cardiackid

I guess I am just jaded after watching my RCBS Trim Pro "peel" away at the case mouths leaving that nasty, thick burr on the edges and wanted to see a photo of the Dillon. Everyone keeps saying to just buy it and that I won't regret it. I have full faith in Dillon's products and the recommendations from their users on this site is always spot on. Now I just need to find more stuff to sell to pay for the 1200

Thanks!

Does anyone have, or would anyone be willing to take, a photo of a case pre and post-trim from a Dillon 1200? I know the specs say that it the trimmer operates at such a high RPM that it doesn't leave any burrs, nor does it need any chamfering from boattail bullets, but I would love to see a photo prior to pulling the trigger on purchasing one. The only photos/videos I can find online on youtube, etc. are of people operating the trimmer which really don't offer any information other than "gee, look at how fast my 1200 works." Thanks.

I clocked mine at 12 because you never know when you're going to be doing offhand shooting. The last thing I'd want is another variable adding to the minor handicap of shooting support side (until you get really good at it, that is).

g56: Thanks for the heads up - I noticed that as well but didn't think to rotate them in the swager like you mentioned. Makes sense since I've seen slightly off-center flash holes, etc. in addition to the not entirely round/uniform swage marks on occasional cases. I think that may alleviate any of the residual issues I have. I had tried rotating them a bit in the shellplate, although I'm still developing my feel for priming on the 550 and wasn't able to sweet spot them - I'll hit it again with some more of the LC I have to see if that does the trick.

Well, I tried to fine tune the bolt tension and the station one paperclip spring tension a little bit and I think I have it figured out now. There's still just the smallest hint of up/down movement over the ball bearing (maybe .002-3" - wouldn't describe it as springy, but there's just the slightest touch of movement. Any more torque (even a small fraction of an inch) causes the shellplate and sprocket to lock up. I also didn't put quite as much torque on the brass-tipped screw. This is the only amount of torque I could get on the bolt where it allows me to index the shellplate but still "snap" into each position. I believe I had the plate torqued down just a hair too much last time in addition to too much torque on the brass-tipped screw when there was no movement, but it was also counteracting the action of the ball bearing. It prevented the ball bearing from naturally centering itself on the shellplate hole, which in turn allowed the shellplate to have some inconsistent side to side movement when indexing, thus causing the primers to go up just slightly off center in some cases. I ran some more swaged brass through the shellholder without primers and it's working like buttah now - no catches, snags, etc. I guess the true test will be when I actually use primers, but I *think* everything's good to go now. Thanks again Dillon.

Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a whirl.

So over the course of this weekend I prepped (to include swaging on the 600) and loaded a little over 400 pieces of Lake City 5.56 after getting the new 550 all set up. I'm currently using a bunch of left over Remington 7.5 Benchrest Small Rifle Primers. The only hiccup I've seen so far is with regard to seating primers. I have a pretty deep swage going on with the 600 - very little to no resistance with the RCBS hand priming unit, however when I go to prime on the 550 I'll have an occasional chunked primer pocket or hard seat. One of these was my fault - I somehow got a sideways primer in there and my best bet is that I put too much pressure on one side using the pick up tube and flipped it on end as it was going into the tube and then dropped it into the primer tube sideways as well. However the other ones I can't explain. On another case, during inspection in the cause gauge I actually had a primer fall out. This is range brass so I suppose it's possible it had a loose primer pocket from excessive reloads despite no other pressure signs, and swaging only added more to this. Fortunately this was the only round out of the 400 where I experienced this. All of the brass has been trimmed to length, chamfered and deburred prior to running through the swager, so I'd say it's safe bet that each piece should be receiving a very uniform swage. With regard to the hard seats (maybe one out of every five or six) it seems as if it's more of an alignment issue with the seating cup and the brass primer pocket than anything as I have noticed tiny half-rings of brass shavings appear here and there below station 1. The only other thing I've noticed is that occasional spillage (using H335 ball powder) tends to cause a random grain of powder to get caught up while inserting a new case, although I'd say 99% of the time the brass usually knocks the granule out of the way. I checked the shellplate for proper tension or any wobble and it was good to go. Everything else is running smooth as silk with regard to the operation of the primer bar during strokes and alignment with the shellplate as it comes into battery for lack of better terminology. The small bar primer cup is within the tolerances of the 2.015-2.020" as specified in the manual. The big issue I'm failing to identify is where the resistance is exactly coming from and if there's anything I have set up incorrectly or if using a slow, fine touch while seating is just required for previously military crimped brass. I haven't loaded any commercial brass or pistol casings yet to see if the issue still arises, but I'm guessing it won't. For lack of a better description, it just doesn't feel quite right some times. Anyone have any tips or other trouble shooting suggestions? I may give the little pin that holds the brass in station 1 some more looking at as well, although right now it's right at the point where it doesn't interfere with reverse-indexing the plate, so I don't know how much more I could adjust it. Thanks. Edit to add: Just noticed bluenite's post with accompanying photo here: and my clip definitely isn't aligned like his is. I may need to adjust this, although I can't imagine that little bit of tension (or lack of in my case) being the magic pill right now...

