kalaur

Because for the most part, you can't go to some gun store and buy an off the shelf open gun that *isnt* capable of shooting 9 major. The open guns are designed to shoot 9 major without issues, where there are many off the shelf guns that would work in limited that *can't* or shouldn't shoot 9 major. IMO, 9 major in limited would be a safety issue. One of the nice things about having 9 minor in limited is the fact that you get extra capacity, as well as less recoil. If 9 were allowed in limited as major, there would really not be any advantages to shooting minor at all. No one really shoots minor in open because it is not advantageous.

Maybe the cases are not being expanded enough, so as the bullet is seated 'past' the portion where its expanded, starts to crush the case? This is one of the differences on the 1050, case expanding and flaring are separate stations, and it seems like doing this in different operations really allows both to work better. This especially comes in true when you're using lead bullets (since their a thou larger)

As mcracco said, make sure there is nothing in the groove in the shellplate. Other things to try are cleaning beneath the shellplate and ensuring the shellplate is fairly tight, but still allows smooth indexing. Also remove the casefeed plunger and clean the media and grid from the channel it rides in. I often times have a lot of corn media under the casefeed plunger, and it causes the shells to not sit flat when going into the shellplate. From time to time you'll get this when there are burrs on the rim of the case, but you can usually turn the case a bit and cycle the casefeed plunger by hand to get the case seated in the shellplate.

When I do full the routine full teardown/cleaning/lubing of my presses, I often use silicone spray on the parts that are not 'normally' lubricated to reduce the risk of rusting. This includes things like dies, nuts, bolts, (1050) toolheads, etc. The silicone spray isn't enough to make things 'greasy' feeling, but enough to prohibit rust and such. After using silicone spray on them, they also seem to be easier to clean the next time, built up carbon deposits remove easier, grease is easily removed when cleaning, etc.

I cranked the nut down pretty tight on my 650 so it wouldn't twist.

I'm a big fan of missouri bullet company. I use them in my 40 and 45 with WST powder.

looks like that 450 has the old powder measure, old priming system, no primer early warning system, and its not clear but I don't see the auto eject system either. Just for those items you're looking at 260 bucks for upgrades... Then if you wanted to use toolheads, its another 95 bucks. At that point its only another 85 bucks to get a new 550, WITH a caliber conversion you could use.

+1 to this. More often than not, just about every part on 20/1911s requires at least a little fitting.

Big +1 for sending the press to dillon. It can be frustrating troubleshooting issues with a press, and often times its a small worn out or broken part that would have been caught in a rebuild or teardown and cleaning.

I don't have a 550, but the priming system on a 1050 is similar. I actually run the cap on the primer magazine shield loose, so as to not distort the plastic tip on the magazine tube, and to allow the tube to move freely as the primer slide is moving back and forth. First of all, clean the primer slide. Primer dust accumulates on the slide and can interfere with smooth primer feeding. Check the plastic tip on the magazine tube, these get banged up and need to be replaced. Try taping a bullet to the top of the plastic primer rod, so there is a little 'push' on the primers at all times.

One of the big things with using other manufacturers dies in a dillon, its not really worth it if you buy the 'sets' of dies. Other manufacturers sets are generally 3 die sets, size/deprime, flare, and bullet seat/crimp. You wont use the flare die, and you should seat and crimp in separate steps. Dillon die sets you get size/deprime, bullet seat, and separate crimp die. Flaring/expanding is done at the powder drop station.

Depending on the age of the 450 and what upgrades have been done to it, you may want to purchase some upgrades before starting with the 450. You will probably want the early primer warning kit, the auto eject kit, the auto prime kit, and the auto powder system. As for the frame upgrade, that could wait until you want to start loading a bunch of different calibers to make switching calibers easier with the removable toolhead. Just be careful on purchasing old 450s, if it is the real old style with no upgrades, by the time you add all the upgrades you're almost at the price of a new 550.

Lots of topics on this, try searching.

WST was definitely cleaner, cases are not as hot when I pick them up, but that probably doesn't mean much. As for softness, it seemed like WST was softer, but I haven't actually compared them side to side.

The chrono at this match made me sweat, since I had not yet chrono'd a new load I was shooting. Did it piss me off because it was 'unannounced'? Absolutely not. Did it make me sweat? Absolutely, but more so because I load for friends and was worried they would go minor as well. I ended up shooting 165.5 or something like that. Needless to say, it kept me from having to make an extra range trip to chrono. Bumped up the load a bit and all is well. I would also like the idea of setting up a chrono and making it 'optional' for people to use if you have the space/time during the match. Gives people the opportunity to check their ammo if they have not verified, or under different weather conditions from what you chrono'd at last time.

Acetone will dissolve the superglue, green sleeve retaining loctite will keep it in again :-)

I was in the same boat a few months ago, and pretty much switched to WST for everything, 40 major/minor, and 45. Not as clean as 320, but much cheaper and more available. Works great with lead and jacketed, I imagine it would work great with the green bullets too. On that note of VV powders not being too much more expensive, really they are not. But if you look at the larger picture, 8# of VV is ~$200, 8# of WST is ~$120. That's another ~3k primers you can buy for the price difference. Not a ton, but somewhat adds up. To me, its more the availability of it that makes me shy away.

I use 4.8-4.9gr WST on the Missouri 170 bullets at 1.175 OAL, ~170 PF.

I think this is normal, generally your hammer will bottom out on the grip safety before you get to the 'overtravel' part. Shouldn't really be an issue, but if you really want to fix you could look for a new grip safety that has a shallow cut for the hammer, and adjust to your gun.

By FTE do you mean failure to extract or failure to eject? Very different issues, but crimp would not affect either.

Heh, you mentioned you're loading long, if you're actually loading at 1.175 the bullet will hit the table when you set the case gauge like that. Pick up the gauge, drop the case in, see if it goes all the way in... The gauge is SAAMI max length, 1.135 or something like that.

I'd skip the lag bolts, and do actual bolts with washers and nuts. You could counter bore the 2x12 so the bottom washer/nut is below the surface so it doesn't get in the way of mounting the 2x12. I'm not sure I'd trust just lag bolts to keep everything secure, esp when it wouldn't be much more work to get some washers and nuts on the other side.

If you're just changing bullets and powder weight, you may want to look at getting lock rings for your existing seater die (RCBS or hornady make ones that lock on the threads) and an additional seater die. Then when you want to change your press over, swap preset powder measures, and swap preset bullet seating dies, and start pulling the handle.

What kind of press/powder drop are you using? How much variance are you seeing between the 'already belled' case to the new cases? On my dillon machines, I often use the same case over and over to adjust the powder drop, with little to no variance when going to a 'new' case.

Hornady one shot if you don't clean your load ammo after you reload it, dillon case lube if you do clean your loaded ammo. The dillon stuff seems to be a little slipperier, but too slippery to not clean off...