and it's okay, but I worry it might be stressing the shell plate. I plan to make a backing rod that fits in the Lee 1/8-NPT threaded hole in the top of the die. eta: You might be able to file a circular groove in the Lee decapping stem to run it up side down. The collet could sit on the small shelf you made to resist the swage rod.

Why four? I can understand having a 550 for each primer size, but its so quick to swap tool heads I don't know why you'd opt for more. I load 38/357 on a 550 because it's not one of high volume cartridges. My wife expressed an interest in SASS this week though, so maybe the next few years will see a shift. I think the 550 is the best value press out there if you load a variety of cartridges, or want to include rifle rounds. If you only load 1-2 then I can see looking at the 5-station presses or a 1050/1100.

I think this is true too. After about 10k rounds on the S2 I went back to a run of the mill 75 Shadow. The gun that everyone was excited about in ~2010 after the SP01 Shadow was dominating IPSC due to mag capacity gaming. I might be slightly more accurate with the S2, but I enjoy the older design more. For what it's worth, I lent a S2 and 75 Shadow, both of which had been through the CZC treatment, to a local B-Production Glock shooter when he was considering a switch. He didn't see enough in them to justify changing platforms. He practices more than I do and is now shooting better than me with his Glock. That's what really makes the difference.

I switched to them from Loks while shooting in hot and humid Houston. The Loks weren't bad by any means, but I wanted something with a flat side. I find Scales give really excellent grip, but it is counter intuitive. The open pockets are really big and that lets the flesh of your hand flow into them which feels really secure to me. When I finish a stage I can see the waffle clearly in my hands. Before the 2.0 update they were apparently a little slipperier and some people would epoxy grit to them, but now there are small raised numbs that that are supposed to provide the same effect. When you lightly brush against them they don't scrape you, nor do they catch and hold onto fabric. If they weren't cut all the way through I'd want them for carry as well, but as it is I don't want lint getting inside the gun.

I might be one of the rare cases that shot an S2 for about 10k rounds and then went back to the 75 (not the SP01). All the Shadows (S2, SP01, or 75 flavor) can be tuned to the same quality triggers though the Shadow 2 has a bit of head start. But let the 34 take you to B class before you buy anything new. You'll have much more experience to judge your options. I was shooting regularly with a guy running a G17 in Texas. He also was curious about CZs, and after lending him a variety from CZC, he decided to stick with his Glock. He still beats me with it half the time. A Dillon 550 on the other hand, that might be a good $600 investment to lower your overall cost of shooting.

I have large palms relative to the length of my fingers. I shot about 10k using Lok Palm Swells, and generally like them. But I also wanted something a little less cylindrical and coke-bottle shaped. Someone on here sold me a pair of SSI Scales 2.0 cheap to try and I really look to them. Now all my full size CZs have them. They're wide through your bottom three fingers for lots of grip area, but narrow around your trigger finger for reach.

I've used Ohaus scales / balances in a couple different laboratories. They're good quality. Not as full featured as Mettler Toledo, but cheaper.

A new job has finally brought me back to AZ. Temperature went over 110F this week in Tucson and I don't resent it at all. Our offer on a house was accepted and we're putting down roots with my young family. I previously lived about a decade in the Phoenix area and while I liked the state and being able to get out into the wilderness easily, I didn't really like the city. Tried living in Houston, Texas the last four years, and while the extra diversity of people was great, it was hard to get into nature. SE Texas is big and has space, but they don't really get the concept of public land. Too much is private property and there are fences everywhere. I think I'll miss hearing so much Tagalog at matches though. So I'm happy to be back and settling just north of Tucson. My wife, a native Texan from Houston, is beginning to fall in love with the desert too: we see a lot more wildlife here. Probably won't be making it to matches until late August, but I'm looking forward to reviving the hobby.

I agree with everything @George16 is saying. I have also sold my fully upgrade 650 to go to an automated 1050/550 setup. With the case feeder and bullet feeder there isn't really a speed difference between the 1050 and 650. The 1050 stays set up for 9mm and I load smaller batches of anything else on the 550. Reloading on an auto indexing press is just necessary work to get to shoot more, but I actually enjoy the hands on craftsmanship and ergonomic efficiency of the 550 when I use it for 200 rounds here or there.