I once fitted and blended an Ed Brown beavertail on my heirloom 1953 Colt Commander lightweight using.... a dremel tool and then hand sanding and filing In retrospect I could have really, really screwed up a virtually antique firearm. Somehow I managed to take my time and go very, very carefully using the Ed Brown jig to remove all of the heavy excess and then hand filing/sanding everything else. I am by no means a gunsmith...not anywhere even close. After the beavertail I even got cocky and flared the ejection port with the same dremel tool and then did a counter sunk slide stop hole with a cut-off wheel and an RCBS chamfering tool, lol. At least I got to breathe a sigh of relief when my gunsmith saw it and was like "Well damn son, you didn't do too bad at all on that." Before: After:

Mom "signed the paperwork" for an HK USP .40 that I bought - first gun. I distinctly remember the shop owner saying "Don't worry - it won't be your last." Boy was he right. Ended up selling it a couple of years later and don't really regret it by any means, but it will always be the first model I owned.

They work! Cycled my first 30 through my weapon with absolutely no issues. Roughly 23.5gr of H335 under a 55gr FMJ kept me at a 2777fps avg with a SD of 52.1 on the 10 round chrono average. I was able to quickly engage 100m half-size steel silhouettes standing and kneeling without any issue when I did my part - plenty accurate and consistent for what I need at the matches here. Now it's off to load the 400 some cases I prepped while waiting for the 550 to arrive! I can see how this is going to get very, very expensive.

Well since we're on this route I'd say what the hell - just get a 1050. It's 1050 times faster than a single stage!

I did this while I was still single and was able to load more than enough to shoot a match and still have two hundred or more for practice each month. The case prep is really the lengthy part but once I got a good system of batch prepping down I didn't think it was that bad. I just purchased a Dillon 550 but still do my brass prep (decap, resize, trim/chamfer/deburr separately - the RCBS 3-way cutter is a dream for manual case prep if you happen to have a Trim Pro trimmer). Sure you're still hand turning each round, but trimming, chamfering and deburring all in one step saves a lot of time. It's well worth the $50 investment if you're not doing insane amounts of brass that would lean you toward a giraud/gracey or dillon 1200. Once I get a couple hundred cases prepped it's a breeze powdering, seating and crimping on the dillon when compared to the old single stage though. Regarding the ammo - don't get fooled by or caught up in all of the reloading wizardry floating around on a lot of loading sites. There's wayyy too much benchrest style brass prep that has crept into common reloading communities. The way I prep precision bolt-action .308 rounds is much, much different than the way I do it for my 3-gun .223 rounds. When loading .223 and comparing it to pistol loading, the only steps I add are swaging primer pockets (if necessary), trimming, chamfering and deburring. Think about it this way - if you can still get groups that are 3-4" at 100yds it's plenty accurate enough for IDPA targets at distances that are usually much closer than that. It sounds like your local matches are at about the same distances as mine. The extra prep time spent trying to get ammo capable of holding MOA or sub-MOA for such short distances is entirely wasted. If you start to get out to the 300+ range you'll probably want to look at a couple of other steps to get things more consistent.

