noylj

Nickel cases? They'll be very hard, expensive, probably brittle, and not very good for reloading. Brass: $1.25/lb scrap price Nickel $3.92/lb Aluminum: $0.69/lb Copper $2.10/lb Lead $0.77/lb So, material price will be just over 3X as high, and equipment will be more costly to process it.

>I just cannot get it to seat and taper crimp without occasionally buckling a case or two God, I wish I could visit some folks and actually SEE what they are doing. Now, MY taper crimp dies do NOT crush cases. They will turn the case mouth into the bullet and damage the bullet, but I have not crushed any cases. Roll crimping will crush a case. Do either the Hornady or RCBS SAY they are taper crimp only? If so, CALL them and have them talk you through adjusting them or ask them to take the dies back and inspect them. Just to be sure we are on the same page, here are my directions for use with all seat/crimp dies that I know of: Turn seating stem all the way UP. Turn the die body lock ring all the way up. Place a sized and expanded/flared case in the shell plate. Raise the ram so the case goes in the die body all the way. With the ram up, screw the die body down until you just feel the crimp section contact the case mouth. Turn the die body up one or two turns so the crimp section is out of the way. Very lightly turn the die body lock ring down to just barely help hold the die body in place. Lower the ram and place a bullet on the case. Raise the ram all the way up. Turn the seating stem down until it contacts the bullet. Lower the ram slightly and turn the seating stem down another one or two turns. Raise the ram. You have now seated the bullet. The COL is not correct, but the bullet is seated. If you know the COL you want, adjust the seating stem until you get your target COL. If you don't know the COL you want, make up two inert dummy cases and adjust the COL until they can be hand cycled from the magazine to fully chambered. With the COL set, turn the seating stem all the way UP. Now, you are going to set the crimp. Check out the cartridge/case drawing in a manual and note the case mouth OD. You want the taper crimp to be somewhere between this dimension and 0.002" smaller. For 9x19, SAAMI shows a loaded cartridge with a case mouth diameter of 0.3800 +0.000/-0.007", so I target 0.378-0.380"for my crimp. All you really want is to remove the casemouqth flare and NOT to actually crimp the case into the bullet. You should be able to pull a seated and crimped bullet and NOT have a mark on the bullet from the case. So, adjust the crimp to the target dimension or until the cartridge passes the plunk test. With the cartridge in the die, turn the die body lock ring down and tighten it. Your crimp is now set. Finally, turn the seating stem down until it just touches the bullet (be careful as you have enough leverage to actually seat the bullet deeper by hand, so only turn the seating stem until it just contacts the bullet). Turn the seating stem lock ring down tight. Your die is now set to seat and crimp and there should be NO crushed cases (unless you try to use a .357 Mag case in a die adjusted for .38 Spl or some other gross mistake. I LOVE the Lee bullet feeder. It is just what I need. I have a problem with very fine muscle control activities, such as placing a little .355" bullet on case straight. I can fiddle with it for minutes. I use the Lee seating dies (often with custom bullet seating plugs) and I hand cycle the bullet from the tube to just under the die. The only problem I see with the Lee bullet feeder is if you use it in AUTO mode (disregarding the whole having to interrupt the loading process to load the bullet tubes), then, when there is no case to pick up the bullet, the bullet will drop to the floor when the next bullet pushes it out. There are fixes (see YouTube) and Lee should use them. However, for me, my manual use is more than adequate and there are no dropped bullets. I had to cut down the bullet feed tubes for my Dillon 1050s as there is no room for the long tubes, but I find that I can easily drop a bullet in the tube while I raise the tool head back up. If the fingers ever lose tension, you can place them in hot water and they'll reset.

No, in fact, you should wash the plastic parts of the powder measure in soapy water and air dry (do NOT rinse off) to keep static down. I really am lost, since you mention RINSING the cases off and folks have been cleaning cases in soapy water, LONG before any one thought to tumble them, without any issue, I just don't understand the question. I have read magazine articles in the '70s about cleaning really dirty brass by placing them in hot soapy water over night, rinsing and drying, and then tumbling them, and I am sure they didn't invent the idea.

Buy the DVD and don't do anything until you've watched it a couple of times. Second time, try to ignore the talking, and watch exactly what the narrator does. He unknowingly does several things to make the job easier without, probably, even realizing he is doing it. Read the manual, if you can follow it. Very thorough and very confusing. Feel like ripping it up and rearranging things to make sense. Work on one thing at a time until you KNOW how that station works.

On one of my 1050s, I have to keep adjusting the primer seating bolt down further and further to keep primers below flush. I figure soon I'll be taking it to Dillon for inspection/repair. Maybe this would save me a bit.

