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Star4Ever

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    Art Gumbus

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  1. Those youngsters are missing out.Well, I've just ordered a full set of super dies from Dave, I really appreciate your help on this.Can't wait to get to work on the star, looking forward to that as much as the shooting.I've been spending time on the star forum also, great resource.

  2. To be frank with you, close to 80% of the shooters (younger) know zero about the Star. It has not been made in many years. Parts although available are hard to find (they do not break though) and support is near zero other than the Star Forum on the net where a bunch of us hang out. The do marvel at the accurate ammo but IPSC USPSA is not bullseye so much of that accuracy is not appreciated.

  3. Yep, I'm in Australia all right.A place called Busselton in South West of Western Australia. How do the hordes of Dillon guys in IPSC view your Stars, surely many must be quietly envious?

  4. Well it sounds like you have a real nice set up there and it will even get better. Are you in Australia? = OZ?

  5. Yep, that runs about the same as the CH-4D set which is $190-.I've sent Dave a msg so hopefully he will ship to Oz, thanks for the heads up on how to order.We are on a similar path Art, I'm waiting on a custom 38supercomp, can't wait to load on a star and plan on the moon indexer and case flipper, dillon case feeder, adj pwdr bar and maybe even a Mr bulletfeeder..Cheers

  6. This will not be inexpensive, probably close to $200. I have a few sets of normal (not Star) CH-4D dies and if carbide they are very good. Generally I get them new. I usually do not buy used dies as my luck has been bad with used dies. Full lenght sizers that scratch cases for example. Ugch.

  7. Daves dies are very very good and accurate. From Rest my Brazos BCG Pro SX can put 10 rounds into a quarter at 25 yards using Zero 125g HP. I have not had a jam. However make sure you have your bullets ready to ship him so he can make a custom seater stem and also specify you want the FL size die in Carbide WITH A DECAPPER ROD. He made dies for me for all the stations, FL, Expander, Seater, TC

  8. Hello again Art,

    Thanks for your advice re the Hulme, now I have a question re .38super dies.

    I've tracked down a carbide CH-4D set of dies brand new, but I notice you have a Dave Wilson set.

    Have you any comment on Dave's dies vs CH?

    I'm wondering which way to go?(and feeling lucky to have a choice!), though I'm not sure if Dave will ship to Australia y...

