Worriedman

Which feeling are you referring to? Your post doesn't really make sense without some additional information or a quote. I am sure he is referring to not having any time, as his goods are in very high demand. Steve RA stated he is a bullet manufacturer. Chandler is running from can to can't producing a very fine product, with excellent customer service.

Received my press today.

I could understand 10 weeks, but to be over 11 and no word. Last time I stayed on the line for an hour, the nice young man said something about the Conversion Kit I had ordered it in, I told him to just ship that when and if they ever got it, please send the press, I have plenty of others I could be loading with. Wonder if I could get them to ship me the primer assemly off of it, that way I could at lease do a quick change out on the 650 I currently own, I am up to date on .223 and need to load some .308 and .45s...

Ordered a 650 fully dressed from Dillon direct Feb 18, got the case feeder, strong mount, roller handle etc in a month, still waiting on the press. (West TN)

I am in construction, I take hammers to a lot of things one really should not.

You would not be able to "peen" the shell plate, it is heat treated, and will not bend. It will break if you put directed force on the machined "lips".

Talked with a Dillon rep., as even with changing out the powder funnels, I was still having alignment troubles. They sent out a different shell plate after discussion the fact that the cases seemed to "lean" on 3 of the 5. Put the new plate on and no further problems.

Dug out my older (by 25 years) "D" powder funnel that sitting in the 550B set-up, vast difference in the configuration. One on the left is the older version, installed it and the system works far better. Smaller "throat" captures the cases at the powder drop station far better that the newer version.

Have been loading pistol rounds on the 550, rifle on the 650 for the last few years. I have run somehwere in the neighborhood of 10K .223 and at least 5 K .308 on the 650, always hummed like the fine machine it is. Son grey-mulled my S&W .357 4" for his wife to shoot, and wanted to load up some light .38 Specials for her to use. He had been loading a lot of .45 Auto on the 550, and had been having a problem with the Clays load he uses bridging and leaving him with no powder/ too little powder in several loads, so he wanted to move over to the 650 to take advantage of the powder check system. I picked up a caliber conversion in .38/.357 for the 650, new dies (Dillon carbide set) and a new toolhead. This thing is going to drive me to drink. I thought maybe the tool head I purchased for the conversion might be drilled off center so I pulled the head back a part, and used one of my older ones. No difference. The resize die or the powder station will eat brass like going out of style. You have to rotate the base portion to "catch the powder funnel, then stick a finger in and pull the brass into allingment for the resize die. Seems like two stations on the plate work semi OK, the rest are out of time. Could it be that the shell plate is off, or am I just coming apart with old age?

My Ar 10 likes Sierra 165 gr. Game King bullets, 43.5 gr. 748 and CCI LR primers.

I guess I am too dense to figure this out for myself, but how could a die that is screwed into the toolhead "float". I can see the roll pin that is inserted into the toolhead, and the relived cut on the locking ring, but for the life of me I can not get my brain around how the die itself could move around, unless the toolhead threads are cut larger than the actual diameter of the die body, and allow it to "scoot" one way or the other under pressure from the case coming up when the shellplate is raised.

I run a lot of LC brass, both in 5.56 and 7.62. I deprime and clean the brass, swage the primer pockets, then resize prior to trimming with the Giraud. Consistent length is important for setting up crimping that runs the same case to case. I use the Lee FCD, with great results. I keep the brass separate for the different AR's, as each chamber is different, allowing the longest life on the cases. For the old H-Bar, circa 1970's, the loaded rounds that perform best will not chamber in any of the Sabres that I now run. I have some Winchester brass for it that has 18 loads on it, and still is performing, though I do anneal every fourth firing.

Check your neck wall thickness. Out of 250 pcs. of brass, there is the chance that a few are on the thin side. Resizing works on the outside of the case neck, and a thinner wall section will result in not enough tension to hold the bullet in place. I use Redding S type dies, which allow me to change out the bushings to manage different neck thicknesses. I segregate those pieces of brass with thinner sections out. Typically they do not last as long, as the amount of "working" needed to bring them into spec. shortens the life of those cases.

I have been using a cut wire stainless steel media for the last few years. Started with a Thumblers Tumbler, and on to a home made ball mill for greater case capacity. I deprime, load the brass, hot water, media, dishwahing liquid detergent and a pinch of Lemonshine, run the ball mill for 4-6 hrs., and the brass is like new, inside and out, including primer pockets. Media never wears out or gets too dirty to use.

If you have any Unique you are set to go for 5/8 to 3/4 oz. loading if you are using AAHS hulls. The best powder if you are buying new though is 20/28.

Is there any advantage to using a Magnum powder bar? I have had some luck in using a large powder bar for lighter loads as far as repeatability is concerned. Just wondered if there would be some advantage for extruded powder in say a .308 load?

I am actually looking at using a plastic drum mortar mixer with the metal "fins" removed and a set of rubber bumpers installed in lieu of. I figure I could do 5K at a time that way, and am looking at designing an interior slotted container that would allow me to power separate the media after the cleaning cycle. Pour out the media/brass into a tub, rinse the mixture, insert the separator and pour the mixture back in with clean water and a little soap, and run till the cut wire is out of all the cases under power.

Being somewhat anal about my brass, I have settled on useing stainless steel cut wire media, dishwashing detergent, hot water and my home built ball mill. I graduated from the Thumblers tumbler simply becuase they did not make a model that will handle the case volume I desired. I can do a 1000 .223 cases at once. I load it and let it run overnight, brass is clean, inside and out, as well as the primer pockets. There is some who think the spent primer residue that gets blasted down the bore with succesive use aids in throat erosion, I no longer have that niggling worry. Results.

I got a tip from another forum, a guy suggested that I might be able to get it out by putting it in the freezer overnight. Plastics have higher coefficients of thermal expansion than metals, so the plastic will shrink more than the aluminum as it gets cold (conversely, heating swells plastic more than aluminum, so that's going the wrong way). I took it straight from the freezer to the vice and used a strap wrench to bump the hopper around the perimeter. The plastic flexed a bit as I moved it around and used the "base" of the wrench to put pressure in increments. Once I had made the circle, I put a little more pressure on the strap and it popped right out.

Getting set up to run .308 ammo for the first time ever, how I got this far along without owning one is beyond me, but I am correcting that. Found an older type powder measure and want to polish the internals prior to adding in the Uniquetek micrometer set up, but am having no luck getting the glued in hopper out to access the base. Suggestions?

Spent a lot of time up in the Muleshoe area, some of the best people in the world up there. My good friend used to shake his head and say he could not figure why I would drive out of Ft. Worth on Friday afternoon to get up there for the weekend. The pheasants and Ross's geese in the cooler answered that!

Excellent, I have lots to learn. I have been after this venture for over 30 years, but am wise enough to know that there is a world of information I need to glean yet.

After Googleing several things today related to reloading issues, I kept turning up this forum, figured I would drop in and see all the stuff. Looks like a really interesting place to learn a lot of good info.