Station 3 does it and Station 5 is adjusted so the measure makes a complete cycle.

>I've been reloading MBC 125 gr SWC and wondered about the effects of the seating depth. I've calculating the OAL at 1.08 and seating depth is ~.287 and wondering at what point I'm wandering into an over-pressurized zone. Never, if you remember to re-work the load if you decrease the COL to the starting load. You should establish the COL first and then work up the load and NOT try to use COL to fine-tune velocity. I load my SWCs so the shoulder almost touches the lede/rifling. 115gn L-SWC like the Penn is loaded to COL of 1.038-0.117" and the rounds chamber in all my 9x19s, even my 1930 era P-08s and WWII P-38s. For H&G #12B 140gn L-SWCs I load 1.050" as the nose is shorter. The SAECO 929 145gn L-SWC at 1.140-1.160" and the Lee 158gn .38 L-SWC at 1.145". PS: in my experience, you always want some shoulder above the case mouth--the key is finding the COL that feeds and chambers BEFORE you start loading rounds.

You could get a real trigger job and NOT have the main spring backed down so much, but at least you know why you have a problem.

If you think AA5 is too slow, than so 20/28 would also be too slow. I hate TG, but for your use, that may be all you have to use.

Do they really test at 25 feet? I always shoot at 25 and 50 yards.

I don't have your accessories, but have you tried installing the powder measure bushing in different positions to avoid the interference? I have seen many folks having problems because they seem to think there is only one position for the measure to be in on the press.

I have three stock 1050s and they run just fine—one being a nickel-wash frame. Only issue has been the case collators, and that is the same as the 650.

Don't know. 9x19, 9x21, and .38 Super all run smoothly for me. All I could say is be sure all the .38 Super parts are installed. If I have a case that the bullet just drops into, it has always been a case with very thin walls and that case gets thrown out. A split only gets larger when a bullet is seated and is very easy to see when you pull the case. You could take the case and re-run it through with no other cases and verify that it is sized properly so bullet doesn't drop in and then check after expanding. If the ID was sized to proper size (well below the bullet diameter) and the expander expands the case ID to the proper ID (about 0.001-0.002" smaller than bullet diameter) and the bullet drops in, then the bullet itself is the wrong diameter and is probably a plated bullet.

I run 0.356-0.357" jacketed and 0.356-0.358" lead bullets. Coated is still lead, so the bullet must still be at least 0.001" over actual groove diameter.

If safety is important, then you use 147gn load data and work up. If you like taking chances, then use 115, 124, and 147 grain data and do a linear interpolation (just don't blame any one if you cause property or personal damage). Bullet Weight Powder Weight Velocity Notes P.F. COL L-TCBB 135 231/HP38 3.5 935 126 1.142 L-RN 135 231/HP38 3.7 969 131 1.150 L-RN 136 231/HP38 4.5 1084 147 Bayou 135 AA2 3.5 917 124 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 3.5 918 124 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 3.7 943 127 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 3.7 944 127 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 3.9 980 132 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 3.9 981 132 1.130-1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 4.1 1004 136 1.150 Bayou 135 AA2 4.1 1014 137 1.150 Bayou 135 N320 3.5 970 131 1.130 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.4 968 131 1.150 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.4 987 133 1.135 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.4 1001 135 1.105 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.6 997 135 1.150 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.6 1033 139 1.105 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.7 1023 138 1.150 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.8 1042 141 1.150 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 3.8 1051 142 1.105 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 4.0 1076 145 1.105 Bayou 135 TiteGroup 4.0 1084 146 1.150 L-RN 136 Unique 4.1 980 133 Bayou 135 WSF 3.7 922 124 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 3.7 931 126 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 3.8 936 126 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 3.8 938 127 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 3.8 0 1.145 Bayou 135 WSF 4.0 979 132 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 4.0 982 133 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 4.0 0 1.145 Bayou 135 WSF 4.2 966 130 1.145 Bayou 135 WSF 4.2 966 130 1.145 Bayou 135 WSF 4.2 1007 136 1.105 Bayou 135 WSF 4.2 0 1.145 Bayou 135 WSF 4.2 0 1.145 Bayou 135 WST 4.0 0 1.145

If cost is negligible, I prefer Montana Gold. Of course, Zero comes first. First choice is the 121gn Zero 38 super JHP, followed by the 125gn 38 super JHP. At least during the last three months, Precision Delta was the best, price-wise, for orders over 2000 bullets.

I KNOW you will be OK. I shoot 0.356-.357" jacketed and 0.357-0.358" lead all the time. Load work-up has always been the same and I have always started at the start load. You may be very surprised how accurate 0.357" bullets are in 9x19.