If it's run of the mill mil-spec stuff it should be. It's kind of like buying a lower - lots of companies have their names stamped on them/on the packaging and in actuality there's only so many people manufacturing the unit.

If it's close range stuff you don't need to worry about accurate ammo - as long as it's within spec you'll be fine. If Wolf cycles all right in your weapon go for it - just don't forget to clean things regularly as the coating can build up in chambers during heavy, rapid firing and cause cases to stick and not properly eject. I reload for 3-gun myself - you're almost always guaranteed to pick up free range brass after a match, which leaves you only bullets, primers and powder. Bulk Hornady and Winchester bullets are pretty cheap and I've been able to reload .223/5.56 brass many times as long as I don't run hot loads. If you're doing it on a single stage it takes a while compared to pistol (mainly case prep) but it's all a personal time vs. cost issue.

It will quicken it up a bit, however the JP and other aftermarket triggers have a precision edge/finish on their contact surfaces on the hammer, disconnector, etc. and by using GI parts you're going to sacrifice that. In my original carbine I had a ground off hammer bob and the JP yellow spring set and it was a noticeable change from a stock GI/mil-spec trigger group but it in no way compares to a full aftermarket setup.

What Kevin said about the magazines is dead on. I'll buy everything else he said for a buck too (I really wondered what the advantage of the "advanced buffer tube" was and his explanation of everything makes sense). If you are using new pmags the bolt issues are not caused by them. On a gun that otherwise runs fine, the old USGI mags were the culprit like he said. Hopefully you can hock the parts you end up changing out and not lose too much money.

I have absolutely zero experience with the PWS enhanced buffer tube and the Spike's T2 buffer, but I did try a Tubbs CS Spring (Superior Shooting Systems/same thing) and ended up swapping mine out for the JP. My guess right now is that it's a combination of the SSS spring, the enhanced buffer tube and that T2 buffer. Without seeing/feeling everything, I can't say for sure. I can't remember for sure if SSS offers a carbine and a rifle length spring, but I know the one I got from them was even longer than my JP rifle buffer spring. If that's the case, it sounds like there's definitely something not agreeing with the gas system with how you have your buffer, buffer tube and spring set up. If at all possible, try to get up to a range, call a buddy that has an AR, etc. and swap out the buffer and spring he has in his and give it a whirl. It will at least let you start to narrow the problem down.

If the bolt doesn't lock back on an empty mag it's 99% of the time usually a worn follower or spring on the magazine. Mark/label your magazines and try it with all of them to identify if it repeatedly happens with a certain one or another. It's a factory assembled upper from BCM correct? Their stuff is pretty bomb proof out of the box. I highly doubt it's anything regarding their upper and I'd put more money on it being a problem related to your lower (buffer, spring, etc.) How much force is your brass coming out with/how far away is it landing? Carbines and mid-length gas systems can tend to be a hair overgassed by nature (especially the carbines) and if you couple that with a light buffer and spring it would explain a more violent ejection of the brass. For carbine and mid-length uppers I've always used and seen H buffers with standard carbine springs. I've never heard of/seen anyone "tune" a buffer spring. This isn't a top end custom shop 1911 - it's a carbine. I don't understand how it could be missing the brass deflector entirely and landing at the 5/6 o'clock area. If you said it was slamming into the deflector and then getting kicked way out to the side (anywhere from 2:30-4:30 o'clock) it would make sense.