  9. These appear to be 9mm... but am assuming this here. I go along with the canting or mis-alignment of the seating die to case on bullet seating. However the appearance of the pronounced narrower case OD diameter and the bulge at what appears to be at the base of the bullet kind of tells me that you should be checking the OD of the bullets and the OD of the full length sized case. Please check your components, bullet and FL sizer and the die that does the bell of the case mouth to insure these are all in spec. Again without being told the caliber, it would be total speculation.
  10. The measurements that I took were just after cleaning, not resizing. Interesting points made. I will resize a few to see if resizing extends the brass any. I suspect it will just a tad. Thanks for the input.
  11. Having just starting in the game with .38 SuperComp, and finding little if any real data on this caliber, I decided to begin keeping stats and tracking a batch of cases to ascertain the case dynamics over their useful life. The cases are StarLine .38 SC. all from one large lot purchased recently. I have put 300 cases of the 1000 I have purchased into a firing pool. These cases will be reloaded as a unit and counts will be kept as to number of times reloaded. Out of the 300 cases, 10 have been set aside as the virgin control group, not fired and to be used as the basis of comparison. After 3 loads and firings, here is a report on 10 random cases.... Starting with the new control group.... Overall case length for New Starline .38 SC: Median = .8945" (the number closest to the middle of a set of numbers) Mode = .894" (the number that most frequently occurs in a set of numbers) Set Spread = .893 to .896 Now on to cases which have been loaded and fired 3 times: Median = .887" Mode = .887" Set Spread = .883 to .889 Comparing the control group of unfired brass to the 3 times fired brass... Average shrinkage per case = .0082" Median shrinkage = .0075" Modal shrinkage = .007 Worst case shrinkage = .013" Longest in control group to shortest after 3 firings Best case shrinkage = .004" Shortest in control group to longest after 3 firings So the numbers say there is some shrinkage going on after 3 firings. The question is, will this continue at the same rate? Tune back in after a few weeks and I will share findings...
  12. Could not agree more about the Experimentation and the Redding Competition Seater. In this thread, one of the things that was not discussed is the correlation between a given bullet, Powder charge and OAL as the three relate to pressure. I think that all thing being equal (powder charge, cases and bullet) the OAL has alot to do with the pressure in the case as the primer goes off and the propellent ignites. I feel that OAL variance may have alot to do with FPS variance. But I have not done any testing to proove this. Art
  13. Thanks So Much For that information Grumpy. I have brass brass...not Nickle so I will be watching the primer holes. I have about 1000 brandy new cases now with 200 as a batch which were shot once. I will keep rotating those as a batch, cleaning reloading and shooting them keeping track of them. Then on to the next 200 once they wear out. I am testing loads now as there are not too many rounds thru the barrel of the Brazos. I tested VV N105 with 9.8, 10.0 and 10.2 grains. The pistol shoots all those loads well. I have not chrono'ed them at this time. They all feel stout but without FPS data... all is a guess. At my club, I prefer to set up the chrono during the week as weekends are busy and hectic at the pistol range area. I am using WW small rifle primers. 1.235" OAL and ROSE 125g JHPs... pretty much the Brazos formula but working UP on the powder from 9.8. The shooter i purchased the Brazos from said he was able to shoot .38 Super with no change in extractor the few times he tried it. I have no .38 Super Brass any more, having left that caliber a decade ago. I found it very unfriendly to cast bullets (leading). I do alot of bullet casting and so the .38 Super guns were put to pasture. This weekend I will be testing IMR SR 4756 working up from 8.1g to 8.9g with the same components as listed above. Also trying some Blue Dot from 8.8 to 9.2 grains as well. Of all the powders mentioned above, I do like the grain size and metering of the SR 4756... it is dead on as the kernels are very small. I have not fired it yet so I do not know what it is like as far as carbon and such. Brazos seems to like it and VV N105. I had some Blue Dot laying around so that is why I am trying it. Its large flakes make for some powder throw variances... however as I recall, I do like the smell of Blue Dot smoke in the Morning.... it makes a nice FLASH too as it is slow. It seems these open guns like alot of gas so these three should be in the working range. The VV N105 is really a clean powder IMHO. Meters well too. I use alot of N133 in modern benchrest with 6PPC and 6BR in my bench rifles. Thanks Art
  14. Grumpy.... or others... Does the .38 Super Comp case, after multiple firings shrink or lengthen? Or are they stable? I have been shooting only 200 cases for now, each fired once, so far, and I see neither shrinking or lengthening. What goes first on these cases? I would assume the primer pocket hole? With the STARline brass, about how many reloads do you think I can eek out of a set? Also what tell tale signs should I look for which would indicate case fatigue, if any? (ie time to retire the brass). Thanks in Advance... Art
  15. Hi Guys: I have been reloading rifle and pistol since 1973, some 37 years now... In my array of reloading presses includes a number of Star Universals and CH4D AutoChamps and a Dillon. Having just purchased my first Open USPSA class pistol in .38 Super Comp I chose to reload my ammo on one of my Star Universals. This is the story of how that was accomplished. The Star Universal is perhaps the highest quality precision progressive reloader I have used/owned for pistol calibers. Mine are all retrofitted with Hulme/Daniels case feeders, case fillers, Moon Unit auto indexers and Moon Unit case flippers so one pull of the lever moves the rotary shell plate one station in progression, feeds a case and flips out the case after it is taper crimped. The .38 SuperComp being a new caliber required some mixing and matching and ordering of dies. The case plate used for the .38 SuperComp is a custom Rich Daniels hardened .223 Remington shell plate. The dies are .38 Super dies, FL Sizer Carbide, Expander Plug, Seater Die with custom seater profile for the 125 Zero JHP or 124g Montanna Gold JHP and Taper Crimp Die. These dies were made for me by Dave Wilson who rethreaded them to fit the Star Machine head. The powder thrower bar is a custom Rich Daniels fully adjustable bar (allen head screw adjusts the powder cavity in the bar. Once all the pieces parts came in the Star was adjusted, station by station, die by die until it all indexed and worked correctly and smoothly. The most tedious part was to set up the powder bar to throw the correct amount of powder, which is trial and error back and forth to the digital scale. You all know the drill for that part. Much like a Dillon. Well the Star is now in production for .38 Super Comp. My OAL variance is only +/- .001 for the goal of 1.235" using Zero bullets. I fell most of the variance is due to the "toothed" Zero hollow point tip which is somewhat irregular... Your thoughts on this? The machine functions flawlessly and is snick snick smooth with little if any effort. The ammo shoots real fine and from rest 5 shots at 25Y consistanly print sub 1" often 4 or 5 in one ragged hole, from the Brazos BCG Pro Sx with C-More and VVN105 powder. These old high quality machines can be taught to play new tricks pretty well. Thanks Art
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