1) be sure shell plate is tight and will just move smoothly. I don't know if Hornady recommends "cam-over" with the L-N-L AP. 2) measure your bullets and determine the OAL variance of them before you even seat them. You might be very surprised. 3) buy a box of factory ammo or borrow a buddy's and see how factory COL varies. You might be very surprised 3) generally, if you can't SEE the difference, it really makes no difference. 4) shoot them and see if they make any difference. Don't sweat things that don't affect what you are trying to achieve. 5) COL variance is NOT a specific press issue, but very much the nature of ALL progressive presses.

>My guess is they are bouncing up against the case when you whack the hammer on the floor That's it. Unless you put some cushioning in the "hammer," you'll get this every time.

1) Buy the 1050 DVD. 2) If it came with the dies set-up, assume they are set wrong and adjust them individually. 3) The Dillon sizing die does not size down as low as the Lee and Hornady. I much prefer that latter two. 4) Did you work out the correct COL with a couple of dummy rounds or assume the seating die was set correctly? 5) The barrel is what counts. If you want the case gage to be the final arbiter, then do the plunk test with a "painted" round just like one would do with the gun's barrel. You may already know all of this, but: Per Ramshot: "SPECIAL NOTE ON CARTRIDGE OVERALL LENGTH “COL” It is important to note that the SAAMI “COL” values are for the firearms and ammunition manufacturers industry and must be seen as a guideline only. The individual reloader is free to adjust this dimension to suit their particular firearm-component-weapon combination. This parameter is determined by various dimensions such as 1) magazine length (space), 2) freebore-lead dimensions of the barrel, 3) ogive or profile of the projectile and 4) position of cannelure or crimp groove. • Always begin loading at the minimum ‘Start Load.’" Your COL (OAL) is determined by your barrel (chamber and throat dimensions) and your gun (feed ramp) and your magazine (COL that fits magazine and when the magazine lips release the round for feeding) and the PARTICULAR bullet you are using. What worked in a pressure barrel or the lab's gun or in my gun has very little to do with what will work best in your gun. Take the barrel out of the gun. Create two inert dummy rounds (no powder or primer) at max COL and remove enough case mouth flare for rounds to chamber (you can achieve this by using a sized case—expand-and-flare it, and remove the flare just until the case "plunks" in the barrel). Drop the inert rounds in and decrease the COL until they chamber completely. This will be your "max" effective COL. I prefer to have the case head flush with the barrel hood. After this, place the inert rounds in the magazine and be sure they fit the magazine and feed and chamber. You can also do this for any chambering problems you have. Remove the barrel and drop rounds in until you find one that won't chamber. Take that round and "paint" the bullet and case black with Magic Marker or other marker. Drop round in barrel (or gage, maybe, as I have NEVER used one and don't plan to) and rotate it back-and-forth. Remove and inspect the round: 1) scratches on bullet--COL is too long (I think this has to be done with the barrel). 2) scratches on edge of the case mouth--insufficient crimp--still some case mouth flare 3) scratches just below the case mouth--too much crimp, you're crushing the case 4) scratches on case at base of bullet--bullet seated crooked due to insufficient case expansion (not case mouth flare) or improper seating stem fit 5) scratches on case just above extractor groove--case bulge not removed during sizing. May need a bulge buster.

Your grip will affect POI. Tired eyes will affect POI. A change in barrel lock-up will affect POI. Any flinch, limp wrist, or such will affect POI, and most don't even know they are doing it, and doing it consistently. A change in bullet will affect the POI. A change in velocity will affect POI. The first few shots out of a clean barrel will affect the POI. A damaged crown will cause the group to enlarge, sometimes to the point of looking like a 12ga, or bullets will tumble.

And, DON'T rinse the water/Dawn off--just air dry. Also, run some powdered graphite or a hopper of graphitized gun powder through the measure (something you should always do with every measure) one case at a time. Is there a tension adjustment on the measure like the PPM? If so, clean out the measure and re-adjust the tension. Do not adjust tension until measure has been disassembled and completely cleaned of any trapped powder. Sorry, though, but AA7 is a very small kernel powder--almost dust--and it leaks in other measures like the Dillon. PS: if the Lee Auto-Drum is like the PPM, it will break-in (but I wouldn't use a leaky powder measure on the press).

Decided that their primers should be named after neurotoxins? it's still just a common lead styphnate (sp?) primer

COL is also bullet dependent. So, if others use different bullets or their guns have slightly different chambers, they use different COL. You have found the COL for your gun. If the old COL worked for you, there is no NEED to change. For my EAA, I load SWCs at 1.207".

Bit late, but... Bullseye is THE .45 Auto powder. Unique is the next powder most often used. WST is a good powder, but not very good in my .45s. So, I would use Bullseye first and see what you get.