Got it! - this thing is phenomenal ! It's incredibly easy to make adjustments to everything once you see how it all works together and it truly is a pretty genius piece of engineering. Loading .223 my COAL deviations were only around .007" which is very good considering this is bulk winchester 55gr FMJ, I'm using a run of the mill RCBS non-micrometer style seater and I was tinkering with the seater die here and there. Every round passed a JP .223 Wylde case gauge with no isses. I think the most impressive part (and the one I was worried about the most originally) was how accurate the powder charges were! 235 total grains was my target and the 10 round average was 236.4! I'll take an average .14 gr fluctuation any day for 3-gun ammo! I tried to "automate" the press by having the wife crank out a couple of rounds. She passed on the opportunity of course (I only just got her to fire her first pistol ever a couple of weeks ago - baby steps) so I guess I'm stuck running it manually myself I am now entering the 2nd phase of reloading where it costs you way more money because you're loading and shooting way more than you would have on a single stage. I can definitely see how BE does not recommend this as a first press unless you have someone who can show you how to set it up or do it for you. I think it would have taken me much, much longer to try and get everything up and running if I had no reloading knowledge prior. Aside from the shellplate/sprocket question at first the only other setup issues I ran into were a few of the metal powder funnel shavings and some crumpled cases (quickly realized that camming over was not what this press was designed to do and I had the powder die screwed down a hair too far). I was also questioning the primer seating depth, as it looked a hair too shallow but when I compared it to factory ammo it looked dead on. I think I had somehow just been seating them a bit deep when I was hand priming with the RCBS unit. Random thoughts rant over, haha. Now I just need to figure out how to empty the powder hopper without doing it throw by throw. I'd imagine I can just take the toolhead off and dump it out?

I think I have it - it's actually just a little bit of extra tolerance in the size of the 4 indexing dots on the sprocket being a tad smaller than the holes they go into on the shell plate causing the sprocket to play back and forth a bit (no up/down movement though). Any more torque on the bolt causes the sprocket and shellplate to be pinched and not able to index. I'm sure like anything metal it will smooth out and break in a bit and need to be adjusted at some point. Now I'm off to trying to set up this powder measure without springs and rods and stuff shooting all over the place or dangling every time I yank the crank, haha. I'm off to the YouTube series because "I'm a visual learner." Kevin Sanders: Hah - although the filter caught it I knew exactly what unit of measurement you were using. I'm pretty sure it's in FM 1-02 Operational Terms & Graphics

Received my bundle of 550 goodness from BE yesterday (thanks again!) and I'm already at question one of most likely a couple. While installing the shell plate, sprocket and bolt, I read in the instructions that there should be "no slop" when rotating between stations. I have found that when I back my bolt off just a touch from "too tight to index by hand" and then snug the brass-tipped screw that there is a little bit of play in the sprocket and just a hint of a shifting on the shellholder. Is the little bit of play in the sprocket standard despite the "no slop" in the instruction manual or should I expect to get a few "You're doing it wrong" replies here Thanks for the help - this thing is a beast! It looks like a partially assembled hot rod sitting next to my lincoln towncar RCBS green machine.

I'll ask it since I'm sure someone else will - what are you loading for: AR platform or bolt-action? What are you looking to get from your rounds consistency wise? Depending on your answers it may allow you to either skip some steps or require extra attention to some.

Thanks for the heads up - I'm assuming it would probably be a touch lower out of a 17 barrel then (if barrel length on a pistol corresponds to that of how it works for rifle). Definitely gives me a starting point for how I should develop my reloads. Either way - I'm sure there's a noticeable difference between felt recoil on a 142 PF than something in the low 130s.

That's a huge factor right there I didn't realize until I started shooting a lot of precision rifle. While the charts give a ballpark guideline, I'd venture to say it's virtually impossible to have that kind of predictability 100% of the time (especially on an AR). Even if you generate a bunch of charts for various atmospheric conditions, etc. you're still going to have variables with each weapon and shot/round that are unpredictable. While you might think a PDA/computer with ballistics software on there will give you up to date information on trajectories based on current conditions (altitude, temp, humidity, wind - all the factors) it's still going to vary slightly with each round (slightly varied muzzle velocities, powder that may have temperature sensitivities, slightly varied ballistic coefficients of each bullet, etc.) There's a reason I am entirely complacent with shooting steel at distances and haven't gone down the benchrest/high power paper road. I have seen it drive reloaders crazy and I don't have that kind of patience. One guy had gone to the detail of figuring out that each individual granule of powder he was using weighed .02 grains and measured his powder throws out to the hundredth and also used the water drop method to measure his case capacities - not my cup of tea