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Looks like it will finally be available! TCK, LLC the exclusive distributors for LabRadar has recently received the first shipment. These units have all been sold to shooters, forensic centers, law enforcement agencies and writers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Infinition, Inc., the manufacturer of LabRadar anticipates another shipment to TCK in early October. These units will be sold on a first come, first serve basis to individuals and all authorized dealers in the U.S and Canada. You can now complete your pre-order on our website www.buymylabradar.com. Credit cards will not be charged until the units are ready to ship. PayPal payments are charged immediately. Orders from other countries will not be accepted at this time, but sales to other countries will follow soon. Infinition, Inc. will be updating their website www.mylabradar.com soon. All questions should be directed to info@mylabradar.com or 316-866-2525 (8-5, M-F, CST) Best regards, Richard Mouser Exclusive Distributor for LabRadar info@mylabradar.com www.mylabradar.com

Thanks, Paul. That was some much needed info. -Steve

I'd like to know too! To quote the e-mail with the PIN "Competitors will compete on either an AM-PM-AM or PM-AM-PM schedule. The squad schedule will be available at this time as well, to aid you in choosing." Unfortunately, that's about par for the course on communication for this Nationals. -Steve

Bumping this topic back alive. Has there been any progress on the "official" mag measuring procedure? -Steve

If you can find a local machine shop with a tool grinder with a collet holder, it is about a 60 sec job to grind down the stepped diameter on the rod that does case expansion. I did this on my 1050 set up for 40, and I use a Mr. Bulletfeeder powder funnel on the powder drop for expansion. It works slicker than snot. A nice side benefit is that it is much easier to set the back up rod depth, since you can actually feel it contact the case web as you screw it down. Here's a link to what I did on my station 3: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=170159entry1898420

Last night I finally transitioned from one lot of N320 to a new lot (had 16 lbs of each lot). Much to my surprise, on a 20 throw average, the new lot is just a hair over 4% more dense. Thinking I screwed something up in my measurements, I emptied out my Dillon powder throw, put back in the bit of the old lot I had left and re-checked everything. Yup, new is +4%. That seems really high to me, particularly for a powder with N320's reputation. Are my expectations just too high? Also, anyone want to guess what controls velocity as I rework my pet load - volume or mass of powder? -Steve

Step one is to have a rock solid bench. Sounds like you have that taken care of. Step two, I found, is to improve the fit of the feeder to the support tube. IMHO, the case feeder was really designed for the 1050's square support tube and not the 650's round one. Regardless of how tight I ran the set screw, my 650's feeder had some wobble on the pipe. My fix was to cut some thin strips of plastic and superglue them to the support tube. I used a quantity and shaped them until I had a light press fit to the feeder with zero wobble. My set screw is basically along for the ride now. That mod eliminated 99% of my case feeder jams.

So far, I'm really digging the 1050. The first thing I did was pull the pawl off the ratchet and install SPRSkip's casefeed cam. After getting to know the press a bit, I made a custom setup for the swedge station. That's the 40 cal back-up rod/expander on top, and my modified Lee FCD die (with carbide insert only) on the bottom. I parted the back side of the Lee die off in a lathe, and used a surface grinder on the bottom side of the die to reduce the carbide until it only has about a 0.75 mm chamfer left. For what it's worth, that is hard on a typical vitreous grinder stone; several dressings were required. I also had to file a chamfer onto the die locknut to clear the press's lock ring. For the back up rod, I put it in a rotary collet grinder and took down the OD to 0.393". This way it still provides location to a shell if the Lee die isn't there, and it removes the expander function of the part. I'm using a Mr. Bulletfeeder, so I have their special powder funnel for expanding and belling. Another benefit of the reduced diameter, is you can now put a shell in the swedge station, bring down the tool head, and turn the back-up rod die by hand and feel when it contacts the case web. I ran 40 pieces of brass through with a wide variety of head stamps to optimize the back-up rod depth. It was surprising how much variance there is in the location of the case web. The only think I have left to sort is the occasional missed primer. So far, I'm missing about 2 per 1000 rounds loaded. I have some ideas for what to look for from another thread, and will be testing them soon.

OK, I'm convinced. Now where is the check box for the PLC controlled press option?

I case gauge loaded ammo at the end, not empty brass part way through. Once a split brass had a bullet pressed into it, it opens up enough to not fit into a case gauge.

There's just no way I'm going to spend the time with a single stage and a push thru die, unless someone comes up with a case feeder system for those. A roll sizer would be nice. I just wish the wait wasn't so long, and its a chunk of change once you add on another case feeder. Regardless of the method, I'm still going to case gauge 100%. I find it is a very quick and effective way to find split cases without handling and inspecting each one. I'm starting to lean 1050, and am hoping to figure out a way to adapt a sizer die to the swedging station. I'd need to figure out a way to attach the back-up rod to the die in place of a decapping stem.

Quick background: I've been loading on a 650 for four years now, all with a case feeder. I just added on a DAA/Mr. Bulletfeeder and can hit 1500 rds/hr with this setup in 40. Limited is my main deal, and I assembled about 20,000 rounds last year. I expect this quantity to continue to grow. My processing technique is batches of 2500 (what I can fit in my cement mixer). First pass tool head is sizing only with lubed brass. Dillon carbide sizer (no decap pin) in station 1, Lee FCD with no crimper in 4. I used a tool grinder to take the Lee down to just a tiny chamfer, so it would size brass down closer to the shell plate. This operation is pretty quick, at about 400 brass in 10 minutes. I then put the brass back in the mixer to tumble off the lube and load normally. This technique limits my case gauge failure rate to around 4 per thousand on random range brass. I have 2 problems with this setup. 1 - when loading at this rate I get quite a few station 1 jams (brass rocks up when the cam hits it, and the case rim catches on the station 1 locator). Perhaps 2 per 100. 2 - priming happens without a lot of feel, and on cases with minimal primer pocket chamfer (Winchester), I tend to shave or smear primers. In the interest of saving time, I want a 2nd press to dedicate to 40, and then my current 650 will be for my low volume calibers (9, 223 & 357 sig). Would a 1050 work better for me, or will my press stoppage rate be the same? It really needs to be a lot better on the 1050 to justify the nearly 2x cost. The less time I spend loading ammo, the more I have for dry & live fire.

I recall last year the dude at the range gate wouldn't let you in unless you had a parking pass, which you get at registration. Anyone know if that will be different this year? -Steve

On the front label, in the white rectangle where "N 320" is printed, the number in the top right is the lot number. The next number down is the bottle number from that lot, and the last number is either the manufactured or filled date. HTH -Steve

That'll be a bit different feeling gun than his Limcat! Regardless, congrats to KC. -Steve