I'm glad I can put a magnet back on my Production belt. It's a nice quality of life item and maybe 2% of the time helps with a mags on table start. I not too concerned about where the pouches and holsters are. I won't pretend that I shoot a level where it's the equipment holding me back. Though I'm also still hoping for a consolidated Lo-Cap division 8M/10m at some point in the future. It'd be nice to shoot a SS against more than 4 other guys on a good day.

Fast and Friendly Brass is another.

I didn't make the years comment but I think you're interpreting it back to front. The back order problem hasn't existed for years. Rather, at their historic production rate it would take years to clear the back orders they have. If the comment originated from inside Dillon, it was likely a comment on the size of the backlog, not an estimate of when orders would be filled. I suspect one of the longest backlogs is for carbide sizing rings for dies, as that's a pretty niche item. Any machine shop can turn a die body. It requires some specialized equipment to press, sinter, and polish the sizing rings, and a bit of experience and know-how to do it in reliably in spec at a decent price. This could be the part that is holding up die deliveries, which we already know to be slow. With respect the beginning of this thread, the 650 primer carousel body is die cast if I remember right. Those dies can be $20-30k, and it could be owned by Dillon or their supplier depending on how they chose to finance the initial capital expense. Their supplier could be overseas, which means it a pretty big task to move the dies to another caster and qualify their parts, all for legacy equipment which is negative margin now, and which might sour your relationship with your original parts supplier. In the 2008 shortages Dillon did expanding their frame casting supply chain to include other aluminum foundries. Some of us have slightly off-colored Dillon blue 550s or 650s from this era. But I think the frames are sand cast which is dead simple compared to die casting.

I've used the Infinity one linked above, the XL Techwell, and the Dawson Ice. My SS guns all have Dawson magwells now as I liked it best of those three. If SS were my main game I would have the Stan Chen Gen2 Magwell installed on my pistols. I might have it installed on one this spring regardless. I think a SS magwell's principal advantage is not in adding width to the opening, but in straightening the magazine should it hit the opening at an off angle. To this end, I want a very deeply blended magwell more than one which is wider than the grips.

Its actually on a whole dedicated press without a primer system. I like being able to dump either 40 or 9mm in the casefeeder and process without changing anything, though you can't process a mixed batch of 9 and 40 this way. And I say process, but it might be better described as expensive automatic decapper. The toolhead has four dies on it: Dillon universal decapping die Lee universal decapping die, with FFB RCBS pin conversion Dillon 40sw sizing die Lee 40sw U-die 9mm sizing and swaging are done while loading. It goes much more smoothly when I know all the brass is primer free. I load 40sw on a 650 or 550 and it takes no effort with the brass already resized.

I use Metalform/Dawson in both an STI and SA single stack 9mm. I like them, but it took a little turning to drop free and it is very difficult to empty a full magazine by hand. They run fine though. I also have a cache of ETMs but haven't used them because it's too difficult to load 10 and I don't have a need to explore more options.

I like a wide gun in spite of relatively short fingers. Having a lot of surface area to grip feels like I have more control. On the S2 I started with Lok Palm Swell Bogies, but had to shave down the right side grip a little so my trigger finger could comfortably reach. I've now switched all my CZs over to the SSI Scales 2.0. I especially like the flat sides more than the egg shape for a consistent index. The big pockets provide a lot of grip without being sharp.

I have a loaded round from the mid 40's. It might be '43. A local guy was shooting it at a match last year and I asked to keep one as a collectable.

If I were your RO at a local match I'd let it slide too, but I'd also warn you about having it for anything larger. I wish we could use a magnet for make ready and show clear in the lo-cap divisions, but the rules aren't written that way. I keep an extra sixth mag pouch at about 5 o'clock on my belt for the barney mag. It doubles as a hanger for my muffs.

I like going places more than I like arriving. I have a couple years to figure out how to rig a side car before my wife and son can go motocamping with me.

These scores used to be hosted by Rio Salado too, but it looks like they've rebuilt their website and I can no longer find an archive. I didn't know Area 2 hosted legacy scores until I used a very narrow Google search. I used to live in AZ so I knew where to look for my old scores.